##VIDEO ID:EVMh-_Mc9yI## good evening and welcome to the meeting of the St Peter School Board it is Thursday January 23rd 2025 we are in the governor's room uh we will call the meeting to order first item up is Pledge of Allegiance I pledge 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 we need to consider and adopt the agenda which is before you in the packet and on board book I move the agenda we have a motion in a second any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign agenda is adopted Kimberly do we have any requests to speak thank you next up is approval of consent agenda items also found in the board book packet and in the packet in front of you any comments or things we would like to pull out we have a motion in a second any discussion discussion discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign consent agenda is adopted we unfortunately don't have a student Spotlight this evening uh the student had an awesome opportunity and had to cancel the last minut radi a call back for a radio show well we would love to have you invite him back to a future meeting and make sure that he gives a weather report uh we also do not have a student council report this evening our reps are not able to be here probably involved in some any number of activities yes yep all right meetings are a little boring when we don't hear from students but that's okay we'll move into our action items the first up is considering acceptance of gifts donations and grants Dr Olsen there are three gifts and uh that are being presented tonight or donations the first is a donation in the amount of $750 from the governers Performing Arts Association this donation will be used by the St Peter community and family education to help dease some of the participant fees for private percussion in brass lessons the second is a donation in the amount of $3,000 from Steve and Ivonne Neils that's to be used by the St Peter athletics department activities director Shay rassi is working on a meaningful way to use the donation and Steve I believe is a 19 built 69 graduate of St Peter High School i' be reform yeah I I think that's correct something WR right in there uh third is a grant in the amount of $2,000 and his wife Ivon is as well so uh a grant in the amount of $2,000 from the Carl and veres Schmidt Foundation uh the St p and community and family education will use the grant to support the newly formed St Peter community choir so I recommend accepting these gifts donations and grants and thank the Don donators abolutely very generous I move second we have a motion and a second any further discussion I always love how a lot of these graduates and from St Peter that they really obviously really love their school and are able to give back like that um it's nice to see pretty NE very cool discussion discussion discussion hearing none we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries we've accepted the gifts and donations and grants thank you to all those who have given generously and to those who worked on the grant proposals to receive the grant next up Miss engeldinger will talk about we have to consider approving the high school course program and program changes for 2025 2026 we have three new course proposals that need approval before they go in front of kids um and and I am excited about all of them the first two the MSU art 160 um as well as the math uh South Central College prekel will both meet um Minnesota um transfer curriculum areas uh which we were really um we're really excited about that art one because the only other one that we have on campus that would meet meet that um would check that box is um they're all in the music department not everybody is it's a pop culture pop culture music and um music theory not every student um who will be going through that um that pathway is necessarily interested in that so this will give them another another area to try to meet that Minnesota transfer curriculum and math math is our last one um that is meeting that that math requirement so so we've got them all as long as all the teachers show up next year we're good to go uh and uh MSU has already put together a flyer um with with St Peter High School logo and South Central College logo that's going to go out to all of our students um and they'll also have it in some of their um some of their um admissions information as well so Mrs briefly talk through that transfer curriculum again what sure what it means yes there are I believe 10 different areas that a student has to meet in order to have met all of their generals um so uh it can be anywhere like there's obviously an art one there is a lab based uh science requirement that and and different courses can meet that uh we now have enough concurrent classes offered either through Minnesota state Mano or South Central College that a a student who graduates from St Peter high school starting with our ninth grade class now would be able to um in theory get that certification on their diploma uh and that would assure them that they could get those first two years of their generals of college while they're in class at St Peter high school first in the state were the only ones in the state that's awesome yeah thank you thanks it's exciting to the for an article might increase nth grade registration we had uh kyc thanks to he did a report on that about I'd say a month ago or so yeah probably watching right now yeah and then the the third one is the social studies department is offering an advanced world history um and that will uh that will not necessarily meet one of the diploma Plus requirements um because those have to be actually um college credit earning um but it'll be another opportunity for kids who are who are prepping at least for that Junior US history class that we have that is an MSU course Mrs enginger um I think seeing is believing for some people so I think if you could put together like if Jane were to enter her nth grade year what would her course schedule look like 9 through 12 show me that I know yeah yeah it's so so for yes for four year I don't need you to say it right now yeah but it's int helpful for people I think some people are like M sure whatever and they can start with some of these college courses if they're ready and accepted their sophomore year and some and those kids who are planning on it will have to likely get started with at least one or two of those courses that sophomore year because some kids think that it's not for them and I think it can be for every I mean it can be for a lot of people so and you kids can still obviously be in those courses without the transfer curriculum being their goal you know even if it's just trying well yeah trying an interest area or getting as many college credits as as you care to um they don't have to be in that cohort necessarily Mr CH Mr do a very very nice job putting this together that's deserve lot of credit for that that's all the administration uh quick question if I'm not mistaken I think the uh the pre-cal course has been offered in the past my understanding and please correct me if I'm wrong is that this is just now has a certification for the instructor yes to have Collegiate credit for it and also meets the rigor of the Collegiate yes correct okay great thank you and students obviously have to meet the admissions criteria for South Central College at that point to get into that course sure one more followup if I may the not every college requires act or sat some do some if they don't require it still probably like it yeah so if a student technically graduates from St Peter and is ready to be a junior at institution XYZ do they take the act or sat at that point or they take it as an undergrad here they should still take that their junior the ACT their junior year yeah it's really important for scholarship opportunities too not just acceptance um so that's important to but they don't need it for nth grade no no they don't thank you sorry I didn't understand the question so we recommend your approval of the course changes as presented yeah Motion in a second any further discussion discussion discussion discussion hearing none we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I oppose same sign motion carries thank you missier next up consider approval of Middle School handbook change for 2024 2025 Dr graph good evening good evening to you uh so spms is recommending end in or proposing a change to their handbook that would go into effect um immediately if approved and that change is to clarify um what signifies or changes a tardy to an absence um so we propose that we add the language uh that students who are more than 10 minutes late to class will be marked absent not tardy so that will not only clarify for staff and families but it also aligns to the high school's handbook any questions for Dr we talked about this at the education committee and to me it was more of just uh well it's what the high school does it's what the middle school does or should do do the Middle School handbook is just kind of a handbook kind of in the making right we're just kind of as it goes so I would think it would be a I guess I would make a motion to approve that change the biggest thing that this will help with is period one uh students who are arriving to school late we have very few students who are 10 minutes late to period two through six it's that arriving to school and this just helps clarify for the team what we Mark that as um and many of those will be excused absences um but it just helps to determine where that goes to clarify I second the motion U I appreciate that you're looking out for every little way to bring Clarity and more direction to the day this is totally appropriate and and the alignment with what's coming next right like the things that make sense to align at the middle school with the high school this is one of them so we have a motion in a second any further discussion yeah Dr good good thought my only question I guess would be that my guest as you indicated most of the uh the lats would be first uh first period much of that is beyond the control of the student probably yeah so appointments are most of them um but we run into a situation where if I'm there for five minutes what do we Market as um and when things aren't clear causes a little bit of stress on all ends students staff and parents so this this will just help clarify sure sounds good thank you we do have a motion in a second further discussion discussion discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion carries thank you Dr gr next so is Mrs Engle dinger's making her way up on this flex period proposal um just a really quick uh way to think about this is that uh in a number of our high school classes and Mrs enginger will provide the details uh we would not be hiring a substitute to cover the class but rather students would uh do assignments on their Chromebooks e assignments if you will in a designated area in the high school where attendance would be taken uh and this is a practice that's been occurring in many high schools around Minnesota in our area Chan Hassen high school was kind of the originator and bplan Fairmont are also using a flex period proposal so we would propose this as a pilot plan beginning now through the end of the school year uh to determine if it's working the way we think it's going to work and if it saves some some dollars which I think it will as well so with that quick background I'll just turn it over to you to talk more about it yeah it's a like Dr Olsson said it's an interesting concept that we actually were looking at when we were moving into the new High School schol um some of the schools who who are already doing this have a have a fairly Advanced um have technology for kids taking attendance in various areas of the building um we found when we opened like we're we weren't we're small enough to not really have had to have done that like for kids who have say privilege junior senior priv or Commons and and just can check out on a piece of paper from to various areas in the building um but but the idea of using this Flex of of flexing our courses um we have as you know a lot of college level classes for mostly Juniors and seniors um finding a substitute teacher with knowledge in a Content area um is is fa is impossible really um so so what we're really doing is is is paying subs and not that they don't work hard but they're a supervisor um and after covid all of our staff members are proficient in delivering their lessons via their Google classrooms so that's what that's what goes on in the classroom when a teacher is absent anyway unless you can get Scott Hermanson to substitute for Bri Bergstrom it just it it's not a Content area teacher that um that's able to deliver instruction um and continue on in the lessons uh so for some of these courses uh our kids are are 17 18 years old can hopefully are hopefully independent enough to manage manage their behavior with a with a supervisor um so we have our Commons available uh we have the media center available if we were able to say hire another we could find Paras or supervisors um they can also supervise they can't deliver instruction um but we we're selecting specific courses uh that that the instructors themselves feel like like the students would handle that just fine um and and we're going to go for it um I I have high hopes for it I know that we'll save money we'll see how much that a problem with um with the teacher schedule is that they don't necessarily have all senior classes or so if they're if they're teaching a section of ninth grade no if they're teaching so it might not it might not work for an entire day um but but within the high school staff we also have a lot of teachers who are willing to pick up a and sub um sub for a their their prep block so we're going to we're going to get it a shot we did we did pilot it with a couple of teachers just to see how it would go um and worked fine and I'm going to say if possible I have taught with this and the allowance of continuity of instruction is just is just amazing for all the kids so it just really is a has an impact of rather than just worksheets or something like that so I would move that we accept this [Music] proposal second a motion in a second any further discussion I guess um I have some concerns about this 23,000 seems to me like an awful lot of money that you're going to save it could be a substitute total total package for a substitute for per day is right around 210 $210 so it depends on how many days were gone but we have in our budget I think the last couple of years we spend this is K12 around $340,000 for substitutes so it's a bigger number than you might think so we'll see but it's going to save money but even at 210 teacher that's about 100 100 substitute days are going to be taken up by this yeah yeah we'll see an 84 day time frame so yeah it could be that could be a high estimate 87 whatever it is and the one condition that you have to put into all of this is what Mrs enginger said which is we can't find Subs there are not Subs available and staff filling in during their prep time is a solution but it really overloads staff so you know that is a that's a big boost I think at the admin level at that table that's why the conversation started because some of the other buildings are struggling to to find Subs obviously they need subs so if they can trickle down to the other buildings instead of get a good handle on a semester yeah and then move forward look look at that over a full year I guess the other concern I have is I've heard so many negative things about digital learning and flex learning and so forth and the fact they're in school is a little different than just being home but it and hopefully being supervised that time will be more productive but yeah I think when you with Mrs engleder kind of shepher in the the classes that and teachers where this would work effectively um I mean if you think about it you have an 18-year-old who's three months away from being on their own and we're saying that we don't think they can handle being in a in a supervised area working on their assignment that they're going to be accountable for I think it'll I think it'll work but that's why we put it in as a pilot proposal I think a lot of the frustration or maybe negative you've heard about digital or Flex learning is probably more towards the younger I would speculate I think at the high school this is appropriate I don't see us able to probably do a lot of flexing at South but hey it would be a pilot I'd like to see for a week let's give it a whir I don't think you'd like to see that for a week can yeah just a week just a week yeah read it's my understanding that even though it's considered Flex that the instructors will be well they'll be giving the assignments and it will follow along with the curriculum that they have so I understand your concern but as a parent of a high school student I feel like that continuity is actually better for the students than having a sub who may not well who doesn't have that curriculum down right um and may not actually be completely proficient um on the subject so having that follow through in the class may actually be beneficial in that sense I would speak in favor but I think it's a triple win first of all the continuity as you just mentioned and also Kate mentioned secondly the difficulty of finding the substitutes and thirdly they should be relatively self-controlled well functioning young adults that is Dr Ola mention will soon be the goal in the real world and the fourth component if you will is you know it may not be the full amount that the bill as you mentioned that's in the projection but anytime we can save money I'm all for it right so I I would speak in favor of it uh question for you we seek out or receive any kind of feedback from um our teachers union or their representation uh just the from the high school the high school the entire High School staff has talked about it the building leadership team um it I don't think it's come up at the union table since it's just a building level yeah pilot and what kind of feedback that they would offer you know those who have those the courses that would work out know that their kids can which kids can handle it yeah um one concern what to be honest was you know if you're are you're just planning on sending all of these classes down to the commons area so that whoever's supervising common study hall is now responsible for right no you know that's that's not the plan we can't we can't there can only be so many that are doing it a day making sure there there are supervisors Forum um our plan is to start with with um absences that are planned um it's we'll see from there if you know if you're call in sick in the morning it's awfully hard to for Mrs clemenson specifically to to sort all that out but for those who are who know that they're taking a personal day or have a professional development opportunity out of the building we're going to start there okay Mr chair is there a way we could uh rather than waiting till the end of the semester say four weeks in five weeks in have a report how it's going what the observations are so forth I mean if it's not working yeah sounds good to me yeah do we have a motion do we have a second do motion in a second any further discussion discussion discussion discussion we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries flex period pilot is a thing thank you Miss enginger next up consider approval of second and final reading of revisions to the policy manual Dr the policy Review Committee uh at the December 16th meeting uh looked at policy 714 for a second time had not received any feedback at that point in time um the policy is requires that on an annual basis the board looks at its minimum fund balance and the recommendation is to change the the uh fund balance goal to strive to maintain a minimum unassigned general fund balance of 8 to 10% of the annual budget which is 30 to 36 Days of operating expense so the policy committee and I also would concur recommend your approval of the change to policy 714 fund balances also have a motion in a second any discussion discussion discussion yep perfect any further discussion not we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries and policy 714 is adopted next up consider policies with legislative requirements for approval with one reading Dr Olson there are five policy or excuse me four policies that were reviewed by the policy committee and they are all with legislative changes that are outlined policy 516 adds uh new statutory provisions and and rearranges some sections of the policy for clarity policy 521 uh updates the statutory definition of disability 532 adds school resource officer language and rearranges sections for clarity in policy 535 service animals in schools adds protection for persons with disabilities so again in the uh December excuse me the last meeting of the policy committee uh they were in agreement to recommend that these four policies be adopted in a single reading did I miss something nope no I have a question on 532 it's because there was so much red on there I was like oh what are we doing but then I looked at it but nothing is really changing it's all getting because it's literally the same words yeah I think it's a lot of rearranging okay I wasn't imagining that then no okay then the only thing would be what we just have note this definition is added to provide Clarity for discussion we just would pull that out then that would be on there and that would be under on 5322 the page where it says D and then it says not this definition is added to provide Clarity to for discussion of physical holds later in this policy and in light of recent Minnesota legislative action does that stay in the policy or is that just a note for us for when we were reviewing the policy I believe that would stay in the policy and what we what we've looked at I think with at the policy level the policy Review Committee members can add to that is uh sometimes the notes are really important to have in there to help interpreting the policy and thinking about why something's in a particular place sometimes the notes don't do that and then they could be removed but in this case we would recommend that note would stay okay and then I thought give me a second to think okay which I know always kind of interesting when that happens but find my policy back here I think it's fine I can't find my other notes right now 5 21 I think it was just done those guys I'm good so do we have we have crisis teams identified each building correct and is that like an additional assignment for those people or no I don't believe it is okay principal could speak more clearly to that John you want to the question is about crisis teams right yeah so our crisis teams are primarily made up of those who are not tied to students so principal Deans at the middle and high school and then our students support staff so that we're able to respond in the event of a crisis and not have to shift students around so it's not an additional assignment it's part of the job just part of yeah the gig okay yeah all right did we have a motion I will move that we accept these policies on with legislative changes on one reading call second we have a motion and a second further discussion discussion discussion discussion hearing none we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries we have approved the updates to policy 516 521 532 and 535 thank you next up consider approval of budget adjustment Target for fiscal year 26 Miss Gracia all right um there are three documents in your board book I'm only going to refer to one of the three but if you have questions on any please let me know um the one that we're going to look at is a two-page document that looks like this with three columns um on the leand side is our fiscal year 25 with a three-year rollout um starting fund balances revenues and expenditures for each of those years where we estimate we will end in terms of dollars and days for the unassigned general fund um the detail that goes behind those is one of the other two attachments that we're not going to go over but we did include that if include those if you had questions as you can see on the Le hand side if we do nothing between now and fiscal year 28 we are estimating that our unassigned general fund balance will end with $2.4 million or 29.7 days this includes um all of the adjusted numbers as of the end of our audit and quarter to fund balance tracker um because you had approved our fund balance Target to be between 30 and 36 days we felt that we needed to make some adjustments to make sure that we fell in line with that policy so the middle column then is going to be any of the adjustments that we are proposing um option one and option two are going to be identical to each other with the exception of one change so the the uh calculations are in the middle the bottom left hand corner is going to be the explanation that goes into into those calculations so for fiscal year 25 the only adjustment that we are proposing is to um start our 9year plan to address the fund for deficit we are estimating it's going to be $900,000 at the end of this fiscal year so we're going to propose doing a $100,000 transfer every year for nine years that's the only thing we are proposing for 25 26 then uh we would do that same one-year transfer we would make an annual transfer um our estimate is that on an annual basis our fund for will be about $200,000 in the whole so on an annual basis then we would move $200,000 from the unassigned general fund to cover that um so those two components are in fiscal year 26 and then the budget adjustment that we are recommending um is $500,000 for fiscal year 26 that's made up of two parts so one part is going to be a transfer from our assigned funds we have a Viba and a severance um assigned fund that we're looking at transferring $200,000 from as well as $300,000 in budget adjustments so that what that is what is making up our $500,000 uh recommendation tonight um and we do say budget adjustment because it our current the plans that we have started looking at are comprised of both Revenue increases to revenue and decreases to expenditures so it's not budget reductions it's budget adjustments um so those are the the pieces that go into fiscal year 26 fiscal year 27 then we'd make those same two adjustments for fund four as well as a $200,000 budget adjustment um to the general fund and then fiscal year 28 would just be in option one the the fund for adjustments um of $300,000 if you look at Option One then with all of those changes if you go to the right with all of those changes made then each of the fiscal years you can see the ending fund balances in terms of dollars and days at the end of fiscal year 28 that puts us at uh $2.9 million or 36.3 days so right around that that policy that we approved earlier tonight um the recommendation from us is that we go with option one but we did provide a second option which like I said is identical with the exception of in fiscal year 28 um so it would be in Fall of 26 if we wanted to do an operating referendum of $250 per pupil unit um that would that would gain us about half a million dollars $550,000 in additional Revenue um it puts us at 3.5 million or 43.1 days we did want to offer that as an option our recommendation is that at this time it's not necessary um and we don't feel that that would be beneficial for us but we did want to provide it as an option if that's something that you wanted to pursue Megan we reviewed these options with the business committee and they're concurring with the recommendation option number one they look carefully at the potential of option number two they might committee members might be able to speak more about the rationale or reasons for concurring with option one the uh first of all the uh they excuse the pun but they're innumerable numerals here there lots and lots of numbers and as you indicated Dr Olsson the business committee spent a lot of time digesting this and our compliments to the uh Dr Olsson and and the the business office and and everyone involved in doing a lot of good things including finding additional sources of revenue that we weren't necessarily anticipating and also doing prudent expense reductions where that's appropriate without hopefully any any significant damage to the program which is a very very good program the the rationale is a lot of good reasons but if you look at the uh the ending days at the bottom lower right hand corner both option one and option two there isn't a great deal of difference 43 days with a referendum and only 30 U and 36 days without and anytime you look at a three-year Ru out of this time frame there are a lot of moving parts and things that you have to assume and things can change over the next 36 months or 24 months or whatever time frame you choose but it appeared to be a prudent thing to do another thing we wanted to to clarify is um Megan referred to the the fund for deficit and in terms of clarification for the public if nothing else that's really money we ow to ourselves and it's it's something that that has accumulated over the years and that's why plan is to pay it back over nine years and it's not a one andone type of a format so I I think the the whole strategy is prudent it utilizes resources that we have it hopefully makes everything very stable rela to our funding situation again given that things can change and it also uh keeps in mind that that we are are highly cognizant of the burden on taxpayers we want to be be well aware of what the situation is there so that's I guess what I would would contribute at this point I to adjustment Target for fiscal year 26 um and I I thank you for your expertise uh in because I know it can be a bit of a shell game dealing with budgets and moving things around adjusting budgets and not reducing budgets um that's really important I mean as long as we can Shuffle our own cards to become more efficient and be more appropriate and more judicious with our fiscal respons posibilities that's the appropriate move before we say all right now we need to ask the taxpayers for additional funding I mean that every time and so I'm thankful that you've come to us with this thank you I'll second it and I'd like to add that um it is difficult to look three years down the road with so many unknowns out there so many moving Parts not only do we have the new Administration in the federal government and what changes they may be making but the state government budget uh seems to be shrinking and education receives a large chunk of that budget so so we're going to have to really fight to keep what we have and I hate to be the Grim Reaper all the time but it it appears that it's going to be difficult to get additional revenue from the state even though we have tons of information that can justify getting additional Revenue whether it be that we haven't kept up with inflation whether you know our compensatory Revenue being um the fact that they don't pay for prek kids uh there are all kinds of inequities throughout the state that impact many schools and it it just boggles your mind that when education is one of the fewest or one of the few things in the Constitution that our legislature is obligated to provide we have to fight for every little dollar that we get I would add the the the complexity of of looking out things changing rather rapidly so if you just took a glance at the governor's proposed budget alternative teacher compensation is on the Cho chopping block which is qm but then there's the hold harmless provision for at least fiscal year 26 so those two things kind of wash their way out in terms of our budget but there could be other things as well so this is what we know tonight and projecting ahead but I'm feeling pretty good about it and I think the goal would be to U worked at that $500,000 Target which of course there's a $200,000 shift out of assigned proposed in that and then come back with u budget adjustments that um have the least impact on students programs and people's well-being their jobs uh so those are the the driving forces behind what we'll bring back the goal would be to have U something back in front of you like at study session in March starting to talk about think about have options to U wrestle with if you will and then um perhaps by the March board meeting be ready to uh adopt the budget adjustment plan for next year I have a couple things to point out number one um looking at the fiscal year 25 the estimates that kind of show like the revenue and expenses the one thing I did have the sale of land with that Revenue going down 184,000 what's that all about start locales Andes with 24 in 24 we sold um I believe it's called the pel land um I'm not sure on the naming yes so we sold a chunk of land in 24 which was Revenue then in 25 we needed to take that Revenue back out of the budget because we won't have that Revenue again in this year oh okay I gotcha gotcha gotcha okay all right but then just go a couple lines below that and of course the public can't see that but and I think that's an important thing because had we not had those 73 extra students that added 730,000 to our budget and that's kind of huge and so we never can say that too much in terms of um we sold that land and hopefully to put up some really nice houses and hopes to attract some really great families to keep having that number go up because without that 730,000 these option ones and option twos would not look that great I really love the idea that we're not looking at at that operating Levy referendum because you know we don't want to be doing that to our taxpayers and that's what prevents us from having to do that is those 73 students so so we do have a motion in a second any further discussion discussion discussion discussion hearing none we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign motion carries we've approved approved the budget adjustment Target for fiscal 26 thank you Megan next up consider adoption of St Peter Public Schools 2025 legislative platform yeah at your at your last meeting you authorized an ad hoc legislative committee to meet and look at a number of different pieces of information and uh they've come up with three Focus areas for the legislative platform and I'll let them explain them whomever would like to as we've looked at platforms um from a couple different organizations um we whittel that down to the ones that we felt were most attainable and uh most relevant to us so as you'll see um we want to stress that enacting the hold harmless provision would help us cover that loss of compensatory Revenue um based on what they're using right now to um for compensatory revenue and as you can see um that the compensatory revenue for St Peter Public Schools is projected to decrease by 237,000 68 for fiscal year 26 so stressing that the hold harmless provision is very important to us um many schools are being affected by that by the way um also in regards to the local optional Revenue that is one thing that um superintendent Olsen was talking about we haven't kept up with inflation and not keeping up with inflation but having our costs keep up with inflation really does affect protect our schools um and so speaking to our legislators about being able to increase the local optional Revenue per pupil would be very helpful um and then Bill actually I'm going to hand this last one um regarding expanding voluntary prek to you since you've done a lot of reading on that well this came about with our disclosure sure that we owed oursel $900,000 in the 04 fund because we've had to borrow from the general fund for many years because our prek programs are not self-sufficient and there are Provisions in statute for aid for prek programs um prek Special Ed gets aid but in regular ed students in prek have to meet so many different qualifications and the state has set aside a certain amount of money for the entire State and then they have I don't want to say a lottery system because it's more of a grant system and you have to meet eligibility requirements and they've been doing this for years and they increase the amount each legislative session but all the increases go to the districts that have already had the scholarships they have not added any other districts even though we meet many of the the criteria necessary and so forth and so last session the legislature passed legislation which requires prek teachers to be license to be paid equivalent to kindergarten teachers on on salary schedule and a couple other items which will increase the cost and my thought was that well if the teachers are going to be considered the equivalent of our K12 teachers then our students in prek should be considered the equivalent of students k12 and therefore rather than scholarships and so forth we should be receiving state aid and they should go on the pupil count now if they only they don't necessarily go the hours that are K12 students do but the amount would be like it used to be when we had uh halftime kindergarten so you limit it up to 0.006 pupil unit or 6 pupil unit I should say and every District in the state that has a prek program then would qualified for Aid and you don't have to spend all your time writing Grant proposals and all that other stuff it would just be included in your pupil count so it seemed very logical to me but most people I talk to look at me like I'm nuts so I I don't know our committee did not look no I said nuts I want to clarify I said most people just the intelligent ones that our committee did and in our committee um we we looked at several uh legislative Pro proposals for the coming legislative session and these three are the ones that are most beneficial and applicable to our school district and they also align with those those proposals that are coming from the other organizations msba um the the Rea and the uh School administrators policy so we are not going out on our own these are just what we've decided are the ones to focus on for this year if that's approved we begin with with i nine different criteria there are a whole Myriad of things that are needs but it's important to be realistic and hopeful at the same time and that's uh uh we we what a moderate level of confidence some of this might be funded but no one knows uh also relative to prek and Bill thank you for providing that data today in email the uh it's been documented numerous times how valuable prek is in terms of Student Success as they progress through the through the K12 system and beyond it's money well spent I moveed to approve um the 2025 the newly distilled 2025 legislative platform for ad hoc we have a motion we have a motion in a second any further discussion I'd like to add one avat to number two the local operational Revenue it's now what 7 724 724 so that's uh about $250 increase which we have to be make sure that if it's passed it's not then deducted from our foundational Aid that we normally get um what this allows districts to do would be Levy up to that amount without public approval put us a little bit more on a Level Playing Field with the county and the city long ways away it's still a steep uphill climb I have a question for the legislative committee um if approved and we have a more focused uh narrowed focus of our goals what kinds of things can you share with us the kinds of things that um promoting and awareness that will be done uh to focus on them like what's what are the what's the action what's we have a decision what direction Marita your the chair so you can go ahead and let well the reason why we have this ad hoc committee um and have the legislative platform is to bring this to our legislators and to share with them how this affects us as a school district really essentially telling our story um so that it's not just a myriad of school districts going to legislators but telling them how this affects our students how this affects our community how this affects our teachers um because if you and and this is after being on the school board for a year but School budgets wow understanding them is not the easiest thing to do and so with this legislative committee and with our platform we can hopefully distill this to a more understandable amount of information for our legislators and how the spefic specifically affects us because it's those stories that they'll need um stories of our students stories of our teachers our Administration that they need to have in their minds when they go to the capital and they fight for us so that's the primary focus of why we have our ad hoc committee why we have this platform so that we can share that with them so that they can help us out a couple of different things Dre that we the committee talked about too is we could potentially depending upon how the session comes together um and right now it's not necessarily coming together um we could invite local legislators to a study session or a board meeting uh we could have a group of uh maybe the members of the committee take the platform to the Capitol and meet with uh our legislators at the capital to talk about our priorities with as redim mention our stories so and there are as Ken mentioned uh legislators do tend to hold um meetings back in the district where it's so open public meetings There's an opportunity for our committee members potentially to present there as well so kind of those three opportunities plus we do the traditional ones with um mspas Lobby day and so forth we'll go with that and try and meet with maybe some other districts in our area see if they have the same concerns so they can piggy back maybe and so forth sure I me I think perhaps I'm not sure if you were asking that or not but if that we are successful in garnering additional funding where that might be utilized is that part of what you're asking to not so much but that's a great question okay right and some of that has yet to be determined because as we passed earlier the the plans for the coming year and the target we're looking at $500,000 over the next several years in budget adjustments so there's no shortage of places for additional funding to go and you know would certainly enhance the whole educational process big component would be the uh the hold harmless relative to compensatory that would be that would be massive and well they're all important early childhood also one thing I'd like to add unless I'm mistaken if I am Dr Olsson please correct me I believe the Lo is part Levy but also part State funding it's shared so it doesn't put the full burden of an increase on the local taxpayers correct the nice part about this is that this ad hoc committee and our platform that we're going to hopefully going to approve here all ties in so nicely with the budget adjustment with the transfer curriculum with the policy reviews all of the things that we're doing as a board anyway and this just supports the uh the strength of our policies our recommendations to our legislators to discussion of sevenard members kind of concur on things too you know we pretty much came to a consensus fairly quickly so we do have a motion in a second any further discussion discussion discussion discussion hearing none we'll proceed to vote all those in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign motion carries we've adopted the 2025 legislative platform thank you first item on the informational items list enrollment options yearly comparison report Dr so on an annual basis you received this report and it uh shows you what's happening with students leaving and coming to our district uh there there there are a lot of places to look at the data but one I want to point out uh most importantly is the total number of students leaving our district is 345 but that number is down 21 from last year and from the high point of 20221 uh down about almost 70 students so we're we're making good progress and if you look at all of the different areas this particular year the 20 24 2025 school year we're doing well in in almost all areas uh and uh as as you look at students leaving St Peter and then students coming to St Peter from uh surrounding districts we're gaining there as well part of that reason I would argue is quality programming uh prek through 12 uh and that when you have quality programs you tend to attract students and we need to continue and will continue to Market our program and uh so this positive trend data is what I would say but I'd stand for any questions or you might want to make some some comments about anything that you see particularly interesting it is it's great I had an opportunity to speak with a number of different board members at the msba conference from differing districts um and one of the items that I've heard come up more than once was their struggles to uh align with the needs of their community and and the things that are being taught and the skills that they're they're wanting and um it was as if they were talking aboutmy and it was a interesting opportunity to share some of the information that we have some of the things that we are doing that are helpful in those areas and do align with needs of of the broader Community um so it just made me realize how fortunate we are to be kind of ahead of that curb um and well positioned um to both do that and be attractive to other students in the area so love it okay right thank you uh next up superintendent search timeline take that one Charlie it's just just looking at kind of the key dates come in here yeah for sure so at the special board meeting on December 16th uh we worked with msba uh and their search Consultants to develop the timeline um for our superintendent search so just looking at we have the the list of upcoming dates uh in front of us um but we are we had the the survey that went out to the district uh families we had a really good response rate correct 200 right around 250 responses in the survey which is a really good number yeah um and so our next uh next big thing coming up February 18th we have a special meeting of the board um to do some interview training with msba discuss public input report um and kind of look at sort of the logistics of the Sur sech um and then you see we move uh pretty quickly through the timeline um as we get into uh late February early March um msba is um the services they provide are thorough and uh quite helpful in reviewing C screening some candidates before um we then uh really dig in with our uh interview process but we review applications the end of February into the first week of March March 7th we have a meeting scheduled to determine the final ists um and kind of cover the logistics of what we're going to do with the actual interviews then March 11th and 13th we will conduct first round interviews um with the idea then of um pretty quickly within the the week or so after that to do on March 20th we have time set aside to do our uh second round of interviews so you see we move quite quickly as the process goes um so that we can work on a contract and approve that contract by the end of March with a um a start date of July 1st so we rest now um so we are right in line with a a favorable timeline for the search process um this all you know we msba has done a good job of kind of guiding through what a good timeline looks like I think we amazingly were able to identify dates and times quickly as a group which is hard to get a group this big to identify times like that uh but I feel good about our timeline and I think we are we are right on track for finding really good candidates and and hiring someone who will be outstanding to start in July can I also want to say thank you to those 250 community members Who provided input because that's really important to our process any other comments or questions all right thank you next up new curriculum development model DR Olsson and Dr graph let Dr graph take you through the the new plan all right uh so the new curriculum development plan has been shared at a number of different uh committee meetings uh so I'll give you an overview uh I'll start with what happens during the plan and then I'll talk a little bit about the rationale behind why uh the changes were made so uh it is a three-year plan our former curriculum model was a two-year plan so in year one uh teachers will explore the new standards The Guiding principles behind those standards they'll learn about new Knowledge and Skills and strategies that are required to meet those standards um they'll also create an action plan that helps kind of set the stage for the next two years what they need to do to go from where they're currently at as a Department to where they want to be uh to meet these new standards in year two um they develop a revised scope in sequence based on the new standards and they identify tier two and tier three vocabulary words um because we know that vocabulary is critical to our literacy efforts uh and then they also seek professional development and begin developing lessons that will include those new strategies uh and the Phil philosophies um behind those new new standards in year three then in the fall teams will actually implement the new standards in the spring teams would come back to the board and make curricular recommendations or requests and then in the summer of year three teams are writing the implementation manual which is the document that states how we teach a given discipline within the district and then year four and Beyond um we're ensuring effective and efficient implementation through walkthroughs at both the administrative level and Department level having teachers get into each other's classrooms and give feedback on those new strategies Knowledge and Skills so some of the rationale behind it um mde recommends a five-year implementation plan the first couple years of that implementation plan really are the study phase so this aligns better with MD's standards implementation process the other changes really are about extending the time from two to three years and the rationale behind that is it gives us time to focus on those philosophies uh that come with the new standards in our former model most of our time was spent really studying what we had to teach differently and in the new model we can spend a lot of time thinking about and studying how we teach differently um so really doing it different um not just what we do differently uh and then the timeline for purchase has changed in our former model we made curricular recommendations before we actually taught the standards and what we found is don't know what you don't know until you do it so this puts it the spring after we've implemented so hopefully we've worked out some of the Kinks and really realized what we have compared to what we need and then lastly uh the timing of the implementation manual has been moved back as well in the former model we wrote an Implement implementation manual before we actually taught the new standards we felt that that was kind of backward now we're going to teach those standards before we write the implementation manual and the the goal of all of this is just more efficient implementation um to ensure that that we're meeting the needs of our students so is reviewing standards every five years uh it's not necessarily every five years um but yes there is a standards review process that we are trying to link our curriculum review to so that once we finish we'll wait until the next set of standards are y before we that is the goal okay yep I U I should know this but I don't so I'll ask and that is is this all subject matter or Eed to be the curriculum for various subject matter had a a schedule a review so is this done concurrently or how is that structured uh can you I don't know if I understand your question I didn't ask it very well I'm sorry that's part of the theory ask a nebulous question and see what you get I uh no at one time uh for example The Sciences would be under review and then the next year um would be perhaps physical education and health and next year it' be English then social sciences or whatever the sequence might be yes and that is a different format than what this is and by the way the logic appears very well well laid out I'm just curious that this substitutes for that or that's a totally different program very similar process um our our former process wasn't always aligned to the standards changes so sometimes we would go through a curricular review we'd make decisions and then a couple years later the standards would change so then we'd have to go back to the drawing board so this better aligns with that process and the hope is that we are just ahead of the standards implementation so if mde says science standards need to be um implemented in 2025 we've started this process three years earlier to make sure we're on target we've got all of our homework done so that when that implementation comes are ready to go okay very good answer to a poorly phrased question and unfortunately sometimes the standards get delayed and then we're in the process but this is really a I think a nice Improvement and and uh compliments to our our team and John for coming up with it thank you Dr D next up presentation of mba's director's award got a pretty little certificate here for Mr cout for successfully earning 100 points from msba sponsored sessions to improve individual performance the msba 2025 director's award so uh thank you Mr cout for uh the extensive time you have spent because 100 points is 100 hours right I have no idea I didn't know points yes yeah that's a lot of time 100 plus hours 100 plus hours um in trainings learning uh finding ways to uh make our board better by being informed and being well educated uh so we're grateful and and congratulations honor thank yeah we've got a certificate and a letter for you so congratulations yeah [Applause] awesome I would say the easy way to do this is just get to be the legislative lison because they have zoom sessions every week of the legislature so it just I think you're also supposed to say this is a team award so now we so now we can say we are an award-winning Schoolboard okay does that work for you it does I was going to add that you know since we try and keep you all informed you should get credit for those too but I don't think that's how it operates but sincerely thank you uh for all the work that you do to to be informed it's helpful well thank you yeah all right we've got reports the building principles it off like just sit back and watch the assemble I can start well good evening um gosh I wasn't here in December so I could really go on and on but I'll just talk about January um in January our character strong theme is perseverance which feels quite timely for Midway through the year but we're talking about setting goals overcoming challenges and uh persevering in in South Elementary um to celebrate the end of quarter 2 we had the rad zooo come out um Kurt Hill de Brandt posted some really excellent pictures I hope you saw all the kids like and their faces were just Priceless throughout the presentation but a great way to uh incorporate some science learning and just a lot of fun for the kids um we have our readathon that is just starting it's a big fundraiser for our star Pride team so our Little Learners are collecting some donations from family members and people that they know and then we will have have a reading relay uh February 7th in our school where we will have somebody reading at all times so it's going to be very exciting um and it's just a a great time for parents and kids to be um engaged in Reading at home and at school and then raising money for a good cause along with that our parent council is hosting book character Bingo I'm excited to have an Engaged uh parent Council that's going to be putting on this event so dress like your favorite book character come out for popcorn and lemonade I can send you all in invite it's going to be fantastic um and that is January 31st uh we have our another round of conferences coming up in February for K8 um so that is February 13th and 20th in the evening and we have no school on Valentine's Day February 14th as that is an all day conference um and sign up portal will be January 30th I believe K8 open to family so look for that link um and then tonight was great talking about enrollment our kindergarten registration has begun um we already have some kindergarteners registered for the class of 2038 gosh doesn't that sound silly um but our open house is going to be on March 4th it's a Tuesday evening from 5:30 to 7: and our kindergarten team is very excited our theme again is wild about kindergarten so get your Safari gear out and come join us it's going to be fun um just one update from ashaa Learning Academy I'm picturing you in a safari head me too me too yeah um ashaa Learning Academy this second semester we have been working really hard to look at a little bit different model uh we've been working with the Leo halfman Center to incorporate more treatment and psychoeducational programming into the school day um their therapists and their social workers are N9 to five employees so when the kids are at school until 3 there's not not as much time for treatment as they would like and a lot of our students per their IEPs have modified school days anyhow so in collaboration with them we are really doing a different model um I'd be happy to talk about that with some of you if you were interested in the details but so far we we're weaken and um kids are feeling really good about it the unit staff residential therapists are feeling good about it and behavior has been better so um just a little update on ashaa last thing sorry guys um it is pair professional Appreciation Week Governor walls declares that every year randomly in January and so we just want to say thank you to all of our paers in the district for the work that they do okay that's throwing me off you're next all right keep them on edge up here so the Middle School welcomed the project for teens last Wednesday to Mr ms's sixth grade class uh it's our annual conversation about the difference between a bystander and an upstander bystanders are those who just kind of Coast through and just watch it happen where upstanders are those who make a positive contribution uh and the goal is to you know continue to encourage our students to be positive part of our culture um Minnesota student survey is happening this year uh as you are probably aware it's a joint effort between the Minnesota Department of Education and the Department of Health offered once every three years to fifth 8th 9th and 11th graders um and we are participating our eighth graders took the survey today our fifth graders will take take it tomorrow and our 9th and 11th graders will take it on the 29th um and then lastly um we will be hosting our first cultural event at the middle school tomorrow we'll have a Native American Joy day a mini version of what uh the high school has modeled for us our eighth graders will run a modified schedule to accommodate um three sessions in the afternoon uh they'll here for some guest speakers and then the whole school will get together for a assembly at the end of the day uh there will be native dance drum singing and our napac crew will put together the TP um should be very very exciting oh and I cannot forget we're also having a native inspired lunch bison Burgers very excited so looking forward to that and looking forward to continue to grow um our capacity to have those events at the middle school as well so thank you to sh and John Warren for their help in in organizing thanks Dr G greetings from North Elementary every 1 uh where we celebrated successful first half of the Year completion we like to always celebrate our accomplishments uh through our passion project day and then we have our assembly tomorrow um and that one's always amazing to me our PBS team um usually does some kind of a um quiz for all the students and they'll just pose some questions uh this this assembly every student votes on these and they'll rank their top five book series or their top five dress up days or their top five individual days of the school year and then every uh student will get to pick like they have to pick them in order they try to pick them number one through five number one through five so lots of combinations and it blows my mind like there's usually like five or six kids that get all 15 points like boom in order and then a few staff members like Mrs molter always knows like she knows the inside brain workings of second third and fourth graders very well she always gets those right um and so that'll be revealed tomorrow and we do have a special guest so North doing our part of the legislative process there Mr coat um Senator Nick France is coming to participate as principal for a day um it's a day that the Minnesota Elementary School principles um sponsor and just ask legislators to come in and spend a day so he agreed to join me for the day so we have a agenda going he's going to um meet with student council um they're prepped with about 12 questions some really good questions to ask him um and Nick's he's stopped in before he's no strange to a school building he's very comfortable in school building so uh he's going to do a little lunch duty um and then we'll give him the quiz in the assembly and see if he knows second third and fourth graders at Earth very well we'll see how he does um but so we're looking forward to that and um I just love that because um student government uh it's a big deal you know you don't think seven eight nine 10 year olds uh are thinking about that but they are and it's part of standards and um you know they're pretty active on how do we improve our school building in our community so um so we're excited about that kindness crew also is uh kicking in their new quarter of teaching so they're traveling around the building this quarter and they're focusing on honesty and uh Mr sakuro mentioned the theme for the month being perseverance um and part of that is just being honest with yourself and others so they're going in and that's a really um nice component the lessons are meant to be student L they're right in our character strong curriculum and so um they just continue on the work that the teachers do in the classroom but the students are leading it and the last one I want to share I'm really excited we have a group of six teachers that have um volunteered or told one of the other no T volent told that's the term um they're um taking part in a pilot group we're really trying to tighten things up with student Leed conferences we just really firmly believe that students need to take ownership in their learning and communicate like how they're doing to their parents um so this team is doing um some sampling right now um of a template that second third and fourth graders would use about a four page document U one of the most powerful components on it is the visual progression of their learning from first grade through fourth grade based on like um a math and a reading scores they're general you know English scores and math scores but they plot them out on a line um every quarter or every screening period and then show their parents how they're progressing as compared to a typical second and third and fourth grader and the visual part of that um the teachers said it had such a huge impact some of them are already using that and that just kind of um it's the visual components that when you're throwing numbers out and grades and stuff I mean it's it's a it's a data point but you don't see that learning progression in where you're at compared to a typical student so they're going to gather some data and where our plan is to test it out with those groups for the fall conferences like Janna mentioned so looking for the results on that thank you Mr uh I I kind of was going to piggyback off of the Middle School uh Chang to their handbook we're also focusing on tardies at the high school this year for our Behavior goal for qm um and I would second that that first block class is really the one that um that's tricky uh I would say we have the most tardies that first block so thank you for clarifying when the start of the school day is Mr graph um at the high school it it is really on on the students themselves so we're working hard on that um the goal that we've set for ourselves is a 10% reduction uh in in tardies from first semester to second semester and if we just compare first quarter to third excuse me first quarter to second quarter uh We've made a 19% reduction nice yep um and you know that's just getting everybody in the building to focus on the same thing um and rumor has it they're talking about it right Tracy sitting home here great got zeros right um I also want to uh just list all of our competitive Academic Teams that are in session right now um and doing a great job tonight is the um tonight was the um public viewing for the um one act play and sections will be in new pra on Saturday um our math league is competing at home on Monday I think it's always at home and it's done online mostly um but they're competing at home on Monday our acade we have an academic decathlon team as well run by Peggy Demi and Andrew vmer um our speech season is cooking our mock trial kids are going as well as our knowledge Bowl team um and they're all having successful Seasons so far I also don't want to forget snow week kicks off tomorrow snow week is officially next week so when we've made it when we've survived to snow week we know we can make it to the end of the year right yep if can right I know all right thank you all thank you thank you Dr olon two things I want to mention uh the first is the February 3rd study session um we're wanting to hold that in the middle school media center again because remember we've looked at changing our our location but that's primarily when construction season starts and the focus on February 3rd will be student achievement in our comprehensive plans and programs to address student achievement and improv student achievement throughout the district March 3D we're recommending that we hold the study session at the mved building uh and we'd have an opportunity then to uh tour the mved building that maybe some other topics on the agenda as well but that gives us all an opportunity to to see the the building and to to talk about some potential Renovations so those are two upcoming study sessions February 3rd focus on student achievement middle school media center March 3rd focus on the mved building at the mved building thank you yep around the table Miss rosbach um I enjoyed my time at the msba conference last week it felt a little more comfortable after having a year on Schoolboard and attended quite a few informational sessions that I thought um were helpful and also I I was really proud of us because some of the things that they emphasized are definitely written within our strategic plan and we're addressing them so kudos to us Mr Russ as always msba conference is is time well spent as Mr Dixon mentioned earlier just the interaction with other school board members administrators and different districts all that's very valuable and the sessions of elves are are excellent I did uh a lot of things can mention but I did pick up one piece of paper that has some good data on it so let me just look mention a couple things there are just under 900,000 students in Minnesota schools uh K through Public Schools K through 12 of that uh 38% are students of color 42% are lwi Income 1.2% are homeless 99.7% are English language learners and 18% are special education and one of the keynote speakers um which I I think everybody was enjoyed it uh being Mickey Smith Jr who the Grammy winning band instructor and an outstanding musician one of the uh the key points that he made was that poverty is not a learning disability and I I think that's a something we all need to remember not everybody starts at the same place in life and it's uh matter of Education bringing everybody up to hopefully their maximum potential but very good session um yeah I was just wondering if we wanted to give our legislative platform to the kids at North so when Senator FR is there that he can slide it in there you know make a copy um yeah no I had fun at the um um state conference with you all and um just to kind of pay you back a little bit on what um Annette was saying about the tardies and the whatnot so and to tell everybody out there so I'm just kind of an open book about a lot of things so the Stewie we were a little tardy last year probably more than we should have been mostly because just life sometimes just starts slowing you down more and more and so then when they start asking you like why you're late and it's kind of like well because we were just running late right mat's the answer that's not actually an excused reason even if you're a Schoolboard member right and so I I think it's just like and it does kind of rub us the wrong way right but the thing is is if your kids are getting there five minutes late six minutes late s minutes late they are not really getting that first period very well so even though that does kind of rub us the wrong way and we want to be like it's none of your business it it is kind of because if they're school's really wanting our kids there on time and I definitely know the high school is pushing it because like I said if you look at our tardies from last year and this year like we are all zeros people but Ben my Ben is he is talking about it all the time so you guys I believe you're at 19% because we're at 100% so but all I'm saying is that it is it it feels like why is the school doing that it really is it's important to have your kids there on time so that's my little speech for tonight Mr C Mr Dixon no just thank you for your time at the msba conference it was it was great so thank you it was it was an excellent time and we do we I agree with you we do have a great community and a really good working board and it was kind of brought out in a nice way and I also want to remind everyone that there is a seventh grade history day competition going on on February 2nd and we're still looking for some judges so contact Dustin shrom thank you February 7th 7th sure a reminder the uh booster bash is is coming Saturday night 6:30 at the cap room um uh we heard from committees throughout the night about things they're working on but if any does anyone have any committee updates they'd like to share that they didn't get to education business policy or HR we will be looking somewhere down the road of having closed sessions for negotiations probably in March time frame because it's not busy no yeah and we heard from the legislative committee we do have some upcoming meetings uh Monday the 3 we talked about the study session at the middle school and then all of our committees meet in February uh leading up to our uh special superintendent planning meeting on the 18th back here on the 20th for the regular Schoolboard meeting and then our study session on Monday March 3rd correct thank you throwing me out they are but I'll be okay it's the holiday is the holiday Monday yeah all right would entertain a motion to adjourn a motion to adjourn I'll second all those in favor hi hi meeting is J thank you e