hello and welcome to the regular board meeting of the St peter School Board uh tonight it is Monday April 21st a beautiful afternoon um 2025 at 6:35 in the evening um I will call this meeting
to order first thing on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all all right if we have visitors who would like to speak uh on an agenda item um please let your name be known and we'll give you an opportunity to speak but so far we don't have any interest in that tonight
um let's take a look at our consent agenda before us we've got a number of items here i move the agenda call me order oh I thought we did oh we have to adopt the agenda yes
please all right I'll second any discussion all those in favor i those opposed very good the agenda is adopted all right let's take a look at
the uh our consent agenda a number of items we can take one or two off as individual items if necessary otherwise we can take the entire consent agenda of one item i'll move the approve with consent agenda but we'd like to make a few comments before
we vote very good all second okay very good any discussion yes i'd like to recognize some of the retirements that we're voting on tonight um these individuals have been involved with the district for a long time in fact I think
I even talked with some of them in fact I know I did uh George Sonborn and Kelly Jensen both at the high school um Mike Keller started at the high school as a custodian and then moved to North and
then Heidi Wer who is a former student of mine so heck of a kindergarten teacher um I also want to just point out the resignation of Bob Southworth the head girls basketball coach um not at an
teacher of the district but member of the community who coached the girls basketball team for 15 years um ran a pretty successful girls basketball program went to state a few times in many section basketball games and just want to thank him for the many years
that he was a positive influence on many young ladies in our district so I want to thank him for that very good thank you all for your many years of service do we have any further further discussion on the consent agenda seeing none we'll take a vote
all those in favor please say I i oppose same sign very good consent agenda is approved all right our student spotlight for the evening we have Dominic Jackson joining us this afternoon
board thanks for the invite tonight tonight I have Dominic Jackson with us dominic is a sixth grader uh his family looks familiar family was here last week pretty successful family uh Dominic uh is quite the
wrestler uh Dominic has recently earned first place in both the Minnesota USA and Northland Youth Wrestling Association state tournaments so has won both state tournaments uh and to my knowledge is the first youth from St peter to to achieve that accomplishment
so tonight we're going to talk a little bit about wrestling so Dominic how long have you been wrestling uh seven years seven years and how did you get started in wrestling uh my grandpa he was like we should try
wrestling cuz he used to like watch wrestling so then we tried it out and then I just ended up sticking with it and your whole family wrestled uh most of them yes awesome so it's a family thing um so I am from a big wrestling family i started wrestling in second
grade but I was maybe slightly above average when you when you when you add it up so maybe a B minus wrestler so what is your key to success or what has led to your success uh a lot of practice and dedication practice and dedication do you feel like hard work is a part of
that okay very good uh do you think that being a wrestler has made you a better student and why uh just helping me push through things when things are hard so kind of overcoming that adversity you ever get in that mindset like maybe you're taking a test and you're like if
I can win state I can probably Yeah get these math problems okay aside from wrestling what else do you do for fun uh I like to play football well really any sports uh games and hang out with my friends do you do any other
youth uh like organized youth sports are you on the football team oh yeah football okay great um what's your favorite class at St peter Middle School and why uh FIAD because it allows me to be active sense um so we got a long time to think about it you're only in sixth
grade but beyond school what's the dream uh wrestle for a D1 college got any picked out uh probably U of M i would say Iowa State's a better choice you U of M will go i'm just kidding with you Dr gra had I had to throw the
Cyclones in there had to throw the rest you're darn right they do used to be really good used to be good uh and then uh does the board have any questions for Dominic these belts and medals are incredibly impressive i wish you could all pick
them up and maybe you'd be willing to share they are heavy those are very substantial and I don't know if now I was a fan maybe of professional wrestling when I was a younger man uh and so I recognized some of the belts from that era i did not
realize that these belts continued into all levels several levels of wrestling so that's impressive to see thank you yeah um great job you can get a workout Dominic just taking care of all your medals and carry out
run up and down the stairs back congratulations thank you so I was a little distracted because the one belt that came around was heavier than I anticipated so what was the what was your favorite class did you say FID yeah I thought so if you had to go beyond FID what what would be your second favorite
class i know I'm really pushing you here probably science science okay i was just curious because obviously I can tell you're just like a FIA guy but I was just curious beyond that but yeah that one belt I was a little surprised it was very very heavy do they make it the same
pound you are like that was impressive yeah can you keep the belts or is that something you That's a traveling award uh no you keep it that's great yeah so you've got your sight set on D1 college
wrestling very ambitious especially someone your age I would think so that's excellent but I'm wondering do you have a particular collegiate wrestler that you look up to jordan Burroughs
what is it about Jordan Burroughs that you look up to uh he's an Olympic champion is that in your sights the Olympics uh maybe sure so are you like training all the time
like uh yeah mom's shaking her head yeah so time we spend driving into all over the place for training so I am very impressed you might ask Dr graph if he's ever
heard of a gentleman named Dan Gable and he might say something about Iowa and the Olympics and undefeated and all that but don't believe it no I'm kidding okay historically phenomenal just absolutely fantastic wrestler uh would you mind uh introducing your
family to us uh yeah so that's my brother Dylan he's a seventh grader Middle School uh that's my other brother Con Haer he is first grader at South uh my mom
and my dad and my little sister she's one years old and my last question how much uh living room wrestling we got going on at we um have transformed our basement there's a whole new mat set up oh wow nice little
gym awesome that's awesome thank you so much yeah yeah thank you good job congratulations thank you that's impressive this is impressive well thank you uh student council report
is not for tonight so we can move on from that i know that was no joke all right uh we've got a number of action items uh to consider tonight first up um to consider acceptance uh of gifts and
donations and grants here let me pull it up in front of me we had Where did that go i got Oh okay please so um from Mrs sakora at South uh
Elementary she has a memo attached but there's a donation of a chill out rocker roller adaptive chair a standing wheelchair and additional adaptive equipment that was given to the district for use at South Elementary these items will be used u by the special education
department to support students with physical and sensory needs and we're sincerely grateful to Allison and Neil Ellingsson family for this generous gift and I recommend accepting this donation as presented
also move second gratitude yes thank you any additional discussion i'm always very thankful when the families that use those things can when they're done with it when their children out grow it can
think to donate to the school i'm just always so thankful for that so thank you yes thank you very much any other discussion okay with that we'll call the vote all those in favor please say I i i those
opposed very good chenot has passed uh action item number two consider the approval of the revised fiscal year 25 budget so you have a
preliminary budget that you adopted in June of 2024 and then the practice is to come back after all of the stuff sort of settles and present you with a more accurate budget which is the revised budget and Megan will take you through
that all right there are three documents attached in board book relating to the fiscical year 25 revised budget um I'm really going to go over the summary document it's just one page has all of the funds on it like this it should be the top one
attached um the whole top box is the general fund um we spend the most time talking about the very top line the unassigned general fund mostly because it's the broadest and we have the capacity to use it on a wider range of things so we started the year after the
audit was complete with a unassigned an unassigned general fund balance of just over $5 million as you can see we have 27 or estimating 27.6 million in revenue $27.2 $2 million in expenses an
adjustment into the fund with an ending fund balance unassigned general fund balance of $5.5 million so from the adopted budget to now uh Dr wilson has has done a great job of keeping all of that information and all of the changes in front of you with the quarterly fund
balance tracker i just wanted to highlight a few of the things just as a reminder for how we got from the adopted budget to here um again like I said we had the final audited numbers for 24 our enrollment is up 67 approximately 67 students from where we thought we were going to be so we have increased revenue
there with some natural attrition with retirements and resignations we had an increase to the fund balance because of some um uh because of the replacements that we had for those positions our transportation contract with some negotiation actually came in with a $0
increase so we were able to take off some of those expenses that we had earlier anticipated we're using some assigned or excuse me restricted reserved q comp dollars to pay for interventionists and most recently um we received a revised budget from MVED and
um our expenditures there were increased that's an extremely hard budget to estimate and because of the student population and and how small it is if you have a few students move in or out it can really impact your bill um so we had an an increased estimate for what we're going to contribute for fiscal
year 25 so that um had a decrease for our fund balance so overall with all of those changes those are the biggest impacts that you'll see from our adopted budget now to this revised budget moving on down we have prepaids and non-spendables we don't anticipate any changes there uh the restricted
funds just as a reminder those are the dollars that are restricted or reserved via statute or um a Gazsby a Gazsby Gatsby that might be in place um so we try and utilize those dollars to the best of our ability gifted and
talented ANI learning and development um we use up those dollars if we can there are some things that we aren't able to use up uh Q comp operating capital LTFM so we do have some balances there but we try and use them as best as we can um
leaving zero dollar balances if possible and then the very last line is our assigned funds so the difference between the restricted dollars and the assigned dollars are that assigned dollars are things that um the district chooses to set aside so we we have a purpose um
that we are saving that those dollars for or allocating those dollars for um versus the restricted dollars that are set aside for statute so as you can see with the 25 revised budget we're anticipating a general fund fund ending fund balance of just over $8 million for
the entire general fund any questions before we go on to the bottom section so if I'm if I heard you correctly so the MBED actually we had to pay them more than we thought we were going to have to correct okay and let's just really test my knowledge on these reports am I correct in finding it on the report is
that the $60,000 what's that is that the $60,000 am I finding the right number on the report on page 25 i don't know are your page numbers the same as my page numbers no no I don't have them numbered the same okay so there should be um
I'm sure I'm grabbing the wrong number but I was just seeing if I was finding the right number it was fiscal year 24 estimated expenses general fund unassigned and then I just found MVET estimated expenses and then it was 60,48 so this was Yep so the very bottom
peach one is the most recent addition it's our quarter 4 adjustment that we had so we wanted to separate that out because it was quarter four okay so that's So maybe I did find the right number all right all right any other questions
before we move on okay uh so moving down to food service uh we had anticipated a decrease in our food service fund balance um going into the revised budget our expenses for food service are coming in slightly better than we anticipated um obviously with an
inflation food is still costing an awful lot of money but it's not quite what we had anticipated so we are still estimating a decrease in that fund balance of just shy of 200,000 which will still leave us with a fairly substantial fund balance of 871,000 going into fiscal year 26 um
just to note that we are going to have to draw that fund balance down we'll talk about that when we get to the adopted 26 budget but that's something that we plan to do intentionally with our principles and our food service director making some of those decisions to um how we can get that that fund balance decreased a little bit there
were fairly minimal changes to the community service fund uh you will see that we are starting the first of the 9-year plan uh for the $900,000 deficit for community service um so that adjustment is in there otherwise there
should be um fairly minimal changes outside of that the next line down is the building construction fund you can see that we sold our bonds for building construction we're anticipating between uh July and then June of 2025 that we're
going to spend about 6.7 million of that the next line down is debt redemption so that's paying off the bonds our existing bonds uh you will see a negative fund balance on debt redemption that is simply related to timing because we had to start paying on
the um HVAC bonds as as we refer to them um but because of the levy and the timing component the revenue and the expenses don't hit at the same time so it's nothing to be concerned about but it is it is there solely a timing issue the next line down is our
scholarships so um those are just some of our larger scholarships that we have $746,000 as an ending fund balance and the very last line is then our insurance fund so as you know we are self-insured for both health and dental we have seen
quite an increase in our health insurance claims that we've had to be paying out um so I would say other than the unassigned general fund that we talked about earlier you'll see the biggest change from the adopted budget to the revised budget in the insurance fund because of those claims that we're paying out um
we've worked with our insurance broker and he's sort of helped us navigate that and arrive at our increase for insurance premiums for next year to sort of offset that and make sure that our um self- insurance fund isn't at stake but other than that that is the large picture of
the revised budget the second attachment is just the same information in more detail if you wanted to see some of those restricted reserve balances um or maybe the breakout of the community service fund but otherwise it should be the same information just in a more extensive layout and then the very last
attachment is the three-year rollout um and the enrollment numbers which I know we're going to talk about in the next agenda item are there any other questions related to the revised budget
business Committee has also reviewed this in in detail and recommends your approval of the fiscal year 25 revised budget i'll make a motion to approve fiscal year 25 revised budget
okay very good we have a motion and a second do you have any further comments questions discussion thank you good job okay if none I will call for a vote all
those in favor please say I i i those opposed same sign very good motion passes thank you Megan but don't go anywhere all right number three consider the approval of our 25 to fiscal year 28
budget adjustment plan you've seen uh the budget adjustment plan at a number of different uh previous meetings and study sessions we had as an information item I think in a month ago um we've run this through with the business committee in in significant
detail u there's a narrative portion of the budget adjustment plan um then there is the uh three-year roll out that Megan will take you through uh and then there are the supporting documents but uh is the one thing I want to point out about the budget adjustment plan
is this is where we are tonight and it's where we believe we're heading but we also know that things can change very rapidly uh we could see an increase or a decrease in in students we had 67 more students than we anticipated this year
uh than we had in the preliminary budget um the state legislature could give us more money or give us less money or take away different pots of money that are important for us so we won't know that till the statutory uh deadline for the
legislation legislative session ending or which is May 19th 18th right one of those two dates in the middle of May or there's a special session which keeps us in the dark even longer but with what we know right now
we're confident in recommending this budget adjustment plan and Megan I'll turn it over to you to take us through it um so I'm going to spend the most time just talking about this document here uh which you've have seen like Dr olsen said numerous times before the lefth
hand column is going to be fiscal year 25 through fiscal year 28 if we were to make no changes moving forward so as you just approved again this is our unassigned general fund this is just that top line of the summary page that we looked at um so we're anticipating
that we're going to end fiscal year 25 with $5.5 million if we were to do nothing at the end of fiscal year 28 we would be down to just over $2 million or 24.9 days um so there in lies then the the three-year plan that we have put put
into place um you'll see that each of the next few years we are going to do that $100,000 transfer from 01 to04 to work on that deficit um additionally we're going to we're planning on doing an annual transfer of $200,000 to cover
um the expenses over revenue that we're seeing in that fund every year so those two transfers will be going out every year for 26 27 and 28 um in fiscal year 26 you can see in the green box in the middle um a
$430,000 adjustment so that's going to be um the target for the budget adjustment that you that is outlined on the um with the detail that Dr wilson had so that is the plan for fiscal year 26 in fiscal year 27 we have a budget
adjustment target of 200,000 and then in fiscal year 28 at this point we don't have any budget adjustment um but as Dr son said there's there's plenty of things that could change where we could either reduce those budget adjustment targets or increase those budget adjustment targets depending on how
things flesh out so with all of those adjustments whether it's uh additional revenue decreasing expenditures or the transfers going to fund four then you get to the right hand side um so this is where we're anticipating we're going to be with those changes in the middle so as you can see at the end of fiscal year
28 we're anticipating that very bottom lower right hand box um a an unassigned general fund balance of just over $3 million which equates to 37 12 days um
and just as a reminder we're at a fund balance target of 30 to 35 days so we're hitting that fund balance target at the end of fiscal year 28 we also should probably take a look at page 28 in your board
book which is the plan that's been shared with staff uh throughout the the the district it was shared with the business committee you've seen this before the adjustment number changes and will continue to change as we staff use
our staff budget tracker uh and that's really staff who will be leaving and new staff coming in and looking at whether or not that uh is an increase in in expenditure or a decrease in expenditure based on where those staff members might
be in terms of uh for teachers a a step and lane as an example uh for other staff years of experience um and we've talked through all of these items before but if you have any questions on any of the adjustments or I'd like to make any
comments certainly feel free to do so couple of notes uh we we do have a a soft hiring freeze in effect um we're if there are some positions that we feel like we have to really move on in order to get those positions filled we're
doing that and we also as of April 15th have a soft freeze on our 01 supply uh expenditures at the building and and department levels uh obviously we're not saying you can't spend anything but we're also trying to avoid saying let's
just spend that budgeted amount down so we're trying to be uh conservative and cautious on that as well questions i mean it's clear that we've got we've taken what which we created over many years a nice
pot of savings and we can see very clearly over the next three years we're just whittling that down appropriately but it just demonstrates the state of the state
yeah and you know you've discussed in the past the potential of an operating levy uh increase that's not in this picture there also as Megan pointed out no budget adjustment in fiscal year 28 and a very small budget adjustment in
fiscal year 27 those are also levers you can pull uh as you move forward over the next several years again the business committee has reviewed this in detail and recommends your approval of the fiscal year 25 to
28 budget adjustment plan this bill does require a resolution i think it's good to do a resolution on this mr chair I will uh move a resolution to approve the 25 through 28 fiscal year budget plan okay fair enough do we have a second
i'll second do we have any further comments or questions discussion okay the resolution does require a roll call vote and with that we'll start with Miss Spartans i I
I I I Thank you very good with that the resolution does pass thank you mayor yes thank you Megan all right moving on number four on the agenda uh consider the policies with
legislative requirements for approval with a single reading all of the policies that you have in front of you are policies that are changed due to maybe some slight edits or adjustments based on
uh legislative action in the 2024 legislative session there were a lot of them this year and the policy committee's been working diligently at going through all of those changes and uh with Kimberly's help getting these all redlined so you can take a look at
them uh but again because these are uh legislative changes they can be adopted in a single reading um members of the policy committee any comments on any of them that you want to make this is uh this is the result of
basically just language changes or definitions and so on and uh therefore I move that we accept these policy changes okay very good we have a motion second
okay very good any electric bikes but we got it covered we have it covered yeah but we have to provide training on electric bikes not on electric bikes but on like the age limitation for riding an
electric bike etc which I think is 15 so it's now covered remember those days of bus safety training so well we still do that yeah yep but now we had ebike now we had training about ebike usage so do you have to have your permit or
something for a That's just for your hovercraft yeah that's right okay seeing no further discussion uh we will take a vote all those in favor say I i i opposed signed very good
charging station okay uh consider the approval of adult basic education consortium agreement tammy provide you a little update before we look at that consortium agreement form um as you may remember adult basic
ed really focuses on equipping adults with educational skills that help them either transition to a post-secary college option or acquiring skills that help provide them with better job opportunities and our adult basic ed
learning cooperative consists of the following school districts gibbon Fairfax Winthre Lassour Henderson of course St peter Tri City United Sibi East Nicollet Cleveland Wasika Jainsville Waldorf Peton New Richland H
Heartland Ellenale Geneva Waterville Elleian Morristown and the law enforcement centers of Nichollet County and Lassour County uh Nate Nate Warden is the coordinator of the consortium and he and his staff do a terrific job of
helping their students um in adult basic education classes adults can work towards uh getting their high school diploma or a general education diploma learning English improving their basic skills such as literacy and math and preparing for that post-secondary
transition um this year we expanded our program by adding um an increased number of online classes and um it's great to see that we are serving a similar number of students on a regular basis as last
year just to give you some numbers last year we had 91 students and 51 of them were attending regularly this year we have 74 students so far our classes go until June so we have some time to add additional but of those 41 of them are
attending on a regular basis and in addition to the United States um adults from the following countries are enrolled in our classes: Mexico Somalia Guatemala Honduras Ukraine Ethiopia El
Salvador Djibouti Kenya and Nicaragua of the 74 students we've served this year 20 of them were born in the United States and approximately 43% of our students primarily speak Spanish 23% speak Somali 25% English and the
remaining students speak Anuwok French Kichche Swuahili and Ukrainian um as I mentioned earlier one of our goals is to help students gain the skills that they need for better employment um many of our students face significant barriers
that hinder them from job stability 55 of our uh participants come from lowincome backgrounds that limits their access to essential resources like transportation and child care three students face homelessness which of
course affects their ability to focus on work and education 18 of them are single parents who are balancing caregiving with also employment demands we have another 18 that face cultural barriers such as language differences or
unfamiliarity with workplace norms and additionally four of our students have low literacy levels which is fourth grade or below which also hinders job opportunities and career advancement but recognizing these barriers really
helps us better understand our students and their work statuses and employment outcomes while we have 52 students that are actively working or seeking jobs we have 22 that face challenges that keep them out of the labor force um which
really highlights our need for ongoing support in the journey to helping our participants have economic stability but despite these obstacles many students are making progress in their education this year we have one adult who is on
target to get their high school diploma which we've talked about in the past um adults who get their high school diploma actually have to have the same amount of seat time hours that a current high school student has so for some people who are working full-time jobs juggling
family it can take them a long time to make up all of those credits um we also have three who are expected to pass their GED and we are going to celebrate all of their accomplishments at our commencement ceremony which will be held on Thursday June 26th it's at 6 o'clock
in the community center in the community room you may know that room also as the senior center um school board members are welcome to attend and also assist in the pre assist in the presentation of the diplomas and the different awards so
if you're interested in being involved just let me know um as we shift our attention towards the agreement I want to reassure you that the services provided by this consortium are consistent from last year um our responsibilities are unchanged from
those of previous years as well do any of you have any questions regarding the agreement or Yes mhm so we'd recommend your approval of the agreement and it does require a resolution
i would move that we approve the adult basic education consortium agreement for this year i'll second okay very good we have a motion in a second do we have any further discussion questions
tammy if I may has the number of districts changed i'm sorry I didn't hear what the number of districts involved or the different districts added or dropped no that that's the same list as previously okay and it has been that way for a number of years for a number of years yes interesting thank
you okay with the resolution does it require will call vote roll call vote um I'll start here with Kate i I I I I I All right very good with that the resolution
does pass thank you thank you appreciate it action item number six consider the approval of the plan to re renovate MBED i'm just going to get the background you you as I think you're aware uh the EMBBED building is owned by the St peter
School District therefore we're responsible for uh updating and repairing and keeping the building in good shape uh I think it was your March 3rd study session that was held at Ambeds we had an opportunity to take a look at the building um we've looked at
a number of options including more of a major renovation uh that price tag came came in at a fairly spendy number and determined to take that off the table uh and so we're looking more at uh updating the building to give it a fresh look uh
and a good feel uh and Seth why don't you take us through kind of what the plans are yes one of the things the other uh reason we're going through this is also to create a safe place for all the students that are there the building in its use right now in the current
state was not made for what it's being used for so we want to update it to that point so some of the things we're looking at we did start looking at P wall panels putting some in there we do have 50 panels in place and they've
worked so well we've decided to go with that so if you look at the project scope estimate looking at the wall panels that's estimated for another 200 panels to finish off all the hallways um and all the classrooms that have students in
them the second estimate for wall construction for the labor is 53,000 uh we're also doing all new paint and everything throughout the building and that's at an estimate of 80,000 and then we're looking at upgrading all the
flooring going to new um more durable carpet and so the classrooms are a lot more comfortable plus a lot of the VCT is very outdated getting old so we're going to look at updating with
LVT so we've got a total projected cost of 338,000 our funding streams would be uh the MVED fund balance although we can't say we're going to use the MVED fund balance but tomorrow night at the MVED board meeting that'll be presented as an
action item to the MVED board that's not obviously the full fund balance that's a portion uh long-term facility maintenance revenue uh we were able to shift some things around and find that 170,000 and then an increase in the
lease amount of $3 a square foot that building is slightly over 17,000 square feet so that's what that $50,000 number comes from it's imperative that we move on this as quickly as possible because uh we need to have the project completed
by August 7th that's the goal and things have to get ordered uh quotes have to be received uh and they're ready to go um and we would recommend moving forward on this plan but we'll pause for any questions you might have
with doing wall panels and flooring does one of those have to be done before the other or can they go concurrently or how's that okay yep they can go concurrent pretty much so when they put down the LBT and stuff they do have um like trim boards that they can put upper
baseboards so if there is any separation or anything it can all be covered up with that so carpet can go down then do the wall panels vice versa if they do the flooring before they do the wall panels one of the requirements that we're going to have is it needs to be
covered up and protected um are they doing any sort of a reconfiguration of some of that empty kind of space where for like kind of where that offices were back there i know that they're putting in a sensory room somewhere in there so where is that going or how is that looking sensory
room and you might be able to help me with this there is a room that's kind of like a um gathering room and then behind there it's another like a quiet room kind of thing we're looking at taking that wall out opening up and creating
that i believe between where the uh boys and girls bathrooms are there's a a space there that there's actually two smaller rooms taking the wall out in between those two to create a bigger room for that century room okay
and then the other part is uh to separate the the parts of the program and age levels of the program more so that there's less uh deregulation that gets more deregulation going
yeah so the other part of it we're not going to do anything with the office areas the back end where sir the their superintendent office is is going to remain the back side of Ashawa is going to remain and the front office we're not
going to touch those either all because of budgetary restraints so we're just going to focus on primary we we'll get all the doors yes in order yeah we already have an estimate for those okay well I would make a motion
then Oh sorry unless looks like Ken might have a question i'll do it there discussion go ahead okay well I would make a motion to approve the embed renovation we have a motion do you have a second i'll second very good discussion seth if I may this
will give a a desperately needed upgrade to the interior very very much so just curious the the windows and the roof are they in good shape so I just sat down with Schwickertz this morning and went over a roof uh plan of all the buildings
they just came through about two weeks ago did an evaluation and the MVED roof we're looking at anywhere from 7 to 10 years out good so it's there's a couple little patches that need to get done but besides that the roof is in really good shape excellent 17,000 square feet
that's a sizable roof to replace yes it is y Thank you you're welcome any other discussion i'm glad we're able to do something with that building and brighten it up a little bit and put some work in so yeah very much so
well we have a motion on the floor i'll call a vote all those in favor please say I i i opposed very good motion passes thank you thank you Seth all right uh final action item uh non-renewal of probationary teachers we
have uh ju just as a bit of background the first three consecutive years of a teacher's first teaching experience in Minnesota in a single district as a probationary period of employment when they've completed the first three years they are become tenure teachers and then
they're on our our seniority list uh or the probation area period if they've received pro probation previously in another district in Minnesota then they have one year uh in order to become
tenured um we have two teachers who are teaching in an outof field permission so that's an example where we the teacher is a licensed teacher but they're giving what used to be known as a variance to teach out of their lensure field and we
have one teacher who is in a uh tier one position uh and so we are recommending that those three teachers and that tier one position by the way is a.167 and um at the HR committee was like how do you get to a.167 well the
person is teaching one block for one semester and a normal teaching load would be six blocks for a year so it's one6 thus.167 um so these teachers really it it isn't based on performance or anything of that nature but we do need
to uh in all three cases post these positions again before they could be rehired uh if there are no suitable candidates who have pro appropriate lensure before they could be rehired in the same position and I think the limitation you might have to help me out
here is five out of field permissions yes and tier one is that three years yeah so uh it really is just a a move we need to take because of u of lenture issues uh you can see that there's a
separate resolution for each teacher and they would need to be dealt with with a resolution separately uh for each of those situations as described and then the uh letter that would be delivered to the teacher by their supervising
principal is included in the resolution so uh I would recommend you approve the resolution for non-renewal of these three probationary teachers with a resolution separate resolution for each and it will not be a surprise to any of
them right no yeah again not performance-based in any way it's licensing technicality credited amend because it'll say board chairs just have to change that then to just say whatever whoever makes that resolution
okay so I will entertain resolution the resolution relating to the non-renewal of teaching contract of Heidi Nehem fire there we go we have a motion do we have
a second i'll second any additional questions or discussion we're moving on all right it's a resolution so roll call vote that I I
I I I Very good resolution passes is the first of three tonight i will consider a resolution for next one megan David Carol
Bronowski up to you guys yeah Bronowski nope so is it move the resolution is that what we're doing move the resolution for is it Carol Bonowski and I apologize if I said that name incorrectly
um to do the non-renewal of the teaching contract i'll second okay have a motion a second any discussion with resolution is a roll call vote start with Kate i I I I I I And the
resolution passes thank you um one last for this evening Kevin Durham the resolution of the non-renewal for Mr kevin Durham very good i'll second thank you we have
the motion in the second any discussion all right start with Martins i I I I I I I and the final resolution is passed thank you for that mr chair just ask twice and I'll add the third time
emphasis it's not because of performance it's simply as you indicated technicalities relative to lensure and regulations and statute correct yep thank you that concludes our action items tonight uh we move on toformational items first
up um AI and artificial intelligence guidelines and procedures and where are we at well we uh at this point in the in the process the AI team uh made up of Dr olsen myself Michael Johnson and Gus
Sorbo um you've you've had that plan in front of you for a little while but uh most recently we put together the AI pilot team made up of teachers i believe there are 11 of them um who are excited to take part in this um so they're going to get started this summer hopefully
most of them will be able to attend uh an AI summit um hosted by the the MEP schools um in Owatana on June 18th uh and from there their task is to um they have some very specific tasks outlined
um but basically there they'll be the teachers who will will be resources for others um to help them with either workflow or um lesson plan development just anything that would be be helpful to teachers in the classroom um there
are there are more uh uh teachers involved at the secondary level but still there are representatives from each each building so then part of the next step in that is that there would be rather than a policy at this point we've talked about
guidelines and procedures which would be more flexible and adaptable because what we already know after just been working on our AI plan for like three months things change very quickly almost from month to month so as we presented this
to the policy committee uh last week we talked about the fact that this is an information item um there is the a portion that has acceptable use of AI tools um protection of student and staff data ensuring accessibility
uh using AI ethically for both students and staff and responsibly for both students and staff uh and the idea being that this information would come back to you as a school board as a part of the handbook presentation process in
probably August of this coming year so um questions on any portions of the AI guidelines and procedures or anything else for Mrs engeldinger about our AI plans maybe just mention a bit about the student literacy i was also going to add
for students at the middle school and high school level um there is a a nine-month ro who knows if that will change over the next nine months but uh Michael Johnson has has found and is putting together uh a curriculum for
middle and high school kids in the middle school it will be delivered in their health classes and at the high school through our PLPS most of that is on ethical use um that's wild i mean I I can't help but feel like we're trying to build
guidelines for Cadillacs while we're sitting in the era of horse and buggies but pretty much so be it like we got to do something does anybody have any questions okay that's great
thank you thank you for joining us yes thank you we have to at this point or we'll be so far behind mr c have you tried it yet i got to ask you said you hadn't last time I asked i think I identify more with that
uh is it some politician who called it the A1 policy pretty smooth that's good that's good all right well thank you uh oh next up we've got I think this is for you too we've got anformational item about the
annual report on field trips just as a background before Annette takes over you have a schoolboard policy 610 field trips that requires a superintendent to annually report to the school board on field trips that involve students and that are sponsored by the school
district um we've been working on uh looking at some potential revisions to that policy with the policy review committee um just to because there are some inconsistent language in the policy to make that more consistent uh and so the policy review committee will be
looking at that in May potentially bringing that back at your ba May board meeting as uh a first reading and then potentially back to your June board meeting for a second reading and possible adoption and we've also been
working on uh various checklists and uh situations that involve uh where the principal where the superintendent where schoolboard notification gets to be made uh around various field trips so with that yeah with that uh I just put
together a list of um our most recent choir trip and then the the big trips that are coming up um we didn't when you read the policy it is kind of confusing because some of it talks about either an overnight like or more than one overnight well as you guys know high
school programs have all kinds of um regular trips an example our FFA is you know we'll be heading off to convention and and those regular things that happen every single year um I I assume we won't
be reporting on that annually or it would be a very long evening um but I ju I just uh am reporting on those big trips that are coming up um and and our choir trip was very successful uh 99 students attending that trip um and and
they they had a a fantastic time um and and Brie Bergstrom talks about the cultural exchange um day that they had they had with other choirs uh being the highlight of that for for her and for a lot of the kids as well we also have um
other trips coming up next year uh the big band trip to Greece uh will be over spring break the art club this is a new um art club isn't exactly it's new postcoavid uh and Eva Hendendrickson uh holds art club um regularly i think they
meet at least once a week and it's it's just kids who are very interested uh and they're planning a art tour to Washington DC hopefully next April uh and then our FFA uh um Jasmine Witty and
Jacob Pearson are taking planning on taking uh members of our FFA to Northern Italy to stud study um sustainable farming uh and that will be next summer in July all of these trips I also uh they
all have um fundraising opportunities possible for kids um and their families to help them afford it and just as an example you've got that checklist attached yeah I do i also um it I know that there are this this
feels like a lot but it's the art club in particular and our FFA trip in particular there's it's providing opportunities for kids who who might not other otherwise have been able to maybe even travel out of the state um
so I I I really appreciate um the effort that these teachers are going through to provide those opportunities for kids um one of the I know Dr olson talked about of our our process for this our process
for this hasn't been quite as teachers have had to come to to me first uh with the idea uh have their itinerary i sign it for pre-approval and then the superintendent has signed it for pre-approval before they are supposed to
um announce it to kids or families or advertise it uh so we worked a little bit on just make putting a little bit more meat behind that I guess um so I also attached our new preliminary approval
checklist um it it shouldn't really add add a lot more um too much work for the staff members who are interested in doing it but it also I think makes makes both staff um and administration think
about some of these questions before deciding to go on these big trips so like when we went to like the choir concert and they're doing like that bake sale and then the like where does that money go for so
the at the last choir concert I believe the FFA was having the the bake sale and so that would go into their activities accounts for the individual kids who are fundraising for the trip for for which trip then for the FFA trip
okay because it's very upcoming at the pops concert there's still going to be a um a silent auction for example that would go into the choir activity account and do those all come to the board then as like gifts then
no they don't club does would what come to the board as you mean the as gifts because you know as a gift and donation do we receive that as a gift and donation no no I don't believe so
it's the the not the fundraisers okay yeah this is a a fundraiser that the students are doing right so it goes into the student accounts okay yeah booster Club is
an adult organization giving a gift to the athletic department okay um and participation in these trips is strictly
voluntary correct yep as you indicated it's a great opportunity for kids to experience something that they may never have a chance to do again and certainly have probably not done in the past just in terms of of the public's understanding though as you indicated it basically is
either at the individual famil family's expense or the fundraising is done through whatever entity it is correct yes any further discussion or questions thank you sounds like fun sure i have
chaperowned one of these trips um and it is it is a lot of fun and they keep those kids busy from the break of day until that sun goes down which is good as we all know it was exhausting it's the
chaperone but really fun okay who's gonna join you yeah for building reports come on up i could actually You're going to go in two two different waves two ships okay
creatures of habit I think all right so here we are april 21st couple more months of school left six weeks maybe but early childhood is hopping this time of the year we're really focusing on our transitions it's part of
our strategic plan and Jana and I have worked together on this piece um we'll have students who are going to kindergarten in both our early childhood special education and our school readiness classes both tour South Elementary have a couple field trips there as well as have transition
meetings for students who are on IEPs and are going into kindergarten so at those transition meetings we'll be inviting a kindergarten representative uh South Special Education representative parents our ECSE staff to really ensure that that that transition
from preschool to kindergarten is as smooth as possible so we're excited about that we're also focused on field trips the weather is nice we're going to get kids out and about we've got some trips planned to Fallenstein Park in Mano which is an inclusive playground
which is fantastic if you haven't been there as well as our local parks making trips to the community center we've used the creative play place those types of things so that's always very exciting and giving kids lots of experiences i do want to remind folks that we still have openings in school
readiness for the fall so if they'd like to register their preschooler they should give our office a call or check online sorry I'm out of breath for some reason talking too fast maybe i will slow down take a deep breath because the finale is the read and feed once again
I'll be bringing that back to each meeting just to make sure we're getting the word out to families that the read and feed is back will be hosted by North Elementary again this year the hub um children ages 1 to 18 can eat breakfast and lunch free June 5th through August
15th so that's a really important um program and benefit to our community so we're excited about that if you have any questions about that again um give our early childhood office a call okay I can see your notes i think I could just like follow along because
we're also talking about transitions yes we're excited to have the preschoolers come and tour our building um similarly we're preparing our first graders for North they will be going up uh May 7th to take a tour of North and then families will be invited in the evening
by Principal Doherty we are also doing lots of field trips uh this Friday uh we have a couple of classes participating in an Arbor Day event with the city um at Stones Park so that's fun but all of our kindergarteners are also doing um field trips to the police station and
the fire station and then doing lots of walks to parks as well um our students will be traveling to North on April 30th for a Velvetine Rabbit production i'm sure you're going to talk about that so we're very excited about that um just another thing uh
Shields recently donated $200 to to South Elementary and then our Star Pride team kicked in some money and we purchased a set of 25 camp chairs and a wagon for an outdoor classroom and so next week in Steam our students will get
to experience that outdoor seating arrangement um for the first time so we're excited about that purchase that was made um and then just a couple of district-wide things um teacher appreciation is coming up May 5th to the 9th and so there will be um it's a good
time just to say thank you to a teacher that has inspired a child um or inspired your child or maybe yourself um just a good time of the year to reflect on all the things that teachers do uh I also want to congratulate the 55 individuals that completed their redact training
last week that's a huge accomplishment um through the district and our EC folks are are probably getting close of them have finished as well yep and yep the letters training so that's great um and then just curriculum wise our social studies team is still making progress um they've kind of wrapped up their school
year stuff for social studies curriculum review and our ELA team meets one more time to prepare for summer work in June very good greetings from North Elementary everyone and as Miss Sakura mentioned there uh April 30th we do have our spring play um Velvetine Rabbit so
couple um showings of that evening one for families and the community members and like Jana talked about students as well earlier in the day so we're excited um director Lenhof and his whole family team I guess we can call them have again outdone them their themselves in uh the
performance so excited to see that here in a little bit in about a week also I do want to echo what Jana talked about with the core foundations reading training that's about 50 plus hours that our teachers you know our kindergarten well preschool but core in particular kindergarten through fourth grade
teachers and middle school teachers participated in and just having a background in elementary ed myself um and going through that training a handful of years ago um the amount that I learned of just foundational reading phonics and phmic awareness and the
intricacies of all that takes place in a human's mind when you learn to take sounds and put them with symbols and was unbelievable i learned a ton as well um it's not just simply comprehension um and vocabulary development and things like that it's there's there's so much
science that goes along with it and really appreciated that training um also update just district on MCA training about 70% complete uh we have fifth 8th and high school science left um which is
a new um it's the um MCA fours for science so we're not going to get those results back until the end of August as the state spent or MDE spends a longer time going through the results since it's the first version of the four test that's being administered this year in
science and then uh just fourth and eighth grade uh has math left and then um about partial u sections at the high school still with some math going on and some reading so we're getting close uh usually have to have that all finished
up with science by the end of the first week in May all right um also finish up Stars Academy um all the way kindergarten through uh fourth grade so that's a week from tonight will be the last night of that good number of students and North had about 70 students
participating and probably had about 50 yep something like that so that's a great program extension for our for our students academics and then National Bike and Roll to School Day is coming up on May 7th we like to get into that involved in that at North so even the
busers get dropped off couple blocks away and have to walk so down it's all downhill they first they complain about having to walk and then they sprint two blocks straight mr why aren't they walking up both ways they Well you know I'll let you tell
them that story Dr but uh Officer Hughes um always organized that event in the fall and the spring and the the age of North kids are just perfect for that independence um getting to to school that way and we have the bike racks full pretty consistently especially on those days
both bike racks and everybody's walking and I I think Officer Hughes gets every um like emergency response individual and PD and county and like they're all over the place every crosswalk all over the school handing out stickers and
buttons and all sorts of stuff so thank him for the coordination of that every season i think you heard it from everybody that was up here so far and I'll continue the theme spring is busy um you know I I have no data to support what I'm about
to say but it feels like November through February you know you're kind of looking at the clock going gosh this school year is dragging along and then you get to this time of year and you're like "Holy cow slow down." Uh so at the middle school right now busy activity schedule we got baseball softball tennis
golf track and field uh and then we're also wrapping up our fine arts program uh with May 7th we have our sixth through 8th grade band concerts and May 12th we have our choir so fifth grade 7th grade and eighth grade uh and all of those concerts will be out at the high
school um huge thank you to Zoe and Seth they don't get enough recognition spring i can't imagine anytime it snows snows or rains or lightnings um completely redoing that schedule so a huge thank you to them uh for keeping that chaotic schedule going uh this Friday we're
sending our eighth graders out to the high school uh for a half day uh it's kind of a what I hope to be an annual tradition uh where eighth graders spend um last half of the day at the high school they will eat lunch in the commons which is a huge experience i think it's orange chicken this year we always ask what their favorite is which
is awesome uh and then they'll go through a rotation with high school teachers to learn a little bit about what high school is like and it really just sets kids minds at ease on the other end of that tenatively we have fifth grade orientation scheduled at the middle school on May 13th um one of the
things we're thinking about is we probably won't be well we for sure won't be able to do our traditional jump start in the spring uh for our fifth graders because our building will be off limits so the plan is to use those first couple of days for fifth grade to really work
through that jump start curriculum at a slower pace for all students um when we get back to school a quick mend the middle update um as you know uh there's going to be a huge crunch for that timeline uh to get all the construction done for phase one
so crews are working behind the scenes during the school year um mostly electrical work uh where we don't even see them they're in back in rooms that nobody even know exist uh but most recently uh over the weekend crews removed the ceiling tiles in the cafeteria hallway and the locker room
hallways um what Seth has communicated to me is that by removing those ceiling tiles crews will be able to locate the pipes and the wiring and adjust sprinkler heads in advance of the construction and I think Seth said maybe saved a couple weeks in the summer um so
it will look a little ugly uh in that area um but I assure everybody it's safe uh and it's going to ensure that we can get back into the building on time next school year and then lastly just a quick uh update on the principal search uh searching for a new SPMS principal if
you know anybody um posting closes on Wednesday uh from there our first round of interviews are tenatively scheduled for April 30th and May 1st second round of interviews scheduled for May 7th and then we will be back at the May board meeting with a recommendation for hire
so moving right along like everybody has said it's busy season uh in our schools i'm only going to take you from um one event last week until this Saturday because and that that's not even including co-curriculars uh it is it is a it's crazy from here until
the end of the year uh we our teachers Carol Benowski and Courtney Shoemaker took a bunch of kids to the Crave Culinary Arts competition uh at MSU last week and I don't have their names or how many of them in front of me but we had
many kids who placed in the top three uh in the in all of the schools who were represented there uh tomorrow Eva Hendrickson is taking 17 of her art students to section 2A visual arts festival in Chanhassen chen Yeah
Chanhassen I believe uh Wednesday we are having the M C not Chancasa not Chancasa nope it almost came out uh Wednesday Officer Hughes um and
uh other members of the um police department are hosting the uh MCK crash and ACT day is Friday preACT and ACT taking place during the school day then our eighth graders are coming up that afternoon um to spend the day with our
running through schedules with teachers and Saturday is prom so no wonder I said Jen Jen Casco right because that's where prom is that's where the dance is absolutely wow thank you great updates yeah any
comments good thank you thank you all right Dr olsson well just continuing the theme of transition you know one of the goals that you set for me in my interim superintendent year is to have a smooth transition to a new
superintendent and Dr graph and he and I are working on a regular basis at at uh transition activities and and just uh talking about uh summer work plans and first of all March to June work plans and then probably June to August work
plans and things are going very well so looking forward to time working with John very good thank you board members go around okay um well doc Dr graph is busy and I'm
going to just pull out our our uh uh student spotlight tonight dominic his brother is going with a huge group of kids to state history day on s on Sunday this so the the big seventh grade crew is going up to be at state so they may
have two state champions or something like that in in the family that's it i have nothing nothing for me tracy say nothing for me very good russ um just
real quickly um Rita and I had the opportunity to attend the MSBA uh three and four uh training sessions week ago in St cloud very well done uh I think Reed can speak for herself but I certainly enjoyed it and uh pres
presenters are outstanding material was good uh the take-home data was was very useful as well so appreciate the opportunity to attend that and and was more than worthwhile i will second that and again state my appreciation for being able to attend it
was really good excellent great feedback um we've got a number of committees now would be a great time if we have any particular updates i know that we the HR committee met and we talked extensively
about uh contract negotiations we spent some time before this meeting to discuss it so I don't know if there's anything else there that we need to talk about but we also had education committee meeting any updates talked
about we talked about what did we talk about many of the things that we see yeah we kind of hit them at the feel like we hit some of that at the meeting tonight business committee meeting Megan does a great job of summarizing the business
and policy you saw it yep we saw it okay any other legislative updates anything that we need to Well like I told someone you know they had this past week off they accomplished
about as much as they had the whole first session so I think uh they've only passed three bills thus far so things are going to get fast and furious and when they do those ominous
bills it's over 100 pages so how anyone reads it all i don't and makes an intelligent decision in voting i have no idea well they don't yeah could it be that they don't okay all right um upcoming
meetings uh for this school board we've got a school board study session May 7th that is in the media center at the middle school education committee meeting coming up May 8th at 1 p.m in the district office policy review May 13th in the in the district office uh
business committee meeting May 14th in the district office and again our regular board meeting next month May 21st 5:00 p.m right here in the governor's room our new time and our new day new time and new day so May 14th is also the staff recognition is it not
correct we have I I think we're working on changing that business committee meeting aren't we Kimberly no not the business committee the policy committee we changed yeah we changed the policy committee yeah yeah staff recognition event May 14th high school
commons 3:45 p.m recognizing uh 25 years of service in the district retirees and the distinguished service award recipient very good looking forward to that you're all invited
um any other updates for us okay with that we'll we'll accept a final motion i so move i'll second okay all those in favor please say I i i oppose same sign very good meeting is
closed