Shoot. Apparently, I need to get started. It is Thursday, April 9th, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. We are at the District Service Center in Cottage Grove, Minnesota. We would like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is the land of the
Mde wakanton Dakota people. Mde wakanton means dweller of the dwellers of the Spirit Lake. Our first item on the agenda is roll call. Dana? Elizabeth Bachmann Ekberg is absent. Louise Heins? Here. Ryan Clark? >> [clears throat] >> Here. Melinda Clark? Here. Sorry,
Melinda Daugherty. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Siddharth Patnaik? Here. Sharon Van Leer? Yeah, I think that's me. Tia Alvarenga? Here. Andrew Chastain is absent. Matilda Samuel? Here.
Elizabeth Bachmann Ekberg? Here. Katie Schwartz? Here. 2.0, Pledge of Allegiance, please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all. 3.0 is approval of the agenda. Can I get a motion to approve? >> So moved. Second. Motion by Sharon, seconded by Melinda. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay, 4.0 is our student board
representatives, and that will be presented by Superintendent Nelson. Thank you, and good evening. Um, welcome to our two student reps. Uh, we were all able to log online successfully this week together, which was great. Um, and I continue to just be impressed with um, what they bring. Uh, as you hear the
students tonight, I'm asking them to focus in on a particular area of learning for the board. So, tonight I think Tia is going to talk a little bit about an online class, and then Matilda is also going to talk a little bit about an experience with PSEO. Just so we can get some of the contrast. They'll give their normal little updates from their
high schools as well, but just to take a look at some of the programs that we offer. So, uh, Tia, if you would go ahead and start us off. Um, I would like to share about my online class I'm taking this try. I'm taking online psychology. Um, it's one of two online classes I've taken. I took
online creative writing last try. Um, and the reason I like online classes is they kind of can get embedded anywhere into your schedule that you'd like. So, my online class is my first hour, which is really nice. I get to sleep in, so don't have to wake up too early. And
then, as for like the coursework, you get a certain amount of assignments that you have to complete by the end of the week. Um, so with that, I'm able to kind of control when I'm able to like complete my homework, and it's all kind of self-paced. So, yeah, I just really
like the pace of it, and how I'm kind of able to embed it into my schedule cuz I'm really busy, so it's nice to be able to have my own pace um, for my online class. So, that's why I choose to do online psychology. Um, the next thing I'd like to share is
that this month is a pretty busy month for high school students. Um, it's kind of test season with the ACT coming up, the SAT coming up. Um, IB testing, there's a lot of IB testing. I know that's specific to Park. Um, AP testing is early May. We also
recently had our MCA, and for Park, this is the first year that the MCA was actually embedded into our schedule. Um, usually the MCA is its own like dedicated day, so it gives kind of the opportunity for high school students to like opt out, and you know, just like not participate. But, when it was into
our schedule this um, this year, I think there was a lot more participation in the MCA this year, so I hope you guys kind of see the results with that. Um, and then the last thing I'd like to share is kind of like my fun one. Um, tomorrow is the Student Council's blood drive that we organized. Um, a lot of
work goes into like advertising for it, organizing it. Um, we start setting up tomorrow at 7:30 a.m., and then we volunteer all day and run the blood drive, so it's really fun. It's a lot of student-led and organized um, participation. So, yeah.
Thank you, Tia. Matilda? So, the first thing that I want to talk about is my experience with PSEO. I've been doing it for 2 years, so I started in junior year, and honestly, I really think it was a great decision for me, and I took two classes in the fall semester of junior year, two classes in
spring semester, and I've taken four classes total this year through PSEO. And um, I've taken some online, taken some uh, in person, some mixed hybrid, and I really think it's a great experience for students to take. I think it's a great opportunity. It gives you opportunity to be in a college class and
college setting with like actual college students and everything, and experience the coursework that college students do, and I feel like it prepares you very well for things to come in the future. And yeah, it's been a great option for me. And the next thing I want to talk about is Decisions Day for seniors at Woodbury on
April 29th, where we wear college wear of wherever we're going to be going to, and we take pictures and all that, and I know some students are a little bit upset that it's 2 days before the actual enrollment deadline, but yeah. So, it's fun. Those are my updates. And Matilda, being our senior, I know
you were just talking with uh, Director Clark. Um, but uh, talk about your plans a little bit after high school, being our only senior on the as a student board rep. Hm. So, my plans right now is still a little bit unclear, but >> She's going to wear three three sweatshirts, I heard, because she's still that unclear. >> Pretty much. You're going to layer for
the day? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. I'm in between Hamline, U of M, and St. Thomas, and I'm interested in social sciences and humanities, and I'm hopefully going to figure out which one soon. And thank you again to both of you. And I would just ask board members that if
we we continue the conversation, if there are any other updates specific to high school programming that you'd like to hear more about from our students, please don't hesitate to pass that along. They're always eager to share anything about what they study, and I think it's interesting as we talk about MCAs, and Tia, you're really good about understanding kind of across the high
schools, but that was actually the delivery of MCAs across all three high schools. So, we expect uh, much greater participation. So, thank you for sharing that feedback. All right. Can I move this backwards? Okay. Can I ask It's on, right? Can I
ask a question? Um, can you talk so loud. Um, can you talk about what you mean when you say it was embedded in? Like, so what What did Okay. I'll try to explain. It's kind of a hard to explain, but basically, we have six classes during the day. So, instead of having six classes during the
day, we had three on 2 days, and each of the three classes were 2 hours long, but our history class is when we'd take the MCA. So, we were able to take all of our classes, um, like we'd have two classes into one class session, if that makes sense. So,
so we'd have English for 2 hours, whereas we'd usually have English for 1 hour, so we'd get 2 days worth of lesson in one class. Okay. So, the only way for students to opt out would be for them to miss then Yeah. their history. >> Yeah. Okay. Yes. Whereas usually the MCA
is like its own day, and people just don't go to school. >> [laughter] >> We love the honesty. Thank you. Thank you, both. Okay, we'll move on to 5.0, and that is our workshop and we do have two this evening. The first one is 5.1 and that
is our community survey results and that will be introduced by Superintendent Julie Nelson. And our back row learner is coming up to the front right now. Uh we did hear Mr. Leatherman that there was a little bit of traffic outside of our district service center and uh perhaps that's why we got stuck out here. Is that what we
out here at the intersection? Well, we welcome you here uh this evening um and a reminder to the board that uh I think it was over 3 years ago we determined that every 3 years we were going to be conducting a community survey. He's breaking the rules, Sean. Sean, did you notice that? He's breaking
the rules with the microphone. It's okay, Peter. You didn't get the training that everyone else Oh, not to touch it. >> [laughter] >> Okay. All right. The training um Peter, just as you settle in, the training was something like this. Move the Move the mic like this and press the
button but don't do this and so you just Go to the microphone. We'll be sure to include that in your bill moving forward. Okay. [laughter] Um the board determined that we were going to be doing a community survey every 3 year 3 years and as part of those results um a part of those results
would be shown and part of our strategic planning and our um district report card. Um this evening we have Peter Leatherman who is the CEO of the Morris Leatherman Group. Um he and his team administered the survey this year for us. Uh he will present an overview of how our district perceptions have
evolved over the 3 years including a comparison. He's a wealth of data and percentages. Our comparisons across the state as well as across the entire country. Um he does a lot of statistical work and he could pull out as he's done this presentation twice already in the district, he could pull out percentages
from 3 years ago and he was 100% accurate with that percentage. So um get ready. He goes quickly and a lot of great information. So welcome this evening, Peter. Thank you. It's a pleasure. I did have to go home and tell my wife that I remember that percentage since I didn't remember what I had for breakfast the day before.
It's priorities, so All right. It's a pleasure to be here with you. Is it going to come up on the or I've got to do that? Technology. This is only my third board meeting this week, so Yes, it's not me. I'll I'll click it through for you.
You'll click it through? Okay. Well, I'll I'll start talking about the methodologies as it comes up. We spoke with 400 randomly selected There we go. 400 selected randomly selected residents across the district. Within that there's a certain group percentage
that are parents. So we pull out those parents and then we call an additional group of parents, put those together, so now we have a 400 sample of parents so we can look at differences. It's an apples to apples comparison for sample size. The interviews were conducted back in January. Average interview time was
12 months. Non-response rate is 6% and the projectability for both samples 400 sample is always plus or minus 5% in 95 out of 100 cases. The margin of error is determined by the size of the sample, not the percent of the population. So a
400 here, a 400 across the state is always plus or minus 5%. I'm putting up some demographics. If we go to the next slide. Uh first off, how long has the resident lived in the community? We have 19% uh the blue for the purpose of the presentation, the blue is going to be
the overall, the yellow is the parents. So one in five have been here for 5 years or less. Uh 36% have been here for over 20 years. It's really interesting to go back to the data from the '90s on this where that was reversed. You'd have 40% 45%
that have been in the district for 10 years or less. Um so you still have growth uh but not at the pace of 20 25 years ago. Uh so the typical resident has been in the community for about 14 15 years. Amongst parents, about 8 and
1/2 years. 10% across the community have a preschooler or an infant in the household. 32% have a child attending South Washington and then 66% are empty nesters. An empty nester does not imply an age. It's just lack of presence of a
child. So if there's a 24-year-old without a child, they're classified as an empty nester. Your key constituency is about one in three across the school district. Amongst parents 20% report having a preschooler or an infant in the household. Uh 17% are
renters in the community, 13% amongst parents. The divide line is 400,000 uh for home values, self-assessed home values. Continuing with the demographics. The financially stressed question. Uh
now, this was one question. Surveys are always snapshots in time. Okay? This was done back in January. Lots happened since January um and we're seeing this start to go back up again. Not surprising over the
past uh 2 to 3 weeks. Um you were typical for what we're we're seeing in the first quarter of '26 up until the last month. Um and now we're back and we're going to about 40%. Um amongst parents, it's 33% and the importance of
this question uh for funding proposals for districts over the past 3 years, this has been the number one issue that has impacted the chance of success or failure because the higher level of financially stressed people creates more people that would support something they can't afford it. There it's not a
proposition that they're not making a value decision on the school district. Um so it's something to monitor and watch. It's going to have an impact. It had an impact Tuesday night in Wisconsin. Um the districts that failed in Wisconsin were lower socioeconomic
districts. And some of those districts we're talking they will consolidate and they still failed their operating levies. It will be interesting to see the impact next Tuesday, especially on Waunakee. Uh with that bond referendum. Uh the geography, we tracked it for the
overall. 55% from Woodbury, 36% Cottage Grove. There we go. Uh 5% St. Paul Park, 4% Newport and 1% in the remaining areas of the district. Continuing with the demographics. 19%
are 18 to 34-year-olds in the overall while 20% are over the age of 65. Typical resident is about 47 years old. Amongst parents, much younger. Uh typical parent is about 36 years old. Uh women outnumbered men by 3% in the main
sample and by 20% in the uh parent sample. And then finally for demographics um the schools are more diverse than the community. Uh bless you. 68% are white amongst the community, 60% of parents.
11 and 13% African American, 7 and 11% Hispanic Latino, 9 and 11% Asian Pacific Islander, 1% Native American in the community and then 5% uh in both samples indicated they were multiracial. I typically ask at this point, any
questions on methodology, demographics? I had a question. So >> [clears throat] >> for the demographics uh so you have this 400 end user random sample of the district at large, right? So do you control for
the demographics when you are making when you're when you're grabbing the 400 people random random randomly or is it that you do a statistical analysis to correct for demographic variation? Great question. We do not do any reweighting. Okay. Um
that's why it takes us longer. The The surveys the all the really horrible surveys that you see around political season um those are done over the course of two nights, whoever answers the phone and then they reweight. Um we're setting up appointments. We have expectations looking at census
information. Um the census has a margin of error, but it's there there's pretty good on a few. Home ownership versus renters, households with children, households with seniors. Um and so we're monitoring those things as we're going through and maybe one in
20 if you do this right um we might screen for renters at the end. Um the only thing that we do the hard control on is the geography. Uh because we know with registered voter counts the population, so I know Woodbury is 55% of the district. But yet
there's no reweighting. Okay. Yep. All right. Uh survey says. Now, we do have uh the 2022 survey to look at for comparison. I no longer put up comparisons going before the pandemic of
2020. It's an apples to oranges comparison when you look at public opinion. There's no point. Um so we can look and see how things are moving since the pandemic. On the quality of education, uh 83%
rated favorably, 15% rated unfavorably. Um it is down a little bit, but it's down everywhere. Actually, comparatively, this is fairly strong. I just completed a statewide that I shared with MSBA um a couple weeks ago. We do one in the winter, one in the
summer. And we're down to 77% in the favor in the favorable category on the quality of education. The excellent rating is at 11% right now. Um so comparatively, this is a strong result. Most districts are in the 70 and
then they have uh over 20% in the unfavorable category. So this is really good news. A lot of districts are going to have to start with as they recover, you're going to have to change people's minds. If you think something is only fair or poor, you have to convince them
that it's positive. That's much harder. I think the direction moving forward for this district is and it's much easier is how do you make people more enthusiastic? How do you move them from good to excellent going forward? If we go to the next slide, what do they
like most about the district? The next two questions are open-ended and they can tell us whatever and we collapse them down into categories. So, good teachers at 23%. Combine a couple categories. The good academics, excellent academics is 20%
and then the variety of programs and the broad curriculum is 18%. Um you do have then a statistical tie of those top three things. Who's teaching, what they're teaching, and the quality of their teaching. Districts vary. I was in Where was I
this I was in Osseo. Uh very much focused there on curriculum and programs. It was the clear number one priority. Um you've obviously had good sports season. Uh 10% point to the sports. It's typical in Minnesota, somewhere between 5 and 10%.
If we go to the next slide, if we ask what they like most, what's the most serious issue facing them? On this one, you're different. Um the number one answer across the state of Minnesota right now and it continues to grow is lack of funding.
Um in 2025, that was 20 to 25%. Now, it's 25 to 30%. Um you have 13% and 14% of parents pointing. The class size issue is the number one thing for both samples, 19% and then 26%.
You're also different on high taxes as a top of the mind response. We're going to look at taxes a little more in depth, but high taxes now is in the 15 to 20% range. It is overtaken the financial insecurity of the household as the number one issue that's going to impact
referendum and levies in 2026 is the tax. Um much more awareness on staff shortages in this district. Uh one in nine pointing to staff shortages in the community is double than what we typically see. The declining quality is
half of what we typically see. And then down at the bottom, the nothings. There are no problems in the district. I'm sure you're all surprised. Um that is that's double than what we see right now. Um that's actually where it was before the pandemic, but the
pandemic caused everybody to find things they didn't like. Um and they continue not to like them 6 years later. Um so, that booster core being one in six and they're positive throughout the survey is a very strong result. How does the district do on meeting the
learning needs of all, most, only some, or very few students? You're one of very few school districts in the last 2 years that actually has a majority saying all students. It's a stringent standard. Uh 51%. The norm on this right now is
about 41. Um you have 39% saying most, 6% only some, 1% very few. Amongst parents, half of parents believe you're meeting the learning needs of all students. Now, we saw that the program and
curriculum it tied as the top for the top three things that they like most. How do they rate the district in offering a wide range of options? This is a value in the community. Uh extraordinarily highly rated, 87% and
amongst parents, 93%. Does the district promote high achievement? If we go to the And now this is been talked about about the lowering of standards uh in in the schools. Um residents do
not have that perception here. Uh 92% say that you promote a high achievement for all or most. Among parents, it's 93%. Now, we saw the rating of the quality of education. Uh but we asked folks, thinking about
the quality compared to 4 years ago. Not before the pandemic, but moving forward since the pandemic, is there positive momentum? Overwhelmingly, residents view that things are improving. 53%
say it's getting better, 4% say it's getting worse. So, it's a better than 12 to one ratio right now. Um the latest ratio update is three to one better to worse. So, you have a lot more sense of feeling that things are moving in the right direction. And
amongst parents, it's even stronger, 58 to two. Now, if we go to the next slide, are do they have concerns about curriculum? Because that's discussed all the time also. Um this has been consistent since we
started asking. We started ask this question in 2017 in the Edina School District when the Center for the American Experiment brought up curriculum. And we've asked it every statewide, we've asked it in many districts. It's always about 70 to 75% of people that say no, they don't have
any concerns. Amongst parents, it's 82%. Um none of the concerns of curriculum um go to more than they they don't hit double digits. Uh too liberal at 6%. At the same time, you have 2% saying too conservative. Um so, it is this follows
the trend. Those are vocal small groups though, obviously. And they have a much greater impact in off-year elections than they do job performance ratings. This is nice having a comparison back to 2022 and you were actually very strong
in 22. 20 2022, things were starting to rebound. I mean, there were points in late the late fall of 2020 in the first half of 21 where it was a 50/50 rating of the You all had horrible decisions you had to make about in school versus virtual,
masking, not masking, all of it. Um the 79 to 19 is extraordinarily high right. The norm is 60% favorable in Minnesota in the last year. Um the superintendent and administration, it's a 13% increase.
It's it's a three and a half to one ratio. The norm I do ratios on superintendents because they tend to have a lot more uncertainty uh when you're talking about administration. Um the norm on that is two to one. And once again though, and this is always
been the case in the district. You don't have some of the dysfunction that other school districts have had or are having where the board ratings here and the administration's lower or vice versa. There's almost a one-for-one rating that
they see the governance and the administration as one unit as opposed to an acrimonious uh uh board of directors. Um and then the teachers, uh 88%.
Um and that's eight points higher. Uh teachers took a hit post-pandemic. They had nothing to do obviously probably with anything happening in this school district, but the Minneapolis teacher strikes. People in Grand Rapids would talk about it. So, it that's the thing like crime,
it crosses borders. So, that is a very strong rating and amongst parents, it's 95% favorable. Have they personally graduated from the South Washington County School District? 13% indicate they had. 96% said they
believed that their education in the district prepared them for success after graduation. Now, did they have a child that has personally graduated from the South Washington County School District? Over a quarter have, 28% and almost 90%
indicate that their that their education prepared them for success after graduation. Both very strong from the the key constituent. They actually went through and graduated through the system and they have nothing but positive things to
say about that process. Looking at specific perceptions. The first question is do they get a good value for their investment in education? This is very high today in comparison because two things go into a value
proposition, the quality of education and what they're paying for it. Well, we know that there's concern about the quality across the state at the same time there's property tax hostility. So, the good value investment, before
the pandemic, that would be 90%. Um that's down to 76% right now. Amongst parents, 94% rate that value positively. Do they trust you to do what's right for the children? That's up seven points
from 2022. Uh that's 14 points higher than the norm. Amongst parents, it's over 90%. Do you spend taxpayers' money effectively and efficiently? That's up 12 points and that is 15 points higher than the latest statewide
and 86% of parents rate it positively. Continuing with perceptions. Does the district do a good job of communicating? That's 10 points higher than the norm and it's a 16-point increase since 2022.
Parents, your key constituency to communicate to is 91% and parents are very difficult to make happy on communication. Um, so that is typically about 80%. Uh, do you ask for a property tax
increase as a last resort? Well, 2022 has asterisks because you were coming off the failed bond referendum. So, you had just asked for a tax increase. Um, but you time always changes perception on this. So, 74%
say that you only ask as a last resort, 82% of parents. And then we added the question, do you provide a safe and secure learning environment? Absolutely, 92% of the community, 96% of parents in the district.
The last set of perceptions, are they satisfied with decision-making? That's about 10 points higher than the norm and 9 points in 9-point increase since 2022. Uh, parents, almost 90%. Do you do a good job of involving the
community? Um, this is starting to come back. The pandemic really decimated this rating. There was the before the pandemic it was 75%. You can see in 2022 you were in the high 60s cuz it had gone down. It was
hard to involve people. We were meeting virtually. Um, and so it just got back to 74% in the latest statewide. Um, and amongst parents nine out of 10 feel that you involve them. And then the schools are good investment and I
would support a property tax increase to protect that investment. The key on this is always the known because as the question posed we don't tell them bond referendum, operating levy, capital projects. We don't tell them five bucks a month or 20 bucks a
year or what have you. That fleshes out the core no. That's down five points to 26% in all the referendum I worked on last year. Uh, the core opposition was about 30%. Um, so this doesn't you're on the lower
side of it. Doesn't mean everything will pass, but the lower that number is creates more people that are willing to have a conversation about additional funding. And amongst parents we always want you want parents, you need 80% of parents to support anything in Minnesota
and you have that at the outset. Overall assessment of financial management. It was 57% in 2022. It's 67% in 2026. Uh, the norm on this, 52%.
And it's it's like that's becoming pie. Uh, it's just always going to be 51, 52, maybe 53%. Um, amongst parents it's 82%. So, on those key indicators and the statements that we look at and then this question
that pulls it all together, the district really does have a reservoir of goodwill when it comes to the financial stewardship of public dollars. Property taxes, the issue in Minnesota right now. Um, 53 and you really are unchanged. I
didn't do a comparative to 2022. Um, but 2022 we did not have the property tax hostility. 2022 the norm was about 45% in the high category. Um, so the 53% you're actually on the lower end. The norm right now is 60%.
Um, I have one school district that is at 79%. They're not going to be able to pass anything because it's just a reflexive no at this point in time. Um, but following the pattern we see everywhere, their perception on school
property taxes, the high is lower than the total which tells us if they're mad about taxes it's the city or county. The good news. The bad news is as we all know you're the only one that has to go to the public in order to ask for any
sort of additional funding where cities and counties can do whatever they want. Does the district have sufficient funds and resources? A majority say yes. This is all over the board right now.
Um, and I think a lot of it there's a lot of confusion especially with since 2021 between what the legislature did in the biennium bills of '21, '23, '25, the discussion of all the money
then all the budget cuts people are seeing. They don't know what to think. Um, if you haven't done significant budget cuts right now, people think you're adequately funded cuz they're hearing of all these other districts that are doing budget cuts. They're closing schools,
all of those sorts of things. So, the fact you don't do it has more people thinking you're adequately funded cuz they hear what everybody else is doing. Parents, it's a little more divided. Now, talking about test scores as
talking about all the testing, uh, I kind of chuckled. Um, this is the perception that has impacted people's perception on the quality of education more than anything. 30 30% have seen the coverage of test scores. Now, this was done in January.
Test scores came out in August. When we do our statewide that I share with AMSD and all the acronyms in September, uh, you have much higher levels of people that have heard it cuz it's been in the paper in on social media more often. Uh, but in January 30% said that they
were had they'd seen coverage. The level of concern they had, 54% were either very or somewhat concerned. So, it's about 15%. It's almost a one-for-one though. If they're very or somewhat concerned that they rate the quality of education
earlier on in the survey as only fair or poor. Now, for parents, if we go to the next slide, more awareness, 40%. Uh, 41% of parents indicate that they're concerned. So, it's 16% of parents that are looking at
test scores and have concerns. Do they think that test scores accurately represent achievement? And I've talked about this everywhere. The message that they don't represent achievement is not believed by the public.
52% say yes, 38% say no. 55% of parents, even more parents think it represents achievement than than doesn't represent achievement. So, the the narrative doesn't fit with what people believe about test scores.
But then also, and maybe they should tune in and and listen to the student talk about the amount of testing she has in the next couple months. Um, uh, if we go to the next slide, is there too much testing? No.
I'm sorry. 64% of the community say about right. 75% of parents say about right. Now, some history here though. For the ones that are old enough to remember,
a lot of the community remembers George W. Bush, No Child Left Behind, when you tested kids when they walked into the school, when you went to lunch, when you went to the bathroom, when you left school, when you got on the bus, we tested all the time.
By by 2008, 2009, the amount of people saying too much on testing was almost 50% in the state of Minnesota. Um, so you do have this comparison, this historic comparison that's less than 20 years ago of what testing used to be.
Um, so the perception of the community and of parents, it's basically a statistical tie between too much and too little with the plus or minus 5%. Now, turning to some other perceptions. Do they believe that the district has
experienced uh, growth in the last five years? Yes. That narrative's complete. Uh, 74% and 78%. If we go to the next slide, do they expect growth to continue in the next
five years? Absolutely. 78 and 85% of parents. So, the narrative is in place that it's been here and it will continue. What about we go into the next slide on student enrollment? 64% believe student
enrollments increased. 74% of parents believe it's increased. Do they anticipate it to increase over the next five years? Absolutely. This one, 80 and 86% believe that it's going to continue.
The question is then though and where the communication will start is the next slide. Does the district have enough space to accommodate future enrollment? They don't know. So, the problem
they're aware of, that the macro problem. The micro problem of how it's going to impact the schools, the community's divided. 46% say yes, 42% say no. You do have 51% of parents
though say no, there's not enough room. High school overcrowding. Now, this question needs to be always taken with a grain of salt and superintendent brought it up a few months ago and I actually put it on the state statewide. Have you been in your school district a
school a building in your school district ever? 45% of Minnesotans across the state have never been in a that in the district they live in. Okay, so that is part of this. They don't have
the experience. So, 16% say they're unsure, 49% say no. Amongst parents, 44% say no. Keep in mind, you have a lot of parents with elementary school and middle school kids that haven't gotten to high school yet.
So, if we ask looking at those that say that there is overcrowding, the problem both groups center on Woodbury followed by East Ridge with 4 and 6% saying Park. This is the new question.
How important are comparable spaces between buildings to the community? It's very important. 79% of the community, 88% of parents believe that ensuring comparable spaces
between buildings is important to do. Does the district have comparable spaces across buildings? Absolutely in the minds of the public. Keeping in mind, we didn't ask it in this, but probably right around half have never been in a building. Um it's important to ensure.
So, any messaging, any discussion moving forward will be have a strong legs when you talk about improvements to create comparable uh spaces across all district buildings. Balancing student enrollment.
Let me Let me read the specific question. Please tell me which statement is closest to your opinion. The district should close and consolidate smaller elementary schools and repurpose these schools to meet other district needs or the school district should redraw elementary school bound attendance
boundaries. 31% say close schools, 45% say redraw the boundaries, 14% put their head in the sand in the sand and say neither, 10% are unsure. Amongst parents,
22% say close schools, 51% say redraw boundaries, 21% say do neither and 6% are unsure. So, the community a plurality support redrawing. A majority of parents support redrawing, but as we know and I was telling the
cabinet, I remember coming in and presenting a decade ago uh when you were redrawing attendance boundaries. People like that idea better than closing a school until it's going to impact them. Uh but the preference is the redrawing
bound attendance boundaries as opposed to closing schools. Interestingly enough, there's not a lot of intensity. If you look at the strongly on this, it's less than 10% for strong support or strong opposition.
Technology. This has been probably the most fascinating thing over my 32-year career to look at the results of this survey of how people deem the importance of technology for student learning.
The absolutely essential 30 years ago was 65%. Y2K happened. Then everybody got scared of computers and it started to go down. And then districts did a really good job
of reintroducing technology to people. We realized that people haven't been in a lot of people haven't been in a building since chalkboard and erasers. So, you they'd bring senior groups in and show them a whiteboard. Um and by 2010, it was back to 60-65%.
It started to come down with the pandemic it leading into the pandemic. We got down at about 50%. And then the pandemic happened and I thought, "Okay, it's going to go back up." No, actually the inverse happened. Parents and the community members started to
think, "Okay, technology means keeping kids not in school." Um we're now down the statewide that I just completed is at 31% absolutely It's really an important distinction between absolutely essential and very
important because something that's absolutely essential is a have to have. Something that's very important is a nice to have. And so as districts now, instead of talking about a tech net levy, you put tech levy on something in the '90s or a decade ago, it would pass automatically. Um districts like
Roseville, Mounds View last year, they had 25 and 27% in the absolute the essential category. They were capital projects levies. They didn't talk about technology. Um because it's not that important. Now, what is
leading into this? There is a concern on screen time. We didn't ask it in your survey, but the statewide we did. Um and part of it is I think districts and all the associations need to do a better job and re-educate people on how
technology is used in school. That when you see a kid looking at a tablet, that's where the textbook is. Okay, they're not looking at YouTube or playing Roblox. Um and that will help change people's perception on how technology People have always wanted technology linked to
curriculum. Um and and however you can do to expound that is going to be helpful. Now, how do people think about the rating of technology in the South Washington School District? 84% rate it positively.
88% of parents rate it positively. If they heard the district was going to ask for a property tax increase, are they for all, against all, or are they persuadable? Uh you start out as actually one of few districts that actually has
more core support than core opposition now. 26% for all, 24% against all. Amongst parents, it's plus 20 for for all. Um but the key is obviously the persuadables. Um and what's in the package and how
much it costs will determine what their support level is going to be. So, if we go to the next slide on a property tax increase for a capital projects levy, 24% say nothing. Uh we want that under 35%.
That is actually an extraordinarily low number in our let's make a deal question for people saying nothing. Uh 20% say five bucks a month, 31% say 10 bucks a month, and we have 23% that are over $15 or more. So, we take out
the nothings who are not going to support anything. Those willing to support a property tax increase, how do they balance out? Roughly 12 bucks a month, 150 bucks a year at the outset for the conversation, realizing that that number can go up and down up or down depending on what the funding's
going to Um so, when we put it in and we tested a $10 million capital projects levy, and the language we used provide additional funding to increase
the district's capital projects levy for safety and security, technology, software program systems which currently comes out of the district's operating budget. And they were told that on a $400,000 home, it would be $16 per month or $192 a year.
So, it's pretty close to where their support level is at. So, if we go to the next slide, uh support 66% uh across the community, uh 26% oppose. You can remember we have that 24% core opposition. Now, people have heard what
the funding's going to be used for, they've heard the cost, and you only get 2% more opposition at the outset. Uh amongst parents, you're right at that 80% threshold that we're looking for. Now, if we go to the next slide, a property tax increase for a bond
referendum, um and this was uh posited as uh for building inclusive and accessible playgrounds at all district elementary schools, which would be available for community dirt use during non-school hours. Uh the nothing goes up to 30%. There's
always a priority uh operating capital projects versus bond. We'll always have more opposition in any school district, but it's still under 35%. And then we have 13% at two, 22% at four, 18 at six, 14
uh at eight or over. So, at the outset, it's about 60 bucks a year is where folks' comfort level is. When we put it into a $32 million bond referendum on the next slide, and they were told on a $400,000 home, it would
be $3 per month or $36 a year, you have 63% support to 27% opposition. Where are folks getting their information? Uh you have a very strong newsletter. And you have a very strong website.
Uh 40% of the community point to the newsletter, 50% of parents. Uh then the website at 15, social media at 13, 12% at word of mouth, and 8% at local newspaper. Uh parents
tip more of the electronic, you see. Email uh almost triple. Email's just been set in for parents since that's where they get information post pandemic. They lived and died with it in '20 and '21 to see if the kids had school the next day. Um but also by
having such strong district communications, you have insulated yourself from what a lot of other school districts have, and that is the explosion of the grapevine. Because local newspapers have disappeared, or they don't cover the school district like they used to. And
especially old guys like me were not going to go to social media, we're not going to go to the website. If we don't have the paper, we're just going to go to the bar and gossip. Um and that has exploded where there are school districts now that the sole sole source of info is the grapevine. So, having strong
communications from the district is a very important thing to have. How do they prefer to receive information? This one, just look at it, print versus electronic. So, the newsletter and newspaper, 50%.
Website, social media, email, uh we're at 36%. You do have an unusual amount of people that 10% say the grapevine. That's more outstate Minnesota mentality. Um that now I really do just like to gossip. Uh
and then parents though much more pronounced on electronic. If we look at individual sources of information, you can see the power. The grapevine is there, and it always will be. Um so, is it a major source, minor source, or not a source at all? The
district newsletter has the most impact as a major source at 44% uh with a total reach of 76% but then informal discussions as a secondary source goes to the top at 81%. Amongst parents,
the district newsletter, teachers are highly relied on by parents. The e-newsletter, the website, but then parents they they bump the informal discussions with friends and neighbors up to second place as a secondary source. Uh
social media is much more highly relied upon, not surprisingly amongst parents, uh and the community social media. It's it's a tie. I mean, we separate out district social media versus Yeah. Basically, if you use one, you use both.
Um there's not some people just looking at community social media. Um but it is interesting, something I'm going to track because I've really noticed it over the past 18 months. Um for a long time, people didn't want to tell somebody they didn't know that they relied on social media
Um there are a lot more people saying, "Yeah, social media is the way I get my information now." It used to be you don't tell somebody you didn't vote, you don't recycle, and you use social media. Uh but there are a lot more people saying, "Yeah, I do use it as a source
of information." And then finally, open enrollment. Is it a positive thing? Is it a negative thing? Or is it mixed? I've asked this question for 32 years, and it's almost always the same.
It's always the plurality fall into it is mixed. Uh typically somewhere between 40 and 45%, you have exactly that. Those that make a decision uh uh tips towards positive. 32% net out positive to 21%
negative. Parents feel more positive about it at 42 to So, I have a couple slides just to wrap things up. Just overall takeaways. The overall atmospherics in the district are counter to the trends in the metro
area where you have more favorable ratings across the board. The ratings of the financial management, the school board, administration as we talked about are all well above the norms. Communication and engagement, which I flagged in 2022,
have increased and are now where they used to be below the norms, are well above the norms. You have the issue, not as strongly as other school districts, on property taxes. It's something to be cognizant of. While they don't blame the district,
the property tax climate remains hostile. And then finally, moving forward, as you talk about bonds and capital projects and all of those things, I some some guidelines to just keep in your
mind. Residents believe housing and student enrollment growth has happened and will continue. However, they're divided on whether the district has sufficient space to meet this growth. So, you're not in a position that you have to talk about
what's happened. The example I always use was Wayzata with the last big bond referendum like 12 years ago. Because of how Wayzata is, people in the south part of the district had no idea the growth in the north. So, they had to do all this communication to show people what
was happening in the north that's creating these needs. You don't have that. What you do have to moving forward is when you do discuss facilities, show them why there's not sufficient space, or where there's not sufficient space, not why there isn't sufficient space.
And while residents believe it's important to have comparable spaces across the districts, once again, they believe a a large majority believe that there are comparable spaces. And then capital projects, the importance of technology
for students follows the trends across the state with fewer residents thinking technology is absolutely essential. So, I mean, if you were to go out and talk about and do a capital projects levy, I would focus on the capital projects piece of it. Um and not so much the
technology piece. You can with the technology piece, especially when it comes to software updates, um infrastructure updates, they're starting to see that people are thinking about this is kind of deferred maintenance. Okay, you
have to fix your roof, you have to up upgrade your technology infrastructure. Uh but when you're talking devices, it is this divide right now because people don't understand how kids are learning. And then I just put down at the bottom kind of the guidelines I gave you, uh
keeping in mind the fund what the funding's used for. Um both of the things you're talking about are well within those ranges. $12 a month and $5 a month. So, I'm happy to answer any questions you have. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions?
Um This was awesome. Thank you so much. Um >> [clears throat] >> I also just really appreciated our community calling out how great our executive cabinet is, Chris Blackburn and Sean Horgan-Orr. Like that's outstanding. Um but I did have one question. So, you mentioned on
one of the slides that lack of funding is a the number one issue statewide, right? >> Yep. But then also people's high taxes is the number one issue statewide. So, how have other districts or how have you
seen other groups kind of square what seem to me to be two like fairly contradictory pieces of information? Like we all want uh like we have no control over what the legislature does, right? So, we uh we can't make them give us more, right?
And so, the only alternative is to go to our local taxpayers who have said, "We don't have enough." But they also want us to keep programming at this level and keep class sizes at this level and pay teachers and, you know, like health insurance is through the roof, and plowing bills have gone up, and Xcel
Energy has gone up, and you know, all of these other sort of market-based conditions that we have to we have to deal with in a market-based way, even though we aren't market-based in terms of what our revenue is. So, how have other districts managed this, or have they not?
Well, some have, some haven't. Um What we what we find, people it this happened during the recession, 2008 to 2011 or so. And now it's happened post pandemic. Um
People understand now more than ever it costs more to provide the same thing. So, there is much higher levels of support to maintain programs, to maintain class sizes,
um than ever before. Um the key is you have to show logical consequences. Um it used to be 30 years ago, it was hard to pass anything in Minnesota with what with
without what I called value adds. People didn't want to pay more to get the same thing. So, what's going to be new? So, we're going to expand CTE, or we're going to what whatever the the the the thing was back then. Now, people are much more and they're making the
decision on because on election day, you want them to walk in the voting booth and make a simple cost-benefit analysis. How much does it cost? What am I getting? And is that worth the value? Um The first hurdle you have to overcome is can they afford it?
That's the first one, and that's why the financial situation has mattered so much over the past But now when you're getting into the property tax realm, And we know from the data it still continues in the state wide. If you ask somebody in Minnesota,
if you have a $100 property tax increase, do you want it to go to the school district, your city, your county? Half of them want it to go to the school district. What I say the problem is the cities and counties have already taken the $100 before school districts have even voted
because they announced it. So you lay out the logical consequences. If this fails, this is what's going to happen is the most effective way in order to overcome that that tension between high taxes and the inadequacy of funding.
Because the narrative that Anoka-Hennepin's using of well, we'll just wait for the legislature to do it is not flying. The led There's just no expectation that that's going to happen. And so have you seen that like I know historically in this district we have
not done like if you don't pass this, we will cut that because it just it it can come off as being kind of threatening, right? Like if you don't if you don't do this, we're going to we'll punish you, right? And that's not really that's not an effective way to govern and it's not
really an effective way to have a collaborative relationship, right, between the board and the community or I always say that, yeah. It's not it it's not it it can be deemed a threat. But it has to be posed as logical consequences because in this day and age people have to know something's at
stake. Okay. In order to overcome this. If they think nothing's going to happen if it fails, they have no incentive. I when they're concerned about taxes, they're concerned about their economics. But it's it's also important and I
always say you need to lay out logical consequences in a generally specific way. And what I mean by that is you don't do what Osseo did 20 long time ago. Um on this operator operating levy, they
came out and said if this fails, we're closing a school in Brooklyn Park. The district's basically like you half Brooklyn Park, half Maple Grove. Well, every single parent Maple Grove skipped to the polls to vote no because they knew that their schools
were not going to be impacted. What they should have said is we will have to consider closing a school and leave it at that. We will have to consider increasing class sizes. Not by one, not by six, those sorts of things. So that people do know. And that's the
way you get away from it's a threat. It's much more threatening to say I'm going to close this school that the district is going to have to consider these sorts of things in order to overcome the budget situation that they have.
Did on the reverse then there's the if we would have known it was our school or my school, we would have gone to the polls or something would have changed. So I feel like you either face it on the front end or on the back end once the results are out. Yeah, but you but you
absolutely if it unfortunately fails, you can't do what Robbinsdale did years ago where they laid out all the logical consequences, it failed, and then they didn't do any of them. >> Then they didn't follow up. They didn't follow up. And so then they have no credibility and they didn't pass
anything I think for 7 or 8 years. Um have you seen statewide like, you know, cuz we we ask in here about would parents prefer you know, closure of school or redrawing boundaries, would parents prefer um you know, is space adequate? Like have
we have you seen anything statewide or metrowide about kind of a both and what how parents or community members feel about like if we're going to um redraw boundaries and we're but we are also going to be
building over here or whatever it is. Like do parents find that more or community members find that more favorable or less favorable or is that just not a consideration at all? >> Make sure I understand So if you're going to close a school but then invest in other buildings? >> Right. For example, like
we need to make comparable space and one of the ways we want to do that is by repurposing a building or by redrawing boundaries or some some other sort of money saving methodology, right? Really interesting you're asking me this question cuz right
now there's a school board in Illinois that I presented to 3 weeks ago that's going to vote on closing a school that was built and it is the comparable space argument um that it's a you still have the core and the superintendent's calling me this
afternoon and still those parents that are attached. But it's a out of 175 parents that send their kids to this school district, 22 have shown up at meeting after meeting because those other parents realize that there are
deficiencies in the building. I mean, heck, that building, like I said, that building was 50 years old in World War II. I've I've never worked with a district where the district was a building was built before 1900. Um so if there are clear comparable issues, where clear
deficiencies, you can absolutely overcome that. I think the true test for for is going to be I'm going to do a survey for Robbinsdale next month. And you closed three schools and now you want a big bond referendum.
And I don't I don't have a feel for that at all. Okay. And then in terms of like um how you know, you said parents are willing to main- or pay or sorry, community members are willing to pay for the
maintenance of current programs. So that means that like if we go out and we ask for additional funding for whatever reason, we're not parents are more likely to say or community members are more likely to say yes if they know we're not doing anything additive or is that just
If there if there are additive things, I'll do the there the three highest level support, when we break out different components when we're looking at operations, number one and yours probably would be highest too because you had the that was
a 10 or 11% that pointed to staff shortages. The number one thing in Minnesota in the last 2 years is funny money to retain and attract teachers and staff. Then it's to maintain programming and maintain class sizes.
There is though quite a push and just this is also been a huge change in public opinion is career tech education. And the expansion of career tech programming. So that absolutely to maintain what you
have and an enhancement for any sort of tech CTE is highly supported. But said if you know if we're talking about to add music to fifth grade, that's going to be much lower. Okay. Yeah, that's that sort of thing. It kind
of depends on what the program is. Um but CTE has wide appeal. Okay. Um And then I guess my last question is for you, Chris. Like if all of our or if a lot of our curriculum delivery is done
technology wise, is that something that is any of that money shiftable into a capital projects levy in terms of paying for it versus the general fund? Yeah. So that's actually nice easy answer. So the answer is yes. So we can
move some of that and we have moved with our again the community was very supportive of our previous ask around capital projects, but we also know we've seen increases in costs and still continued shift to that model. So absolutely we can use it for whether it's instructional software or even like my finance team where you know, we're
get kind of get coming to the end of life of our software as well. We can use it for that non-instructional I'll say the back of the house side software as well. Okay. So if we So if we were then Peter to say to parents who are concerned about technology and I just I literally saw an
article in the paper yesterday about school districts moving away from devices because of backlash and you know, this teacher removed computers from the classroom and their scores went up or whatever. Um but they So for parents or community members who
are concerned about device usage, if we say, well, this is really, you know, part of why you should support the this is to make our teachers to help give our teachers tools, instructional tools, technological tools, they are much more likely or they're more likely to support
it than if we said this is going to put whatever on a kid's iPad. >> Yeah, it's it's kind of when you look at the Okay, you're you're going to free up funds in the operations and it transferred over. It gives you flexibility. So the district can
maintain class sizes and maintain programming and do all these things because it frees up the money. It's it's kind of difficult though to explain to the general public. It's much easier in the metro area than outstate Minnesota because, you know, keep in mind only 20%
of people even know there's a difference between bond referendum funds and operating funds, much less capital projects funds. Um I what I would lean into um with a capital projects levy and like what Roseville did, what Mounds View has
done is you lead into you enhance safety and security systems and improve cyber security to protect students and employee data. Okay. Um the safety and security is insatiable.
And And keep in mind you had over 90% so you provide a safe and secure learning environment. So normally people support money for something they see as a deficiency. That's not the case. Safety and security is an I'll see now. With the um with the amount of questions you asked
around various taxpayer funding mechanisms, right? For a bond or for a capital projects levy, did the was there any ranking of what those would be or were those were voters or community members asked
their opinions about each of these kind of in a vacuum? >> In a vacuum. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, we didn't pull it all together and say if both are on the ballot, what would you do? Yeah. Um at at at at this point in time. It's early. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. This was awesome. Thank you so much. You're
welcome. I have a couple of questions if that's okay. Um again, thank you for your presentation. That was really great. Uh it seems to me that in reading through all of this and spending time with even the original language of the statement, there just is really a communication gap
around enrollment expectations and housing. And like we've just talked about this at other meetings as well. I'm just curious if you, you know, we're looking at like the newsletter as a great way to do this. I just have a hard time believing that without getting that out there and the word of mouth. I don't under you know, do you have tips or
thoughts on how districts have handled that? Kind of get gaps like that. You have to show people. Um and so like like how you if you have overcrowding in the buildings cuz people understand student enrollments higher,
do you have overcrowding? It is visual is the best. I mean, I've seen everything from a district in Wisconsin did a video of the kids sitting in the hallways eating lunch because there's no room in the cafeteria.
Um I mean, all sorts of things that that show and make it real keeping in mind that most people have not been in the buildings. They're not experiencing it. 2/3 of the community doesn't have kids so the kids aren't coming home saying
I've got 45 kids in the class. Um whatever you can do that's kind of the Missouri show me is the best way to because for the persuadable people, we know it's important to them. The comparable spaces, the sufficiency of
space. All you have to do is show them the results of the growth in the district and the growth of student enrollment and what it's done to the And Peter, I think Elizabeth and I had this question. It really is the connection between seeing houses go up
and there being more kids. Yeah. And what we're not because the national trend with the demographics, it's down. And so despite seeing new developments come up, it's that the visual piece. I agree the visual, but the visual is houses are going up and that's what our people are seeing as they drive around our
community. Therefore, there's the oh, they must be growing in numbers and we're staying pretty stagnant if not dipping a little. >> Yeah. Yeah, and that's why it's not like why is that it's typical, too? 12 13 years ago when they did that bond referendum, all you had to do was do a video driving
by all the developments and everybody it was going to What was the number Hazel used to use? 2.2 kids for every house or something. And now it's like one 1.4 or something like that. So it has changed that um perception absolutely. But it is very
much the visual. And they they responded in the survey that they were unsure if school buildings were crowded or not crowded. Like there was a pretty high percentage of people who just really didn't know, especially the general community. So that was just really interesting. Uh the other question I had for you and this you may not be able to answer was you
had kind of mentioned and obviously all of us can tell that from January till now, things have already changed financially for people in their calculations. Are there particular barometers at which we may not be able to extrapolate that this data is super useful anymore that you would watch for
in like the economy or places just to kind of give us a sense of what we would look out for? Yeah, I mean it it yeah. It It feels like 2026 I'm back in public. They used to say public opinion is was glacial. It changed every 18 to
24 months unless something really major happened and then the pandemic happened and it was changing every 18 to 24 hours. And it it felt like we got to 18 to 24 weeks. But 2026 really has kind of gone back to that. Um you know,
the districts in Wisconsin, who would have known that the ultimatum for Iran was 7:00 p.m. when the polls closed the night they went to the polls. I I mean, it those sorts of things. It's the It's the price of gas
is the number one thing. Um and then the huge swings on the stock market. And now a 1,200 point drop on a 48,000 dollars or $48,000 stock market is very different than a 1,200 point drop back
in 2008 where that was 10% or 15%. Um but I mean, I would say you know, the threshold stock market goes down 20 25% net over the course. Gas gets to five or six bucks a gallon. Um it's it's that financial it's the
turning point and I'll be able to see it in the data um on that financially stressed piece because that question is asking folks on their expenses and their income and how they're matching up. Um so there's not like you can't say it's always is always
important. It's a snapshot in time. That's why I did the caveat. This was in January where we had all the other issues going on in January and now now we have this. I appreciate you hearing the question since you had to Thank you. You are welcome. All right,
thanks. Okay, we're moving on to 5.2 and that is our nutrition services budget and that will be presented or yeah, well introduced so by Superintendent Julie Nielsen. Good evening. Thank you so much for
having us tonight. I'm Carrie Botnen, the nutrition service supervisor and this is Bobby Jo Gummans, the assistant director of nutrition services. Tonight we're going to go over some of the highlights of nutrition services over this past school year. We're also going to talk about some of the participation
rates and then Bobby's going to talk a little bit about the financial and budget aspects. As far as staffing goes, staffing has been extremely strong in nutrition services this past school year and that's largely in part to our dedicated
employees who are showing up each and every day. We are so thankful for those individuals. We have some USDA and dietary guidelines that we are working towards. We have been making some gradual changes when it comes to reducing sugar added sugars and
sodium in food. Um those have to be in place by the fall of 2027 and we have been making those changes for about the last year and a half or so. We would very much be on track to hit that goal by the time that it is required. Um what you're going to
see especially in breakfast items is that we're moving towards more protein and savory based items. Think breakfast sandwiches, um breakfast pizza, egg patties, that type of thing versus the traditional sweet items that we've had previously. There will still be a little
bit of that um but we're definitely making a big jump with that. Um Spotlight on produce is something very fun that we are doing this year. So as far as um unique produce options go, we've
always had pretty basic standard options and this year we decided that we were going to introduce a literacy element into the cafeteria by highlighting different unique products and the students are able to test out those fruits and vegetables. Some of the options that we've had this
year um mangoes, plantains, aronia berry which is like a blueberry bush type plant. Um also we've had pink pineapple. Um rainbow carrots, that type of thing. And
so the student is able to look at this literacy piece, read about it, see the origin, um what it tastes like and then try something unique that they might not get every single day when they go to the grocery store. So it's pretty cool. We are still doing our theme days which
are really fun. Border battles seems to be the favorite amongst our staff and the students. Um they participate in wearing and you can see in the photos they're wearing their Packers and Vikings colors. We try to encourage students to participate in that as well. The salad bars are all
decked out in purple, yellow, green. Um it's very fun. Last Thursday we did our Twins home opener. Same idea and then we were serving hot dogs and cheeseburgers. It's really a fun way to engage and get
the students involved in the cafeteria. Food rescue program is something that we are extremely proud of in nutrition services. We started this at the beginning of last school year and what it is is a way for us to have students when they take food items and they don't
eat those food items, they are able to donate those on a collection cart. And all of that food is being brought to Basic Needs Food Market and we are serving about We did I think we did 46,000 pounds of food that was donated last school year which is equivalent to
a the amount that would fit into a semi truck. So, we are extremely proud that we're able to give back to our community in that regard. Uh unfortunately, we're not able to do share carts in our school district due to the sheer amount of allergen concern that we have. So, to keep our kiddos safe but still give back
to the community and to keep food out of the landfill, this is a great option. We are administering a number of different programs this school year. The most common that you're going to hear is our national school breakfast and lunch program. That's our daily breakfast and lunch that we're serving each day. We
are also going to be running the national school breakfast and lunch program for targeted services in our summer school sites this year. We will be having catering and food at our Kids Club sites as well. And then for any families who qualify, we will
still have our summer EBT available for those families, which we call Sunbox. Um which is a great opportunity for those who are in need and want to participate when we do not have program running in school. What you see here is the federal reimbursement rates. So, as you can see,
it's been going up a little bit each year. We will not know the 2027 rates until the end of June or the beginning of July. Um we are estimating that it will be about 5 cents for breakfast of an increase and probably about 10 cents for lunch. Um something
to point out about this is this is the federal rate. We also receive reimbursement through the state of Minnesota. And what that means is what isn't covered by the federal government, the state is filling in the gaps for us for the rest of that. So, we are getting
that this year. No promises on what's going to happen in the future, but we um really suggest people participate in the programming this year. It's also extremely important that families are still filling out their application for educational benefits. We
receive additional funding through the federal government when families do fill that out. So, it's really important for our department. As well as there are all sorts of cool um benefits that families receive besides free and reduced meals. Um they can get different things like
possibly waivers on athletic fees, um testing could be discounted, different things like that. So, it's really important for families to explore and apply if they can. On the next couple slides, I'm going to go over our participation amounts or our
participation for the district. So, what we are seeing for breakfast is that it has been relatively steady, which we are extremely proud of. On the blue line is showing the 2026 numbers and the green is showing the 2025.
We are averaging about 4,139 breakfast per day, which is great. And we are projecting a little bit more than that, 4,150 per day for this coming school year. Our lunch participation is also
extremely steady. We again, blue line this year, green line is last year. We are serving 13,677 meals per day, which is huge. You can see when meals became free over the last 2 years, we had a a big jump in the
amount of participation and we feel like we have really captured a lot of those students and they've stuck with it over the last few years. Um which really shows how important school meals are or they're participating and it um those meals really matter to those students.
Our average daily a la carte, it's still hanging in there and going strong in that blue line. We've noticed a little bit of a decrease from last year. I want to believe that that's partially to do with maybe the state of the economy, um but we are still really proud of these numbers. We're bringing in $10,367
per day. And we're expecting to bring in about the same, 10,400 per day next year. Um we are being very cautious about making sure that we are finding nutritious options, but also things that are really fun for the kids. And we're getting good feedback that they're enjoying those options.
I'm going to pass the mic along to Bobby for her to share some of the financials. Thank you. My turn. All right. So, we're going to go into our revenue summary here. So, uh with the upcoming next school year, like Carrie said, we are anticipating a
little uptick in revenue and a lot of that um number has to do with that 5 cents for breakfast, 10 cents for lunch. Um and so that goes along with our lunch. We do anticipate maybe a little bit of an uptick in participation. We're
kind of hoping a little bit, especially at the high school levels. So, we are very thrilled to finally have kitchens that can service our kids and the amount of students coming through there. Uh so, we're doing a new kind of grab and go um
option now in all three of our high schools. So, we're hoping to have a lot of things like uh hummus boxes or um sandwiches, real quick, easy to grab things that they can grab and go. And so hopefully we'll speed up some
lines, which is usually why high school kids do not eat with us, as you know. Uh the lines are very, very long. And um it's it's hard to service kids through those. But we're very excited. We've done a couple um well, two at Park and the kitchen is almost three times the
size, which is going to be amazing. Um then a la carte, like she said, it'll stay the same as far as the revenue, um pretty close. We're not really adding any new options in. Um it's kind of status quo. Again, we encourage kids to
be consuming the reimbursable meal over some of the a la carte items. But a la carte can be handy sometimes, especially with after-school um activities. I know my child is definitely one of those that will grab a la carte and then have it after school
um for practice. Uh and then the other {slash} interest, what that involves or entails is our Kids Club. So, when we cater over the summer and we also do snacks during the school year for them. Um catering. So, this is something I kind of want to
mention. We're moving towards uh electronic catering requests versus our paper and pencil. Um which will also help kind of build that business a little bit. Um make it more user-friendly, uh clear pricing. So, a
lot more ease it's easier um from the digital piece. So, overall, our revenue will be $16,392,756. As far as expenditures go, we will see an uptick in salaries. So, this year our staff um we're up for negotiation on our
contract. So, uh Wendy was planning on about a 3 and 1/2% raise, but we'll see where that comes in. Um the unknown. So, hopefully we'll have that settled by July. Uh fringe benefits, we're guessing it'll be around 10% increase there.
Purchase services, the majority of this number is coming from repairs and maintenance, so on equipment. Uh so, to kind of give you some background, uh like 2 years ago we spent maybe about 180 grand on repairs and maintenance. We've been as high as $450,000.
Right now we're sitting around that 370. Um just for repair and maintenance. Things break all the time. Unfortunately. And then also in that is credit card fees. So, we pay the credit card fees for all families who use School Cafe. And that has been existence since the
beginning. And that is roughly about $40,000 of that number. And we will continue to do so as well. And then we do towel service. So, we have also um through Cintas. So, we do towel service. They launder them as well
as our hot pads, which we just increased there. Food and supplies will stay pretty steady as um you can tell with our participation in our little graphs. We're not expecting a huge jump, so we won't have a huge jump in food costs increase. Um but there is
I mean, we all know this in the grocery store. We're seeing the increase. And when I was doing research, it was about 1.7 to 2 and 1/2% uh where we might be looki- looking at for next year. Um equipment, we have dropped or lowered
because we are almost to the end of our oven. Uh so, last year you heard us talk about our ovens and all those fun things. We are almost at the end of our oven replacement schedule. Um so, everyone will have updated ovens because our old ones are not supported. Once
they break, they're gone. They're breaking. So, um we've also kept some of the older ovens as a spare, which I think has been a miracle in some of our buildings cuz we've had ovens crash and thank goodness we kept that other one in there business goes as usual.
So, equipment will be decreasing and we're not anticipating any huge projects like walk-in coolers or freezers that are, you know, around 250 grand. So, um we're lowering that. Other is our kitchen licenses. Um chargebacks, we're
looking at 1.3 million or so. So, what's included in that number is um para salaries, so for lunch. Um that that piece. It is also things like So, usually with chargebacks, we had
8.7% last year. Uh this year we budgeted 10% and just recently we got information it went to 11.7%. So, that's a state-driven number that we get. Um and unfortunately, it wasn't available at the time we created
this, but um looking at that, that could also cost us another 120 grand on that number of charge backs. So, our expenses will come in a little more expensive than that. And usually the average, so in 2008, the
rate and direct rate was 11.02% average in the last 5 years is 11.08%. So, we're seeing it's a little higher this year than we anticipated. So, the detailed financial summary we have here, so we
have our revenue minus our expenses. We are looking at a projected fund balance increase for next year of 160 grand, but again, that 120 will factor in here. So again, I apologize for not having that updated, but that was new news. So, our projected fund balance total
will be $6,004,347. And that equates to about 37% fund balance. So, we have been increasing, as you can see with the graph. But in the future, we're really looking at it's either going to maintain or we're going to see
more of deficit spending. So, I don't know if a lot of you know, but when we have a higher fund balance like this, usually the state will allow you to have 3 months of an expenditure operating budget. But they have made an
exemption, so now it's up to 6 months at this point. So, we are well under that 6 months of the expenditure operating expenditures. Um, so right now we really can just maintain, we're okay. But if they change that back to 3%
and we're sitting at about 3 and 1/2, we will have to have a plan with the state for a spend down for our fund balance. So, kind of explain that. But we are very conservative and very cautious on what
we spend and how we spend our money. We do equipment, we're replacing it as we need it. For example, we have a 1981 refrigerator in our kitchen over there that we're going to have to let go and buy something new that died this week. So,
we are replacing things as it breaks because that's our investment in the future, too. So, we have to be very cautious in about the money we spend. And also, if free meals go away, that could be a problem. So, we will not we will not see the uptake or
even the level budget. That will for sure be deficit spending if we move back to paid status. So, we just got to be very cautious and again, things are expensive. If a walk-in cooler freezer goes down, it's easy to 250 grand easily. So,
but also on top of this, we are with some of our construction we are chipping in some money towards Pine Hill, for example. Right now, that is a one-line system, so it's one cash register. We know that that building is has imploded.
So, we are moving to helping out taking out some walls in there, expanding the kitchen, and also doing two serving lines, two cashiers to get those kids out through the line much faster. So, we'll be helping out with some expenses there. And then Eastridge, we're putting
in a Baxter oven like the other kitchens have. So, every middle school has this oven and it's really great for baking purposes. So, you can fit a an entire rolling rack in there of what, 20 plus sheet pans and make cookies galore instead of doing one at a time,
10 pans at a time. So, that will save and be way more efficient for our staff as they bake in those buildings. And that roughly is about $52,000 for just that. So, we will be chipping in for that as well.
But the bottom line is we just want to be good stewards of our money and just, you know, making sure that we are investing in our kitchens, making it more efficient operationally and getting these kids through the line and being able to make the foods that we should be able to make.
Um, so on to our detailed summary again, I think I just want to close out with just thanking the community more than anything just with passing the bond and providing this us the opportunity to expand our kitchens for our kids. They
really deserve it because these 1970s kitchens are not supporting the volume of kids we have and not even close. And so, when we look at how we're operating there, it's it's just not doable with the modern-day menus and things we need to pull off.
So, wait, from the bottom of our hearts, it is so amazing to have that support and I think we'll have a lot of happy kids next year. Any questions? Perfect, thank you. Does anyone have any questions? Yeah, go ahead. So, first of all, I just want to
say thank you and I'm really excited about that spotlight on produce. Mhm. It's very exciting for kids to try don't normally have at home. And I'm so glad there's finally that rescue program. I know it's been going on for a little while now, but I know over COVID there was so much
food that got thrown away. Very true. I'm wondering, are we back to the plastic like trays and stuff or are we still using the disposables? >> Very good question. We have moved for the majority, so all middle schools were
not on plastic trays, but now they are. So, we've moved towards that, which is great cuz again, we don't want it's much easier for kids to hold the trays, let's be honest, and it's just it fits nicer. And I think the majority of our elementary's are They're there. Yep. High schools will
probably never go to plastic trays just because of the volume of trays we do. And it is very labor-intensive and then we've had a lot of kids throw them away in our past history. And they're like $6 a pop, so I mean, we
literally spent over 3 grand one year on one school just replacing things. So, we're very cautious, but if people can do it, we are encouraging that. And with our strong staffing, it has moved that direction. So, we're not having this understaffed shortage that
like we had in the past, which is so good. So, we're moving that direction, but I can safely say K through 8 is is there. The majority are washing trays. Which is really great. Elizabeth? I just had one question. With the
changing USDA guidelines and kind of changing your breakfast menu and I'm sure other changes that are coming because of that. I saw whole milk was on your presentation. I was just curious if the costs and reimbursements coming from federal and state dollars are covering those changes or if that feels more
expensive than maybe where you were before. I mean, if it's more nutritious, great, but I was just curious where that was financially. I think as we add more protein, it's getting more expensive for sure. And then when we look at breakfast sandwiches, we just did a ton of taste
testing and homemade is kind of the way to go. So, I think it is a little more expensive, but we're willing to take that on and we we can certainly afford that piece. We just want better quality. We don't want it in IW packaging and plastic and heating it up and we want
the real thing. So, if you're getting a breakfast sandwich, it's a breakfast sandwich. Um, Of course. Um, thank you for this. I did have one question for first well, I guess I can ask you guys.
When you had come last year, Bobby Jo, you had mentioned that you were moving to a new food supplier Yeah. with um, and you were going to have some new menu items. And so, how have how have those one, how is it working with the new
supplier? And then secondly, how have the new items like I remember the pickle pizza. >> Yeah. How have those gone over? Yes. Well, they've been they were going strong, but now it's kind of like idled a little bit, but we have been so thrilled with IFD, our new vendor. It
has been amazing. They are also the ones that are helping with that spotlight on produce. Like there's so many positive things. They listen, they bring things in, they um, I mean, the when we started off is a little bumpy, but they quickly rebounded within a month. So, where our other
supplier it could have been the whole year. I mean, they are so so good. But we have added new items, so we've done a Philly cheesesteak now. So, like if you have ever been to Grand Casino Arena, it's very much so like that. Only you're not paying $18.
So, you have that. We have done French dips with a very high-quality meat that is so good with the au jus. I don't we just we're in the process of testing Oh, the turkey barbacoa was also another favorite at Youth Ambassadors. So,
bringing in that Chipotle experience in for the kids because let's face it, with kids we got to we got to kind of model after some of those fast food restaurants that they like, but also the healthier versions. So, sorry, it's whole grain buns >> [laughter] >> and that not so yummy things. But
and also we're going to be taste testing with our meetings here at the DSC and transportation department some new like a new teriyaki, but a homemade teriyaki bowl. We're going to test out um, I'll pass it to you. >> al pastor chicken and with brown rice
and um, Our new smoothies that we introduced. And hummus, like a hummus box. So, like for our vegetarian students. So, trying to expand that, too, for our grab and go area cuz that's one thing that I think we could do a little more with our
vegetarian kids. Yeah. You had mentioned last year that like they were We're to hold their prices steady. Was it like 2 months? 6 months? Yes. And so we're obviously past that time now. So have we seen a lot of inflationary pressure with the food
service? No, not really. No. So it's been pretty steady. So as I've been signing the bills, they're pretty consistent. Yeah. Fantastic. Which has been great. So yes. Um and then Chris, I'm guessing you can answer this. For the chargebacks like when Bobby Joe
was mentioning that the chargeback percentages have varied and have been a lot more than they than we had anticipated and that they are state driven. Can you talk a little bit about how those are calculated and what kind of input we have or districts have into what the chargeback percentage
may end up being? Absolutely. So um we actually have to wait until the state does the calculation. They do an indirect cost rate. So similar um I used to work on programs that had for like cities and counties where they'd have you you can do your own indirect cost rate. So in essence the Department of Education does an indirect cost rate. So
there's a restricted rate that we utilize on like Title 1 programs, for example. Um for the food service fund, it's actually the unrestricted rate. And so it's really based on the kind of look at historical um expenditures, but then they have some modifications to that. And then they
kind of compare and they say, "Okay, what is this rate that should be charged?" Looking specifically for like they take out equipment purchases and things. But then they do um like I think of the things that are indirect rate. So like finance team, payroll team, HR, um
a lot of those that are nonprofit uh food service fund, right? So that we also don't have separate meters for um utilities, custodial, the cleaning and things. So it really tries to encompass all of that. Um so there's specific kind of codes and I could talk probably codes with Sammy and maybe Elizabeth as well
and probably some others here, but um I won't nerd out quite that bad, but there is definitely this list that we can go through and kind of say, "Where should that be?" And I know different years I've tried to project that and we finally kind of gave up and said, "Well, we'll just wait till it comes out." Um because they've started coming out earlier, too, because it really is what
we have tracked it though for now uh 12 years since I've been here and I think I went back probably 10 5 years um to pull those rates so we could really we have a graph kind of that we look at and usually you can see like this up and then it goes down and then it comes back you know works a couple years up and then it comes down. And what we've seen is that the downs haven't been as
significant, which tells me two things. The state has kind of at least got a little more consistent with what they're seeing um reporting for expenditures to be able to calc that. But we definitely I know that's been the challenge um is what rate should that be? You know, we had internal discussions, should we cap
that rate for that chargeback piece as well? Um because it certainly comes back just directly to general fund to offset those costs, too. And we do additionally chargeback for that 50% of the elementary lunch recess pairs, right? So that time that they're in the lunch room helping kids with milks and you know,
wiping off tables and kind of just helping helping the chaos maybe um in elementary school in the cafeteria. So So are those lunch recess pairs is that in uh in in addition to what the state charges? Okay, so Yep. So there's a
separate chargeback on those and then the indirect rate I should point out too is only when we do that math for the like we have to take out food. So on the expenditure list that when we do apply that rate to food service, we actually have to take out a number of things. Contracts now up to $50,000 the first
50,000 we have to take out of that cost um because the federal um there's guidance with or 25,000 might have might be 25. Um that's why as I said I was like, "Ew." Because they think that um they're what they would say is the first 25,000 like there's not additional cost like say for
the purchasing part of finance team to incur if there's more than 25,000, right? So if they have 50,000 from a specific vendor, they're like, "Well, the 20 first 25 is really where that kind of cost indirect piece is in." Um It's the same cost to cut a check for 25
as it is correct. Exactly. So they charge you on that first 25 so we can incorporate that. Anything above we have to take out food costs. They say that doesn't count because that's really a direct only there. Like that's not indirect that. So what is the I'll say the cost basis that we can apply that indirect rate to. They take out a number
of things including equipment is probably the other big one. Um and then lastly you had mentioned that so we're at 37% fund balance, right? And our and our guideline is I mean it's 20 points higher than what our district guideline is, right?
Um and that the state will allow us to keep around 25%, right? If that's if that that's been the historical standard, right? Um And so for spending down that 12% then like what kind of I guess what kind of timing does the state give you for that?
And then what are the implications if we don't have an outlet for that cash? So I would say two things with that that um certainly that we've been appreciative of that 6% I think or the 6 months they call it net cash resource. So again kind of a
modified basis that they do it on. The 37% I would point out is 16.6 is the general fund fund balance percentage. Food service since it has to be a nonprofit um and kind of self-sustaining fund, so you know, we've always appreciated that um that they are able to there's certain
like that indirect rate um but particularly the lunch recess pairs that we can only charge back if that is a positive. And so if they would ever go deficit, we actually can't. So that would be one of the first elimination if they would ever too far. Um you know, kind of there's always that uncertainty around what meals are we going to do? Are we going to continue with free meals
or not? And so we always want to be mindful of that. To that end then that 6 months the plan I don't know if they necessarily give you a whole time frame. I would say that they you know, it's not you have 1 year to do it or 6 months to do it, but I think they definitely want to timing to that and then what that is going to do.
There's a list of items that are um kind of they come up with you can use it anything specific to the operation of food service fund. So if they needed another oven, we could certainly buy that or to upgrade. Maybe we don't want to wait from 1981. At least it wasn't 1897 building, but um you know, we certainly want to be
mindful of maybe we should look at that and come up with do we need to move up that cycle a little bit, right? So we could say, "Hey, we have an opportunity here then if they're going to reduce that, we could maybe start you know, um replacing that or there you know, staffing's been good. So that's very helpful. Whereas some years maybe there
was some need to come up to market rates on there. But so we'd certainly take a look at that. And are we staffed at the appropriate levels? We can certainly invest in our people and equipment. Um there's a number of other things, but they would give you that list and we would say, "Okay, what are those?" And we know too the reality is like when they were talking about what a walk-in
cooler or some of those things cost, it is extremely expensive. And so we would take a look at all of that and say, "Where is opportunity here and where what can we spend?" Maybe it's just moving up a timeline a little bit to spend out some of that cash. And lastly, you are always welcome to bring samples.
Um I'm not I'm not going to lie, but when you're like, "Oh, this barbacoa." I mean [clears throat] Sam and I are always here for you. I need to do it a night that for sure we're not speaking cuz I thought about this I thought about this yesterday walking out and I'm like, "I know
they're going to ask." >> [laughter] >> Yes, yes. I might suggest C fact. >> Yeah. Oh, perfect. Okay, there we go. I do eat like a toddler so I needs like Italian dunkers or something because We've got you. >> my palate is like that of a toddler's.
So >> [laughter] >> You're not alone. Not if it's green. Okay, thank you very much. >> Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to 6.0 and that is our information items. We also have two of those this evening and the first one
is the naming of the transition program and that will be introduced by Megan Hickey, director executive director of student support services. Good evening, Superintendent Neilson, school board members, community members um in the room and online. We are so
excited to be here tonight to share some information with you related to our program supporting our 18- to 22-year-old students with disabilities. So why are we doing this? As you all know, starting this fall, we are going to have a fantastic new building for our
students. It is located on the corner of 70th or 80th? 70th. Okay, I was like all of a sudden I was questioning myself. 70th and Jamaica and if you haven't driven it by, please do. It's going up every single day um and it's just going to be the most beautiful, wonderful,
fantastic space supporting these learners. Um we currently have two program sites, the Next Step site and the Pathway site that are going to be coming together in a new building and our staff has worked through a process to come up with the new name. I'm super
excited tonight to be able to be joined by our program administrator Nikki Lock who's going to be sharing a little bit more about what that process is and share um our recommendation with you all. Thank you, Dr. Hickey. School board members members, I am happy to be here
tonight to share about the process we've engaged in to bring a recommendation for the new name for our program. In the fall of 2024, the Next Step and Pathways staff joined with the district leadership to plan and design the construction of our new program
building. Renaming our program with the opening of the new building was part of the old of the overall plan from the earliest days. In spring of 2025, a steering committee was formed of staff members from both locations representing licensed and
non-licensed staff. Student Support Services and Communication Department leadership joined us to engage in the process of renaming our program. The process was grounded in our program's strengths, the work that we do on behalf of our students and families, and our identity
when the two programs come together in one space next year. Guided by the communication department, we established a list of unacceptable names. We knew that we knew the program would not be named after a person. We agreed that we would not continue with the names of Next Step and
Pathways, as those names have become unique to the students they serve, and once together will be a united program. We would not use words like center, academy, or transition, but instead plain and inclusive language.
In all staff professional development day in October, generated list of nearly 75 ideas that were grouped into themes, and then reworked and discussed over the course of the school year. Over time, the steering committee worked the list down to four final names that
all agreed were acceptable. To support the final ranked choice vote, the communications department created mood boards and facilitated a final discussion of each of the four remaining names. The steering committee members participated in a ranked choice vote,
and the result is the name that has been shared with the executive cabinet, and that we are bringing to you as a recommendation for the new program name. To support our recommendation, we're sharing the mood board that was prepared to define and communicate the aesthetic
direction of our recommended name of the SoWashCo Headwaters Life Skills Program. This name has a connection to our land and region, which is between two rivers. This contains both our pride in living and learning in this part of Minnesota,
and our excitement that our new program has green space, gardens, and outdoor learning spaces. The connection to nature felt very authentic to our new building. The imagery and ideas related to this name are ones of growth,
adaptability, and unique paths and paces. All ways in which we would describe the varied educational paths we develop for our students as they prepare for life beyond graduation. We would be very excited for our united
school student community to come together in our new building as a SoWashCo Headwaters Life Skills Program, a place where great things begin. So, we're coming together tonight to share this with you and this what recommendation. You can hear Nikki's
enthusiasm not only for this program, but for this name. So, what we would be asking for all of you is to get any feedback or thoughts that you have, and then we would be bringing it to a business meeting at the end of the month um in order to make that recommendation. After that, we would be looking at
coming together with our steering committee to create our logo and our branding and other materials that would support our program and our new identity. We'll include our students and our staff in that process so that we can make sure to include their thoughts and their voice in that. Um we are so
excited about this opportunity to get our logo and our branding and our colors reflecting all of those fantastic things that we'll be able to offer our students as we open up in the fall of 2026. Does anyone have any questions? Thank you. Any questions?
Or comments? Okay. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to 6.2, and that is the first reading of proposed policy changes, and that will be presented by Julie Nielsen, superintendent. Thank you. Um this evening I am bringing forth to the board uh six policies all
in the 500 series. Um starting with policy 509, enrollment of non-resident students. Um there are uh MSBA and legal updates. And just to clarify, uh in the policy it is actually the statute around open enrollment, and then presented in
October of 2025 was our actual um procedure or process that we use in terms of implementation. So, when we look at the actual statute to our process, it's slightly different. to acknowledge that because that was just recently presented. 510.1, 1 athletic and activity participation, there were
no suggested changes there. Athletic and activity scholarship eligibility, no suggested changes for that policy. And in 510.3, um athletic and activity fee schedules, you're going to see some fee changes. Um I think after talking with one of our athletic activity directors just today,
as I got a couple of questions, um I was asked the question, do those athletic and activity fees actually cover the cost of of running those programs? And I think we probably all know the answer is no. Um and as we talked about just looking at those, we think the increases are very
nominal now in terms of the increases, and more than likely as we move forward and we take a look at a budget adjustments and perhaps enhancements, this would be another area that we would look look toward. So again, that was 510.3 athletic and activity fee schedules that do reflect some fee
changes. 510.4 athletic and activity field trips, there were no changes there. And finally, 512 school sponsored student publication activities, there was an update to the general statement and grammatical changes. So, with that, I am asking if there are any questions.
Any questions or comments? Okay. Seeing none. Thank you. Oh, shoot. Do we have any Okay. I didn't miss it. Okay. Okay, we'll move on to 7.0 reports and comments, and Julie first.
I just want to remind the group that uh when Peter was sharing and he talked about the survey and he said it took it took us 12 months to administer each survey. I hope you were reading the slide because it was 12 minutes was the average time, not 12 months. I thought, boy, that is a daunting task. Um but
hopefully board members found the information uh really interesting and really valuable, and our staff out in the audience as well. And I think as we uh executive cabinet members around the table, this was the third time we heard the presentation. I think we were almost ready to give it. Not quite, because I think we always learn something, but it
does does mark a time in South Washington County Schools where we were stable. And I think when Peter talked to us as an executive cabinet, it is easy to look at other districts that are struggling, who are in statutory operating debt, um changing boundaries, perhaps closing schools. Um and in these
last 5 years, we really haven't done that. Um but in talking with the board members, um we know that that is the next 5 years in South Washington County Schools. We will have some big emotional things to take care of. We know um like other districts, the funding isn't keeping pace, and we've done all we can
to contain that. Um but we will have some big work, and I think for the board to know and staff and community to know that we will be using the information from the survey as we move forward. And knowing that uh Peter gives that survey twice a year to various organization organizations, we'll be also looking at
the updates from any information. In terms of upcoming events, just to remind um the board uh and anyone viewing that we have our multi- multicultural event tomorrow night at Woodbury High School, where there'll be songs, dance, arts, crafts, games, and food trucks from 5:00
to 8:00. Always a really, really great time and a good way to connect with community. And then finally, April 25th at Park High School, we will be um hosting the Cottage Grove Community Showcase. Similar to the Woodbury Expo, which was last week, and uh with our city of Cottage Grove, that will be held
from 10:00 to 2:00, and again at Park High School. Thank you. Thank you, Julie. Does any Do any board members have any um upcoming events for any of their committees? Okay. Seeing none, 8.0 is our future
meeting dates. April 23rd, 2026 is a school board business meeting here at the District Service Center at 6:00 p.m. Then May 7th is a school board workshop meeting here at the District Service Center at 6:00 p.m. And 9.0, we are adjourned.