Heat. Heat. At 6 PM 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 Midawakatan Dakota people. Vakatan means dwellers of the spirit lake. First item on our agenda is roll call. Dana
>> Elizabeth Elizabeth Bachmann Ekberg. >> Louise Hines. Ryan Clark >> here. >> Melinda Doss. Simei Pnik is absent. Sharon Vaner is absent. TA Alvaringa >> here. >> Andrew Chastine >> here. >> Matilda Samuel >> here. Katie Schwarz >> here. 2.0 pledge of allegiance. Please
stand. 3.0 is approval of our agenda. Can I get a motion to approve? So moved. Okay. Moved by Melinda. Second. >> Second >> by Ryan. All those in favor?
>> Any opposed? Motion passes. 4.0 is student board representative reports and that will be introduced by superintendent Julie Nielson. >> How lucky are we that school is out of session and our three student board reps still wanted to come back. So what I
promised them depending upon the length of the meeting is that after I get done with my guiding change do document they could depart and summer could they could be on their way to summer. So they're going to be here for a portion of the meeting. Um, but I thought we would start tonight out out by highlighting um, Miss Matilda. Um, as she really is
not a student in South Washington County schools anymore, but we'll own her. Um, as she is now an alumni and graduated. So, of our three students, Matilda is our graduating senior. So, Matilda's going to share just a little bit about graduation. Then we'll have Andrew talk about the end of the year wrap-up and
uh, Tea will share some of the things that are keeping her busy over. So, Matilda, the microphone is yours. Okay, so graduation for Woodbury was on Saturday at 7 and we're a little bit worried about like the weather and everything, but it only it slightly
sprinkled, but it was actually pretty good because there's double rainbow after. So, it was >> so that was good. Um, I counted the drops. It was 100. And I also want you to know that you had the back to you had the back to the dark clouds. I saw them rolling in and I was doing the same
thing. Sun clouds, sun clouds. I'm like, we are going to get wet. were going to get wet and then it was a rainbow. So, >> yeah, it was very it turned out well I feel like and yeah, the ceremony itself it went really well in my opinion. I think we had a great speakers. We had a lot of speakers and it was still it all went well and everything. And then
afterwards there's a senior all night party for those who are able to attend. I did and I had a pretty good time. It was from 10:30 to 5:00 a.m. So, it's a, you know, kind of late but, you know, all night so it makes sense. >> Later early. >> Yeah, late or early. Either or. It was a
good time. There's a lot of food. There's a lot of games and everything. And I feel like it was a good like partying experience for seniors. So, yeah. >> And so, I hear about the allnight senior party. Is it just all the seniors come? Moms and dads and people are volunteering. You're doing games and
activities. >> Yeah. It's pretty much that whoever wants to volunteer, parent volunteers can, and it's a little bit expensive, but there's like a form you can fill out if you want a lower price and everything. So, I feel like it's a good experience. Fabulous. Thank you, Andrew.
>> Make sure I don't talk too loud into this. Um, so I mainly just have two main things to share. One being about band stuff, hence the reason why I've missed the last two or three meetings, I think. Um, of course, every concert has to be on a Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. So,
but you know, uh, symphonic band and jazz band wrapped up at a month ago and marching band started up and it's been a pretty busy year this year. We have a lot of new people and we have a very interesting show, I'll be honest. But
got a few competitions this year. I think it's going to go well. And then um another thing I want to add is that for next year when me and TA return, I plan on me and TA both plan on adding in a student concern line so that way if they
have any issues, we can bring it forth to our administration and if we get permission, we can bring it towards to you guys. >> That's really all all I have to share. Thank you. >> Fabulous. Thank you, Andrew. TA want to talk about your summer because she's already up and running. [laughter] Mine's a little more low-key than
Andrews, but um summer is a time where I transition from academics to sports. I play two sports. I play soccer and basketball. Um so that's kind of the bulk of my summer is practicing my sports, which I honestly don't mind. I love playing sports. Um and I'm really just looking forward to my senior season
this year and being a leader and a role model to the younger girls. Um, I probably will get emotional because sports is like half of my life. But, um, yeah, I'm really looking forward to my sports. And with that, my coaches really do emphasize um, leadership and connections with one another and giving
back to the community. So, we do have youth camps that we volunteer at for both soccer and basketball. And it's really just a great experience. It's a great opportunity for the girls to give back to the community and make connections with the younger kids um and grow as role model role models and
leaders. Um so yeah, I'm really looking forward to it and yeah, that's what I'll be doing this summer. >> And I think when we were online together, she was already up and running and off to a practice that morning. So, um what we would like to do though, Matilda, is we would like to present you
with a book. And believe it or not, you have all of our autographs. So, when we're famous, you have our autographs, and we hope that if you get famous, you don't forget us here in South Washington County Schools. Um, but what I would say to all three of you, this is our first year back. Having student
representatives with us, and having students at the table is so value added. Um, you know, we get the opportunity to have students down here for our ambassador, but just having um students at the table. uh your perspective sometimes your light-heartedness uh what
you value how you value it your priorities all help to give us that same perspective and so we are just so grateful for taking the time because we know that in your schedules you're all really busy but I want you to know that you really have some friends for life um
and I say that because like Tay I know that Simmyi came out and did an award with you we we see you out at your schools and we really value having those connections so Matilda As you move on, we would just say that if there's anything that any one of us around the table can do to help you out, if you
need anything, please don't hesitate to reach out. But we wanted to present you with this book, um, what the road said. >> Thanks students. >> Thank you. Okay, now we will move on to 5.0 I know. And that is our workshop items. We do have two this evening. The
first one is 5.1 and that is the alternative teacher professional pay system and that will be introduced by Kelly Jansen, assistant superintendent. All right. Good evening. Um tonight we are pleased to present our annual update on the alternative teacher professional
pay system or better known as ATPPS. Uh this this program is funded through a Minnesota Department of Education grant. You may also hear it called QC comp in other schools districts. Um and we are in our 18th year of successful participation here in Sawashko. So to
present on our progress and the impact of the four elements of the program, I am delighted to turn Larson, our director of professional development, and Patty Diamond, who is our teacher on special assignment, wrapping up an exceptional first year in this in this coordinator role. So Dana and Patty, the
floor is yours. Lit is our student speakers here. So, for those of you who know me, this is a little shouldn't be out of my comfort zone, but it is. So, um, good evening, Chair Schwarz, uh, Superintendent Nielsen, and members of the school board, and everybody else around the table. So, um, little bit more than what
I was planning on. So, hello. Um, again, for those of you who don't know me, I'm Patty Diamond. I just finished my 35th year here South Washington County Schools. Um, mostly as [snorts] an elementary teacher, but in a lot of different leadership roles. And this program that we are going to share with you tonight is something that when I was
union president, we and uh really took the time at that point in time to have a grassroots program that was teacher led and impacted student outcomes and achievement through peer coaching and um teacher goals. So it's really kind of
full circle moment for me in my career. All right. So, Sean has the clicker and he's gonna click me through in case I get long-winded because that can happen. So, the program, as Kelly said, we're in our 18th year and it is rooted in some required components of professional development, goal setting, observations,
and then career advancement for teachers or teacher leader positions. One of the um most talked about parts of the program is the professional development piece. And we have three days that we pay um in addition to the contract um through this
grant for professional development days for teachers. We have a high 90% participation rate from our educators. Everyone's treated as a 1.0 on those days. Um the slide says August and actually our day this year was in September. Um the ATPs first day is at the end of September. Then we have
what's called a flex day where staff put in a proposal for some personalized and individualized professional development. it gets approved, they work it through and then they reflect on it. And then we just finished on June 5th, our June day for professional development. I think I talked about our flex plans.
Just want to mention that I love what's the benefit of the program with the flex plans is that it's personalized. Um so a music teacher can focus on music development on behalf of their um role and an elementary teacher can focus on uh best practices or elementary
curriculum. A nurse can attend a conference. So it's that's really the beauty of the flex day is that it's professional development that's relevant to a educator goal setting. We have in September each site leadership team goes through a process and then works with the
educators at that site to set to set a site common goal for student achievement and an action plan. For those of you who know me, the action plan is far more important than the goal because that's what people do to get to that outcome. And then teachers and educators spend time on that day setting an individual
student achievement goal and an individual social emotional goal that's relevant to their role in the students that they serve. And again, that's very different for an early childhood special educator and an AP math teacher. Peer observations are handled very differently in South Washington County
than other districts with a Q comp or ATPs program. Again, we wanted a broad-based program. So, everyone has the eligibility to train as a peer coach each and every year with their initial training or a refresher. Therefore, then they can go into somebody else's
education environment and work with them and coach them on what they want to work on to become a better professional on behalf of students. So, we have peer observations where people go in and see each other and then we have peer observations where people are coming. So, it's that reciprocal relationship of
growth. the career advancement opportunities, the leadership roles, most of them are stipended positions within the building. Um, our equity teacher leaders, which I'll talk about, and our ATPPS coordinators and our onetoone mentors are stipended positions that are on top
of what a educator would already do. The there are some positions that are full-time equivalent or FTE positions, and those would be largely um compiled of our instructional coaches and achievement specialists. the equity teacher leaders. The highlight piece of that would be really
working with teachers and educators at a site to make sure that we have those best practices for equitable instruction. Right? Are we making sure that we are working through in our whole site a plan that fits all of our students or connects to all of our
students. So that's the big job of the um equity teacher leader um to embed those practices within what we do. The mentors are a onetoone uh role. This year they did not have to do the observations of their mentee. It was an
adjustment we had made a year prior. Now we're moving back to that. That's one of our changes again for next year. So the mentor mentee relationship is onetoone and that mentor will provide three observations of their first year teacher. Uh we would love to be able to expand the program to provide mentors
for all of our probationary staff, but it's largely our year one staff. Instructional coaches are full-time release positions. At the elementary level, they had multiple buildings this year. Um and then at the secondaries,
they had a site with maybe then um so so co online as another piece to that. The number one thing about the instructional coaches that has been a benefit to our system is really working with people on what they want to grow with. So reading through some people's plans if they're
on an instructional coaching cycle or they've chosen to work with the coach. I I read plans where they've met with the instructional coach time and time again to look at educ data or where are my best practices for dis discussion protocols and our instructional coaches
just are a plethora of information tailored to what somebody wants to work on. Our goal for next year is to continue with that educ work and the data so that we can really hone in our on our tier one instruction and our MTSS model. We are in process of program evaluation.
I think Tim reported on that last year. We're really at a natural cycle with uh somebody who had facilitated the program for 18 years and now me. So everything and Dana and everything we look at is we're like okay what does that mean? Why do we do it? I mean we have to really
look at it with a new lens and say what is the purpose of this? How has it been working? So we are doing that on a daily basis as we go through that. We've done surveys and reading through different pieces of information from educators through their peer observations through
their flex plans um through their discussions with at their sites with their um leadership team. So we do that on a daily basis. We also had to as a steering committee really take a look at the components of the program while we um started on that fiscal responsibility
journey because it is a set amount of funding based on per pupil unit if I said that correctly. So we have to also start planning if our enrollment is remaining flat or declining so will our budget and costs are going up. So we had to really look at our program this year
and say where can we keep the integrity of the program and start making budget adjustments. Oh and that was the next slide Sean sorry. Um we do we the program is governed by a me memorandum of agreement. It is not in the collective
body of the contract every two years. It is something that we chose 20 years ago, 18 years ago to keep outside of the contract so that it wasn't embedded with money so that if the money were ever to go away at the state, we could take away the memorandum and our the funding
sources would not overlap. So, we intentionally made that decision. We are in year two of a two-year memorandum of agreement and that will give us another great opportunity to assess the whole program, take a look at the requirements, take a look at the positions and what we're doing and say,
is this what we need going forward? Do we need something different um within the parameters of the funding? We also will spend a considerable amount of time this year if the state decides not to fund it in the future. Uh what are our offramps? Because many of the PL parts of ATPPS are required components from
MDE, the peerreview, peer coaching, the goal setting, those are all part of a regular teacher development evaluation cycle with or without a grant money that would be attached to it. So, how do we have offramps to embed those completely into our system even if the this funding goes away? So, that's what we're tasked
with um going forward. >> And I didn't have a I didn't have a coughing attack. Thank you. Any questions? >> Uh, not a question, just a comment that this was personally valuable to me in my career and so um, yeah, I I just think
it's absolutely terrific. Any questions over here? Okay, thank you. Okay, we'll move on to 5.2 two and that is our guiding change document for budget adjustments and that will be presented by Julie Nielson, superintendent. >> Thank you. As I was just thinking about
having to speak again, I was like, who wrote this cover sheet? Because they really did a nice job explaining it and then I realized I wrote it. I think I'm going to actually read it this time. [laughter] Sometimes I just go off script, but today I'm going to read it because I think I did a good job explaining why why we're here,
especially for the people in the audience and the community. Um this evening the purpose is to review the guiding change document. It's been a while since we've had a guiding change document. Um a guiding change document uh what we're reviewing serves as um a document that brings clarity to the
roles of schoolboard governance and administrators doing the day-to-day managing of the process of budget adjustments. It outlines the current reality, the results we want to get to as well as we know in that center column what we consider to be unacceptable
means. anything that is sacred to us, anything that we don't want to give up. Uh district administration is prepared to create the package that prioritizes $13 million worth of adjustments to be implemented for the school year 2728. We know that those adjustments will be
coupled with our 5-year planning, which is running parallel and a little bit behind the budget adjustment. Um and as a result of our work with budget adjustments, we know that there will be items that will then be moved forward to five-year planning. So with that, um,
for the community and anyone watching this evening, uh, we've had opportunities with the board in small groups to have a conversation around the guiding change document. What I'd like to start by doing is just highlighting from the time this was posted just a
couple of um, adjustments that I've received and then open to any other changes or recommendations from the board. If we take a look at column one, and perhaps this is something that Chris Blackburn and I need to just think about. Um, we use our district uh
finance language. Well, Chris's finance language and my just normal language. Um, but bullet point one talks about how many dollars we bring in from state funding. And then if you look at bullet point one on page two, a board member pointed out, well 84 students, you say
it equals a million dollars, but if each of them was uh $7,000, how do you get to a million? And so we know there's a little bit more to that formula uh of getting to a million than just the state dollars. So we'll talk about perhaps how
we can combine that bullet point. [snorts] Um the second uh area that there's an adjustment, bullet point two on page two, the original text said we will not be able to levy our way out of the need to make adjustments that must
occur. And basically what that's saying is that um we have heard in the past like we wish the district would have asked us for money and that's what we would call levying our way out of our deficit. And what we know is that simply
asking our taxpayers for more money would not generate enough money to ward off adjustments. So that particular bullet point was changed to due [snorts] to the size of the anticipated adjustment, we will not be able to solve it by only seeking additional levy
dollars from our taxpayers. Um the next point and um again how we interpret the text. Um the second bullet point first column third page um when numbers are in parentheses
considered negative in the the finance world. And I think for other people they look at it like look at they put some little parentheses around there. And so what we want to make sure that we're clear in this particular document is that that no denotes negative spending. So for 2026, you're going to see 1.5
million in parentheses. That's a deficit spending of 1.5. Um you're also going to see change after tonight's budget presentation. That next one again, if we did nothing in 2027, right now it has the parenthes
parentheses 13 million. We will actually be changing that to 8 million because the budget Chris is proposing tonight has an $8 million deficit. So please note we will try to clean that up just so people realize that that's negative spending each year over the course of
the next three years. Um so those were the changes within the current reality in the center column of unacceptable means. I would like to propose that we actually eliminate the second bullet and it was one that I think Chris and I combined
perhaps me um put in there. Propose a plan that places the school district in statutory operating debt. Uh for this round we have $57 million in our fund balance. This is a budget adjustment process. We're not looking to add so
much back that we're going to be hitting statutory operating debt. So for right now I I would like to propose we eliminate that one. Um I also want to note from column one to column two um the number of open seats across elementary. Um knowing that we're going
to have some shifts uh with a elementary charter. That number should be the same as it was in the first column and that should be approximately 2,000 students not three. And those are my recommended changes from column two. Um column three are
results where we want to be. Uh there was just one little grammatical error taxpayers trust. So um with that I would open it up to the board and again uh for the community and those in the audience listening uh please know that we have gone back and forth with this document a
number of times and are presenting it here publicly this evening. So I would just open up if any board members have any other points of clarification um or anything else to share. >> Okay. Thank you. We'll start on this side this time. Okay, Melinda.
>> Okay. Um, Elizabeth, >> I was just going to ask uh I've seen this document a number of times and I we really appreciate Superintendent Neielson collaborating with the board on thinking through these and giving us plenty of time to wrap our heads around it. I was just wondering uh Superintendent Nielsen if you wouldn't
mind mentioning if you're a family in this district when you might expect to see um you know opportunities to participate in this process as well as when you might expect to see changes that might impact your families whether they're in elementary, middle, or high school. I don't know if you mind
commentating on that. >> When the district engages in a budget adjustment process, it's really difficult to go out and say to individual families, what would you like to see reduced? What would you like to see reduced? because it really comes down to classes, services, um you know,
what people know and what they benefit from. So, the opportunities that we will take, um parents and families will have the opportunity to provide us with feedback and input once we have the packages developed. Um Sean and I have also talked uh the board is aware that
we do a quarterly mailing and we have also talked about how do we bring our community along when we have twothirds of our community that don't have children that are school age. And we talked about the potential in October of having a special mailing around budget adjustments. And the reason that's
important is that we want to keep our community and our families updated um because there is a high likelihood that what will come out of this is that in a year or two that we'd be looking at another levy or a capital projects um option on the ballot. So there will be
opportunities much of the work will be vetted through district leaders on our various program areas. Uh but then there will be opportunities to go out and get feedback. already to date uh we have and are receiving feedback from district staff. So, district staff have had the
opportunity already to complete a survey of things that they just could not live without and perhaps um options that we could look to reduce >> students [laughter] don't want to leave you guys out. >> They're like, I don't know about these
guiding change act. And really, when we were first trained utilizing a guiding change document, it's a tool that gives us as leaders the guard rails. So when we bring forward the finalized package in the plan, we want to make sure that we meet the criteria that gets us to the
right-h hand column without impacting what the board said are the notacceptable. Um and some of the notacceptable um let me pull one out. Um one of the notacceptable and we've had this conversation in in full transparency talking about um repurposing schools um
or selling schools. Some of that won't pertain for this five-year process because uh in one year's time, we would never be able to make that happen. But I think going back to what um Elizabeth shared, some of this will carry over into the next two years, three years,
and we will have to make some decisions. And so some of these in the unacceptable will definitely be showing up as we go into that next five years. >> Can I just ask one clarifying question? So, if I'm a family uh with children in the district schools, I might not expect
to see changes come this fall, but I may see changes coming the following couple of years. I would say the biggest changes in the following years, but we also our immediate concern is having to reduce $13 million. So, that may mean
programming, it may mean services, um you know, just depending upon what area we're looking at. [clears throat] >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. 6.0 information items. We do have two of those this evening. And students,
you may now would be >> Thank you. I do want to just Yes. Students, if you want to go enjoy summer, this is your chance. [laughter] >> And Andrew, if you don't want to enjoy summer, you can stay with us. I see that look on your face. You're like, I'm here. >> Thank you, Taye. And thank you again, Matilda. Congratulations.
Okay. So 6.1 is our 202627 budget and that will be presented by Chris Blackburn, director of business services. Thank you and good evening. Um it's kind of hard to follow those student voices always. So good luck students.
Financial update then tonight is again as um Chair Schwarz mentioned 2627 preliminary budget. So, we're um the agenda on the next Oh, thanks, Sean. I was like, wait, I don't have a clicker. Uh we'll go over tonight just the topics, budget notes and terms. Where
does the money come from? What is the money spent on? Some budget highlights, district challenges, and future schedule. So, the first slide as um the South County Schools budget that we have more than 18,000 lines in our general fund budget. And so, it takes more than
300 hours to compile at one if we just spent one minute per line on the budget. So as you can imagine um you know Nikki Kasle, Mary Beth Collins, Amber Shower um and team back in finance uh ultimate credit to them because it takes significant amount of time and energy
particularly in the months of um April and May to compile that budget. Many revenues and expenditures at this point are estimated and so we always try to say that it's a snapshot in time. So what we guarantee about budget is that we know we're going to be wrong but we do provide the very best estimate that
we know today. And so I always try to remind people of that because actual results revised budget when we bring that in next March will be different than the original budget. So we try to do our best estimates unknown today. There's a significant number of things that maybe aren't always known. Enrollment for example that we don't
know exactly how many students. We don't know if perhaps interest rates raise or lower and may impact things or gas station you know you the price of gasoline. Um, we do calculate salary and benefit expenses for each employee out of caution. That's been a long-standing
practice in my time here when we had such significantly low fund balance. Um, in 2014 in that era, um, we really took a proactive approach to really, you know, I have a line item in the budget. Superintendent Neielson does. Um, so whether you're a custodian, a pair
professional, a teacher, um, you are all in our budget at a line. And again, we do that out of caution because we know the significant impact if we miss an employee. It guides us, the budget itself is a guide to keep us on track to remain solvent. So again, as we look at the um just to Julie's point earlier,
Superintendent Neielsson, the projection when we utilize for the 13 million um kind of the differences, a projection is based on the overall categories. So salaries, we just anticipate overall salaries may go up by a certain percentage based on historical trends and things that we know. Whereas a
budget, again, that specific line item that we're budgeting each person and really looking at those line items in a very detailed fashion, budget terms and that are always important to know. So, fund balance, um Sean asked me, he said, "So, what exactly is fund balance, Chris?" I said, "Well, it's a district savings account."
He goes, "Great. We're going to use that language." So, I think it does get a little challenging to uh completely understand because we all have a checkbook uh or maybe that's a dated term. We all have a debit card perhaps now uh Apple Pay but we do have it's the district savings account this what remains after we bring revenues in each
year we have those expenditures and whatever the balance is yeartoear that's that fund balance we know that unrestricted fund balance there's components to that fund balance unrestricted is used for general operations so it's instruction the classroom it's instructional support such as the ATBPS program transportation
maintenance activities district administration just to name a do the percentage when we talk about the board goal for fund balance percentage is fund balance divided by expenditures. So in case you see the slash again the maybe a maybe next year I'll figure out
how to put a divisor sign in there. Um but it is that balance divided by expenditures. That bal fund balance number is a little bit um not the whole fund balance. It's a MDE measurement. So there are some they take out some of the restricted accounts out of that and then they divide that by our total
expenditures in that in those same categories. Our board goal is 16.6% by FY27. And as we've shared before we were very pleased to achieve that goal early and yet we know that kind of our roller coaster now is starting to go in
the other direction some as well. The fund balance um when we talk about unassigned or unrestricted does not include the restricted reserve funds. Neither does that 16.6%. So when we talk about the restricted reserved funds um there's many items
that which the state sets that we can't spend it on other things and so they have revenue and we have to spend it for the um purposes by statute or otherwise. So compensatory revenue um is really designated for students underprepared to learn or not meeting grade level progress or English learners operating
capital um state approved alternative programs such as our credit recovery and targeted services fall under there our alternative high school student activity accounts which are studentled um and make the decisions on how the spending um and the revenue itself is raised long-term facility maintenance which
will be bringing the plan the 10-year plan at our next meeting for that our capital projects safe schools staff development and then as Patty and Data so eloquently shared this evening the ATPPS or alternative teacher professional pay system is another one
of those there's another laundry list of restricted reserve but these are the most um I'd say the significant ones and but general fund so I also like to comment just because the um nutrition services and food service and community service both presented their budgets separately
before this evening And so we have additional funds outside of general fund that are also maintained and restricted reserved in their own but they're entirely kind of self- sustaining funds. So food service, community service, building construction and again as you drive around the um district certainly
you've seen that in um full force especially with what they call the summer slam again this summer. Debt service fund. So our bond payments um go out of that and there's a specific levy for that. custodial fund is scholarships is really primarily. So we do mon uh
manage some scholarships for uh external that you know we have donors that contribute and then we kind of pass through those dollars to the students to their universities and then we also have an other post-apolement benefit trust fund that we set up a number of years ago as well.
So just a note on those restricted reserve funds as well if any changing whether we reduce spending or increase spending. So this will be important as we look at budget adjustments as well. But reducing or increasing spending in those categories does not affect the unassigned fund balance. So it's still
it's they stay maintained in their own. So if they go up or down, it's certainly that overall fund balance, but it doesn't impact the day-to-day operational um which is the unassigned fund balance. So again, the spending in those um restricted reserve is typically state
statute that says you can't spend it for this, you can spend it for that. Um there's a typically a laundry list of things that each of those can be spent on or what they can't be spent on. Tuition agreements. So there's three kind of categories that we talk about and it's kind of a odd slide maybe to
put in here but I know that we are asked every year to um just communicate that to the public that for students living outside the state. So if we have um students attending Swashko schools from most commonly Wisconsin, tuition is $13,978
for secondary students and 11,66515 for elementary students. Those are based on the latest state aid uh projections that were available. Excuse me. So to this that bullet might help the 84 students equals a million dollars. Um
well basic formula is included in this number. That's also where that difference um comes in. The other two tuition agreement type um areas that um we most commonly talk about relate to special education services and students receiving those
services. So for students who live outside district boundaries and receive special education services while attending Sawashko schools, they create tuition. In essence, those dollars are added to our special education. So the state entirely maintains this whole process, but they add those dollars into
our revenue for special education. It's just incorporated right in there. The last bullet then is students who live in Swashko schools. So if they're boundaried in resident students of ours, but they're attending another district and they're receiving special education services at that district, that's build
to us through a process again through that tuition billing process and they subtract that from our special education revenue. So it's a direct deduction. We have um you may have seen in the news recently about um some school districts it may be special education and underutilization perhaps of the revenue
and I would say that share that we u for a number of years now have used leveraged our federal special education dollars to kind of maximize that special education revenue as well. So we use it for that tuition billing portion. 2026 legislation we always like to kind
of highlight what happened at the state. um they did complete their work by the statutory deadline this year in May. So that was wonderful. Um other than it wasn't a funding year, so there wasn't a huge impact for us. But as I looked through the legislation, certainly there were some items to note, but the most significant for me as I was looking and
thinking on our um just impact to our financial situation. There's certainly other program um impact. They actually approved a constitutional amendment ballot question for this fall that I thought really important for the board to know and for our community to know. A voting yes on this question would
increase the permanent school fund distribution statewide from two and a half percent to four and a half percent. So it set back when they put some um endowments particularly for like logging and timbering on state lands and so the permanent school fund increase in their
dollars and their balance has lent itself that it's risen significantly and they're sitting on a fairly larger um portion of money than they anticipated when they set that two and a half. However, since it's set constitutionally, they have to come back and ask for a constitutional amendment to change that and increase that to four
and a half. That will go on the ballot this fall. Again, the estimated increase for Sawashko schools is over a million dollars. And there's zero impact to taxpayers that it's already money that's sitting in a reserve account of the state. What I would um just point out as
well that a if you just don't vote on the question, so if anyone goes to the ballot and they just don't vote because they're uncertain what that is, that actually counts as a no vote. So I really wanted to highlight that here tonight as well. Um so you talk to friends and family just to really encourage them to definitely mark a box
on that ballot. Um because otherwise it will absolutely count as a no vote. Education funding in Minnesota. So this is just a recap um to remind people of where that funding comes from. So certainly we receive a significant portion of state aids but you might wonder well how does the state get the
money to fund us and so it kind of talks about the source for us followed by the source that where those dollars come from. So the state aids are largely generated by income and sales and tax income and sales taxes as well as fees from the state. Um about 72% of our
budget is state aids. local levies. We receive about $88 million or about a quarter of our uh budget now is local levies and that's our property taxes. So again, we've had a extremely supportive community for our capital projects levy, our just operating levy particularly is
the most significant of those. Um and so that's been extremely helpful to help us maintain and kind of kind of stay as u healthy as we have. The federal aids again we receive less than 2% um and that federal aids itself is generated from the income taxes received by the
federal government and we receive about $5 million. And then other revenues is local participation fees and interest u a variety of other sometimes we might have insurance recovery and other items in there. Donations are in there and um for this next year we're anticipating
just about shy of $7.9 million and again just over 2% of our budget. So the recap on the revenues um I will you know you can kind of see it up on the slide but we're anticipating growth of about one point just over 1% in
revenue um and we know that that was mitigated some by some decline in enrollment as well as um some changes at the state particularly with state special education transportation aid um there was a reduction in that as well. So that declining enrollment piece is probably the most significant that just
kind of maybe there would have been more growth but that weighed that down. um still some growth in it because we did receive some additional aid. I'll point out in the other category just because it does stand out that the 2025 actual number you'll see at 14 compared to the
7.9 being budgeted for 2027 um fiscal year. The biggest reason for that reduction there was a couple of things actually as I was looking at it the most significant was there was about $3.8 million transfer that MDE said to receive your EL and for us to be able to calculate your English learner sub cross
subsidy. Um so again they're generating more aid for us which will absolutely but to be able to really make clearly do the math for them. They wanted us to do this I call it a fake transfer. So they really we we had to add expenditure line and then we added a revenue line. And so
that other 3.8 million of that is just reflects that transfer. So there was no net cash out or in in that um it was a reporting mechanism really. Additional increases 1.3 in interest. Um again that kind of conservative nature.
We had insurance recovery um and then some other assorted um we had targeted services. We still use 916 and we do now our own programming with the alternative uh switch to the ALC from the ALP. So the next slide is probably the most important in this whole presentation and
that's that enrollment drives the budget. And I know you might get tired of me hearing that uh or me saying that. Um but I would point out again in the green columns our historical actual amounts again 2025 was our highest ever enrollment at 19,220.
Um we had 19,212. So real real flat to this year was our budget and anticipated yet that we'll come in real close to that for 2027. Then we're anticipating 18689. So that is a decline. And then as you can see further out, we've continued to decline. And really that's for two
reasons. One, those continued the lower birth rates resulting in the lower incoming kindergarten. So when we're graduating about 1500 students and bringing in about 1,200 in elementary, um just historically a little bit lower than we've typically seen for kindergarten classes. And that kind of I
call it the replacement rate. Um right, that 1500 to,200 combined with then um other school choice options that parents are making. um in some expansion and some other choices within district notes on the revenues then. So
enrollment decrease by the way I will point out and just full disclosure that I had a typo. Apparently my 53 523 turned into a 530 but there's an enrollment decrease of 523 students. Um so just a little bit less than that. Basic formula did increase
this year by 2.69%. So we're now receiving $7,683 per student. And so again, that's that really understood. We spend that for anything. We know that the state has a minimum of 2% each year to a maximum of 3% now by statute. Typically in our projections when we talk those long-term
why that 13 million is now 8 million. Usually we anticipate 2.5 and then they release that in the spring. So as we um are projecting sometimes we don't know that number always and now it's set at 2.69. So slightly higher than maybe what we've historically used. Special education aid continues to be a major
source of state aid for us. That's now over $70 million of our budget or just shy of 20% of our budget. The cross subsidy reduction aid was the most significant increase in the last number of years. As you may recall, it went to 44% a number of years ago and it reduces the gap in funding that otherwise used
to be covered with general fund. The reason that I really highlight that again this year is the state did a year ago. Um there's a blue ribbon um commission that is looking at state uh special education and they're tasked with finding $250 million decrease
statewide aid in 2829. So over a two-year period a $250 million statewide decrease. The impact on Southwash just if I just straight do math kind of our portion of the aid in that year would result in about six million in aid decrease. So again we're reflecting that
in our projections as well. The federal government has always promised to fund special education um and they promised 40% and I don't know that we've ever received beyond about 15% perhaps um and I think it's lower than that at this point now as well typically in the
single kind of between five and 15% um is usually what we receive in a nationwide perspective operating levy and again just the thank you always to our community for the support. It was approved in 2021 and it provides about $2,19 per student and it does increase
with inflation each year. We are about $240 under the cap by the way too. So summary budget shows the revenues which we um discussed just a moment ago. We're projecting about $359 million um just over in revenue for our fiscal year
27 budget. Our expenditures um in those kind of these are the big categories. um we'll talk about them a little further but a total of 367 million now in expenditures. So as you can see it is about a 2.88% increase in expenditures that just over 1% in
revenue. So you can see that kind of structural imbalance um between those which does result in that net of $8 million just over deficit. So again, the budget, the revenue, that structural imbalance between those of the 1% increase in revenue and the, you
know, just shy of 3% in expenditures, that net reduction to fund balance, then we're anticipating 8 million for next year. I would highlight that our student centered expenses increased 4%. So our classroom instruction, special education, student support, those areas combined. Instructional support
expenditures did increase or anticipated increase 15.5%. Um, and I'll talk on that on the next slide or about two slides from now just to highlight why the kind of the why behind that because that does seem to be an outlier. Sites and buildings decrease in expenditures by about 8.9 and that's
largely a lower um LTFM. So in our 10-year plan we had anticipated a step down this current year of that and administration district expenditures just a small increase of 6% combined. We always like to say that we're try to
be as low as we can on admin some um really spend it in the classroom. So this is expenditures by type and so we highlight this when we talk about 78% of our budget roughly being on salaries and benefits each year. This really highlights that when you look at that 22 over 22 million and then 86 million in
benefits and add those together, you know, we're almost at just shy of 290 million out of our 367 on salaries and benefits. Again, you can see the services um going up about 7% anticipated um largely I would say probably driven by transportation is the about two million
roughly that we're anticipating. um special transportation, particularly special supplies. We're anticipating a decrease most commonly in original budget where we um present here and also notice my typo there 2026 revised 27 original. My
apologies. Um but that supplies usually we budget for carryover at the site level. Um and so some of those carryover dollars can impact that as well between the revised and the original capital. Again, that's that LTFM um decrease. And then just a little bit of other.
The next slide then shows by program. And so this is really kind of the how we spend it. And so classroom instruction again that pride of that we spend 162 million of our 367 in the directly in the classroom. That's an increase of about 2% from last
year. Special instruction. So again that um students receiving those extra services as well. We're increasing to 80 million. Um just over pupil support. So again that's transportation that is um our counselors and social workers all
fall into that category. So that's 47 million now. Facilities 36 and um that's where that decrease again due to that drop in LTFM spending instructional support. And so what I would highlight on the instructional support it is an increase to 20 million. And we really,
if you may recall that when we reduced the um reading specialist positions and kind of reinvisioned those positions that we added some supports at the elementary specific to um the ICAST, the instructional coach um specialist positions and then the student support
deans that we're adding for next year at the elementaryaries um specifically to help with some of that work. That falls under instructional support is where categorically where it falls. So even though they're going to be still supporting students, it's just that's the category that MD requests that we uh
report those expenditures. So that number would have been closer to probably 5% without that number uh or with those changes. Administration, we're um anticipating increase to $12 million. It's about a 4% increase and that district support is kind of offset.
So it's uh going down a little bit there. And some of that has to do with some of our leases and such for our technology costs and the arrangement of that. So, um, a slight decrease. So, $367 million, about a just shy of 3% increase.
This is our famous or infamous, uh, expenditures by program, our dollar bill. And again, we just like to highlight that classroom instruction, that special education piece, student support piece. So the blue, the green and the um yellow or kind of orangey yellow um all act just direct spending
to students facilities again that we hope to have you know some wonderful facilities our students and staff utilize that are safe and secured and those that's reflected in the gray you'll notice instructional support that amount even though that um increase of 15% I said is that purple category and
again that's really impacting the staff and professional development as well as the supports and for um that we talked about with the student support deans and the ICAST positions. The administration district support I'll point out to just continue to remain quite low in that red
and yellow category. The unassigned fund balance then so this is we always have that focus on. So we're anticipating right now then a decline to about 13.8% 8% with that $8 million deficit um from and like I said
these are 25 and 26 and 26 27 are both anticipated yet at this point on revised budget and original budget. So you can see where we met that board policy in 232 24 first and then again in 2425 and so we expect to decline from that though
now with this upcoming budget factors that will um impact the budget that we know as we remember when I said that the one thing I can guarantee is it's not going to be exactly spot-on um that we will have changes and it'll be differing from our what we're
anticipating today enrollment once we know actual enroll enment. We know that that will could potentially improve that situation or it could in fact um you know precipitate a slightly worsening position as well. contract negotiations. We know the results of those will also
impact um sometime we have oftentimes because when we're doing the budget, we don't quite have all the TAs or the agreements or approved agreements yet. And so we have some estimations, but then we have the final, we'll impact and we'll at revised budget, we'll catch those up kind of so to speak and kind of true up for known results at that point.
Staffing, we um we had a meeting today in fact about just where we're at. Is there any needs for additions? Have we had increased enrollment perhaps that um indicate or some students move in with maybe some extra needs that need some additional supports? Inflation and tariffs, we continue to see some impact
on some of our dollars due to those utilities. Um again, it's kind of that unknown a little. Do we have big snowstorms? Do we have no snowstorms? Do we have rain and events instead? Um and then we know the continued impacts of the between terms summer unemployment. We know the state may or may not have
aid for us um in full for next year. Minnesota paid leave. We see the continued impact of um particularly on absences between Minnesota paid leave for leave again and earn safe and sick absolutely staff are entitled to take those but we do see
the impact of having to you know do we need to find a substitute what is the cost of that are they how long are they going to be absent for and such and so the impacts of those next steps then so the board will request the board to approve the 2627
preliminary budget on June 25th 2026 Six, we'll continue to monitor enrollment, which we do every week. Julie and I meet and we talk about it at executive cabinet as well, talk about at CFAC. And I'll give a little shout out to Andrew, who's our CFAC member in the audience tonight. Hello, Andrew. Um, but
he'll tell you too that we do review that at our CFAC meetings regularly. CFAC is our citizens financial advisory committee for the audience. Our audit of 2025 26 will begin in July. We've already received some initial correspondence and some hear requests
for that. So they'll be coming in July 1. Um and then they won't wrap that up until October. Those when they come back really October and early November. So we get a very early start. We kind of finish our work and then they come back again. We know that the levy work will start in September. So I'll bring preliminary levy in September and final
levy um the board will approve in December and then the audit will be presented to school board in January of 2027 and then we begin work again. Turn around and do it all over again. We'll start working on the 2728 budget. So with that, thank you very much. And are there any questions?
>> Louise, Elizabeth, >> I have a couple of questions. Thank you, Chris, for putting this together. And thank you to our CPAC uh member for participating uh in this process. So one of the things I just wanted to clarify that I think I heard from you was that as we thought about our estimate being
an, you know, a net $13 million deficit shifting to $8 million deficit, that you said that was about long-term maintenance. And I just like wondering if that was that was part of it, at least part of the equation. Could you just say a little bit more about why or how that happens and how that might shift moving forward too?
>> Yeah. >> And so again that when we talk I always I try to liken it to like when you're doing the really fine, you know, um like think markers. Do you have the really fat marker? Do you have that really fine marker? Right. And so as we do projections, it's a little more that broadstroke thicker marker, right? That
we're like looking those big categories, salaries, we're looking at facilities on an overall basis. um or the kind of the equipment and capital costs and an overall. So, when we initially are doing that, and I've actually modified a little bit of my projection to say, hey, be sure, you know, kind of added a note, just take an extra close look. We
typically have pretty flat spending, it's our pay as you go levy um for our LTFM portion. And so with that, um as that es and flows in each year that um we put that plan together, we fund it either through bonding or through pay levy. And so there's a combination
typically. And so it just was a different mix of in this current year. And so as we look forward, I'll change that um to better reflect that as well. But I think that was a pretty significant just because it's in that current number. And so as we look out, let's say there's a 5% increase on facilities, right? That we added 5%.
Well, I didn't account for that decrease in the just that initial projection, that broadstroke one. When we get into the fine tooth details, right, and we're taking our nice Sharpie marker and really looking at that fine fine-tuning it and going through it very line item with those 18,000 lines, that's when we do say, "Hey, that's not actual
spending." So then I wanted to will always adjust that here. Um and it's always those good things for me as I look forward to how can I fine-tune a little bit those projections too even knowing that they're just a bigger broad category. >> So over time we might expect those to eb and flow the the maintenance that's
needed on different buildings at different times. Okay. >> Yep. And that will plan bring that tenure plan and so you can kind of see that a little bit too and I can point that out too. So >> perfect. Thank you. The other question I had um just kind of looking at the overall picture is you know t thinking about rising transportation costs that have come up in our board meetings
previously kind of looking at your numbers you were kind of saying about $2 million of our 367 million is coming from that's the increase in transportation that we anticipate mostly due to special education um transportation >> and I'll say the two million was probably just special transportation
because the yep because that's the contracted trans so I should say two million in contracted transportation that's primarily driven by special education and that's what we've seen historically. Typically, I know routing can be an issue and we're certainly having conversations. I know that Superintendent Nielsen and Dr. Hickeyi
met with um 916 who is um largely where we those students are transported to one of those programs. We've had conversations just to them initially about, you know, are there other opportunities to maybe have some different just look at transportation, maybe have them route transportation perhaps, right? Just as a initial are
there some other ideas that we can look at and can we get creative knowing that it's a issue for a lot of districts in that 916 membership particularly. >> Great. And then my last question, which you may not know the answer to, is you mentioned the blue ribbon commission and the increase in um special education
payments that we're doing that the state is no longer compensating and do you anticipate or have you heard anything about next legislative season taking that up again or if that's kind of going to stay as it is? >> Yeah, so I haven't heard anything. I know the blue ribbon commission actually um so Mary Beth Collins and my is the
account specialist that u supports Dr. Hickey and her team on my on my team from the finance side. I know she was listening in the other day. She said, you know, she came into I think we, you know, I'm hopeful that maybe there'll be some good news for us. They are looking at some programs, for example, ADS that we don't participate in. Um, it's an
alternative delivery. How you like I'm looking at Dr. Hickey, but um student improvement system I special anyway, it's it's really intent to kind of help um as a like tier one intervention to help u or to keep
students out of the referral process for special education. And so they're, you know, the questioning is should that really be part of the special education formula then perhaps? And so they're looking, they're trying to be creative as well to try to reduce impact to districts as best possible um in a broad sense again. So I wish I had a crystal
ball that would tell us that u and certainly I have hope that maybe my 3 million again that was when they first did that. Um, but I also want to be cautious that there's certainly because the task force or the commission says if they aren't able to achieve those results, the default in legislation is
that that cross subsidy will be reduced back. So instead of I think it's scheduled to go up to 50%, so we'll actually go back down. I think they're thinking it'll land about 39% right based on current spending. So okay. Um, >> thank you. >> It'll be challenging Melinda.
I'm just wondering. So, we get both from 916. So, there's certain categories that we do. Um, for example, we have students that attend career tech classes up there as well. Um and so that those were build separately on a different they send us a paper bill and we send that in for the special
education component to that we largely are it flows through that system. I want to say last year not in 206 but in 2025 when we look today I want to say it was about $2.7 million that we um on the special ed piece. And then they
actually have a um since they're that's really what they're designed for. they have a they call it an appeal in that there's some gened costs that like we don't have an appeal to cover any of our gened costs but some districts that have um significant portions of their um expenditures being special education
have a appeal process. I know there's a couple of charter schools as well that service just special education students and so they have an appeal to cover gened costs as well. So there's an additional amount that goes out to 916 that way. But yes, the special education component absolutely um is flows through
that system for 916 as well. >> Okay, any questions? [laughter] >> Oh goodness, what am I doing? >> Katie, could I Katie, could I just say a thank you to our finance team? Um Chris, I didn't uh look closely at that last
slide, but it looks like you just hit repeat all over again when you talk about next steps. And I think in your finance world as we look at budget adjustments, um while there's a lot of work happening just on the revisions, the audits, the setting of the budget again, um we also know that it's going
to be taxing on your department when we start talking about budget adjustments and want estimates of costs of what things would be reduced. That's going to take a lot of additional time. And so, um I think we are just really lucky in South Washington County Schools to have you and our strong finance team behind
the scenes. Um, I've just learned that it is so complex, all of the lines, the shifts, the codes. Um, and there's no way that I could ever know that and so I'm just thankful that we have people in you and and our department that can manage that. So, thank you.
>> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay, we'll move on to 6.2 and that is a first reading of proposed policy changes and that will be presented by Julie Nielsson, superintendent. >> Thank you. Uh this evening I am bringing forward uh seven policies in the 400
series as well as the 700 series. Policy 404 uh is employment and volunteer background checks. Uh for that policy there were no no proposed changes. 404.1 are staff ID badges. No proposed changes for that particular policy. 409 employee
publications instructional materials in inventions and creations. No proposed changes. The next policy in the 400 series uh following right along student and employees with sexually transmitted infections and diseases and certain other communicable diseases and infections conditions. There were no
proposed changes. Uh policy 707 transportation of public school students. There were some legal updates as well as just some language uh changes to um note. Uh we will be changing the language to a child with a disability
throughout. Um as it was drafted that it didn't catch that change throughout. So, we will make sure that we go through to make sure that it states uh a child with a disability. Policy 708, transportation of non-public school students. There are a couple of grammatical as well as some
legal updates at the closing. And then finally, 709, student transportation safety policy. There are some grammatical updates that need to be made. Um, and as board members know, these policies were reviewed by our um policy committee board members. And so this evening, I'm just bringing these
forward if there are any other questions or concerns. >> Dana, any public comment? No. Okay. Any board member questions? Okay. Seeing none. Thank you. Okay. 7.0 is reports and comments and we will start with Superintendent Neielson.
>> Well, I'll start just by highlighting our incredible day on Friday, our incredible day on Thursday, and I think our incredible day the week before. Um, it's so nice to be a superintendent and a leader in South Washington County schools because when we look out and we
take a look at students graduating and kind of getting to the end, we just have a whole uh set of options for students. Um, from our online school to our alternative high school to programming for our 18 to 22 year old students to our three comprehensive high schools.
And um, we know that it's not a one-sizefits-all. Um and so it was just really great to celebrate along with the students and I think it um uh reaffirms uh the work that we all do especially in light of budget adjustments that it's really important work and how do we
always keep students at the center of that um in the decisions that we make. So just really thank you to everybody. Uh Christine Schaefer I know with the high school principles was doing some of the last minute contingency planning. Um, it's a lot of work. And if we think about it like planning a wedding for
300, which I happen to be helping with a little bit, um, imagine planning a wedding for 1,600 students with all their families and guests. Um, and then we also talk about just the cost um, of venues. And so, uh, we're already looking at venues. As a reminder for the
community who may be watching this, um, we had our contract not renewed with Maruchi, which moved us to TCO. I think what's important to note is that these venues don't open up. When school districts are happy with the venue, they get the week that we want. And so it
takes some movement. Uh so we are exploring that. Um but I think a district our size, it's important to realize at Woodbury's graduation, I'm just going to guesstimate 7,000 people. Both sides of TCO were completely full. Eastwood was very close as well as Park.
we just don't have a venue that can hold everybody who wants to celebrate with our kids. And so, um, as soon as we have a location set for next year, we will certainly be communicating that. Um, next up, just to talk a little bit about summer programming. Um, as we sent the students off, with the exception of
Andrew into summer, uh, we have a lot of things happening in the district from credit recovery to targeted services to extended school year um, for students as well as kids club. Kids club starts tomorrow >> [snorts] >> um, June 12th. It will be held at Woodbury Valley Crossing, Armstrong in
New Waves Frontier. So, there will be a lot of things happening along with I think it was Chris who talked about the summer slam. Um, and the summer slam is what happens in the construction world. When the kids are gone, the parking lots are torn up and we can't even get to the schools. And so, no, Dr. Brookkins, you
should not be driving the wrong direction behind Park High School to cut through. Um, but we all do that. Uh so along with the summer slam with construction, uh we're also dealing with a lot of road closures that are taking us around. Um so just be sure to plan
ahead, but uh we are on track with the summer construction and things are moving forward. >> Thank you. Do any board members have any upcoming events? I'm guessing not since it's summer. Okay, then we will move on to 8.0 future meeting dates. We have one
June 25th, 2026, and that is our schoolboard business meeting here at the district service center at 6 PM. And then in July, we do only have one meeting. So that is July 16th. And that is also a schoolboard business meeting here at the district service center at 6 p.m. And with that 9.0 and we are
adjourned.