##VIDEO ID:KbDJJBDz_Xs## e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] we're NE [Music] for good evening it is Thursday January 16th 2025 at 6 p.m. we are at the district service center in cotage Grove Min Minnesota we would like to acknowledge that the land in which We Gather is the land of the mawakan Dakota people mawakan means dwellers of the Spirit Lake our first item on the agenda those roll call Dana Ryan Clark here Sharon Van here Eric Tesmer here Pat Driscoll here Melinda dolles here Sim Patak is absent Katy Schwarz here may feran here Delena Manning here Lydia sabuka here uh 2.0 Pledge of Allegiance please stand I pledge algi to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all 3.0 is the approval of our agenda can I get a motion to approve the agenda move I'd like to have a motion to amend the agenda please it has already been motioned and seconded maybe perhaps we can give some time then okay so that was moved by Sharon and seconded by Melinda any comments okay hearing none all those in favor all right opposed all right one opposed motion passes okay 4.0 is comments to the board at this time individuals may speak to the school board on any item relating to South Washington County Schools the board will not respond to or discuss your comments character abuse or specific complaints ident in students staffs staff students or task force members will not be permitted the superintendent may be asked to prepare a response to your concerns the comments to the board period will be held open for up to 30 minutes in total each speaker is permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes in total the school board will allow up to three speakers per Topic at three minutes the microphone will be turned off and we will move on to the next speaker or agenda item we do have one person e e sorry on to 5.0 and that is our student District ambassadors and that will be introduced by superintendent Julie nilson good evening um it is always that exciting night when our students get to join us here and I know they're very excited they got to take selfies with them themselves on the video camera already we kind of go through um what it looks like to be up at the board uh so this evening we have three students with us and I'm going to start um with May feran um May do you want to go ahead and start by introducing yourself my name is May I am a fifth grader and I go to Liberty Ridge Elementary and may what do you enjoy most about being a student leader I like the opportunity to connect with other student leaders on what happens in their schools and may shared with me something interesting that they're doing at Liberty Ridge and so may do you want to share that with our board with the people in the audience this year at Liberty Ridge we have started a program called Striker Squad it is a group of kids from fifth grade that go around the school and do jobs like helping at recess and lunch and with kindergarten classes and at assemblies and what's your favorite part about that what is a one recent thing that you have done with students um well I get to organize assemblies specifically and I get to speak at the assemblies which which is really fun fabulous so lots of opportunities to lead um when you think about being in the classroom and what motivates you to learn what would you say about that may my teacher Miss Weber is really good at motivating me and my class to learn um but I'm also motiv motivated by um what my future holds like going to college and getting a good job and you have been to I believe three meetings down here at District service center so when the space isn't set up like this we have tables out with students what have you learned as part of your representation um and being a student ambassador I have really come to understand what the student voice really means to this District Y and can you just share with our board just some of the different things like today what did we talk about today um well we talked about we talked a lot about like how it's important for our um students to have healthy meals specifically typically at lunch and breakfast and we got to um try lots of new foods which was really fun and may your favorite today they had so many different samples coming in because remember their voice of French toast stick a or french toast stick B really matters and so may do you want to share what your favorite was well I really like trying the sauces but I also really hope we can do tater tot hot dish in the school lunches and her followup to the tater tot hot dish not to embarrass her dad that's in the audience she said today during ambassadors I sure wish they could make tater tot hot dish like my dad Eric be careful there all right let's go ahead and move on to our Middle School student um Delena do you want to go ahead and introduce yourself hi my name is Delena I'm in eighth grade and I attend ultman Middle School the best thing about being a student leader would be including my voice and being heard I feel most motivated to learn when I think about my future my parents and I want people to Remember My Name some positive experiences I've had in school would be receiving support from my friends and staff members like Zach a few things I've learned about the district are how much is actually being done and how much things like student board truly matter lastly if I could make any program I would call it Pioneers where kids can come after school and make new friends and just have fun in general and Delena uh we did a lot of different Trivia today so I'm putting you on the spot a little bit but do do you remember we did nutrition services today so they got to learn a lot about the meal planning and everything that goes behind but we talked about ovens we don't have microw microwaves remember no microwaves maybe to melt a little margin or butter um but do you remember how much the cost of one of those ovens was and we have four or five in our high schools what did they cost 30,000 to 35,000 30 to 35,000 we had students guessing a couple thousand you know a couple hundred and then when we said 30 to 35,000 they thought oh my goodness that's a lot for an oven but they are big industrial ovens thank you um Lydia my name is Lydia soboka and I'm a junior attending Easter ID high school first I want to thank Miss neelsen and the rest of the board for having me here tonight although there are always lots of things going on at Easter idge being a member of student cabinet is very interesting to me because we get to be a pair of eyes and ears from a students perspective for our school while also getting Insight on the upcoming changes to our school and give out opinions on how we feel about them for example the construction going on for the extension to our building or how we feel about relearning and retaking time on Tuesdays and Thursdays another interesting thing that is happening at our school pretty soon is our Black History Month event in February our black student union looks forward to it every year and it's so special and exciting to participate in and also see the amazing outcome of people at our events if you couldn't tell yet I'm very involved in school activities and extracurriculars and what keeps me motivated to learn new things and always always try my best in school are my parents growing up as a first generational student has changed my view on school and how important it is to succeed in school I think of school as a privilege not a right which is exactly what it is many times when you ask an immigrant what made them want to come to America they will say it's for their children's education and I'll always be grateful to my mom and dad for that one of my favorite things overall about the school district and being a student ambassador is seeing just how many people put effort into students from kindergarten all the way to high school whether it's about the school lunch we eat the cultural events happening at our school or finding more ways to educate students about Native American Heritage this group of people are always put putting PE the students as their number one priority and I'm very proud to be a part of this thank you and as Leaders the assistant superintendant and myself we feel so lucky to have the students come down and it's amazing from that first time down of being quiet as they enter now they're all interacting some of you may remember Charlotte from our last meeting um and Charlotte helped Elena she came up to her and said you're going to be fine this isn't so hard look at yourself in the in the TV up here right you're kind of glancing up there like oh that's me um and so we just really have a great time um and I think the students have the opportunity to not only share their voices but to meet other students across the district so thank you to our three students tonight for representing their schools thank you on to 6.0 and that is our consent items all consent items are considered routine and non-controversial by the school board and will be approved by a single motion there will be no separate discussion of these items prior to the meeting board members have had the opportunity to review each of these items and may request that any item be moved to an action item for individual consideration that did not happen this evening so can I get a motion to approve so move second moved by Pat second by Sharon all those in favor I any opposed motion passes okay 7.0 was information items we do not have any this evening on to 8.0 we do have some action items 8.1 is sale of certificate of participation series 2025a and that will be presented by Chris Blackburn Director of Business services so I have kenics in my pocket cough drops and some water so thanks this evening um good evening chair Schwarz members of the board superintendent neelson and student ambassadors it's wonderful to have you here it's always fun to hear your stories tonight I'm pleased to have jod zba of Ellers Associates and Associates to present the results of the sale of cerificates of participation series 2025a the lease purchase financing was recommended to fund the transition program project the pre-sale and resolution were presented at the August 22nd 2024 meeting the sale was delayed until after the District closed on the purchase of the property which occurred in December following Jody's presentation the board will be asked to adopt the resolution ratifying the award of sale of certificates of participation series 2025a jod will now review the results of the sale thank you Chris good evening everyone so I think we've been talking about this for probably close to a year now so we'll just give the final results now that we got this morning which turned out great so if you look at the first page of your s Day Report um we're mentioning that we're financing the acquisition and remodeling of the existing building to provide instructional services for students in the special education transition program and consolidating that program so that's going to gain some efficiencies there which is great uh the rating that was assigned is a A2 the uh Moody also affirmed the district's underlying A1 rating but they generally for certificates of par participation or annual appropriation debt generally assign a rating that's one category lower than your general obligation debt since it's a little less secure and a little more risky so that is uh from an investor perspective so that is uh the rating that was assigned we received five bids which is was great to see we generally only get two to three bids on certificates of participation so as of yesterday we had two biders signed up this morning there were three and then when the results came in there were five so really great to see that level of Interest Key Bank Capital markets Incorporated out of Cleveland Ohio as the low bidder at a 4.03% rate they also gave a little higher uh premium on the bids so we were able to issue a lower debt amount and still Finance the amount that you need for your project costs so you'll see that we are issuing 8, 980,000 and the board I believe had authorized up to 9, 445,000 so we're under that amount um in the notes at the bottom of this first page you'll see that the true interest cost of 4.03% is lower than the 4.33 which we were estimating about a month ago so we were glad to see the interest rate come in lower than that estimate and as a result of that the principal and interest pay pays are almost $300,000 less than we were estimating a year ago I'm sorry uh a month ago about uh $600,000 more than when we first put the schedules together so we've been kind of refining that rate as we've been getting closer to the sale date but if you look back at the schedules that were included in your review and comment we are well below those um estimated amounts so um we will have a call date on the certificate similar do we similar to when we sell bonds for you and we've taken advantage of those call dates a number of times over the years in order to save money for your taxpayers so we refund or refinance the debt similar to refinancing or re uh refinancing a home mortgage and the savings then doesn't um go back to the district's budget but instead must be ta uh passed on your taxpayers in terms of uh lower lower Debt Service rate so we will certainly keep monitoring this issue just like we do all of your other outstanding debt issues for uh refunding or refinancing opportunities and um savings to your taxpayers um we did already have sign off on the proposal form you did have a parameters resolution in place so as long as the true interest cost rate was less than 5% and it was 4.03 then um there were authorized individuals to sign off on the proposal form so that part has already been taken care of you do have the resolution before you tonight now just to ratify the award of the sale so I'll go through the attachments quickly um the first one is the bid tab with the five different biders so the low bidder Key Bank out of Cleveland Ohio at 4.02 64 closely behind by FHN Financial Capital markets out of Memphis Tennessee at a 4.03 69 and then you got a bid from beard out of Milwaukee Wisconsin Hilltop Securities out of Dallas and the high bidder was Northland Securities out of Minneapolis at a 4548 so all pretty close biders all um within the parameter that was established by the board and nice to see some interest from throughout the country so next we have updated schedules and these again were initially included as part of the review and comment that you were required to submit to mde to get approval to move forward with the project we provided some updated schedules in August and then again uh a month ago so uh the updated sources and uses schedule the most important uh number on this schedule schule really is the deposit to the construction fund you've been working with kuss Anderson on this project and their estimates of the project cost are 9 mil1 190,000 so we'll be depositing 9,1 192,25 so you'll have sufficient funds to cover the estimated project costs and then the payment schedule is on attachments page four and again this is about $300,000 less than what we were estimating about a month ago but almost $600,000 less than when we first put the schedules together for that review and comment submission next you have uh two rating reports so when you issue debt Moody's um has us go through the process of taking a look at your all of the different components that they consider important as part of assigning the rating to the district and uh uh both Julie and Chris participated in that process again did a very excellent job of representing the district answered lots of questions provided a lot of information so really helpful to the process the results of that um were that they affirmed the district's A1 underlying rating and then assign the A2 to this particular issue so they provide rating rationel as part of the press release the press release does continue on until through attachments page 10 and then um 11 and then starting on attachments page 12 is the detailed credit opinion so you'll see what they point out as the credit strengths of the districts the strong local economy with above average resident income and full value per capita growing enrollment they see as a strength strong local support for Education through voter approved debt and operating levies and then credit challenges they still are um watching that fund balance and saying that it's improved but remains and I think it's slightly below we think we're right on the edge but um slightly below the a medians capacity challenges of course giving um growing enrollment which you're addressing um now and then uh long-term liabilities ratio they say is in line but will grow as you issue the remainder of your voter approved debt so your rating Outlook is stable because they think the district's economic and financial performance will continue to support a strong credit profile and then um they provide key indicators which you've seen before on attachments page 13 and then importantly I'll also draw your attention to their uh scorecard which is on attachs page 18 and you'll see that the scorecard indicated outcome is actually within the double a category so we think that gives us some great hope that hopefully um we'll move into that ablea category again sometime in the near future but they did at this point in time decide to assign that single a one again questions on any of the information included in the report or the results that we received today okay seeing none can I get a motion to approve move second seconded by Ryan any comments okay Dana roll call Ryan excuse me Ryan Clark approved Sharon Van approved Eric tesner yes Pat Driscoll yes Melinda dols yes Katie Schwarz yes motion passes great thank you very much we appreciate the opportunity to be service to you once again and are very pleased with the results so glad everything turned out so well perfect thank you thank you you we move on to 8.2 and that is fiscal year 2023 24 audit results and that will also be presented by Chris Blackburn Director of Business Services I just want to thank Jody again for she and her team and all the work that they do with us and guiding my first time through some of those things and so it was really lovely to work with her again good evening again um information I'm going to kind of summarize the report but information relating to the annual audit of the district financial statements for the fiscal year 2324 was presented by Aon neelsen principal at mmkr at the January 2nd Workshop meeting the district again received a clean opinion at this time Administration recommends acceptance of the fiscal year 2324 annual comprehensive financial report special purpose audit reports and management report report can I get a motion to approve no move second move by Pat seconded by Eric any comments okay seeing none all those in favor any opposed motion passes thankk you on to 8.3 and that's board committees for 2025 that will be presented by myself um board members Shar their preference for committees in December of 2024 I review the preferences and the 2025 committee assignments were shared with board members via email on December 27th 2024 I have not received any questions about assignments from board members at this time so can I get a motion to approve the 2025 board committees moved second motion by Sharon seconded by Melinda any comments okay seeing none all those in favor any oppos motion passes okay on to 8.4 and that is proposed policy changes and that will be presented by Julie neelon superintendent thank you uh this evening uh we are bringing forth for the second reading for policies um as a reminder these policies were reviewed uh January 2nd during our Workshop meeting excuse me the policies 101 uh legal status of the school board 101.1 name of the School District 102 equal opportunity education and 103 complaints um students employees parents and other persons and so those have been reviewed red um and I am asking for approval this evening can I get a motion to approve so moved second motion by Melinda seconded by Sharon any comments yeah Cher Schwarz I have a comment um regards to all the policies except 102 I I'm prepared to approve those uh 102 however uh I must uh give my opinion on that it is my understanding that the language um used in in policy 102 um is written in conjunction with msba standards uh and msba standards are written in conjunction with uh Minnesota statute 12103 uh which which is in regards to athletic programs and sex discrimination and I understand the necessity of the school board to go along uh with or or conformed to Minnesota state law however I would strongly urge the board to vote no on 102 specifically um send it back to the administration to see uh what if anything can be done to delay uh potentially the approval of this of this policy uh and the reason why is that this policy uh in no uncertain terms opens a door to uh persons with male genes and male anatomy uh into women's sports in the school district as well as women's locker rooms and um although I uh have sympathy for individuals students and families that are struggling with gender issues um and I do I truly do uh I cannot in good conscience vote uh to to approve this policy uh because I place at a higher priority uh the feelings of safety that our female students are required and uh need to have uh in not just their private areas uh but also um in the benefits that they receive with their Sports thanks um I would like to Second Eric's comments I feel the same way um I think it's prudent for us as a district to maybe pull this back and and fully understand what this means and what type of risk this brings to our district H what this what risk this brings to our female student athletes um given some of the comments that we heard even today the the policy by itself at face value no issue but is this a trojan horse or is there is there ulterior motives with this perhaps and if that's true then it's incumbent upon us as a board to understand what this really means how what that means in relation to the law uh the Minnesota state law what that means to the federal law which is likely to change very soon and I think it is it's important for us to to think that through before we vote on this so I was going to put a motion forward to table this for now so we could have a discussion about this as a board and really understand what this actually means what are the risks involved for for for everybody ultimately and to Eric's point I feel I feel for folks who have these gender issues but there is an element of Truth at play here and I think that our role as Schoolboard members is to bring that so um we did bring this forward at our last board meeting and we did at that time ask if anybody had any concerns comments questions regarding that um because we do have to have two readings of this policy at that time neither of you mentioned any issues with this policy um superintendent neelon also spoke to you that meeting prior to the meeting and you also did not mention having any issues prior to that board meeting um these policies were also emailed out one week prior to the January 2nd meeting um the policy committee did not hear any comments or questions from either of you regarding that either um so at this time I am going to um ask for all those in favor all those in favor of approving these policies say I I I any opposed oos opposed motion passes thank you okay we will move on to 9.0 superintendent report uh this will be just very brief um it may seem like a slower time as it relates to events um however uh it's probably one of the busiest times s when we talk about student registration Staffing and U laying out the groundwork for next year um in addition our construction projects continue um as I look in the back row our assistant superintendents are in many different meetings as we begin um breaking ground on some of those projects and then finally for students there is no school on Monday as we recognize and celebrate Martin Luther King as well as an opportunity to view the 60th presidential inauguration and so um a wonderful opportunity for our students to take a a little rest and then come back for a 4- day week but thank you again to our students for being here they are they are truly amazing and they give um the adults and the leaders just great energy so thank you students thank you 10.0 is future meeting dates February 6 2025 is a Schoolboard Workshop meeting here at the district service center at 6 PM February 20th 2025 is our Schoolboard business meeting it's also here at the district service center at 6 PM with that 11.0 and we are adjourned okay you [Music] m m [Music] m [Music] n [Music] for