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are pretty I didn't think [Music] [Music] good evening it is Thursday February 6 2025 at 6 p.m. we are at the district
service center in cage Grove Minnesota we would like to acknowledge that the land in which We Gather is the land of the medw Dakota people mwak means dwellers of the Spirit Lake our first item on the agenda is 1.0 call to order roll call Ryan Clark here Sharon vanle absent Eric tesner Pat Driscoll is not here anymore Melinda dos Simmy pnic Katie Schwarz here 2.0 Pledge of Allegiance please
stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all 2.0 is approval of the agenda can I get a motion to approve second move by second by Brian all those in favor
any carries 4.0 is our Workshop items 4.1 is a construction update for Woodberry high school and that will be introduced by Kelly Janson assistant superintendent all right good evening um it is an honor to introduce this project as you know our project structure is there's an assistant superintendent attached to each one of our projects um but we certainly work with Dan Hines and Kyle uker who are on every project and um it's been great to work with wal on the
Woodbury High School project um you probably know that I was a student of of Woodbury High School many many many years ago and it's gone through a lot of updates um but it has been fun to watch it evolve through this process of talking with teachers and staff and um just listening to the needs and how W has evolve the project to meet the needs of the students and the staff in the building so with that I will turn it over to Paul owski and S Begley and I know Dylan is in the audience as well from W so Dylan's our detail guy but um I'll turn it over to them uh good
evening everyone thanks so much for having us um as uh Kelly said um this has been a wonderful project to work on and we've kind of come to the end of the design phase so the Project's actually out for bid right now so um I hope the trend you've been on continues about um getting great bids and great interest in doing your projects we will start with uh project scope and how it fits in the context of the broader Bond projects probably things all you know intimately well but in case someone is here tonight who didn't know um the way to read this chart is really that uh green bars are
design and planning and uh blue bars are construction so there's been a huge wave of design for all of the mostly question one projects um over the course of the approximately the past 12 months maybe a little bit more um and you're entering into a phase that's going to have a lot of construction Woodbury included and a bunch more design is starting around most of your Elementary projects so um obviously lots to get done but we are the um kind of in the middle there all three high schools are clumped there you can see uh Woodberry construction planned for kind of Summer 2025 through
summer 2027 I will talk at the end about kind of detailed phasing so for those not familiar project scope we have some site improvements to um do traffic and uh traffic and parking flow there is a new kitchen and cafeteria addition planned as a part of the project as well as main office relocation and security expansion to get a secure entry we have Renovations of various parts of the building some of the the larger items are listed here so that would be science
Media Center Career and Technical education art um but certainly many departments are touched through this project um both just because of kind of um you know because some of these other projects are touching them uh you know by no fault of their own and we also have quite a bit of long-term facilities maintenance renovation so that floorings and ceilings the building has some demountable walls that it's time to replace there's some mechanical electrical items so those don't show up quite as easily on some of the floor plans but uh there's quite a bit of work happening at the
building we worked with the advisory committee which was made up of oh Sarah how many was it 25 or 30 um staff administrators Sarah um Dan Kyle Kelly and then our design team to really start the project by understanding the goals so you got a certain set of um funds from the to accomplish a certain set of commitments but it didn't tell us how to do it right and so this group really helped us determine how to solve these problems at Woodbury High School so we write these guiding principles and design criteria some of the key points that really drove the plan or drove the
project um we're a strong desire to have the main office in the center of Student Activity with student services um easily accessible to students and directly above it so that was a huge shaper in the project creating a department-based organization in the building was another thing that really helped us um land where things should go uh the kitchen cafeteria relationship both some of the technical side of you know we have to get food in and trash out and things like that um but also how that could really become a major common space that that building really doesn't have in
large part today um and so that helped locate where on the building it should be and how it should look and feel and then last but not least there was a lot of interest in the media center which has been discussed you know for honestly for years about how that that can serve better needs in the building and maybe I'll let Paul do floor plans sure so the floor
are
continuing around kind of clockwise the um golden area there is the new main office so that's really the the principal's office and support pieces sort of the forward facing part of the office that that faces out to the public um the special education area there is shown in purple that is um being reconfigured moderately I will say to
better fit their needs but largely that's being driven by replacing some of those demountable partitions to make a better environment in those classrooms then you can see in green uh there's a combination of renovated science classrooms and some newer ones are being created out of the renovation that's happening there so that gets this science department Al together to meet that goal of being a departmental building um then circling up that in incl is the inclusion Center so that is being relocated up to the front of the building and a little bit more connected
to the common spaces that we're creating in the building and then the two other areas in Orange are the a renovation of the locker room so they're going to get a facelift and a redo um another thing that you'll see as we go through some of the um graphics for the project is we are creating sort of a new frame frame work for circulation in the building uh you can see labeled there the lobby just inside the front door there's a there's actually a level change in the building there so there's a ramp and a big stair that takes you up to what you probably think of as the Athletics Corridor now
but that's being expanded as part of the new cafeteria Edition so that area is really going to be a great new Center Commons for the for the building and for people to gather so we'll up to the next floor oh sorry I'm so on this floor um again some of the pieces continue on so the cafeteria is actually two stor space and then you can see that Upper Deck in the light blue there so that's a a spot that overlooks the rest of the cafeteria the in the gold is the upper level of the offices or really the student services section so that's more of the student facing portion of the
office and then across from that is the New Media Center which is getting a real tipto tail redo so completely redoing that the function of it its connection to the building and all the finishes will be redone um and creating some great student centered spaces within there then moving down um the art rooms are mostly being renovated in place but they are also getting a facelift so those will get some renewal we're are creating a third art room on the end of that block of classrooms that's shown in dark green and then across the hallway from that the teched area or the CTE
area you're getting a pretty extensive remodel to expand the auto shop and make the other shops work uh much better and be more collaborative spaces and then rounding out um this part of the plan uh we have the kind of light green or medium green colored classrooms so those are classrooms that are either being renovated or creating created as part of the renovation um the newest ones will be the ones to the left there with kind of the rounded Corners those are actually being built out into what is now the existing cafeteria um which we
see as becoming new great um circulation and Lobby space for the Performing Arts Center and then last but not least in the kind of brown rust color orange color is the what is currently the kitchen the commercial kitchen will become uh the new fax lab and um uh life skills area for facts then uh a little bit of update on the site um one of the as s mentioned early in the presentation putting the main office at the center of Student
Activity was a a pivotal thing for that that really meant that it wanted to be on the north side of the building to connect things with better um and that drove the site improvements that we're doing so um the parent drop off will continue to be focused towards the back of the building where it is now but we're doing significant improvements to the roadway to make that flow better so um parents coming in and going out um will'll have a much more of a direct shot to the the line basically to drop off people in the back and then you'll have to take a a left turn to go to the
main office which we think is really going to help streamline things in the morning and afternoon when it's busy then we're just um ltfm work is improving a number of the paved areas and uh reworking some of those as we go through but a lot of the rest of the functions of the site stay the way they are um you've seen this on um other updates that we've given uh but each one of our projects we like to C up with what we call the design concept so we try to find something that grounds the design of the building in the community and the
the uniqueness of that school um and for Woodbury U we have uh really tried to focus on some of the values that are um inherent in the nature and Pathways within the the community um you obviously have major waterways and water features like the Mississippi River um there's still rural areas and one of the things that we found really inspirational was that very early on uh over a century ago when they started laying out the land they made sure to lay out a lot of parks and so we took
that as a real investment in nature that comes through in the design and particularly the pallet of the the project and then these were just some of our study pieces that we talked about there's water routes um the infrastructure of roadways is very fascinating so we're kind of equating that to the circulation within the building which as I said we're trying to improve bottlenecks within the building with what we're doing and then those nature systems that we talked about and this is just an exhibit um that we found um from the city that shows the the investment in Parks it's actually quite a tremendous amount of
parks you have within the city then um one of the things that we do with design is we go look for some inspirational images this both helps us shape kind of the form of the building and the look and feel of it but also helps us really draw a color and material pette for the building you can see some of the great things that we were looking at there couple of those uh and again the idea of trees was very important and then you'll see the idea of a cliff has become um a prominent part within the building as well and then this is kind of a diagram that
helps to interpret some of those things as we lo lay over the building so you can see areas such as the cafeteria we're thinking of more of a nature space or a park-like space and so the interior design is set up to support that and create a peaceful environment other areas are meant to be more circulation and Pastor spaces or train as we call them and then that same diagram for the upper level the media center and that new Performing Arts Lobby are also places that we're trying to create some places of rest and Solitude um that will help it feel like a more peaceful place
but also a vibrant Center of activity and again some more of the inspirational materials that we drew on for the inside of the building um including again trees uh Parkland The Cliffs and uh the big Open Sky and then uh as I said we draw on those materials or those images for inspiration for material so we have a number of kind of Natural Earth toned and grounded materials which can be very
vibrant but also a bit more Timeless so that they can stand the test of time um and uh Sarah does have physical samples of all these if anybody's interested sometimes it's hard to look at a monitor and appreciate the color tone so as I we go into the next phase which is showing you how materials will be applied um if you're interested in what of those actually look like and feel like we do have that so some things you can see on here as Paul said we've got kind of some um natural colors that came through in paint we've got some wood and metal ceiling elements so um that metal
ceiling is actually a perforated where light can come through it so maybe to emulate you know dappled light through tree canopies and things like that um as well as building upon the existing building pallet because we are not changing everything um so when it comes to we will kind of zoom in a a little bit on different areas of the building here and show you a couple of um 3D renderings and then want to make sure to leave time for questions certainly so um these are examples of some of those User Group drawings we do where we sit down with the people who are actually going to live and work on those spaces and get
all the details right so here's a zoomed in plan of that first level of the main office Edition renovation and then on the right hand side um is an axon drawing we're kind of looking down into it spent a lot of time with SAR and her team talking about you know where are doors where is glass where are displays where are Outlets where is store stage right um and so you'll see that through all of these um and then just a couple views of what that could look like or what that's planned to look like so um for those who are trying to locate yourself um this is kind of looking exactly at where the office is today um
we are bumping that out to add space so there will be an addition at the front of the building there um in the left corner of the side you can see there's a little blue dot and like a cone that's really where you're standing in the new plan and then the cone is what you're looking at um so that's kind of the view and then at the bottom really shows kind of the key material shown in this view so here's a view of the attendance desk from right after you've left the secure vestibule um the door to Sarah's office would be right to your right and then back to the rest of the school would be behind us um little hard to see here but
you can see there's some people heading up there's actually a stair inside the suite going directly to stent Services right above them so they've got good proximity um and then we've got some branding both for district and for Woodberry kind of at this important welcome moment you'll also start to see some of the design elements uh we're using again the natural material like wood in this case the soet over the desk gives not only a sense of enclosure um but it gives some presence to the desk and also is kind of recollects the idea of being under a tree for instance um so now we've stepped just
outside that space uh this is in that lobby area so the space with the curved glass in the background of the space is the inclusion Center Paul mentioned um for those who are not familiar actually that um game gym hallway is 2 ft higher than the rest of the main level of the building so we needed to reconcile that here so we've got a stairing ramp um we've got some branding with a built-in bench there at the back where you can see those students sitting and then um more um evocation of that that tree language you know things you would see vertical elements along a trail so you
can see some of that wood on that same branding wall as well as in kind of the design of the railing and guard rails here is a space so we kind of we just standing in the lobby we turn around and look back at the main office in this um so Sarah has a name for this what do we call this this what this hallway not the secret hallway this is the back hallway to the back hallway I want to use the right word so this is the back the staff called this the back hallway so when we were explaining this to them earlier this week this is the back hallway um st's office is that um uh curved glass
space in this so that's the principal's office and then we've got some built-in um individual and small group study space for students there with more of that trail and wood language Paul mentioned maybe some wood ceiling as to evoke the feeling of being under a tree we have a couple of areas in the building where um we can do some kind of surgical um changes to help create Flex space so here are a couple examples the bottom right is actually what it looks like today so we um identified that
there are more Lockers in the building than student demand for lockers in the building and so could that square foot serve a higher better use um so this is an example of that opening that up taking those lockers out and between flexible Furniture um and a change in materials creating a wonderful place for students to work who might be you know on the ground in a hallway right now here is a a close up floor plan view of that kitchen cafeteria um this is a more detailed plan that does show you know down to the level of where every
oven and rolling rack is but you can see some of the things I'll point out um the kitchen is L-shaped really around the and then there's the servery so that's really the part of the kitchen that students interact with and those arrows really represent the intended traffic flow so students would come in down that southern hallway turn right into the survery and then there are multiple service lines and then they would exit back on the right hand side of that into the cafeteria um you can see a suggested seating layout here as we worked with Sarah to how to make sure that we meet um needed demand Paul mentioned already
we've got that flexible Den space which is not unlike Your Den or community room at many of your other buildings um they saw that on tours actually so was one thing that came out of Tours is you know can we have part of the cafeteria not feel the exact same and be able to serve other jobs throughout parts of the the day we do have a set of um bathrooms there on the very right hand side um that are in that fully inclusive model um right inside the main entrance and then I think the next slide is uh we're looking down into that so so to appreciate the volume we didn't
highlight it much on the floor plan or the site plan review but um you really want to have loading anytime you're having food right so the kitchen being there really means that we need to get a a truck there so we had to design around that as well as shielding and screening of that so you will see that in the rendering of um kind of a site wall that makes that not as obvious so now we have a few different views of the cafeteria so here um is the hallway the um the game gym or the competition gym would be kind of right behind us for context right this is that
hallway and so the the wall there um leads you into the cafeteria um we wanted to again evoke that idea of we're leaving the trail going into an open Park that dappled light through that metal ceiling element um this is the part of the building that will um be designed as a storm storm shelter is designed as a storm shelter so while there are many openings here along the hallway and to the exterior that you can see um there's specialized construction around that that can be in place in the event of a storm so there would be for example a coiling shutter that would
come down and seal this opening to the hallway in the event you needed to use it for that I think I'll point out too um it's really a smart to look at the actual color samples that we talked about Sarah has um for instance on this monitor I think it's a little closer to the right color that orange on this one it looks a little bit red super saturated the colors are really bit more fall color are those red colors are more fall orange colors yes it's interesting that even in this room they're different um so here we have stepped just inside the
cafeteria and the kitchen and servery would be right behind us we've just walked through one of those openings you can see the volume of the space that we talked about so this is a fully two-story space and then there was a lot of design intent behind um you know creating that you know what do you feel like when you're in a in a park right there's some overhangs but then it also I'm going to step forward and I'll step back there's times where there's nothing above you and you can see clear right up to the sky right um and so we Ed both of those sofits with the colors um some of our wood elements as well as um allowing
the the sky really to to peek through all of that and then we've got our exterior wall here with Windows here we have stepped kind of 2third of the way into that space closer to um back to the main entrance or main office we've got the den this and I should say this is the part of the project where we um brought in the language of the bluff um so this is you know a rocky Overlook and so while we have the upper deck above um we have the den below which is a little bit more
enclosed and so you can see in the materiality application some of the the tile that has some texture and some of that color um evoking kind of that Mississippi River Bluff language and also again this is all part of the tornado shelter so those windows that you're looking at are hardened to for um with glass that will withstand um they call them missiles but like a 2x4 going 250 M hour will not go through one of those windows a hearty window um and now we are in the upper deck um kind of so this is that upper
space as a part of the cafeteria so again it it can really be a flex space during the school day um this is actually a part of it um serves as a circulation intent so you're actually able to get to the cafeteria from the upper level of the building without having to take that same path so that will help alleviate congestion um and just a different space within the cafeteria because being in the hundreds of people twostory volume the advisory committee really wanted to make sure everybody felt like they had a place that they could eat comfortably so some
of the design language you can see here really trying to have that open sky so we've got some of those cloudlike ceiling shapes you know a very light blue um painting of the structure here's a view inside the den um this could serve a lot of different functions um including for you know large meetings or you know staff meetings or trainings or things like that and so um while the geometry of the space is Bluff like with some of those ceiling elements and angles we did bring a lot of the Woodberry way and kind of Woodberry specific branding into a space
like this it's right it's also right inside the main entry so whether you have Community groups using it things like that right um here we have the U Media Center floor plan in 3D view um so there is a couple of key points here um while we certainly had to think through things like you know the media work room and the circulation desk um there was a couple ideas the advisory committee had that really drove the plan which was to have these they labeled them media living rooms on the North and South Side
so that's really you know taking really the wall of the media center present and moving it in a little bit and allowing some open seating area that can serve as Flex space for all the surrounding classrooms and then those um both on the North side and the South Side are actually operable walls so it could you know feel very open and permeating at times of the day and you could enclose it if you needed the acoustic change couple views of that so we are looking at the north side of the media center uh this is the secret hallway we
used the wrong term earlier this week uh this is the secret hallway and so right to the left that it's a little hard to see in this VI we too close is actually the student services right on top of the main office and that upper deck is actually right behind us right to to locate us um so here we have again that kind of exiting from a Trail language some of the same things you've seen in other views and we're entering into the park so we crossed through that dappled light um ceiling element again and come into the media center which is really designed to be um one another open Park
so you saw many of those same elements in the cafeteria um our team was actually delighted to learn that there was more space above the ceiling than we would have expected when we started doing some field verification so we're actually proposing to take out some of the ceiling and let let that volume actually be appreciated by the users of the space um while still putting some ceiling elements back in for Acoustics just another view of that um we have talked about um how to incorporate for some other functions so there are like presentation capabilities in in this space as well as some windows
into the adjacent classrooms for borrowed light and then this is a view of that kind of media living room right on the south side of the media center um then we have a few floor plans that we don't have renderings of exact of um absolutely everything but here is a zoom in plan trades area and then art across the hallway um just in case you couldn't read labels on the big plan um but really what we have is a um reoriented on the leftand side um wood shop at the North with wood storage and
tool storage uh Paul mentioned interconnectivity so there's intercon interconnectivity among all of those labs with a um Center flexible trades classroom with some support spaces including an office and some storage and then at the bottom we've got um the Auto and uh Transportation shop and here's a floor plan of the fax department so again this is where the kitchen is today in Woodbury that serves um breakfast and lunch so we've got um really kind of a a dedicated cooking lab
with eight stations on the right hand side there um in a more commercial style uh then we've got a design classroom and a um flexible classroom which could become another um cooking or prep room in the future um with kind of some shared elements in the middle so we've got a flexible space that allows you to move between the three spaces without going back into the hallway a shared storage room and an office here's a view of the existing um cafeteria some people kind of think of as the cafeteria overflow space so um
some really finish updates to the space to make it tie into the language you can see some ties to the Woodburry way here with some branding and graphics and then we also have Paul mentioned there's two classrooms proposed to be created in the existing cafeteria um so here's a a view of those um when it comes to the exterior um we really wanted to um both respect the existing design of Woodbury so that it um looks like a holistic project in
the end and bring in some of these elements we've talked about so um that some of these are inspiration images and some of them we drew um color from but we have um the bluff which you can obviously imagine has got pretty strong exterior design language fertile territory to mind there um and then we've got the existing brick um and then we also have a cap around the existing building and so kind of all of these things together really led to the application of the exterior design and um Paul and I will kind of go through those I think we have four or five
images so here is a view of the main entry and addition so we are standing in the I'm going to call it the visitor lot um so that is the primary user of that um so we've got the main office Edition at the very very left a two story high entrance canopy with some signage and then that lighter color um is really that bluff Ling which we talked about on the inside coming to the outside of the building um with some patterning and reveals and changes in finish and that
is the den below and the upper deck above um and then that transitions to um going back to the brick Ling which that really the rest of the building has once we continue into the cafeteria there is a plaza here for students to be able to eat or patio some people call it and I'll kind of just step around so you can get a little bit closer so here's a little bit closer um to the main entrance we've got a a w a Woodbury W holding up that canopy um with some exposed steel then here is a View kind of as you drive up to that so this would be really
the approach if you've chosen to take that left Paul mentioned so Cafeteria on the right hand side of the image here um and then you can see a a w and that entrance canopy this is also a good view you can see the existing building in the background and how there's that very strong it's actually a pre-cast cap at the top of the building so really wanted to draw that through and those materials really helped us pick the exterior color palette here's that uh relocated we kind of call it pulled out athletic entrance and then I mentioned there's a site wall
to screen the loading area so that's really what these pre-cast panels are doing so um a truck can go back there but it doesn't feel like you're showing up at the loading dock when you're showing up at the front door and then last but not least you know how we're going to get there a lot of that was kind of end condition obviously we have to plan with CR Anderson carefully about this being a functional school that whole time uh so here's the phasing plan uh the per it's really the colors are are the different phases first phase is all of that kind of purple or lavender color so that will
be um very soon here this spring through June of 2026 um and that's all of the additions essentially are that part so you kind of have to start with that then we need to relocate some of those functions into that addition and then we can go renovate things because there's a couple domino effect moves through the building also working with CR Anderson want to be um responsible about how much renovation can happen in a single summer so the recommendation at this time is that you know two two summers worth of renovation to accomplish this work so you can see in large part kind of the
western half of the building is summer 2026 and the eastern half the yellow is summer 2027 um there's a few key spaces that you know go between those but in large part that's really how the project will be phased um and we we've CL worked closely with Sarah and her staff on that um and obviously there may be things that happen outside of these if Sarah can give a space up because it's not disruptive to someone um and we'll take all those opportunities and I think with that um
just again recap we've been in design for about a year now a little bit less um bidding is coming up here in just a couple of weeks and then you know fingers cross construction starts here this summer thank you does anybody have any questions I do um so one question I think this might be for you Chris so you mentioned that there's a lot of ltfm projects that are also going to happen at the same time so how does that factor like how does that get budgeted in um with what was
approved for the in the referendum by taxers what we already have for resources available and then we'll work Clos with wal and um Dan Hines and Kyle and we just met actually as a team to start talking about some of that because
we know some of the phasing will impact when some of those dollars occur but that so then we lay out our ltfm 10year plan and we'll have that in mind so the plan that you approved last um June actually had some of so do we ever move money back and between what would be ref
we are um maybe I'll if I could like super click well maybe this one will do um so here no wrong floor still catches me that that's on upstair St um okay so the um Auditorium is at the bottom left here um so we are um renovating the bathrooms right in front of the auditorium um and then also in the it's in the it's kind of at the Confluence of the green and the yellow we are
improving that set of bathrooms to be another set of universal bathrooms for student use um whether that gets used for performances or not is kind of how you how much you let to choose people into the building there's not a new large Bank being built in that area but we are renovating the ones that are there there's also the wall the when you walk into when you walk in the parent drop off spot there's that wall that separates the cafeteria right now and that wall is going to go away okay and there's a set of bathrooms up there that it's right by the lecture hall so yeah
so look like a bigger lobby area and that'll be probably more accessible like feel more natural to walk towards the lecture hall without that set of doors there okay and so then the Overflow space the cafeteria overflow now that's just going to another hang area students I say flexible learning space I don't know if you want to give we talk too about um the online learning space so we've been talking about kids that need spaces and one thing we love about Woodbury now is going to have multiple
options for kids so there can be quiet online learning spaces there can be partner work online learning spaces so just trying to get the students to understand what's happening where so that could be an online learning space okay and then same for that space that's outside of your officea that is that is the cafeteria overflow right outside my office that's the that's the new cafeteria overflow I'm talking about the current overflow that's that's the yeah isn't one downstairs and one upstairs we only have one right now no no I know like
when she had the thing in your new curved office sure the de the de okay so that will also be another online learning space yes okay we built it so as we continue to grow we can use it to part of the cafeteria capacity but hope I mean we're not planning to use it right away because we have a lot of kids during hour that don't have a place to go because our current
cafeteria it'll be another great quiet when it okay and then that pocket park that's the like that's the hallway that's behind the media CER tring to go the building app I and then um can you describe what the drop off pattern like yeah imagine
tods now I don't it well click too many times here we go so first of all if you're a toddler you shouldn't be driving well suspend uh suspend it um so again you come in from the same intersection that you do now the traffic signals and in whe whatever way you're going you would turn into the driveway and now it expands into a two-lane in Road and that and that continues I think all the way through the intersection
down to the the South part of the site so's the stop sign traffic you'll have right way to the right yep yep so that should help streamline things that because we believe that a significant part of the problem now is people trying to turn left to get out or back ping everybody up yes so they'll they'll now be given priority to to clear out basically then um we are doing some subtle shifts in the southwest parking lot there that red um Loop that's shown there that significant parts of that will be double
lane parking too so we're actually increasing the amount of stacking that you can do on site by doing that without expanding the footprint of the pavement very much so you'll you're creating more parking spots is that what you said um we're actually just making the whole route will be double laned all the way up in you drop off your you just stack more cars can sit in that area Okay and then right now if you go to an event at Woodbury High School and it's an evening event and it's busy you are like parked if you don't get there half an hour
early you are parked like pretty far away so will this impact how far away families will like families experiences coming we're not ific expanding parking so that's going to be similar else thank you thanks for having
us okay to2 and that is Spanish imersion program review and that will be introduced by tyone Brook this is superintendent wait for the transition here thanes pram in merington County schools
good evening we are here to present on the South Washington County schools emersion program uh this presentation will cover the the Strategic priorities of student experience uh Mastery of learning expectations student pathway supports operations financing F uh and Staffing and engagement in Partnerships we have Dr M jenkinson who is our director of program research and evaluation Carri Lopez who is a principal of the wbury Middle School Sarah s Wagner principal of the high
school wbury Woodbury and Sandy saso Fagan principal of uh new Avis front terce Coman say R let's begin the presentation right who has the clicker I have I the clicker you are the clicker I don't know why like to have you continue There do Ian I'm done all right so for our agenda we're
gonna give an overview of our Spanish Orin program and then we will talk about the program evaluation that took place and then we will talk about next steps and how we're plan on moving forward okay um so what is sor so what is a Spanish Immersion program so it is an educational model where core academic instruction is delivered primarily in Spanish um in our model it starts in elementary and moves into the
middle school and secondary um which is continued through language arts and their social studies um curriculums and classes um it follows the district curriculum and learning outcomes so everything meets um our strategic plans all of our um learning outcomes everything is aligned with the district just like every other school um Spanish Immersion is offered at noas frona Spanish Immersion um at Woodberry Middle
School which is 6 to8 and then Woodburry High School um 912 currently our model would be considered to be a oneway emerging program meaning that it's um primarily native English speakers go through the program um through an additive model where they're adding language to their existing language so um there has sometimes there's a confusion between what dual
language means that it's separate from different types of models dual language is an umbrella term so dual language means it can mean uh developmental bilingual usually that is for our uh English language language Learners um a two-way immersion a two-way immersion and two-way immersion looks uh different um in different ways um but basically what it is is you have native English speakers going one way learning Spanish
and then we have native uh Spanish speakers going the other way learning English um we have Heritage language immersion programs where so for example I am a Heritage language speaker um my I come from a home my home language is Spanish um so I might speak Spanish um but I might not necessarily read or write in Spanish so that would be the Heritage language immersion program a foreign language IM immersion program
again is what we are we um start off with basically um native English speakers and add Spanish to that immersion model so um a little bit background on um bilingual programs um for a newcomer program which we don't have too many there's a couple in the United States um I don't know if we have any Minnesota I know there's some in Illinois um but
basically it is um a center for English language ERS to come and they will have an initial time period to kind of adjust to learning English English um and there's integration with academic and personal social support um and then we'll have a transitional a transitional program um which could be an either either an early or a late exit and again it's very similar to a new uh program
newcomer program um where again it's a goal of English learning development transition from one language to the to English um it's a shorter program and there's sheltered instruction and bridging strategies that are use now the difference here is that this is called or considered to be a subtractive model so there's nothing being added the only
thing that's being added is English Okay their Spanish or their um native language is not consistently developed and So eventually they lose that language and they lose the ability either to read write or even speak in it um and then you'll move into a foreign language program again that's what we are um our goal is to Target additive um additive language which would be Spanish
to our native English speakers um this is considered to be an additive model okay um our dual language immersion is again a two-way model and there could be little variations between that basic basically what an effective dual language model looks like is it is considered to be a dynamic language acquisition U model where you're instead of foreign language you um are really
only working in one language and that target language where that Dynamic language you're using both you're using your repertoire of both languages and that's what we want I don't want to mess up okay so next we're gonna look at the histor history of the immersion program so as you go way back to 2004 2005 is when we started
I was an elementary principal at the time so I remember at Bailey Elementary and then we moved in 78 we moved at to crestw Elementary and we had K3 at the time then the first cohort for Middle School Cottage grow took the program 10 20101 then up to Sarah's building Woodbury High School in 1314 and we had our first graduating class since
1617 and then I built an addition um and which was really awesome love my addition and we moved the pathway over to my building 68 um in 1819 uh then immersion left Crestview and they went into the old opman in um 1920 and then we don't really want to talk about Co like I don't want to I don't I don't remember Co it was a long time ago did it happen
um so we can go on to the next one okay talk about I talk about um so we're just comparing the um the demographics of the immersion program so as you can see um from 201314 to 2324 and the increase that we have in our Latino population that's in the demographics um in our program for noas
fron teras on thank you and then the demographics for our whole K12 emmersion program with enrollment numbers of 92 and I thought it was pretty amazing that so close female and male so 48 to 52% um then it breaks down um from White at 60% Latino 29 uh two or more races seven black African two Asian two uh
Primary Home language 79% English 18% Spanish and 2% others and we have 7% receiving um El Services 133% receiving special education and 18% of free reduce students are part of our program the next slide so this is our pathway and the the key the piece that we want to point out is when you look at nois front terce in K1 90% so the first number is what they're learning in
Spanish so they're speaking Spanish 90% of the time English 10% then it just goes up grade two 75 English 25 um no 75 Spanish 25 English when they get to fifth grade is 5050 so you see the breakdown for noas now when you move into uh Woodbury Middle School out of their six periods two classes they speak total Spanish which is in their social studies so they're basically getting
their six seventh and eighth grade social studies in Spanish um where the rest of the students are getting it in English and then they have um a course for Spanish language arts um that's also fully spoken in Spanish and then they follow up to Sarah's at Woodbury High School and same it looks it mirrors the same with the social studies being um in Spanish and then they have a Spanish language art so two out of their six so this next uh part of the
presentation will be the immersion in action so you will actually see classrooms and students engaging in the language and Sarah I'm not sure if you're going to click or how this happens I'm looking oh here we go I click again no I think this is the wrong video this is Carly's video yeah so click out of
that yes that one there we [Music] go fore [Music] [Music]
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that first video was a first grade classroom then it went to middle school you saw the variations between six seven and eight and then we closed out with the high school classroom is it green I hope so costumes are they just that it should be like the Middle School costumes like I felt like it was very language Rich
yeah every day all right so um before I go into uh the program evaluation for the Spanish Immersion program I want to talk um just a little bit bit about what program evaluation is um so the process of evaluating something is really to determine um the Merit or worth of something we do that every day right so um the goods that we buy where we choose
to eat we evaluate whether it h it is worthwhile uh for program evaluation it is looking at whether the um services are meeting its intended outcome so programs are aimed at improving people's lives and in that um programs Pro provide a certain set of services um and the expectation is that they lead to specific outcomes um program evaluation uses research methods to um gather evidence and data um there's many
different types and approaches to program evaluation but the two most common ones are a formative evaluation taking a look at the implementation of services or a summi of evaluation looking at the impact of Services um and uh program evaluation is one source of um information to help um make decisions um here in my time at sashco I've evaluated um programs uh English learner
program young scholars and Spanish Immersion I'm currently working on um evaluating the Avid elective course um I am um also working on um a project plan um to establish uh some procedures for program evaluation Goa thanks so for um evaluating the Spanish Immersion program we started in the winter of 2022 um we worked together uh collaboratively so there were uh school
and District leaders all the principles um were involved Dr B all the teachers as well as our English learner Department we also worked closely with a representative from the Minnesota Department of Education um it had two different parts so the first was um looking at student and family perspectives and then the second was looking at how um our programming was aligned to um dual language best practices so that first piece of
gathering student and family voice um it really looked at just what uh students and fam's perspectives were of programming um we did surveys uh for students in grades 4 through 12 as well as a family survey uh for parents and Guardians uh it asked questions about just uh some of the um components of dual language programming as well as climate and culture and then family engagement the second piece to that was looking at um how are
programming aligned with uh the best practices and for that we used a program assessment from um I think it is like the main one of the key sources for dual language anguage but it's it was called guiding principles for dual language education it looked at seven different strands of um what a dual language uh program should have there we go I have to click and
talk so I'm just going to share a couple uh highlevel overviews of um some of our evaluation results um so a lot of this information comes from um the surveys that both both our students and our families took and you'll see some quotes coming up in um some future slides but celebrations or things that we were proud of is that um our students and families place a high value on being bilingual and bicultural and that came
out clear in the survey results um our students feel a very strong sense of community within the immersion program being together with the same classmates all 12 years um kind of like a little school within the school when one they go through the middle school and high school students are really proud of being bilingual um and socioculture um or Intercultural competence really knowing about cultures outside of Minnesota and the United States they're proud of that um and then at the high
school level we also award by literacy seals to students who um I know you've probably had this information before but achieve at certain levels either on an AP test or a stamp test we have a number of different assessments that we can use depending on the language um but our students are highly successful in Spanish Immersion of achieving that seal opportunities we have to grow include difficulties with Staffing and staff
turnover um working on ensuring our students continue to have the balance of the right level of language exposure um in elementary both for English and in Spanish and then as they get into the high school having two of their six classes um different models encourage three we have landed on two most of the schools in Minnesota are at two um it's just challenging depending on your high school or middle school schedule um how
to provide opportunities for students um we also have an opportunity to grow in our alignment of best practices um we have opportunity certainly to improve in professional development K12 and aligning our entire system so you we call that vertical articulation um and that's the same as we have in our English speaking or our regular classes um how do our second grade teachers know what's expected when a student gets to seventh grade how do the 11th grade teachers know what was
taught in e8th grade um so that whole articulation of best practices that we would use K12 in Spanish Immersion we have opportunities to continue to grow in family engagement um and then also in how we track data um you have heard of the MCA test act there's there's not specific testing for testing Spanish specifically um that we currently use K12 um we do once they
get to high school um but we are working on better data and gathering information so we can provide that information to families as their students progress some of our student comments um really supportive of teachers they love Lear I'm not going to read all these to you they love learning about different cultures um they love being immersed in different cultures and learning from different people we have been fortunate to have many of our staff meter members
be native Spanish speakers um we also have a language assistant program where we bring in LA's from other countries so our students in Spanish Immersion have the opportunity to really learn um about other cultures in a in a very different way they have a higher level of exposure to um people from different countries honestly um they really like knowing more than one language they're proud of that um families
share of course parents who put their kids in Spanish Immersion value um being bilingual and bicultural so they shared that they know the value that their child has know knowing a second language having a variety of cultural experiences increasing their child's cultural awareness you can see their bilingual is amazing um and really fortunate that they and grateful for the teachers and the staff
that their children have had all right so all of that hard work and information gathering and input and feedback and collaboration um leads us to what are we going to do with all this great information so just to kind of recap our lessons or our takeaways from our celebrations and our opportunities and the data is uh summarized by a couple of core areas that we'll be focusing on and
we've already started that work so the first is we need a dedicated leadership team to do something with all this great information um and we'll talk a little bit more about that on the next slide as Sarah um highlighted we always want to uh increase our family engagement um and we want to have transparent communication about how we respond to and address concerns for our families um ultimately uh creating and celebrating a more inclusive um and effective partnership um and pathway regular
targeted meaningful relevant professional development is of course a goal um and a focus for all of our uh amazing staff we want to enhance the bilingual element of the instructional or teaching and learning experience that our kids are a part of um and then how we collect and use data in a meaningful way to reflect progress but also to inform adjustments and make sure um that we're responding and aligning our work to the
goals so as we look across our current and our next steps related to our takeaways as we uh referenced on the previous slide is we needed to establish or reestablish a dedicated leadership team and so that's already occurred and for the most part it's all of these amazing folks here Dr brookens and I and then a few of our partners from the teaching and learning Department um make up that team uh we as a part of our goal for year one um L dector has developed
five informational sessions or webinars or learning modules um that can be or have been provided in real time already there's been two um and then three more scheduled for this year and then they're all also recorded in house so that we can go back in Access or share with families who weren't able to engage in real time in that learning and then we need to identify um and and we're on track to do that by the end of the year a K12 bilingual literacy assessment tool
that truly tells us how our kids progressing in their reading and their listening and their speaking and their writing for next year we're going to really go hard on professional development we're going to implement that tool that we'll identif ify over the next couple of months and then we'll continue to look across the state at what other districts are doing what's working well what might we want to borrow and what might we want to stay away from because we want this to be our program and then next year or year three again just continuing to enhance that
bilingual that simultaneous development of two languages across all of our levels K12 uh and then Ono use of that vision card that you're all familiar with with our strategic directions to monitor make sure we're on on track and On Target and then engage in that cycle of continuous Improvement um that keeps us getting better every day so what is our program Vision well our program vision is to provide an equable learning environment for all
students to meet High academic expectations um whether they are uh native English speakers or native Spanish speakers um where you want to make sure that our programming supports um academically successful biliterate and competent Global Citizens um and that starts from kindergarten um we want our teachers to be able to develop their skills in dual
language strategies that are effective and proven and research based um to support not just our students but our families and each other um and then we want our families to feel supported through through their whole students Journey it really is a family affair we have students who start in kindergarten and go all the way up and their their siblings come up and their siblings come up and you know there we have a couple
families that have six children and they've all gone through the program and so it really is a family affair it really is an opportunity to build community and So currently as I've said before um we are currently a foreign language immersion program One Way meaning that our goal um is targeting the development from um native English speakers to become more proficient in that second
language is which is Spanish where we would like to go and where we're headed headed is to a dual language immersion where our goal is to develop by literacy so and and it not just in English or in Spanish but in both language to that Dynamic model where they are able to communicate and use and pull a pull their skills and their repertoire of language to be able to communicate during different
situations um so there might be three different situations one might be all in English one might be all in Spanish and lots of times it's in a mixture of the both and for lots of years um people had said oh that's bad Spanish that isn't bad Spanish that is actually beautiful Spanish and English because you're using your whole brain we know that people who are bilingual and multilingual actually use more of their brain power and
eventually the data shows that our students do better academically and socially when they are by literate um and so we will be moving um and thinking about how we're going to move um to compose varying levels of proficiency in both languages you want me to just head into the next one yes yes
okay so I'm really excited to share with you that the Woodbury Area Chamber of Commerce selected one of our Spanish Immersion teachers Kari Mahia as the teacher of the year for 2024 and the gala was two weeks ago where she was recognized and we have a video from that was shown at that Gala to share with you as the final part of this
presentation what makes me passionate about teaching is seeing students you know that light bul moment when they finally understand an idea or concept so their success is what drives me to to continue to create curriculum and create assignments to that kind of match what they're passionate about so the Spanish Immersion program at Woodbury High School is a continuation of the K12 program here in District 833 we have students that are new to country whose
first language is Spanish and then we have other students who began learning Spanish at age five in kindergarten and have continued learning Spanish up till now and the leading this program fluent in the language the biggest obstacle for students is getting out of the comfort zone often times they are too nervous and they know Spanish and they know how to say things and how to write things and the fear of making a mistake is often times what keeps students from producing what I know they can produce so planning fun
activities or planning informal ways for them to speak gets them out of the comfort zone we as teachers we don't do this for you know the recognition we do this because we honestly love our jobs and we love working with kids and I feel like I'm giving back to you know kind of making good on a promise at the same time back when I was a park student I wrote an essay actually in my Spanish class about what I hope to do with my
Spanish and how I hope to use it my personal goals were to use my Spanish to benefit the Hispanic Latino Community here and I feel like my work here helping students to be aware of cultures other than their own and then also teaching our Hispanic and Latino students and helping to close the achievement Gap and give them recognition that their culture is important in you know our little Community here and in our district that's what being named teacher of the year means for [Music]
me so there was a Latin term it says nonca the mission of the Woodbury Area Chamber of Commerce is to connect business to strengthen the community the exciting thing about the Woodbury Area Chamber of Commerce is that we are growing in 2024 the chamber had over 110 new members joined we're so excited Latin term that says non school not for school for life and
that's what our emerging students are prepared for they're prepared for life being biliterate and having that second language something that will stay with them for the rest of their life we will open up for questions at this time can you say that in spish hold on I can't but I got some well pleas thank you all does anybody have any questions just wondering I'm not as familiar I know you're pretty familiar with the school but um so my
understanding is in it's a lottery in kindergarten right and then they apply for first through fourth yes is what has the demand level been like is it where you have way more people on the list that want to enter it then is available and if that's the case do we see any possibility of expansion in the future so those are a lot of questions and I can start I can start um with the lottery question first So currently we have 96 spots in kindergarten that we
need to fill um half of those about half of those go to Sibling preference So currently this year we have 54 spots that um are going to be filled the lottery there is a huge demand to be in um the lottery um currently I don't know our lottery I mean I know last year when I was looking at the lottery list and the waiting list it was in the hundreds yes it was in the hundreds and
so people want to be in it I've also talked to parents who specifically moved into the school district just for Spanish Immersion um um I hold coffee with a principal twice a month and I had a family come in and say I said well did you get into the lottery before you moved and they're like no we just chanced it like we were just like we didn't know what we were going to do if we didn't get in um and so yes it's a it's it's an effective
program that people know about and they want to be there um and it's much more than just language learning it is the climate and culture that we have in our building and in the all of our three buildings that is really um have been supportive and helpful for not just families but for our students so if it expands that would be my dream but you know um that that's something to be determined I think in terms of meeting
the demands of the wait list um sometimes it is where is that line and so when Spanish Immersion was host at Bailey and Crest View uh the program itself was much smaller and one of the things of having a dedicated school is that we could then determine the numbers of sections and sometimes because of that fluctuation we have to have a set standard um is it right or wrong could the board at some point go back and say yes we want to add on um certainly then it would come through a bond of adding
on additional classrooms to meet that need but then we know that that would open up space in another building and so um I think for the community and for the the board just to be reminded that when we moved to the new location we did expand the program as well I was just going to say that because in the Middle School we've always just had two sections and it would be about 28 kids each and now our current sixth grade sections are at 34 and then next year I'm going to three sections for the first time so if I look
at trajectory of going from with her enrollment I will be continuing to have three sections instead of the two that I've always had so we've had growth be since the school's opened so just last year the last half of last year we gained 35 students um and so this year we're at the highest enrollment ever at 567 um and if uh we were to go to full capacity it would go to
611 so if students don't get in through the lottery or aren't chosen in the application what's the latest grade level that they can begin the program so um currently it is is first grade so um just research shows that um we don't want them to have so much of a gap especially in Spanish you need to be solid in one language in order to pick that up um but there is opportunities
for Native Spanish speakers to be enrolled um in the higher grades if possible um and also if the thing is is we're public school so we can't necessarily deny anybody if there's a spot right so um if we have a student in a family who says I really want them in you have a spot in fourth grade we're really going to work with them we're going to do all of these things we will work with them if possible um but we usually assess them
um I have my reading uh specialist who assesses them in the our curriculum in Spanish to see okay is there a lot of work that we have to do is there a huge gap is it um less beneficial for them to start in fourth grade um and what does that look like and making sure that that information is given to the parents um to have full transparency and Clarity around that okay
so I was very excited to see my child in the video talking during class time while his teacher was talking so but one of the questions I that the program is growing what do we know like what does the attrition look like fth grade to sixth grade and then it stays pretty solid it's it's been a pretty we might lose a few kids
um between fifth grade to sixth grade but not many um I think last year we lost maybe two three maybe if that um if anything um we might lose a little bit more from middle school to high school and that really has to do with Transportation um so um students who are in the track and and if Woodberry is not their homeschool they don't have transportation and so that can sometimes
be a barrier but lots of times they find ways to get there families are super dedicated to the program and they will make sure that their children gets there Carrie and I just actually did a big data dive into our retention from from 8th to 9th and I think we lost two um last year some years we gain because um even though some might leave our system at the high school level when we have newcomers that are native Spanish speakers we can you know especially if they're educated in Spanish they can come right into a high school social
studies class and and really be very successful um and a lot of our students if they were leaving they are moving to California they're mov I mean they're moving out of our system or at the high school they have different you know we have ceton durm Hall we have Hill Murray so they're not staying in our system um so we're pretty proud of our retention um between the levels Y and I would even go that I get I think I had three families last year
this past year that moved in that came from a different immersion school that had left our district that came in and left their immersion to come back into our immersion in the middle school so I still gain a little bit every year from one to three families that have been in imersion other state or in state that have come into the program I I've also had that experience too so this year we've had three families that came in from out of state or within the state itself that came specifically from a
Spanish Immersion into our program and so um so you so those are kids you can gain like so if you're on the weit list and it like fourth grade rolls around and you get a call is not g to school like by the time they're in fourth grade there is functionally no weight list correct correct okay um but then so you are all talking about how the program is expanding so what are how are you managing staff because I know is I heard that sometimes Staffing can
be challenging because there's just so many Emer programs so much competition for Emer teachers so how do we how are we adapting to grow yeah so um it's really difficult that that's a really hard question to answer so yes it's part of competition the other part is licensing and so lots of times when we um a lot of our students or a lot of our teachers um that are
teaching with us are native Spanish speakers from other countries who are here on visas from their husband's work or from whatever and so that's a way that we can do it um there but there are a lot of barriers so they can have a teaching license in say Mexico but that still has to be transferred over here and sometimes it's not accepted so then they have to go into a teaching preparation program here which can be a barrier financially and other other ways
so the tiered licensure that just changed in Minnesota a few years ago that's helped a little bit but it's still really difficult it's really difficult ult to find a trained teacher who has the pedological knowledge of teaching and someone else who also speaks Spanish there's an added layer too just because you can speak Spanish and you can teach we have we're teaching language language is another layer
that's nuanced that you need to know how to teach language in language acquisition which is different than just teaching math in Spanish and so like if you think of secondary like my social studies immersion teacher has to have a social studies license and might have a minor and went through Spanish through college and went overseas and everything but doesn't have a Spanish license they have to have a social studies license to teach that so
you can see that's how that's kind of tricky um so my teacher just finished his Spanish license because he's from Venezuela transferred got his license and now he's doing a portfol polio on top of it to get us social studies to keep the position I would also say we're almost at the Tipping Point now where we have kids graduating that want to return to be teachers yes so just like when we talk of about our grow EUR own we've done that in our district for a long
time I tell every kid you know they always like how come I you have a nice comfy chair and I'm like well when you're a teacher I'll get you a comfy chair too and they're like will you hire me I said yes every time we all say yes you come back back and be a teacher for us and Carrie just hired a teacher that was a Woodbury High School graduate into a long-term subsp Spanish position so we and he specifically has a social license and wants to teach Spanish Immersion so like we're start we are if we go back to the first graduating high school class
was 16117 now we have four more years in college like Park High School has an American Sign Language teacher that was a graduate of Park I have an American sign language teacher a graduate of Woodburry so like we're so close and Carly Carly was a graduate as you heard from Park High School y but I'm talking about what those World languages like ASL teachers are also very challenging to find and we have two in our district that went through our program went to college and
have returned so we are hopeful I also have a fourth grade teacher who went through the program she uh Miss Molly Kagel um graduated from the the program and she's a phenomenal teacher in fourth grade um this is her third year and we're just so happy to have her um and so that is one of the other things the other thing is how do we Network and how do we work with HR which we are doing about how are we
connecting to um different universities um so I have a connection at U Mano state so they all know hey you have a Spanish speaking teacher graduating you know where to send them um or metro state state or a couple of other places so it's really about networking and getting out there and saying I'm looking for people um and so is it possible to like if a teacher is Spanish is right to teach Spanish like Spanish
23 is that easily are those skills teaching Spanish two 34 translatable to teaching immersion or not or do they have to be sort of readapted I would say they're translatable but immersion is so much more um because the kids coming up to high school already are fluent in Spanish so it's not like they're starting over in Spanish one so our ninth graders are starting at a level four five so the the just the depth of
language acquisition is a lot I mean much more intense and there is Nuance there is Nuance between the different pedagogies of language learning and say math learning or reading learning um especially at the elementary level so there's different um pedagogy and uh strategies that an elementary school teacher might need um to know and have practiced um than just teaching
Spanish at a middle school level I actually have a third grade teacher who right now she was a middle school high school Spanish teacher she's doing great but she's going back to school because she knows that she needs the that pedological knowledge it's different one more thing and you would know because of your kids so immersion is like a language arts class in the language so they are reading novels they
are writing research papers that is not what you would do in Spanish 1 2 and three so they're really applying their language skills with the um speaking of the talking about the Seal of biter so what percentage of our kids earn earn the Seal of B literacy in any given year 100% have we ever had not 100% one time oh okay that's not bad it seems like a pretty decent uh is a very high
percentage of pass rate yes okay and there's three different levels of the seal remember there's a certificate gold and platinum um but the Last 5 Years 100% of our kids have achieved that of kids in Spanish Immersion one of the seals one of the seals to get a platinum you have to get a five on the AP test oh so it's hard I I assume not having taken Spanish hold um and then in terms of like what we see
like so I know little kids are always really excited about everything right do we see development to like how high schoolers do high schoolers feel the same about Spanish Immersion or middle schoolers feel the same about Spanish Immersion as like the first graders do or are there more challenges or differences in how we how they interact with the program well I would just say as a parent to a 15-year-old if any of you have ever had a 15-year-old how much do they love school like so it is just
developmental also between a I'll just say an eighth grader and a first grader have a very different passion for going to school every morning um but the kids that are in High School immersion are committed to it I mean it is a lot of extra work um the one of their classes is an elective so they're choosing it um which is a little different than Elementary when that's just their elementary school so I find at least at the high school level they are commit
and there might be some parents that are like you are going to finish this but when you're learning at that high of level and your all of your Social Studies your textbook is in Spanish you're reading novels you have to be committed to it um and they are or else they choose not to continue and they come back um senior Capstone students come back to noas um this year I think we've had the most we have at least 10 seniors in our building every single day in our hallways working
with their kids reading with their kids playing games with their kids writing with their kids and all in Spanish um and so they wouldn't take time out of their day if they weren't aren't committed or excited about it and so actually that brings up another point about Capstone classes so like what what guidance do kids have for Capstone class I mean I realize I I know what my child did but what what do we require for students to to graduate with their chord or so in high school require
that they take the two classes per year and that they complete a Capstone project so their senior year they don't have their a social studies class CU we have econ and US government it just doesn't work as well the Capstone is really an application of what they love to do so students are guided through a process of picking a project um and it some of it is community service some of them I mean some of my favorite ones have been from um musicians who studied Spanish composers and then composed
music so they really can pick a passion area um painters um you know Hispanic P speak your Spanish speaking painters so they they can take something that's of personal interest to them and then do a a big a deep dive into that um so some students um choose a research project and producing something um some students choose volunteering I do know we have a current Spanish Immersion student who's working with our
student Information Program right now in Den in Deno when we have new incoming families um and meeting with them so um we've had students do Capstone projects translating material at the food shelf and you know like lots they just pick something and they have to do Reflections um they have to do a large presentation they have to do a project at the end you may you have been to the Capstone presentation it's kind of like a science fair where they have um to write a paper presentation present to
their peers and to people walking around so there's different components of it I I may have exhausted all my questions I mean I honestly have like a million more questions but everyone wants to go home so um thank you this is highly highly interesting so for the oh actually Erin this might be for you or for Tyrone so when you talk about like the coordinated system working across across the program the K12
program like what does that look like and how is that different from what it was like five years ago before the program evaluation was done well just like so what are you doing differently now than you weren't that you weren't doing five years ago because five years ago I think like the principles were still talking I we can answer that yep um so we've had different iterations of a leadership group at some point you know we had parents that met with us monthly um we had someone from teaching and learning
that met with us what we're specifically looking at now is uh continuation of professional development so we might take our team to the Carla Institute at the U ofm right for example and we're learning emergence strategies but maybe the middle school isn't going to that and the elementary is doing something else or we'll release our teachers to do some vertical articulation on grammar you know but we don't have something necessarily built K12 like we do for our english- speaking students that we have
this is our Ela scope and sequence this is our math scope and sequence we don't necessarily have one K12 for Spanish form we want to formalize it so like we've been doing it but really it would be wonderful for my teachers then to have a chance to meet with Sanders to see what they're coming with you know to have conversation we've done it the last three or four years and um because it's been a need our teachers have asked and we've just never done
articulation across the board okay 12 so that was a much prettier version I was going to offer the response alignment um but that was a much better much better answer and and really um the leadership team isn't really intended to like change or create all these new things is to take all these great pieces and bring it together and turn that into our standard work our standard process that we then even get better from so alignment but all those beautiful
examples were way better yeah the work's done it's just a matter of putting people in the room and putting it all together okay you know what I'm saying um and then I did actually have one more question so you mentioned Sarah that a lot of high school models have three Spanish classes in the in Spanish and then the rest in English and that we've done two in Minnesota what is the third class what would the third class be science and we yeah so then now I don't know um so science is one
that we chose not to do but some schools that do three they do they have their science class in Spanish um we have a challenge with that it would be a lure um struggle also and then um learning chemistry in Spanish you know or some of those vocabulary words are are pretty substantial um we we are starting to do some visits to some other schools to see um what they have we're going to wetta I
think just next month or minetonka they have more of an elective model where they don't require two classes each year they require a certain number of classes and then students have a little bit more flexibility um if they want to take more immersion classes they could so they could take up to three but they're not required to so we're trying to look at maybe what some different models would be that might help with our staffing too now is where I'm done so we want to thank our leaders for being here this
evening I know it went a little bit long I told them I gave them a time frame and that we kind of like totally BW it out the water but we also have some staff from new W fron terias who are also in the a in support so thank you all for [Applause] thank you all that was wonderful okay someone else okay we will move on to 4.3 and that is going to be a discussion of the Schoolboard vacancy and I will be presenting that um as you all know um Pat Driscoll did resign at the end of
January so um current law says that we do have to fill that vacancy our current procedure would be to look at any board members that have left the board within the last four years um we currently have two that was Tracy brunette and she has moved out of the district so she would not be a candidate um the other one would be Lis Hines um I have spoke to Louise because obviously I didn't want to bring her
name forward and then we go to if we would go to vote and then she' we'd vote her in and she'd be like no I don't want to do this um I did speak with her and she is interested um so we can move forward with that or um the board can discuss if we want to change the current procedure that we have in place so I will open it up to any discussion the current procedure the current procedure says
that we go to a prior board member first correct correct okay so we would have to change the procedure if we wanted to if we wanted to do something different correct I yes I mean technically yes so we would have to change the procedure and then we would have to vote on no we don't vote on procedures though we would have to
have a discussion tonight to change to change the procedure there would have to be a consent consensus and then we would go forward with that new procedure have we thought about opening this up for like folks in the public who may want to be interested we can um that will take um quite a while and the difficulty with that is this board member would only be on the board from the first meeting in March through the election in November and then if they
got reelected um they could potentially stay on at that point um otherwise they would start in um January does it make sense to me put that out there to see if folks in the public are interested uh we can again like I said it would be whatever the consensus of the board would be so what would can we just so what would that look like then for if we if we did what Ryan is
suggesting so we would have to have then a yes so the Personnel committee would have to meet and come up with questions those questions would have to be put out we have to have it open for a certain number of days we would then collect those applications once we receive those applications the Personnel committee would go over that um we would decide how many to bring forward to an open interview and then we would have to do an interview in public um my guess would be that person would not be able to take the their seat that first meeting in
March just because of the time frame we would be probably looking at that last meeting in March or even April um before we would be able to put that person on the board so again for the the simple fact that it would be a nineish 10 months appointment um just to get somebody onto the board that is why we have had that procedure of just appointing if there is someone appointing a previous board member and if if Louise was appointed to
that position would she be able to start before March then she would start at that first meeting in March um if there is a consensus tonight I would put it on the agenda for the next board meeting if she was voted in at that next board meeting she would then take her seat at the March 6 meeting we she would be sworn in I mean I I have worked with Louise I really respect her I think very highly of her and I think like the learning
curve becomes sort of is sort of obviated if we do nominate her but also want to Jo somehow blocking them from doing so though I would say that they would just they could run in is the election a year the election is in November so like I said it would only be a roughly 10mon appointment um because whoever wins the election would
take so if say we would appoint Louise she either decides not to run or she doesn't win whoever would win would take that place immediately immediately in that November okay um yeah because it's if it's filling a vacancy they take over immediately um so again it would be yeah it would just be a few months Louis has done all of the board training she's been on the board stepping in would be easy um as you all
know the learning curve for a board member is quite substantial and that's why having somebody that could step right in would be nice um but again would be the consensus of the board so I'd like to hear each person's thoughts and what they would prefer iise think it would be some I mean she's so skilled in the job and knows it
already and we wouldn't have to start training anyone I mean the difference is if we get new board members you know we would get you know what what it four at the next time um that come in so anybody knew would be trained in a group going through all the different levels of training and everything um where now if we put somebody in we would have to go through all that now and then do it again with any new board members come January so um I highly respect Louise um you know she was a teacher forever here and was a great board member and I think
she would be able to step right in Sim I agree I mean I I'm I'm open to either to either but I I am a huge fan of Louise Eric moment yes R I don't know Lise so um I guess either way it's fine with me ultimately what I would say is if there is a a learning curve for folks to
come back to understand that the maybe the counter argument to be up to that would be this is an opportunity for somebody to come in join the board go through that learning curve with other folks FKS and then they'll have a decision if they want to run again in you know it would it kind of help people maybe get their feet wet into this type of thing without having to be fully committed to the full term so I can see either or both viewpoints and in the end analysis
whatever yeah I guess I'd be okay with uh I don't know this work I guess i' like to see maybe if there's any interest out there I don't know if there's a there if there's a possibility of putting it out for a week or two uh and just seeing if there's any interest maybe that problem solves itself and there's not interest so what does that timeline look like
then for the Personnel committee because we would have to the personel time since we've done it so and it would have had whatever our strategic plan was at the time so we would be recreating all the questions so yes so the Personnel committee would have to meet um we would have to put together those questions and then we would have to post it and I believe we have to post it for
at least five Dana do you know how many I know there's a number of days in it we I'd have to double check on the the technicality the last time there was a um an appointment process done was 2014 and I have more information from that yeah and that process took about two and a half months almost three if I remember correctly start to finish two months two and a half yeah it was it was a long it was a long process it is it is a quite long process which is why when um board
member slaven was no longer on the board we did not appoint because that process was just so long but statute has changed and we now have to appoint um at that point in time we did not but that is why we didn't at that point because that current process was so long which is why now we have the procedure if there is a board member within four years that we can appoint them just because the process does take a long time and we limit how many board members you know
right now we can have three people Miss if this happens two people if a third person misses we can't hold a board meeting so I did just find the old notes um from 2014 so May 19th through May 30th of 2014 they were accepting applications and just to make this quick July 17th they swore in the new board member oh my gosh yes so yes it it is a very long process which is why this is now the procedure um so I I I like the
idea of putting it out there but if we put it out there just to see who's interested without questions then we're extending it even longer and again we do have an election in November that anybody is welcome to run in so this would literally just be March April May June July August September October and then because there's the election is before a November meeting so it's literally eight months and applications open in July I think it is for right school board
members so we would be looking at again like a April or May I would say I would say may if not very first meeting in June that somebody would be able to be if we would do the process we did previously do you have any decisions to make Appo um that's a long time I feel like that's is that um and sometimes these board members
were on so we it wasn't because we could start the process prior to somebody resigning if we have enough advanced notice which is what we've done in the past this time we did not okay have advanced notice to be able to start the process sooner yeah because I believe when we did in 2014 the board member didn't leave right away they couldn't be a part you can't be a part of they can't be a part of the process but they can be on the board until the new person comes in if they're just leaving for personal
reasons or but Pat moved out of district and so it was immediate correct yeah I'd be concerned not waiting till May and you know worrying about having a quorum and everything if you know more than two people are missing a board meeting yeah I tend to think it's a little impractical to to to play that process out just with the time frame I mean yeah if Pat would have stayed on the board I fully would have supported application
and doing it that way that actually was my preference when Dana came to me with the procedure I'm like can't we get an applic and then when I realized how long it had taken the last time and that Pat was leaving months immediately it it just really didn't that's when Dana gave me the procedure and said actually this is a procedure so I was fully on board with doing the application process um but I just given the time and the fact that I know we've had quite a few meetings where we've only had four board members
here we could we can't hold a meeting if three people Miss at this point in time oh yeah no because yeah and we're at what five here tonight right so okay so it does sound like most or we are pretty much on board for um Louise I will bring it as an action item to our next board meeting to vote in to have
Louise start at the March 6th board meeting um and then she would be sworn in at that meeting and she's on board she is on board we swear in school members at the January 1 meeting after they've been elected and swear them in and have them seated at that I mean we can swear her in she is unavailable at the I did ask well because what I was going to do is I was going to contact you and ask if we could do it that way
um but she is unavailable on the February she thought it was the following week and it is not so so she is unavailable so it would be the March 6th meeting okay we will move on to 5.0 and that is our information items 5.1 is a financial update presented by Chris Blackburn Director of Business Services it's already I'm going backwards apparently so what happens Sean's not here to be my clicker so um
good evening everybody so tonight as part of um Julie and I had discussed and wanting to bring just some different um information forward and so we get frequently asked how do we build a budget and so tonight I'll just be presenting about really the financial update is really about the kind of process underlying and just some of the data within building our budget each year as we do we'll bring revised budget next month and then as you know we'll bring original budget in uh or preliminary budget in June so the purpose of a
budget way better at this clicker um should have asked her to stay purpose of a budget so why do we do a budget um predominantly is a tool to effectively allocate and manage our limited resources so we know we don't have just a unlimited checkbook that if we need more money we can do that and so this the budget really just defines what can we spend what do we have the resources to spend um and what is that Revenue piece it also provides transparency and accountability to our um staff taxpayers our community um it includes anticipated
revenues by category it outlines how the district plans to use the available resources by showing um expenditures by function is typically how we do in the budget it also does show by object and it also provides the projected fund balance so that's um you know as we know we've worked really hard to build that and it does allow that um you know if we ever need to dip into that it allows us that little bit of safety net to know that there's some opportunity there um that we have some reserves to do so it
helps the district plan for both short-term and long-term needs so we know as we're looking forward you know what things might change um immediately and versus as we look longer term and you know two three maybe even 5 years out and it can kind of we can start working towards our way that way it also um just to note that again the original budget is required I always always always remind everybody that the budget that we build whether it's revised or original is based on the very best information we have today but it is a snapshot in time
and so um we always joke sometimes that the one thing we can guarantee about budget is that it's wrong and we just always hope that um you know again we're trying our very best to build it as best we can but we know that some items might change um in that time frame so it's a snapshot in time so on the revenue side and we talk frequently about enrollment uh at cfac and at the board here as well as Julie and I in our meetings weekly the enrollment is the primary driver of State AIDS and that's why that's so important when we speak about revenue
for enrollment as we project and try to start planning a budget we use the cohort survival method to the current year students and so what that means is we take kindergarteners and move them to first grade we move fifth graders to sixth grade we move 11th graders to seniors um kindergarten is based on historical uh birth rate capture method and again we know based on the birth rates that you know we've seen some declines in certainly so we do anticipate smaller kindergarten um enrollments going forward but we do
capture I'll say like kind of more than our fair share of Washington County birth so that is um always been a really helpful for us other fact for enrollment we know that certain students um make post-secondary enrollment option decisions too so they can attend college take college courses while in high school we may also see people that drop students that drop um and other enrollment options whether that be homeschool or private schools or um you know open enrollment to other districts as well so that all impacts our
enrollment numbers and thus our revenues so again for 2526 we are projecting a slight decrease um and largely that's in Du to that kindergarten class coming in smaller and we're graduating that larger um so kind of our replacement rate is not as high so the categories of um revenues that we receive by far category is State a it's about 69% of our revenue is state aid um specifically within that though
there's a couple of big pots so our basic formula is kind of our unrestricted um it's determined by state legislature we know that we get in this current year we get 72.81 per pupil as we look forward we know there's a 2% minimum increase um in legislation and then there's a 3% maximum so you know it's not a real large range I think I did the math and it's 72 $72 per pupil um from the low to the high end but right now we're assuming 2.5% so we're kind of splitting the difference for
2526 which will provide 7463 per student again that basic formula I'll just remind everybody to it's about 44% of our total revenue and so not quite half but it's that significant part so when the state says 2% increase right on only 44% of our Revenue that's where some of those challenges we Face State special education is probably one of our other most significant AIDS it actually accounts for about 16% of our Revenue currently um in our existing budget it's I put up there a complex formula I
always hate to describe school finan and complexities right because it also is how kind of the challenges on us and the onest to explain that um but it does have three sens based um kind of a historical look and then they also do a kind of Prior year expenditure based formula and we get the lower of the three and so for us in so washco it's largely driven by the expenditures and from the prior year that drives our current year Revenue so as those expenditures increase our Revenue will increase accordingly as well I will note
that right now um one thing we have seen on a Statewide basis for the current year is that the state um puts a cap in for Statewide they know that they want here's what the amount they expect to spend on state special education Aid and so they can and it happens in some other AIDS as well that they can prate that so that means that even though you know $100 they're going to say you only get 95% of that so um right now we're looking at a 95% pration if the state doesn't legislatively take action to raise that cap other state AIDS then is
a real U about 9% of our revenue and it's a variety of formulas that drive things like compensatory Revenue which is largely based on the free and reduced numbers by the direct certification numbers um operating Capital um is another state aid that we receive but again I'll remind everybody that those have very restricted uses so of these the basic formula is the one that we use for any operations whether it's um teachers in the classroom whether it's the PA professionals helping in a special education room whether it's our um custodians or myself
and my team right so any of that feel like I should have put a click slide on here so again another um Aid that we receive is federal AIDS and so I know there's been a lot in the news about Federal aids for our district we don't receive a lot it's about 1.6% in the general fund is federal AIDS so is it impactful absolutely is it um does it horrify me sometimes every now there when I'm like H there's a lot scarier
things such as the 2% on the state aid um special education revenue for us we receive about 4.1 million in Special Ed has been recent years about title programs about 1 million in8 that's Title One title 2 three and title 4 um and then we receive a about um a little bit of other in American Indian education which is a real under 30,000 Perkins Grant is right around that 30 to 40,000 typically in a year Federal AIDS themselves are reimbursement grants so
if we don't spend the money we don't necessarily always get the money other than in special education but in um some of them do carry forward is what I should say um but in the current year if we don't if we are given $4.1 million and we somehow only spend 4 million that 100,000 rolls into the next year for use in that year but they are reimbursements otherwise so we have to spend it first and then they provide the aid to us most awards are formula allocations again that they um have some math that they do to come up with our 4.1 million allocation and again it's restricted in
use in all of the cases so those have remained relatively flat when we budget in Federal but it was then is another significant part of our budget it's about 29.2 3% when I did my math but of that number 2 almost 27% is property tax levy and we know that our voters have been just exceptionally supportive of our and our community have been exceptionally supportive of our referendum you'll know that again in
December this past year we did set the levy for fy2 um 20 pay 25 and'll be our 26 Revenue new fiscal year and so we set that in December again they are reserved for specific purpose and use the operating outside of the operating referendum and that does increase with inflation so that's the only one that isn't restricted in use as far as again we can use it for General operations another local and other revenue is interest earnings
and environment which we've seen a declining environment right now um so we always try to monitor that and I would say we typically tend to be conservative on all of these last three categories fees and admissions um little change year to year so what are fees and admissions parking fees um we might have fees if students want to participate in some whether it's Athletics or activities we may also have admissions to those events whether it's a school play perhaps it's a um you know basketball game or you know a hockey uh
could be a lot of those anything in that area um and so again we see little change year to year overall and then the last category is kind of a catch for donations local grants Insurance recoveries and miscellaneous um and again we try to keep those amounts conservative because they do fluctuate so some years I know that one year we sold some technology some old devices and so we had some sale of equipment that year but often times we don't have significant um fluctuations but there are those years so we try to be
conservative this is just a graphic apparently I can't talk tonight either graphical representation then and this does reflect 20 2425 preliminary budget as we know U as I mentioned we'll have revised budget coming next month but again the 29.2 3 and other local Federal AIDS is just that 1.64% um and state AIDS is 69.1 three the one thing I'll point out to on federal AIDS I know that I talked four million in that so I'm going to backtrack just for a moment across all funds we have about
11.9 million is what we spent last year that we received in aid but a significant portion of that just just under half is actually um food service so our participation in the national school lunch program so that drives a significant amount of that Revenue as well it's just not a general fund building a budget so on the expenditure side um this is always where we really dive in I always told Dan when he would come in so my predecessor when
we would have kind of the challenge of who could get closer on budget and he would say well I got really close on revenue and I said well you only have 2,000 lines I have like 14,000 lines um so I did joke sometimes but the most significant of any of our expenditures are salaries and benefits and so um I think I always talk about just the impact on those and so there is um about 78% of our general fund budget is on salaries so it's people so when we do
have to make adjustments that it's really challenging right um and so we're very thankful for the mindful investments in our staff this pass around in negotiations to negotia with 10 unions eight of whom we spend on those salaries so salaries and the benefit rates the district contributions are set in those settled contracts the board establishes the negotiation parameters when we look into the upcoming negotiations for any contracts that'll be unsettled at the end of the year and so as we look at July 1 the unsettled contracts will be
teachers principes Office Professional bargaining unit and the bus drivers as well excuse me so salaries and benefits the reminders for the board is that these amounts will change every year um full-time employees the number of staff that we need will change due to enrollment we may need you know either more or fewer um teachers due to that classroom enrollment we know that lane changes which is exists in the teacher contract so if they go back and get
their master's degree or maybe their doctorate degree they'll increase in Pay steps are long um Andor longevity in various contracts um some like the teachers contract has steps par contract has steps there's longevity in several of our contracts including the teachers now and so those will also increase that rate um the step really is just if you're here one more year you kind of move on to that next step so there's um not in all cases is there an increase but often times that's accompanied with a kind of automatic increase but there are some plateaus particularly in the
teacher contract retirements actually kind of help us on the budget side and so often we have real experienced teacher who's retiring we're hiring a maybe a newer or brand new teacher out of school and so there's some savings on the salary piece in particular with retirements we also have employee benefit elections and so as employees again we know that in the contracts we've decid determined the district contributions but depending if they choose which plan to participate in um perhaps they are newly married or maybe had a new baby and they have family
coverage now and maybe they didn't previously so those things will all Impact our budget and the dollar amounts and salaries and benefits and finally new laws a couple of recent examples I put on this slide is the um between terms or summer unemployment and so any hourly workers qualified for that and that was effective May of um 20123 and so we've seen a um it was over a million dollars to our budget last year that we saw pertinent to that coming in so coming I felt like I should have had blinking lights but um paid family
medical leave so there's a payroll tax that will be effective January 1st 2026 the rate has not yet been determined um we have some estimates what we think it might be um and so that will be the state mandated that we have to employers have to pay at least 50% of that so at bare minimum the most current estimate they have right now is 88% to fund this program so we know it at the lowest will or the least amount that we'll pay is 0 44% on our salaries so
again a significant amount that because of the timing of that but as we look forward it'll be probably about a million dollars each year that will um again it be be slightly mitigated by the a January 1st implementation this year another significant category of spending for us is services and that's about 15% of our general fund budget so what makes that number up um contracted Services include all things such as Legal Services audit so when they come and present and Simi gets excited
contracted Subs including teachers and Subs um teachers and parent professionals our SRO our school resource officers snow removal contracted Transportation when we do for our particular special ed routes and just a variety of other contracted maybe we need um a nurse or a because we're having difficulty finding those um it's kind of insane the number of Professional Services that we have so um or Variety in that category well also
utilities so the electric natural gas water garbage and again we know that Excel Energy might say hey we're going to be increasing rates and so we have to account for that in our budget as we project out and um plan our budget rent we know that as we um have maybe take new spaces on or as spaces go away right that we no longer need that those are in that category as well property and liability insurance um is another one that's in there so the assumption that we use typically on Services is 2% on average and so we certainly look kind of a little more detailed at that and we
might know that maybe Excel is raise rates and we might need to raise that by 4% um so we look at 2% average but then any knower anticipation changes contracted rate increases if we have any new rentals if maybe there's some expiring excuse me no cough drops tonight building a budget on supplies and materials so is another category overall we only spend about 4% of our general fund Budget on supplies and materials and so what makes up that
category probably one of the significant um is textbooks including digital resources so um sometimes I think textbooks I still think the old book that I'm walking around in my backpack but now days we see a lot more in digital um kind of I'll say like ebooks kind of but digital resources in those textbooks um and other softwares would be in there as well oh I'm actually good right now but thank you um I was more joking that I finally didn't have to have one included also is devices for students and staff um so any whether my
laptop or iPads for board members or our teacher um MacBooks or the whether it's a Chromebook or an iPad in our students hand I said that would also fall in this category and again any software fuel for buses and vehicles would fall under this as well you'll see a theme here but the assumption is a 2% on average and then any know changes particular if we have any refresh or replacement Cycles um such as on those uh devices or even on
textbooks equipment and capital um is again about 2% of our general fund budget so principal included in that category principal and interest interest payments on finance purchases so if Capital leases equipment purchases including Furniture so if we buy tables for the boardroom or if we buy desks for the classroom that will be in this category and again the assumption is 2% and then any no one changes and we really I would say one comment we would pride ourselves on that we really do take a detailed look at the budget with all those lines just to make sure that
are we do we think we're on target um so again any new or ending Capital lease payments would fall under this category or if we know there's going to be an outlay of furniture the final category then is makes by whopping 0.5% generally of our general fund budget um and again these percentages are based on the current year um so just to be aware of that but we haven't seen significant you know I would say nine times out of 10 if I go back and look we'll be at 76% 75% 78 maybe 79 in salary in budget so we stay
right in that between 75 and 80 um in that so a lot of these year to year will stay relatively close but this other category includes such things as dues and members ships we do have some scholarships that um outside entities give us the funds to administer the scholarships and so that is in this number kind of small other things and again the 2% plus known changes felt like I should have a quiz on that one this slide then is just a graphical representation again the current year
budget so 25 26 but again it just shows that and illustrates that salaries and uh benefits at 78.2 four and you can see that you know when you have more than three quarters on that um it does make sometimes that adaptability to you know we know that we approved a $5 million budget deficit coming into this year adaptability gets a little bit challenging the services um again that 15% and so between those two there's just not a lot I sometimes tell people we could cut every um pen piece of paper and it's 4% of our budget it's not a
significant amount so finally we do sometimes get asked about you know why would you need to do budget adjustments and so we know that the board has the policy for fund balance and there are some caveats in there about maybe necessitating budget adjustments if we would fall under that 16.6 with the budget revised midyear to update revenues and expenditures to reflect currently available data as I said earlier it's a snapshot in time and so when we set the original budget in
June there's a lot that we learn between then and the following March um is typically when we bring the revised budget and so we always will do that we have better enrollment numbers we have contract settlements that if maybe they weren't settled at the time prior they're hopefully settled by the time we do Revis any new agreements or leases maybe there was a new software or a new textbook that somehow we were like oh gosh we have to buy this now um hopefully we're not big surprises but there are things that we just learned from that original in June all the way
you know again talking about time frames that's a long time to uh be able to gather some more data and make a better projection on that additionally based on financial projections when we look a little more longer term future adjustments may also be needed really to ensure that Financial stability and so the most significant Revenue factor is enrollment so if we see a decline in enrollment that might really say hey we need to really look at is there any need for some more significant adjustments similarly on the expenditure side wages and benefits so sometimes we you know
again when we're 78% and maybe they were getting 2% on the formula we might have to make some adjustments then um if that's putting us out of line so when adjustments are needed certainly we always in every process I've been through which has been two and then kind of now we're doing a little more regular um just kind of checkin each year considerations always given not only to expenditure reductions but Revenue enhancements because we want to make sure is there's something we're missing too that maybe you know we can help with
that I know a number of years ago and I look at uh my P air in here but we did make a uh took a look at third party billing and so there was some really um hard work that she um the team in student Support Services did to really increase that number so with that questions thank you Chris anybody have any questions okay um so I just had two one is um how how frequently does the state
increase its local Levy cap and how much um you know by the time our Levy comes due in 2031 like do do you have a rough idea of like what the Gap is between what our Levy would be and what the state's cap would be we don't have the long-term projection yet um that they do I mean the cap comes out every year annually um and so because it is you know adjusted as well for inflation and so right now we're about $200 below the cap um and so you know even when we index to inflation and hit the max we
are already below the cap and some of that comes to you know at the time when we're doing a referendum we're doing our best to really um mitigate the impact on our taxpayers as well and we're projecting on what does that look like on property tax values and things as well and so um sometimes they increase at a lot higher rate and we're like oh you know we could have maybe gone a little higher to hit the cap because I know at the time we were trying really hard to do that um but the inflation Factor certainly has helped with that but we are still significantly under the cap right now okay and then uh my second
question would be around Federal funding and I know that in aggregate we get around 11 million right including nutrition service and stuff like that and so what kind of Advance um if there's changes in what that Federal funding looks like and particularly negative changes right um what kind of Advan planning are you doing for next year's budget year as a hedge so I think we'll have a lot of conversations I will say that the
um there's a lot of uncertainty as would those be onetime changes are they permanent changes right right so we are constantly trying to find out do we have any better information right at the time we set the budget as we look to next year right certainly right now we might know is there any hesitation or maybe some concern about some of those funding sources continuing what I would say on the Food Service side is that we have um definitely have some cash reserves built up over the past number of years and again they've been just off the charts with the number of meals served and
that's been beneficial along with the state stepping into um fund a large portion of those meals as well excuse me and so I think we can m at least in the short term on that as well as what does that look like then um and to be able to make adjustments I think back during the pandemic when Wendy you know the team and they weren't serving as many meals they were able to more quickly adapt to we don't we're not serving meals right and so they um you know made the very difficult decision to cut some staffing levels that spring when we weren't in
session um or weren't in person I should say so I think the I would say the leadership on that team to be able to make some adaptable decisions if needed if we really did find out hey this is not going to change or if there wasn't sustainability to it and then um on that side on the general fund side the special ed piece would be a little more challenging for us um again we've just seen growth in those needs of our students and so I think that would be more of a concern for us um in this past year we started utilizing it for our tuition bill so in the state part of our
special education Aid is that we um pay other districts such as 916 maybe we pay Still Water if our kids if our students attend their District were build back for 90% of those costs similarly when we Serv as students from other districts um we bill out 90% of the cost and I'd say we tend to um our kind of ratio on that we send out a lot more students than we um service in that amount though again the 4 million I think we had 3.7 million that
potentially we could have used towards that tuition bill so that would be the impact and then as a result then it would decrease our state special education um a and we would have the impact of not having the dollars so we would have to see if there's any adjustments but I would there it's really challenging and special ed again because that's driven by IEP needs I think that would be the challenge the title one I think in the other title programs would be much more adaptable that we would be able to make but what I would say is in those programs where Staffing is that's kind of set for the
year and so it's really there's not a lot of U maneuverability when if we don't find out maybe till next fall hey these dollars might not come through you know thinking the Federal fiscal year right that maybe it's next October that we find that out um I think this first we' take a kind of year one hit and then be able to adjust for your following thanks you're welcome thank you any other questions okay seeing thank thank you Chris we will move on to 5.2 5.2 and that is the first reading of proposed
policy changes that will be presented by Julie neelson superintendent thank you uh this evening I am bringing forth some of the policy IES that reside in our student handbook uh this is the typical time of year as we look to update um as we already prepare um for next school year you'll see 410 Family and Medical Leave um there are no suggested changes and I think really when you look at these policies and you see no suggested changes it's really a result of an annual annual review versus um every
three to four years four four Chris I'm having the same problem 413 harassment and violence I will just say that there's heat coming down and I really just want to curl up and have a blanket so maybe that's why I can't speak this evening 413 harassment and violence um and this is uh based on students no suggested changes there 414 is mandated reporting of child neglect or abuse no suggested changes 415 mandated reporting of Mal treatment of vulnerable adults again no suggested changes 506 our student discipline policy which is a
large policy no suggested changes 514 The Bullying prohibition policy um there were um a suggested change to section six um about the notice of the policy 5251 harassment and violence again no uh suggested changes that was staff related 616 is our school district system accountability no changes 623 is our summer school instruction and there were just some updates to um statute titles and 806 around crisis management there
were no suggested changes um so this evening I am bringing forth those policies after being reviewed by our policy committee any questions on those policies yeah have a quick comment or a question here so 413 it was it 524 or whatever it was 55.1 pardon me um are they the same policy or are they different so it's harassment and violence 413 harassment and violence
policy yeah what we have done because of this Dana she nodding her head over there I hopefully I have it Dana um the 413 group sits underneath students so that is directly connected to students harassment and violence and then the 525 sits in the 500 series because it's the adults in the school district so that really is the significant difference okay so fair enough so for the 413 then
if that's directed to students I guess maybe I'm I'm curious to know why we have all of these things why don't we just write in here very simply that we just don't have we don't allow harassment of violence against people students period without all the extracurricular you know verbage here right yeah I think it right now um according to um Minnesota uh human rights this is how it's defined y I know but I guess the concern I have here is
if someone is not in this group of folks LIF listed by the MH then does that it seems like an OM where you should just say we don't allow harassment and violence to any student and then this hold on please then this particular section could be a separate subsection where okay we don't want these things either but I just think it would read clearer if it just was applying to everybody because it seems to specifically point out all of these
different groups but it doesn't necessarily speak to the entirety of the student population who's not included uh well it says uh color creed religion so I guess it it could be perceived that there is certain groups of folks who are not included I guess is how I would read it but you can't you can't discriminate against any student on any on any like of any color right I mean that's what color means then then that should just be we don't discriminate or harass
students period I guess I think part of this policy is the protected classes kind because the protected classes certain groups of kids and why don't just say we don't want harassment or violence against anybody I just want a quick note we are flipped so 413 is the staff policy thank you 525 is the student policy the staff policy um is the harassment based on a protected class under the Minnesota Human Rights Act okay well fair enough but just thought I'd throw that out there for you
U 514 so moving on to that policy I had a question on that one as well um it says in the section six notice bullet B States Article 2 paragraph D is that referencing a statute or is that referencing the policy you go to the actual policy 514 bully prohibition um when it says section or article two I'm not sure what article two means but the second section is definitions in paragraph D says
immediately as soon as possible but no event longer than 24 hours but that doesn't kind of that doesn't make sense with what the change the highlighted change so it just doesn't read to me like it R can you go back to the policy you said it was 4:14 514 I'm 5 y so the bullying one right 514 yep and so at the at the end of the policy here Article 2 paragraph D regarding malicious and stadistic Conta statistic conduct must be con conspicuously posted throughout
each School building which is a good idea but then when you get up to what I would assume to be Article 2 which is really section to paragraph D it's talking about time and so it just doesn't read to me if it was referencing a a statute or if it's trying to reference back to the policy that makes sense I got it you're saying that it just doesn't align with sending us back to there yeah when I read it I was unsure what we meant because then you go and look at paragraph two or section two paragraph D it's talking about within 24
hours right which that needs to be posted within 24 hours well that's my question so does that mean that you have to post this within 24 yeah no I think that should read e yes I was just going to say that it should be e okay which defines seditious and malicious should say Article 2 paragraph e Article 2 E Yeah paragraph e yes not D is about the investigation yeah I was just didn't read yeah D is Right very good yes thank you we'll make that adjustment any other
questions thank you okay seeing none Dana is there any public comment no okay then we will move on to 6.0 and that is reports and comments and the first one will be presented by Julie neelon superintendent all right just a real quick recap of the week um Christine and I and board members uh spent uh some time simy and Melinda at the SEC Festival um and just really to give a shout out to our staff um it's a Saturday event it's a Sunday
event it's a Monday event it's a lot of time spent there with a lot of incredible students so just to name Park High School Tom storm Ben okan and Amanda CH Chek I believe cha is her name um Eastridge High School Brent KO and Kelly uh MC or dermit and Woodbury High School Scott Fairweather and Brianna Taft and then Eastridge and Woodbury High School together uh Liz gullick Liz is a crossover with choir for th both those schools um so a big thank you to
those um directors and to our students they were amazing um it truly is incredible to bring these students together from eight Christine 10 um conference schools and to listen to them perform um because they didn't know each other before and it's positive in so many ways getting to know other musicians other people who are passionate and then just to note that while there's the event of the concert on Monday many many other students come from the schools Dana's daughter
included from Stillwater um to perform for other um other groups so just a wonderful event and finally um February is the busy month and as Chris was talking about the budget I think it's always important to note that we watch that enrollment count um in particular uh Dr brookens with the kindergarteners and there's so much uncertainty with that enrollment and I think in terms of budget to be reminded that we staff in February and we staff in march sometimes for numbers that are unknown so we have
teachers out there set up in place and sometimes we're hoping that the enrollment we always staff typically on the conservative side um but we also know many times we're dealing with continuing contract status Etc um so just a busy time there um also um for all of those kindergarten friends out there we are approaching one the 100th day and so if you remember that day that is 100 days of a Cheerio necklace or a Froot Loop necklace so um we're making it right through the uh 2425 school year thank
you okay any board members have any upcoming events or activities on any committees on yep I've got got two um one is next Wednesday on the 13th right is that or no is that next Thursday next Thursday sorry next Thursday the 13th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. at Eastridge there's a native storytelling event and then on Thursday the 27th at Woodbury the black student union has their annual event and both
are from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. anyone else no okay then we'll move on to 7.0 that is our future meeting dates February 20th 2025 is a Schoolboard business meeting here at the district service center at 6 p.m. and then March 6 is our Schoolboard Workshop meeting also here at the district service center at 6: p.m and with that we'll move into 8.0 and we are
adjourned e