is August 6, 2025, and the time is 6:31 p.m. Our mission is to provide a safe and caring climate and culture in which we engage, inspire, educate, prepare, and empower all learners in partnership with our surrounding community to be
successful in today's and tomorrow's society. And um Scott, could you please lead us in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And then when you're ready, could you please call roll? Uh the following uh board members are
present at the district administration office. Um Shannon Hos here. Diane Fenton here. Al Dalin here. Natalie Copelan here. Scott Andreas here. The following board
members are not present. Heather Williams, Zack Dorhold, who may or may not drop in later on. And then we list the district employees. Uh the following cabinet members and staff are present at the district
administration office. Uh superintendent Dr. Lorie Putnham, assistant superintendent of secondary education, Dr. Jason Harris, assistant superintendent of E through5 learning. Nikki Hansen,
executive director of community education and community partnerships. Shannon Aansson, executive director of finance and business services. Amy Skellerude, executive director of human resources
and general counsel. Tracy Flyn, executive director of innovation and technology service. Katie Herbald, executive director of operations. Matthew Busher Bush,
uh, executive director of special education, Danny Mayor. Uh, media technicians Paul Novak and Gordy Scott. and custodian on site is uh Austin Goodwater.
Thank you. Thanks for filling in for Heather. Uh next I need a motion to approve the board of education meeting and work session agenda. So move. I have a motion by Scott, a second by Natalie. Um Scott, if you can keep that
microphone rolling and call vote on that. Okay. Um Diane Fenton. Yes. El Dogen. Yes. Natalie Copelan. Yes. Scott Andreas. Yes. Shannon Haw.
Yes. Thank you. And next then we have the consent agenda. The consent agenda consists of non-controversial items. The boarded hops routinely without debate. Any single member may remove an item from the consent agenda by requesting removal at the time the consent agenda is moved for adoption. On tonight's
consent agenda, item A, approval of person personnel staff changes. Item B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B B, approval of resolution to appoint absentee ballot board for November 4th, 2025 special election. Item C, North long-term facilities maintenance
improvements change orders totaling $211,284. And item D, South long-term facilities and maintenance improvements change orders totaling $99,654.72. At this time, does any board member wish to remove an item from the consent
agenda? Could you re read number C? Yes. Yep. The amount is wrong. Okay. Oh, thank you. North item C. North long-term facilities maintenance improvements change orders totaling
$211,2184. Thank you. Thank you. Um, seeing nobody wants to remove an item. Looking for a motion to approve the consent agenda agenda item as read. So moved. Second. I have a motion by Al, a second by
Natalie. Scott, can you please call vote one more time? Uh, Natalie Copelan. Yes. Scott Andreas. Yes. Shannon Haw, yes. L Fenton, yes. El Dogen, yes. Thank you. Then we are moving on. We
have one to our first we have one information item tonight and that is the code of conduct new updates and we have Katie Herbolt. No, we have Katie uh Bakowski, director of student services
presenting. There we go. All right. Better. Thank you. Um, let's get this. We had a couple of changes to the code of conduct for this school year. Um, one
was an oversight and one was an ad based on need. Uh, the first thing was an oversight. It was something that we'd had in our Skyward referrals for for years and just hadn't been in the code of conduct was missed and that was vandalism. Um, we used the state
Minnesota state department of education definition which is mil willful or malicious malicious destruction or damage of school or personal property on school grounds without the consent of owner. Um our code of conduct we um classify things as a level one, two,
three, four or five depending on the context and the situation. And vandalism would fall in levels from three, four, and five depending again the age, the context, the circumstances, um whether it's repeated behavior, all of those things that we as
administrators get to um do when we investigate situations. um and that will help us determine how to respond to the behavior. So that is the vandalism piece. Any questions on that? And then the second area is school
threat. Now we have previously in our code of conduct had threatened intimidation and we've also had bomb threat. However, we as administrators had kind of been looking at situations in the last couple years had situations where it was a a threat that was really
looking at um the school community or the community at large. And we really felt there needed to be a category to classify and fit that area. And after some discussion and um input, we came up with school threat. Um we utilized our
current definition of threat and intimidation which is conveying an intent to cause harm or violence through oral written or physical threat. Sign or act to the school or sign or act which is where our threatened intimidation ends. And then we added to the school or
school community and regardless of intent or ability to carry it out. Um again that falls in either levels three, four or five really determined based on the situation. You could have a a first grader making a comment or drawing a
picture or you could have an older student who's um having a more significant serious situation where they're making a threat to the school site and we want to be able to respond with a broad ranges of responses. Hence the variety of levels with the um with
the classification. Those are the only two changes um that we made in this year's code of conduct. Um any questions? Go ahead. And then Scott, just looking at that definition of
school threat, would it not include on school property or not? So like at school events that aren't on school property and should that be spelled out in that? So with any situation with any behavior that occurs during a school sponsored
event, we would apply code of conduct based on um based on nexus of school. And so if we're at school events off property, if it's a sports thing and we're at a different site, um we still apply our school of conduct because it's a school sponsored event. Um same thing
if it's a threat that happens over social media and it has significant substantial disruption to the school environment, we would then be able to respond in that manner. That's spelled out in a different portion of the um that wouldn't be Go ahead, Laura.
Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Good question. Thank you. Uh where is the uh code of conduct written down? The code of conduct if you I can get out there. So if you go to the district website under publications and notices
it is under publications and reports and then you just scroll down and it is right here. So, this is the 2425. Will we be updating it tomorrow after the board just didn't want to update it until we
went through the proper channels? So, okay. I can't remember we're voting on the school on the code of conduct. Do we do There we go. Uh you guys vote on policy, right? So, you vote on board policy 506, which is coming up tonight. and that's
what anchors procedure. So the code of conduct is actually procedural. Um so it dictates how we operate in our schools when there are behavior infractions which of course the board doesn't vote on because it's not part of your governance responsibility. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Good question.
Thank you for joining us and explaining this. Appreciate it and your time. Thank you for the opportunity. Okay, that was just anformational item. Then we're moving on to our discussion and action items. First up, we have the
approval of the 2025 2026 health and dental insurance plan renewals and premiums. And tonight joining us, we have Tracy Flyno, executive director of human resources and general counselor, as well as George Vanderweet. I
apologize if I did not pronounce that right. I just know George uh senior benefits consultant with one digital. Okay. All right. Here we go. Good evening, Chair Haw, board members, Superintendent Putnham. Uh we're
presenting this evening um the health insurance premium and and third party administrator changes that have been recommended by the labor management committee. As the board knows, we have a labor management committee that manages our self-insured health insurance and
dental insurance plans. That committee meets once a month. We are provided with exceptionally good consultation from from George and one digital that helps us analyze the financial health and well-being of our plans monthtomonth and
also runs the um required um bidding process for us and helps us to negotiate the best bids we can as we make those decisions about who will provide that thirdparty administration of our self-insured health plans. Um, currently that's Health Partners and I'll let
George explain um to the board tonight and to the public um to go over an overview of the financial history of the plan um where those bids came in and um support the recommendation that came out of the LMC. The LMC made a unanimous
recommendation to the board and we'll see that on the last slide of the presentation. Perfect. All right. I got one here. Okay. Good. Good evening. So again advance to the next slide. We'll just again just give you a quick overview in regards to the the health and the dental plan.
You'll see a high level here in regards to the plan design along with the monthly premiums. Uh both of our plans are self-insured. So as uh a district, we do take on the risk of insuring the overall program. So we as uh a school
board or as a a school district set the the premiums necessary to cover the overall liabilities of the plan. And if you remember last year, we voted uh to make some modifications to the plan design mainly because of how expensive the overall cost we're getting with with
the members. So this uh outlines the plan design that's in place uh currently. And then this is also the plan design that was uh recommended to be continued for the upcoming year. George, if I could interrupt for just a minute on that, I want board members to understand the public to understand the
the level of protection that these plans provide. You know, as we talk about rising health insurance premiums, it is a cost that is um concerning for us as a school district and for every employee that carries insurance. On the other hand, our plans give really broad
protection to our employees. If you look at that deductible of um 3,500 for an individual and 7,000 for a family, our district plan matches the deductible and the out- of pocket to the same numbers. And so a family or an individual can
predict largely the out-ofpocket expenses that is their greatest risk. And that would be $3,500 for a single less the HRA contribution of $1,000 that we make and $7,000 for a family less the
$2,000 HRA contribution we make. And so for our um members of our employee group that have medical conditions that require, you know, lots of care and attention, they can be insured that although their premiums, you know, are a
monthly expense that they have to plan for, the the the outside liability that they would bear or the risk that they would bear is very well protected by our plans because we don't have co-pays on those additional expenses after you meet those deductibles or other kinds of
expenses except for the pharmacy which is kind of a standard pharmacy policy. So that's different from a lot of other districts or employers where you may have a deductible but then also an out-ofpocket match and that's higher than that and employees could be
responsible for the deductible plus co-pays until they hit that out-of- pocket match. So our committee has carefully reviewed that year after year and and voted to maintain that level of protection so that each employee can really know what their outside risk is
at the beginning of the year for their medical needs of themselves or their families. All right. So again then being self-insured this is a document that we shared uh last year as well. The the left side of the document shows the pro
the projection in terms of where we are uh overall in terms of the expected cost and then the right side of the document is the actual activities for that same period. And so we are partially through this particular plan year. Our plan year
runs from October through September. We have financial data for the the school board that runs through the month of June. So you'll see overall the the claims expenditures that were projected. So based upon the health partners contract uh and with the the health partners contract as we talked about
this last year with with you uh we did have a fixed increase to the overall uh claim spend even though our experience was running different. And so you'll see a different calculation when we set funding based upon this. We actually
have a a fairly strong uh contract from a a claims risk p perspective with health partners under this last year of the contract. So 11.3 million is the expected claim spend under that contract. We actually are running at
almost $12 million which is really what we had projected based upon actual activity. So we are running very close to what we anticipated in that respect. you'll see fixed cost uh listed at about 508,000 where reality our fixed costs are about
246,000. We are receiving slightly more pharmacy drug rebates than we anticipated mainly because our population is experiencing a little bit higher claims activity. So therefore those higher drug uh that we spend also
then creates a little bit more of a quote unquote kickback. Right? some of the the evils of of health insurance in regards to trying to to track and follow the money. So, as a self-insured plan, uh we do receive the pharmacy drug rebates based upon the spend. That
you'll see there is is why we're generating a slightly lower overall fixed cost. You take the claims plus the fixed cost to get to the total uh plan spend uh year to date and then that internal funding that is the premiums
that are being collected on behalf of members. So both the district contribution and the member contribution for both active and early retiree population, you'll see about $13 million of funding coming in. And that aligns
pretty close to what our actual is. Again, you know, enrollment changes always happen whether we have changes in single family, things of that nature. So we take the expense less the money that we bring in to get whether we have a surplus or whether we have a shortage.
So far this year, we would have been uh projecting at about a $1.1 million surplus so far this year. Again, our claims activity slightly higher than the health partners contract that's generating about an $800,000 surplus year to date. We take that and we bring
together the the prior fund balance that we have. So, as a self-insured uh medical plan, we maintain an internal service fund. So, we need to have kind of a savings account to cover the eb and flow of of our particular program. We
have about 3.3 almost $3.4 million. That equates to about 22% of our annualized claim spend. Our goal is to be around 35%. We were significantly above that particular target a few years back.
coming out of COVID, we were significantly above that and we had lower uh increases to our premiums to really try to to uh use up some of that, right? The the goal is not necessarily to bankroll or to have a large internal service fund on the backs of the members
and the district. So, uh over the course of year, the few years we've been trying to to reduce that. We unfortunately also while doing that had some significant uh catastrophic claims activity. So that caused us to deplete that reserve position a little bit faster than we
anticipated. Uh as committee we we continually watch this and this is part of the conversation that we have as well is not only maintaining the proper fund balance but also making sure that we're trying to project future cost and to set a a premium level that kind of absorbs
or covers all that. So this is kind of how we're running so far. The next page just takes this data and brings it into a graph. Some people like pictures uh better than they do uh numbers. So it kind of shows you the same information.
You'll see uh that dotted uh gray is where we are year to date. The green is the expected annualized cost. The purple is where we're funding at and then the orange that you'll see there is our max liability as well. So you can kind of
see those those annualized values there. As we flip to the next page, we talked about that reserve position and where we are. Again, we started this plan year at about $2.5 million. I do caution uh the board in that if you're looking at the
district financial statements in comparison to this, there's always going to be differences mainly because the district's financial year goes July through June where this uh health plan runs October through September. So, it is really difficult to align financial
statements from the district to the financial statements of the self-insured uh uh health plan. But you'll see we start at about $2.2 million. The red line gets you the activity so far uh year to date again bringing us to about 3.3. If we were to run it expected,
which we know that that expected value is not accurate based upon the the strong contract, we'd be at about 4.4. Our goal in reality is to be around $6 million. That would be about 35%. So, not only do we want to cover expected costs, but we want to be intentional in
the future as well to slowly start to build that reserve position back so that we have it in the event that uh we have catastrophic uh years, we have the dollars and we don't have to necessarily push 100% of that increase on to members in the future. So, our long-term goal is
to to get or to restore a fund balance in the neighborhood of 35% of expected claims. All right. So, then with uh this year's renewal, so those of you school board members that may or may not be familiar
with Minnesota statute as a public entity, we do have a requirement every other year to shop all of our health insurance uh programs. So, we do go out to the market. We post this uh RFP process in the local newspaper. We
solicit offers from uh the insurance community. In theory, they're supposed to re read your local newspaper and submit those uh proposals. We do the work on their behalf. We actually send your RFP to all of the local carriers uh
so they have that information so that we don't miss out on any opportunities. That being said, so as we think about our market, Blue Cross Health Partners, Medicica, United Health, and then there's also what's called the public employee insurance plan. You may have
heard of that is called PEEP. Uh that as well received an opportunity to bid on our programs. So in that bid process, uh two of the the carriers declined to provide uh proposals. So, United Health and Medicica both looked at our
experience, looked at our plan, may have looked at where we reside and made decisions based upon that not to provide proposals uh to uh solicit uh our business. So, those were declines. We did get offers from the incumbent
carrier health partners. We did get offers from Blue Cross Blue Shield and we received offers from PEEP, that public insury, the the public employee insurance pool. It's important to note that the PEEP program does not duplicate
your existing plans. They have their own plan design and they do not deviate from their plan design. For reference, the the PEEP offers that were made, the increases to single premium was either 20% or 72%.
And then from a family basis, it was either a 39% increase or a 200% increase. So again, depending upon the two plans that they offer, uh the committee looked at that and made a decision to rule them out as part of best and final based upon a plan designs
not being able to be replicated and then obviously the significant increase to the premiums to support their their particular programs. You'll see on this illustration, we have the incumbent health partners on the left side and then we have Blue Cross
Blue Shield on the right side. We're UKare does not provide group benefits. They provide Medicare or they provide individual programs within the Minnesota exchange. So they don't provide a group uh program. Yep. So when we look at the
the two-year opportunity here, so what we're trying to do uh for you as board members is evaluate the fixed cost. That's that's definitely an area where we know kind of what that value looks like. So, we're we're annualizing this uh under the 2-year contract that's uh
being presented both from Health Partners and from Blue Cross. For I I think for reference or for uh ease of of kind of conversation, if we focus down at the very bottom, the green, the annualized fixed cost for the 2-year offer that Health Partner was making was
about a $2.4 million fixed cost. And then you'll see that the blue cross offer is actually a negative uh $646,000 from our current. So when we think about that, there's uh significant opportunities here in terms of
reductions. There's, you know, the pharmacy drug rebates, there's the specialty drug programs that are being made available. So overall, the main driving difference between those two offers was the catastrophic protection or the the individual stop-loss uh
program. If you look kind of in the middle of the page, you'll see that as a self-insured program, we protect uh the the school district for losses that exceed $200,000 on each and every individual on the plan. So that
individual stop loss has a $200,000 deductible. you'll see the 2-year uh health partners is about $4.9 million mainly because of catastrophic losses that they've had in the past uh and then trying to recover some of those losses
uh because you have had them for a number of years. Uh Blue Cross not having those losses are willing to to bet on the future and based upon that you'll see that their 2-year uh worst case uh stop-loss premium is about 3.1.
So 3.1 versus the 4.9 really is what drives the the main difference here as we look at this. We talked to committee as well about disruption, right? So there's plan design, replication of plan design, but there's also the provider
networks. Health partners uh very large network here in uh the St. Cloud area have contracts with Centrice and others. We wanted to make sure that Blue Cross had similar access to care. uh currently about 99% of our population uses the
health partners network that exists uh for them. That makes sense, right? If I'm on a health partners plan, I'm going to be looking in their network. I'm going to make sure that I'm going to providers to get that best level of benefit. uh when we compare the the prior 24 months worth of spend that we
have today under the health partners plan about 98 99% of that spend also uh relates to the blue cross network as well. So from a access to care we feel that there's a very consistent uh
opportunity here for members to not have disruption i.e not have to to potentially change providers. There's always going to be some individuals that are seeking care that a network is not going to be a 100% match for them, but for the most part, this provides very
similar plan design, very similar access to care at a slightly lower overall cost from a fixed cost standpoint. So the again the recommendation uh that we were making and and that the committee was kind of reviewing was making the the
hard decision to move from an incumbent carrier that we've had for many many years. We've had health partners and we've had great success. It there's that it's not a service issue. It's a financial issue that really uh we can't look the other way when we think about how much this costs both the district
and the members. uh we we have to take that risk and and make that decision to to kind of switch from health partners over to Blue Cross. So that you'll see as is part of our recommendation as we uh kind of get through this process.
Questions on any of that. So again, this just summarizes that we did do that RFP uh based upon uh current expenditures and projected uh costs for the upcoming year. Our recommendation to the committee and to the school board is
to set a premium increase at about 11 and a half percent. You see 11.54 to be exact. Uh really to cover expected cost. This is not necessarily to increase our reserve position. It's really at this point to cover expected cost. The one
other thing that I want to make sure that uh board uh knows as well is that Health Partners not only was our medical plan administrator, but they also handled our flexible spending account and that health reimbursement that Tracy talked about, right? of the,000 $2,000
to help members with their out of pocket to provide a very similar seamless opportunity where when a member goes in and has medical expenditures that that claim can cross over from the medical plan to the spending account there would be a recommendation to utilize utilize
Blue Cross's partner of which is called health equity used to be further our select account. Uh they have since kind of been purchased and rebranded. Uh so health equity would be the recommendation there as well to really provide uh a similar seamless experience
for the members. I think just for the boards you know to put it in a number the increase if we had stayed with health partners would be north of 19%. Right. Yeah. And again a lot of that as we talked about is that change in the stop loss premium. George, can you mention
that we're not the first district in recently that has made um this decision or explored this? Can you just talk about that? Have other districts switched over to Blue Cross Blue Shield and how that went? Yep. So, so one of the things that we
did talk about with committee and and obviously you can imagine the the apprehension of changing insurance carriers and the the opportunity to have to think about those differences. uh for reference we there was conversation about how is blue cross as an
administrator how do they kind of process uh we wanted to make sure that committee was aware that local school districts so rapids rice also has blue cross as administrator doesn't have any issues we've had a number of uh kind of
more local metro school districts that were using United Health that had moved to Blue Cross so Hastings Prior Lake uh blue for And also uh most recently Burnsville is moving from United to Blue Cross as well. So there are a number of
school districts as well that uh either have transitioned or are transitioning and the experience has been seamless in that respect. And if there were service issues with the prior administrator, those don't seem to be happening with Blue Cross. So and Blue Cross I feel is
a trusted name uh in a lot of communities. So most people have, you know, great name recognition when we're traveling uh outside of Minnesota as well and I'm presenting my medical card. If it has that Blue Cross logo on it, a lot of providers know that where Health
Partners uh utilizes Sigma outside of Minnesota. So that sometimes causes a little bit of of extra stress for some of our members traveling or even vacationing or uh snowboarding in in parts of of uh the United States as well.
Yep. Other questions on the medical I'm not quite sure where to when to start on this. uh because we've been getting a ton of emails from employees that are really unhappy with um
the premium increase and I I think we should make it a a point that uh the the premium increase is based on medical claims. Yeah, for sure it is. Yes. And uh
there's inflation, medical inflation that is eating everybody alive. Yeah, I I can speak a little bit to that as well. And I think maybe as part of open enrollment, there can be some uh reference to this as well. So we if we think about uh in the state of
Minnesota, we have two fairly large pools of population, right? So we have the individual market, right? So, individuals buying coverage uh individually either through the exchanges, through the affordable care act opportunities, those are individual age- rated programs. Uh the insurance
carriers that participate in those programs, Bluec Cross, Medicica, Health Partners, UKare for example, all of those have to submit their proposals for 2026 rates. Again, these are age rated products. So, based upon your age, uh
they, you know, they increase year-over-year. Increases for 2026 range anywhere from 9 a.5% to 18% for those insurance carriers that are providing individual insurance plans in
the state of Minnesota. When we think about the other large pool that exists, it's the small employer pool. So employers of 50 or less employees. Again, an age- rated population, but a really large pool of individuals. So if we think about spreading the risk in
regards to that uh th that those increases as well from the insurance carriers as they provide proposals for 2026 to the state for approval range north of 10% again to close to 20%. So
our 11 12% is really in line if anything on the lower end of those ranges as we're looking at this. So that should be part of the communication as part of open enrollment that yes medical trend pharmacy drug spend is increasing and
those costs are increasing. But when we look at our population in comparison to larger pools in Minnesota, we're actually performing at or maybe slightly better than than some other employer groups as well. Well, that's good to hear.
Yeah. And I did uh Scott tried to provide uh our employee group with some of that context and information in that long email that I sent recently so that they would understand that that rate increase in the context of the marketplace. Well, one of our problems is well
medical costs keep going up much faster than we than the money we get from the state of Minnesota. I mean they're complaining that our percentage of contribution is declining. Well, yes. Yeah,
it's it is, but it's the state of Minnesota that funds the school districts. Exactly. Y and if we don't get money from the state to match an 11% increase, our percentage is going to decline. Yep. And then the only the only other
ramp the only other way to kind of combat that is to increase deductibles and out of pockets, which then shifts the the risk and the liability to individuals at time of service. And if anything, that hurts the population that needs the insurance the most, right? And
so as insurance, the goal is really to try to spread that risk amongst everybody as as best as we possibly can. And we made that really tough decision last year, as you know, to make modifications to the plan design. And I know that you heard about that last year as well. It's like, hey, you know, that
not only do we have a large premium increase, but we're also shifting some of the the liability to us at time of service. So again it is a fine balance and and a difficult kind of dance to to navigate. Okay. Um what are we doing with the uh
married to married employees? So the um employee married to employee coverage uh contributions are negotiated into all of our contracts. So in order to change that uh we have to do that at the bargaining table. We've we've noted
with the groups that we've met with so far. We've had initial meetings with all of the groups and we have made them aware of the board's desire for both cost containment and equity to shift the way that we're managing that employee married to employee benefit. And so that'll be a subject to negotiations.
It'll be handled at all the bargaining tables with the individual groups. We're working um to see if we can get because as the board knows, you made a commitment in 2011 to equity among all of our groups and we've reached that par with the teacher contract. And so our
goal will not be to negotiate different EM or TMT with each of those groups, but rather to get a consensus um based on the board's priorities that we can consistently hold to with all of the groups. But because it is in the contracts, it is a subject of
negotiation and that has to be handled at the bargaining table and we've communicated the board's interest in that and and started some initial bargaining of that issue. Okay. Um, another thing that one of our
constituents was writing about is we have uh a lot more bosses than we did 10 years ago. But on the other hand, the district is not the same as it was 10 years ago. And I think that Dr. Putnham has made an effort to reduce the number
of bosses and that that should be aware. And I think the board looks each year at that at that budget that Amy prepares for you in great detail. And one of the factors in there is the cost of administration per pupil. And uh and I'm
you all probably recall that for St. Cloud School District, we are on the very low end for districts like ours in terms of the cost of administration per pupil. Thank you. Okay. Want to move on to the dental? Yep. So a dental plan is as well
self-insured. A dental plan a a lot less volatile, more more predictability, and we've had a fairly large fund balance. you'll see that our recommendation uh bringing forward is a 0% change to our over overall premiums. We have about $800 plus,000
uh in that particular fund balance. And then the life and disability, those are under rate guarantees. So there's no adjustments or no changes happening there. And then the same thing with our our voluntary vision plan, those are under a rate hold as well. So from a a recommendation decision standpoint, it's
the change in medical administrator, uh the the 11.54% increase there and then the recommendation on the 0% for the dental. And I think you'll see on the next slide just a recap of what those premiums look like. I I do want to to kind of mention
you had talked about the the cost of uh the increase and how that relates to pay as well. And that was one of the things that the district did make available to the the labor committee as well is just so they could kind of see what the
increase to premiums look like as a percentage of pay or a change as well. So that was important to because a lot of times we focus on the 11% and we go I didn't get an 11% increase to my pay. How can I afford an 11% increase? And
and the the percentages really are not necessarily apples to apples. we have to look at the actual change in our paycheck uh in comparison to the increase in the premium. So that was an illustration that was brought forward and a lot of committee members did
appreciate to be able to see that illustration and the fact that even at an 11% increase with no change to district contribution, it necessarily wasn't that large of a change in terms of the total pay that an individual it's still an increase and and the these
types of increases can't continue for any of us regardless of our entity. uh we have to get a handle on on health insurance costs for sure across all of our sectors. But just for reference, I I want to make sure that you know that committee did kind of look at that
information as well. Rates are listed here for both the medical and then for the dental. And then the last page is uh hopefully your approval to make the that recommendation uh uh come into play in the sense that we would look to move
from health partners uh to blue cross and to move from uh health partners for administration of the spending accounts over to health equity and then uh the increase in premiums that we had talked about for both the medical and the dental plan.
So, we're looking for a recommend uh for a motion from the school board to approve the recommendation of the labor management committee. So, moved. We have a motion by Natalie, a second by Diana. Any further discussion?
Al, I'm not going to talk a lot about it. I just want to uh a year ago I was the one who brought up the EME issue and went into it in great detail and I still see it
as a very unfair allocation of pay based on the criteria that you have to be married to another person who's employed by the school district in order to participate in it. And we shouldn't
have anything like that. And so I just want to assure the employees who are paying the price for not being able to participate because it's not us, it's not school district and it's not the school board. We we pay salaries based on what the state provides us. But once
we allocate those salaries, when we allocate when when inside there the union contracts are written in a way that employees married to employees get a bigger piece of the pie that employees who are not married to other employees. That that to me is a really unfair
thing. And the only way that that's going to change is if union employees put enough pressure on the union leadership to make sure that that gets changed. But I'm still on your side. I'm still fighting for it. I've had many, even
though I'm sitting here fairly silent tonight. I've had many conversations on this so far this year, and it is something that I would really like to see ended. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Again, I have a motion by
Natalie, a second by Diana. Scott, can you call vote? Uh, Diane Fenton, yes. El Dogen, yes. Yes. Natalie Copelan, yes. Scott Andreas, yes. Shannon Hos, yes.
Thank you, Tracy and George, for joining us and going over that and all the work that preceded that. So, thank you. Okay. And then we have one discussion item tonight. We have the 2025 2026
student and family handbook reviews. Uh presenting will be Nikki Hansen, assistant superintendent of E5 learning, and Dr. Jason Harris, assistant superintendent of secondary education. Good evening, Chair H, superintendent Putnham. Uh Dr. Harris and myself are
here tonight to discuss our 2425 student handbook um recommendations. Uh we met with our committee here this past school year and this year there are no recommended changes for the 2526 student handbook. Um we did want to just take a
moment as I get pulled up here uh to show you where to locate those student handbooks on our website. And so bear with me for a brief moment. All right. So, when you are up um at ISD 742 public side of the website, you can
click on our schools. Any one of our sites is going to be directed in the same manner. Um so, right now I clicked on Kennedy Community School. And then if you click on the about us tab to about our school
and scroll down to resources, that is where you will find our student handbook as well as that code of conduct link within every school page as well that Kate went over here today. Um so as we click on that student handbooks you will see um updated links for both elementary
and secondary um in that existing handbook from the 2425 school year. We did also want to mention that one of the recommendations of that committee um was to take a look at the MSBA model student handbook for this coming school year. And so we will be meeting frequently throughout the year to review that model
handbook and likely have some changes as we look to school year 2627. And with that, we will take any questions that you may have for Dr. Harris or myself. Anybody have any questions or comments? Al,
so you're showing us where it is on the website, but when when a student enrolls in a school and it's the first day of school, where does a fam the f the only place the family can find it now is on our website? We do have some copies at our site. Uh typically those exist with our school
counselors or school administrators supporting students and families through navigating the need for those handbooks. We also have a video of of the student handbook that is reviewed. And so connections conferences in both e uh preschool through 8th grade is a place
where our teachers help to navigate some of those beginning of the school year conversations and do have some information regarding the handbook. But there is not a physical copy that is given to every family. didn't and and excuse me, I am totally wrong on this, but I thought at one
point in time we gave everybody a physical copy of the student handbook and then there was a page that was signed by the parent and the student that they had received it and that they understood what the contents of it. Is there any documentation that we get now
that okay, so we understand it's on the website and we have to go there to read it and we've done so and we understand the content of it. Otherwise, aren't we kind of missing the point of having a student handbook? Yeah, it is a tool that we reference and utilize with our families. We do not
have an official sign off um that every family does sign off on and part of that was just to be environmentally friendly. It is a large paper print cost and as we gathered feedback from our families, it wasn't a very um a resource that was referenced very frequently. And so, as
needed, they can be requested at sites, we do have those copies available. And so we do try and work with our families to get their questions answered. I I think the I just feel like that's missing the point. The the point is we want to be we want to be certain that
the parents and the student are aware that there's a student handbook and that they say that they're aware of the contents that's in it. So when they're in violation of an item within the student handbook, they can't claim that they didn't know about it or I didn't know that that was
wrong. It's like you you know that that was wrong because you signed off right here. That it's the same. I have every employee sign a sheet that says they're aware of the employee handbook and and the information that's in there. And I would bet that we do that for employees that come on board within the
school district, too. uh I just can't see how we can have a resource out there without ensuring that people are aware of it and aware of the contents of it. That's that would be so if I understand your ask correct Al
it would be to have that layer of signature and understanding and I can certainly bring that back to our committee as we look to that next handbook and bring that back. Next handbook would be next year 2627. Correct.
I think one of the other ways that we specifically get some understanding, the handbook is specifically given to students at the beginning of the year to go over all the student handbook policies. So they really have a good understanding of what's the expectation
when I if I break this uh infraction three times a year, fall, spring, and winter where we go over that information with all students, new students that come in to uh assistant soup Hansen's specific counselors. Uh when you come to
the front desk, you ask for those things, you get a phone call. So we're making sure they get the information in multiple languages now so all families know the expectation when we come in. We don't have a current signature right now but we go over all the students
specifically and their advisories. Uh the counselors go over it small group uh to the student having the understanding because like you know they live the day-to-day life of walking in schools. Families get involved and we give it to them as a resource. But right now currently we don't have a signature. I
think the understanding is when we go through all the things around the student family uh handbook, the student code of conduct, and it's pretty laid out. We just saw it and Kate talked about it. Yeah. And I think what I would add to that is that um there is
nothing uh that a signature changes, right? There's a a level a varied level of understanding and reading comprehension amongst our students, right? Amongst our staff. a first grader isn't going to read it and sign off and their parent may or may not, right? But
that doesn't change what happens in our schools, right? That the consequences, the rights and responsibilities which are in the code of conduct, right? Um, which I would say if we wanted to go to that level of compliance check, the code of conduct would be far more useful than a than a handbook, right? Because you're
not going to get expelled for not making a mistake in the handbook, but you could for the code of conduct, right? Um, so I think the teaching that we do in the home rooms, um, our principles certainly send out the links, right? The folks here can tell you that. Um, but you know, just because I'm I don't right
like sign off that, you know, I I I know that the speed limit 60 doesn't mean I'm not going to get a ticket, right? There are and and right. So I I just think that that the step of right um and again I I would I would
live in that compliance world, right? We're going for understanding and teaching. Um, and there is nothing that Zach signing off or his kid signing off is going to change for what happens for Zach or his kid. Does that make sense? No.
I think it's also a change in culture to be honest. It's like I remember when Quinn was in kindergarten and who is now 20. Like I signed for it every year and signed for a darn lot of everything every year and got paper after paper after paper and that's just not where we
are as a society anymore. So, um, it would be weird to me if it wasn't the way it is now, which is like everything. I mean, to be a parent of a school, uh, aged child, you need to have a laptop, you know, it's I mean, I
know some only have a phone and so that's very difficult as well, but um, and internet connection, all that sort of stuff. But, you know, if we think of our families too, I, you know, can read this handbook and I could sign off on it, but we've had to make the changes in
um languages and then also video because like you were saying, there's um some of our um constituents are don't uh cannot read at the grade level in English or maybe at all. And so the inclusivity practice of it to me makes sense where
um there's constant um emails from Justin to be super honest, Justin and and his crew that are like, "Hey, did you see this? Hey, by the way, did you see this? Hey, by the way, so I'll hear about the handbook, you know, probably for the next month via email from Justin." But it just feels like as a
parent of kids in 2025, it's different than when I was a parent of kids starting in 2004, that the signature stuff just isn't there. And that we're um encouraged to constantly monitor our emails for lots of reasons.
I think we should mention that Zack Dorhalt has now joined us and at 7:20. Okay. It welcomes that. Um there is a principle in the law that uh ignorance of the law is no excuse.
Everybody's supposed to know the law even though we don't. And every once in a while as an adult, the cop will surprise me. Well, ignorance of the handbook really shouldn't be an excuse either.
We do try to teach it, but there's going to be people that miss it. It's about all I can say. Well, I I didn't really raise my hand, but I'm sitting here thinking we here we have this deal where we're
saying that nobody's should be asked to sign anything to say that they understand it and comply with it. Yet, the state just passed a law that all all kids under the age of 17 have to take a 4-hour boater's course and a test to get
a license before they can legally drive a boat on a lake. And I took it. It took me 4 and 1/2 hours and and it and cost 50 bucks, by the way. Um, and you have to have a, you know, the the speeding or whatever ignorance of
the law. You have to have a driver's license. You have to have taken a test saying that you understand the laws and you understand that you can't get a gun permit without taking a test. You can't you just don't that stuff. You don't just put something out there. And my concern is we aren't giving them a
handbook and saying we're not going to make you sign for it. We're putting a handbook on page 15 somewhere out there on the internet that's a line or or a link that you can click on that you might be able to find or might not be
able to find. And then we're saying ignorance of the hand not knowing the handbook is there's no excuse for that. Or we're saying it doesn't matter enough that we're going to ask people to
say that they understand what's in there. So, I don't know which it is. And to me, it seems like there should be something where we're making sure that it's in the hands of the parents and the students and and we're saying, "Hey, do you understand what's in here?" Because it's really important.
We don't we don't accept behavior that's outside these standards. I think the only the only addition I would make to that, Ellie, is that we're not just leaving it on a random link, right? We are communicating it to families via it is electronic, right? But we are sending it out. Our
principles send it. Our code of conduct or handbook. We're teaching it, right? So I I would argue that's even better, right? My kid is not going to read the handbook. I don't care, right? Like if we're going to hold their diploma, right? They're just not going to do it, right? Unless there's going to be something significant like you can't
drive your boat. You don't walk across the stage, right? So we do teach it, right? It's not like we don't put effort into it. Um and so that would be my addition, right, to what you shared. And I certainly appreciate that it is it is hard to find on the website. Um which is
why we send the direct link. Um and and we'll and I think your point is is helpful and useful and that it's a nice reminder right that has to get done at the repeatedly and in multiple languages.
Anyone else? Okay. Thank you. Uh then moving on to board of education standing committee reports. I believe we have two. Um we have board development policy governance committee chair Zack
Dorhalt. Did you have a report? Uh so this is from the July 23rd board policy and governance governance committee. We reviewed board policy 506 which was presented to the board tonight. I think okay wasn't here. Sorry. Um we undertook a review of the
MSBA year-long model board agenda and found that our current governance structure already addresses most of the topics outlined in the MSBA sample agenda. We did identify a few areas for further integration. Uh Dr. Putnham will gather more information regarding wellness report and will ensure the
annual review of our communications plan is formally incorporated into our board practices. Curriculum adoptions will continue to be handled by the district curriculum advisory committee and AEI and the staff development annual plan will be reviewed by the personnel
committee. We also discussed board development planning to ensure consistent onboarding and orientation for new board members and to foster team building and strategic alignment. and we were recommending a commitment to a formal board retreat every even-umbered
year. Uh so that would be 2026. Uh finally, we addressed the format of school presentations to the board. After careful consideration, we've decided to eliminate regular school presentations during board meetings. Instead, we will continue to produce school marketing materials on a bianual schedule,
ensuring these align with our district-wide communications and community engagement efforts. Thank you. And then uh finance and audit board committee uh reporting as El Dalgrren. Yep. Finance committee met uh for the
second time in July on July 31st. Uh the reason was because uh having to do with the Apollo referendum and the athletic fields of putting them both into one meeting would have made for a very very long meeting. So we separated it into two. The first item on the
agenda on the third meeting of the 31st was the Apollo referendum update. And Whitney is from ICS showed conceptual drawings of areas at Apollo that will be added or renovated as part of the referendum improvements including the
main activities entrances as well as the instructional areas. She also gave an update on the site plan including changes to field locations. The committee provided feedback and gave the design committee some suggestions to look into further. The budgets for the Apollo renovations as well as the
multi-purpose athletic facility will be brought to the board finance committee in August. There will be a presentation on the Apollo renovation renovations at a future school board meeting likely in October. And the second agenda item at the
finance committee meeting was on uh tech single user restrooms. Whitney showed design options for converting some of the restrooms at tech into single user. The designs are very similar to what has been done at Apollo and at McKinley. Whitney also shared the costs for the
project. Some of the work will be done in summer 2026 and some in summer 27. The project will be covered by money from the LTFM budget. And I believe is the next finance committee meeting on the 11th. Monday.
Yeah, Monday. No, Thursday the 11th. Is it Monday? Okay. Monday the 11th. I'll be there. I didn't see it on the calendar yet. So, okay. Thank you. I believe that's all
committee reports. Then we have future agenda items. The August 20th, 2025 board meeting topics will include end of summer construction project update, approval of the 2025 2026 student family
handbooks, approval of the 2025 2026 weather related e-learning days plan, review of proposed resolutions for the MSBA delegate conference, and some policy readings. At this time, does any board member wish to suggest a future
agenda item? Okay. Then I'm looking for a motion to adjourn our board meeting. And do I have a second? I have a motion by Natalie and a second
by Scott. All in favor say I. I. Opposed. Meeting is adjourned at 7:34 p.m. And opening up at that same time, our board of education work session. We have two items tonight. First up, we
have the proposed revised board policy 506, first reading, student discipline. And presenting is Shannon Averson, executive director of community education and community partnerships. Good evening, Chair H, Dr. Putnham, and
members of the board. Thank you for having me. Just one minute. Oops. All right, there. There we go. All right. Tonight, I'm going to be
sharing with you our proposal for uh board policy 506, student discipline. Um and as uh just so you are aware this this particular policy is over 20 pages long. So what I will be doing is don't worry I will not be going into detail
with every single item. I'm going to highlight uh the recommended changes um and uh and as I have indicated in the past policy updates many of the recommendations will be to align with MSBA board policies andor statute
requirements. Okay, first there are no changes to purpose or general statement of policy. And then our first change is just moving definitions uh to moved in alignment
back up to the beginning of the the policy. Um for some reason in the past policy, it got moved down to the bottom. And so wanting to have those policies, the definitions back up towards the front um because they are used throughout the policy and that would
just be for clarification pieces, but no language changes there. Then no changes to district-wide responsibilities or policy section. Sorry for all the scrolling here.
Okay, there are some recommended changes now for areas of responsibility and these include the clarification of reasonable force. This language is a direct reflection of Minnesota law um and statutes and therefore was added um
those were updated in 2023. The statute prohibits school employees and agents of the school district um including principles and teachers from using prone restraint or any form of physical holding that could restrict a student's breathing or communication.
The changes as you'll see as I'm scrolling up here are reflected under the principle under part C, part D, and part E. So you'll notice that we really defined uh the use of reasonable force
and um of the prone uh restraint and therefore that language is repeated throughout those three sections. And again that's uh that's a statute requirement. All right, those are the only changes to that
section. no changes to student rights. And you'll notice I just uh struck through definitions here because they were moved to be the beginning of the policy. We did make an addition of um the area of recess and other breaks. Um again, uh
this is uh another statute update as of 2023. And in the statute, uh, it's commonly referred to as the recess for all law. It was enacted to protect students access to recess and meal times and to encourage the use of non-exclusionary
disciplinary practices. And this is also in alignment with MSBA board policy. No changes to disciplinary action options. Again, lots of scrolling. I apologize.
For removal of students from class, this is another area where we did have some changes. I'll show two pieces here. One, you're going to notice that we are replacing um C uh D, E, and F. Um, you'll notice that we struck through some language for
items actually C through I in our previous policy. I'll explain that in just a minute and going back up. I apologize if you're getting a little dizzy there. So um um so there there were sections in
the MSBA board policy um or model policy I apologize um C through I that basically said that school districts should put in their practices their individual practices there um and we did as you can see below we had a a number
of very explicit individual practices however there's also a recommendation from a legal and and what uh Dr. Putnham spoke to earlier tonight of that governance standpoint that it's not best practice to include practices or procedures within our policies. Um as
procedures are really the specific step-by-step instructions on how to implement the board's policies. So we remove those practices or procedures and those specific pieces. And what we are recommending is we are um noting that our procedures for example that are
related to removals from class, return to class and parent notification which are areas we do have to address those are addressed in our code of conduct. Um so that's one example. Another area that we are required to address is to ensure that we have procedures for student
intervention and response and those are outlined in a district framework in our um Minnesota MTSS framework. So again, you'll see another area that we have to assure that we have in place is procedures for special education assessment um and review of
individualized education plans. And I am aware that our uh executive director Danny Mayor has just updated the TESS. Um and so those procedures are in place there. And then finally, we need to have procedures in place for detecting and addressing chemical abuse problems. And
you'll note um those are reflected in our board policy 417, which also addresses that piece for students within that policy as well. And get back on here and scroll a little bit more. So look away if you need.
All right. Um and then there were no further recommendations for updates. Um really the remainder of this policy is um in alignment with MSBA model policy as well. Um any questions? Anybody have any questions?
No, normally when we've removed procedures, um, it goes along with the comment that they've been moved to our administrative procedures manual. Are they are they moved to our administrative procedures manual or are they moved to different places?
They are moved to different places within here. But I will tell you, we are as a team working on that administrative procedures manual. It needs some updates. Um, but there are multiple documents within that administrative procedures manual that we need to update every year.
Thank you. Anybody else? Okay. Thank you, Shannon. Thank you. Last up tonight, we have the elementary boundary review process presented by Superintendent Dr. Lori
Putnham. Thank you, Chair Hos. Uh, I'm going to grab the screen from uh Shannon. Um, members of the board. Um, oh, no, not in use anymore. Um, actually really uh um excited to share this conversation uh
with you and with our our uh listening public. Still, there we go. Oh, come on. There we go. So, tonight I'm going to go through um our
recommendation that our plan uh for the elementary school boundary redesign. Um, and I I put these up there uh just to give a u maybe a a more emotional connection, a visual connection. Um,
when you look at these uh ideally this draws you back to the 1990s. Um, for me it's Wayne's World. That's what does it for me. I was in high school. Uh, and for others I know they're like Furbies. something like um but uh I bring these because uh or I put these here because
the last time uh that we looked at boundaries in this school district was when those things were popular. Uh so why redesign boundaries? Uh you know certainly just because it hasn't been looked at in uh over two decades uh is not cause enough. Um but over the two
decades um there have been sign significant shifts in our uh school district um uh and and as this as folks know we have a 250 square mile district which is one of the larger um uh
geographic areas uh for our district in the state. Um so as we look around uh we have uh for folks who are listening we have eight elementary schools um and we know that there are uh some of those schools are um over uh getting overcrowded um and some are underused.
Um we but we also know that uh you know just like you know we had the conversation for Apollo um how seriously we take that um ask of a public uh to give money right to give funds. Um we would never come to our public uh
because the school was overcrowded without having done our due diligence as a board and as an administration to say we have done what we can now right there are no other options and so now we come to you. We aren't there yet because we have not looked at attendance boundaries. Um so we we know that
there's some overcrowding, some underutilization. Um we know that there is access to preschool. Um there's some issues there as we we those of you um particularly Nikki and and Danny folks who are really intimately involved in preschool know that we we move them,
right? What we have to have one at Oakill. Now we have three at Disco. Now the next year we can move them around. And we do that um uh honestly not because it's what's best for families or kids, but it's because we want to provide as much access to preschool as we can and we are fitting in students
where we where we can, right? And we want to be able to smooth that out and make sure that there's uh fair access uh to a quality preschool education. And then of course we have specialized programs whether it's immersion uh or newcomer um academy and uh that uh
compounds transportation uh uh costs at times if we aren't maximizing our efficiency. We know that over the last two plus decades there's been changing in housing and geographic growth where some areas of our community more landlocked um some having more uh
capacity for for growth and development. Um and then as I had referenced earlier, we we want to this district, this board, um our our administration, we've been very committed to fiscal responsibility using uh the the public dollars um that are allocated to us uh both efficiently
and effectively. So how are we going to undertake this task? Um it is a it is a daunting task, which is one of the reasons we haven't tackled it in over two decades. um uh despite we've as we've seen a need and this board has talked about it for for
the last several years. Um uh so we don't take this uh this conversation lightly either. Um, so we're going to kick start off with a design team and I'll go through um a a timeline in a moment, but the design team is uh made up of about 10 to 12 administrators from
schools from uh our district and then union leadership from both the principles and uh licensed staff, the SCEA and the SCPA. Um and that's really relative to uh um making sure that uh we are meeting the needs of or the obligations that we have in terms of
contracts. Uh this team will go through data and scenario modeling. Um we will look at uh staffing and labor issues. Um and then the the role of that design team will create will be to create options um regarding attendance area enrollment uh policy. Uh that those
recommendations will then go to a broader input team made up of um we're estimating at this time 40 to 50 staff, families, community members and administrators. Uh they'll review the scenarios that are provided. We anticipate two to three coming out of that design team uh to give more uh
personal um and uh insights and uh share their priorities. They'll help us refine them um and then ideally they'll also serve as ambassadors to the community um because they will have an even deeper understanding of the complexities um underpinning this decision.
the timeline. We have been hard at work already. Uh uh executive director Herbald and her team have been working uh hard to gather the data. Um we are are pulling uh data from in terms of instructional uh capacity at every building which is not the same as a
simple capacity, right? There's a capacity that we report that the fire marshall sets how many people can be in there safely versus how many people can we effectively teach. two different numbers and we're using the instructional capacity um looking at um transportation looking at growth from
all of the all of the cities and counties that uh we serve have given us that data. Um so really very wide ranging looking at class size um uh guidelines that the board has set. So uh a lot of data is going into this. Um and
then um we've partnered with a a company called uh Teamworks that has a software system um that can take all of this data um we of course have a a a data protection agreement in place um and uh they then can work with us the design
team um so that we can say now move this boundary over one street um and it will immediately show you what the impact is in terms of transportation and what the impact is in terms of enrollment um and intended like how many families would be impacted, what grades. Um so it's a
really sophisticated um software product that is uh unique to that company. In August, uh that design team will begin meeting. We begin meeting next week. We'll have a couple meetings um lengthy meetings to bring those scenarios forward. Uh the input team will um take a look at those. So that's our
refinement process. Um and that will go back to the design team in October um where they will take all of that input and uh finalize a recommendation. Um it'll go out to the community for review. We'll um be meeting at every elementary school in November to share
uh the the recommendation that's moving forward. And then throughout it all uh there will be a landing page on our website where we keep um maps, we keep minutes of our meetings. Um so and then there'll be a feedback form so that um anybody in our community can stay up todate uh so they know exactly what
we're looking at, what we're considering, give feedback at any point throughout the process um whether they are or not part of these uh design and input teams. Um then that we will bring those recommendations to the board in the first meeting of December. um where the board will have the opportunity to
discuss um with a a final vote coming in the second meeting of October um with the um which I I suspect strongly suspect um our recommendation would be to to the board um for action would be to implement um effective January 1
because that's when enrollment for the 26 27th school year starts. Um so if we don't hit that January 1 deadline now we're out another year. Um so when we think about a community engagement again I I shared this um but again that input team will be
collaborative um across sectors uh they'll look at those boundary options um that website will be available um we believe uh no later than September but we anticipate having it up in in August um and then the school uh based information nights
I'm taking a look at the data I mentioned some of them uh but just so that you folks can see it on the screen um and it is and board book. Uh just looking at projections, enrollment, we are very happy and and pleased to be one of the districts um that is growing in enrollment. Um unlike our um many of our
surrounding communities. So we are we are really fortunate there and uh so then looking at our future projections. Um I talked a little about that instructional capacity and logistics and then where we see the growth happening. Um thinking about what what are the criteria, right? we wanted to get really
clear um with not only this board but with our public like what are we um basing going to base our decision-m on and uh first and foremost is access or programming um we will none of the decisions that we make will take away access um to any family for preschool or
for immersion right we'll make sure that folks still have access um thinking about um we know that people have strong ties often to their community school so really being thoughtful about how how do neighborhoods feel about themselves, what's their identity, how do they
attach to Madison or Lincoln, say and and if we made this adjustment, um what that might that do to proximity or walkability? Um, of course, we have to maximize utilization of every facility. Um, really thinking uh about, you know, this will be I'll be very candid, right,
with the board and and have been and with the public that this will probably be a really tricky thing, right? Thinking about siblings, thinking about particularly that demarcation line between elementary and secondary. We're only looking at elementary boundaries. Um, but there are some schools that either split now and some go to the
north side, some go to the south side. Um, and so there could be some situations where um, families are are needing to change uh, the feeder uh, secondary feeder system that they expect. Um, and so we'll have to talk uh, really thoughtfully about that. You just think about natural barriers. Um,
if if division is running down the middle, are we going to put a a onem walk zone, right, where kids have to go across division if we could avoid it, right? So being thoughtful about that municipal lines, we're you know certainly wanting to be uh thoughtful about uh crossing mun municipal lines and changing anything there. And then of
course transportation and fiscal efficiency um is also one of our primary drivers. thinking about transportation. Uh as I said, we have a very large uh district geographically. Um and so we will model uh the mileage, the ride times, and the cost for the different scenarios that we
put together. Um so that we can commit to maintaining or reducing transportation spending, considering those natural barriers, uh safe walk zones, wanting to make sure our students uh can walk to school. Um and then of course that our transportation is aligned with um the expected growth
areas of uh the cities and municipalities that we serve. Uh thinking about the programs uh you know really wanting to make sure that we um are reflective and inclusive of our families when we talk and staff when we talk about well you know are these the right spots for immersion. Um we know
that uh Westwood has had a a just a hugely successful Spanish immersion program and at some point they were going to run out of room. Um, and so really thinking about uh where do those uh immersion uh programs uh most make sense in terms of um commitment to a
school and a community and and uh and fiscal resources and again preschool and and specialized programming and really wanting to make sure we balance access to programs. So we're not going to put all of our programs, you know, at, you know, Discovery and North and Apollo, right? We want to make sure that um that
is balanced across the the district um for access and for transportation effectiveness. Thinking about those class size ranges and then any staffing needs, right? This not only will impact our our uh potentially impact some of our families um but our staff uh often
really uh deeply uh love and and are committed to the the school community that they um have been working in and serving in for a number of years. And so wanting to be thoughtful about, you know, if we have to shift staff, making sure we not only meet the bargaining agreements, but really um keeping that
uh heart and care um for dis for the people who are impacted by the decisions we make. Um so the the the time for the board of education, your key inputs um or of course I'll be u meeting with you every month on our 101s and keeping you up to date. Um but really hearing your
feedback now as you review this process um thinking about um the the timeline, the design phase, the communication, our engagement plan, that two-step board vote, meaning you'll see it in December, vote on it the second time. Um, and if you have any thoughts or feedback for us
around the the guiding principles that are listed here that I did review. Um, and then of course, um, in December, you know, the the discussion and the vote on those new elementary attendance boundaries, uh, what that feeder alignment looks like and, uh, you know,
what is that plan for change, right? Is there going to be a phase in plan and understanding the costs and consequences of phasing in, um, or not? um either will have uh have a significant impact um on the folks that we serve. So with
that um I appreciate your time and I appreciate your engagement uh in the process. Thank you. Um any questions at all Al? I'll ask it here. Um this is elementary. It's all about elementary borders boundaries. Um, they're usually a little
bit easier to change than our high school boundaries. Are there any plans on looking at high school boundaries anytime in the future? It's a very good question, Al Delgrren. Um, you know, right now we are focusing on the elementarymentaries. Um we know
that uh the um the crowding pinch that we feel most right now is at south. Um and uh there will be no way um that the elementary boundary adjustment does not impact secondary, right? There will be changes that um without having and we
are truly going into this open-minded, right? But I can tell you now that there is no way to meet our guiding principles and add more people to South and Tech, right? It's just not it's not feasible. Um so there will be a need to bring more
students uh into that north side which uh may not necessitate um a need for a change on north and Apollo or north south Apollo tech boundaries because the feeders will will
change the enrollment. Does that make sense? Now I'm not ruling it out at this point either. Um but I don't see that coming anytime soon. Thank you for asking that. Anybody else? Scott, uh we've got other schools besides our
public schools to deal with. We have our private schools, religious schools, charter schools, all of which we have to provide transportation for out of our budgets. Um how are we going to work this out?
Yeah, thank you for asking. That's a good question. I'm sure people are wondering about that. Um the board had uh reset and um elementary u parochial boundaries with the closing of um uh St. Mary help of Christian. So you all just
recently uh re redid and reapproved those boundaries. Those won't change. Um and the secondary uh private schools um are aligned to the north south tech Apollo boundaries. Um and at this point
are are we are not looking at changing those. So um there is going to be no impact um to the parochial private schools. Um neither um do will this impact charter schools. They draw from all 250 square miles of our district. Um
uh so this has no impact on them either. Um we do not uh provide trans the trans the charter schools have the opportunity um every year to opt in and opt out uh based on state statute um of our transportation um uh operations. And so
um many of them did not choose to um have transportation through us. So at this point we only provide to two two of the charter schools. Um and then uh any of the parochial private school families who who choose to avail
themselves of our transportation. Okay. Anybody else? Thank you. Uh that was everything on our work session agenda. So, the work session is adjourned at 8:00 p.m. Thank you for watching and we will be back
August 20th. Have a good night. We're okay. Passing our time. 8:00. They're never going to let you go that way.