It is 6:30. I call this regular meeting to order. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. >> Good evening, uh, fellow school board members, district staff, and community members. As always, the mission of St. Francis area schools is to equip all students with the knowledge and skills
to empower them to achieve their dreams and full potential while becoming responsible citizens in a dynamic world. Our first item for tonight is agenda item two adoption of the agenda. Are there any questions prior to a motion being made on the agenda before you?
See no questions there. Call the motion for the April 27th, 2026 regular meeting. someone. Is there a second? So, thank you, Mr. Shra. Any discussion on that motion?
Seeing no discussion, all in favor of the motion signify by saying I and raising your hand. I >> motion prevails. Thank you. Our agenda item three for tonight is consideration of visitors. Tonight, we have three individuals requesting to speak. I'll
allow five minutes uh per speaker tonight. I ask that uh once you hear the timer uh please wrap up your final statements. Our first speaker for tonight is Barb Anderson. >> Good evening you all.
So um real quick, you probably don't even need the timer, but I just wanted to bring forth the connection with the spring musical that was held. I don't know how many of you got to see it, but the incredible ability of how the students work together with the staff
and just everybody, the m there's music people, there's so many volunteers and parents, but the ability of these students and their talent and how positive that is. You have a theater and they're they're just enjoying it in the
laughter from Once Upon a Mattress. if you didn't see it, it was, you know, it just was great because you have great laughter and we need that. We need that positiveness in our school district and these when we talk about enrollment and
keeping up enrollment, these things like the choir, just like the sports and things, but these choir and drama that we have these incredible teachers, without them, we would not have these greater programs. So just a thank you to
those teachers who put all this on and all this extra effort and it it just makes a huge difference for the community. So um thank you. The te as you know the teachers matter a lot in their leadership. Thank you.
>> Thank you Barb. Our next speaker is Richard Babach. Richard. Been a while since I've been here. Good to see you again. I was on the task force so I had some conflicts. I want to talk about um
something that was in the Saints news in December in the winter winter uh edition talks about the MCA scores increasing and above state average. We are pleased with the progress of the
students and teachers made last year, but they understand there's still some significant work to be done. Um, I'd agree with that because the state average is below 50%. So being above state average is not a a
great accomplishment. And if you look at the history of the scores for the MCAs for St. Francis schools, St. Branches High School math was at 47%.
Green reading is at 50%. And science was at 26% the last time it was measured with the chart I have. None of those are acceptable in my mind. They should be 70 or 80% at at worst.
And then the other thing is I got a chart that also shows Minnesota average ACT scores, but this is for the entire state. But since 2013, they have fallen.
They started in the 22s and 23s and they're in the 19s and 20s right now. So those are going down. That's not an accomplishment. That's something that needs to be addressed.
The other thing I would say is I was on the school task force and I volunteered to help with pickup and drop off. I'm still uh volunteering to do that. So if you want to uh go through those
processes, I want to be part of that for each school. Thank you. Thank you, Richard. Uh, just so you're aware, tomorrow night we do have a work session here with that as a topic. Uh, so hopefully more to come on that topic
specific to the parent pickup question. Our next speaker is Ann Carter. Good evening, school board and the district. Tonight, I wanted to speak to you again. This time simply to say thank you for coming together collaboratively
with all of the work groups that I represent. Negotiations are not easy. They can be emotional, complicated, and at times exhausting for everyone involved. But they also reflect something important. People care deeply about this district and the people that
are in this district. This year, as I've gotten to know other union presidents, I've heard story after story about how some districts and school boards approach negotiations. Honestly, some of those stories have made me even more grateful the way that
we work things here. While negotiations may not always feel easy, they have felt respectful, and that matters, and I'm very grateful for that. As we look forward to continuing this collaborative work in the future, I would like to share an idea that many of my members
have brought to me over the past few weeks. I've heard many members say, "I would love to rally around the district to help get a levy approved so wages and benefits can become more competitive and more people want to work and stay in St.
Francis." And I have to say, teachers know how to throw a rally. give educators a cause, some poster board, and maybe a few markers, and we can make things happen. So, please let us help. Again, thank you for your willingness to listen, to collaborate, and to support
staff as we work through this year's negotiation process. It does not go unnoticed, and it is greatly appreciated. Thank you. Thank you, Ann. Thank you to all of you that spoke tonight. We truly appreciate the engagement.
Agenda item four for tonight is consent agenda. There are three items currently on tonight's uh consent agenda. It will be a roll call vote. Are there any questions or requests to remove any items prior to a motion? >> I have a question about the Domino's
Pizza. um 60 boxes of pizza. Are we required to put a value on that? Um because there's no value on there for 60 boxes of pizza. >> Uh was this as a donation? >> Yes.
>> Yeah. I uh typically uh we do not put the value down. It would be the person who donates it uh because they're the ones who'd be writing out for taxes. So I'm not surprised by that. I guess I don't know what has been what has happened in the past with those kinds of
things, but that's my gut reaction that we would not necessarily put the the value on that. >> That seems odd to me because we have to approve 60 boxes of pizza, but we don't
have a value, a number value. So, um, so I mean obviously we're going to approve and accept it tonight. I would just like to see a value put on that from the vendor going forward. Any other questions prior to a motion?
>> All right. Is there a call to motion to approve the consent agenda? Some >> Sanderson. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Orton. Any discussion on that motion? >> See no discussion. This will be a roll call vote. I if you approve, nay if you
do not. Mr. Humphrey, >> I >> Miss Henderson. >> I >> Mr. Shock. >> Hi, >> Miss BL. >> Hi, >> Mr. Wy. >> I >> Miss West. >> I am I as well. Motion prevails. Thank you. All right. Moving forward into
information items and reports. Again, we have four information items and reports. Actually, three tonight. No student representative for the high school. So, we'll do three. Uh just hold your questions till the end of the report. Our first item, our first report
for tonight is the community survey results. As part of the community engagement task force, there was a community survey that was used. Uh Darren Overton from Site Logic will present the results from the October survey and is prepared to answer any questions. Darren,
>> hey Chris, >> thanks for having me back. I I enjoy board meetings. It's a little I missed them when I was an administrator. Um so it's fun. It's it's very comfort comforting to come back to a board meeting. So thanks for having me. And
no, I'm not going to go over and and hash every slide. I sent you the slides. If you have any questions on any in particular, um be happy to talk about it. I want to highlight a few. I'm going to I'm going to scream through them pretty quick. And I also want to talk
more so about next steps and what you can do as you as a board and I've been very impressed with how you've engaged your community um and moving forward how you can you can cap capitalize on the experience that you have with uh your community. Um but let's just I'll just
go forward here. This will work should work. I don't know why it's not working. >> Why is it there? Okay. So, um just talk about the survey stats. Uh there were 1,200 households about uh
in your in your district and this is not Sorry, there. Yeah, be closer to it. Okay, so the survey opened in October. There were it's about a 6.6 return rate on on the survey. 312
households took this survey. And you think, well, that's not very much. But statistical liability is about 4% return. In a in an optin survey like this, statistically speaking, you can rely on the data that you get for about 4%. Now, there's one caveat with your
survey. This was open in October and I think it was right before the time where it became generally known that the district did do a project a board authority project of 30 some million and that I don't know if a lot of people I mean I talked to the
community engagement group right away about that because I felt that's something that you know they should know if they're looking at facilities that a large chunk of the infrastructure um stuff would be already done. Um, but I think that was about the time where where people in the community started
understanding that, oh, hey, something happened and if they weren't paying attention, they would have known that. And then there's a 513 student sample size reported separately. So, if you're, as you're looking at this stuff, I just wanted to point that out and and share that with you um, right away from the
beginning. And so the demographics, all of the demographic stuff at the beginning kind of encompassed all of the students and the and the parents and the community members all at the same time. Like how did you hear about the survey? Again, we had 500 students. Most of those students
were from junior high, middle school, and we had some we had all grade levels represented, but most of it came from the middle school level, right? And demographics again, age under 18, 38% is the largest. And again, that
that's lumping in the the all 1300 surveys with the um school age children included. Now, when you get to other questions that talk about like how supportive would you be on increasing your taxes, obviously none of those
student surveys were included and that question wasn't asked. So, when it got to a point in the survey, this question, what's your age? And then it gets to the second demographic is what best describes you. Um
and you want you best describes you. If somebody hit student, it would go to a student section. It would branch the the survey. So the parents would get a set of questions, the community members would get a set of questions. So as you go through there, if you're wondering,
okay, did the students have an impact on some of these questions? that should be more toward uh adults in the district and people that are actually doing. So let just go through the um demographics and student data at first
and you'll see the demographics. You have a really good spread of of students, kids who are involved, which is really nice to see. I thought this was interesting. Kids think your buildings are pretty nice. A four out of five. Um, there's always a 1% and you
know there always is a 1%. So that's gonna say they're they're poor. This was interesting to me too and as you go through this survey you can look because this question is asked your teachers and your parents and your community members as well is what factors best help kids learn and the
students their thing is ability to move around the classroom. Now, these are all important, but that was the thing that was at the top of their list. And they're all different from the teachers. Even the teachers have a different perspective on that than the students and the parents and the community members.
So, that's kind of fun. And overall, you know, how would you if if you've ever been to a Honda dealership? and I go there and after I go there and I have service done in my car, they always say, "How likely are you to recommend our service to somebody else,
friendly?" Um, that is that is a a really standard thing that Fortune 5 Fortune 500 uh companies do. Uh, and they hold on a second. I've got a note here.
the net promoter score. So, it is a net promoter score and a 10 if people give you a 10 or a nine, it's a it's a promoter. Seven or eight is a um passive. I think less than a seven is a detractor because you want
to look at people who uh are really excited about your product, excited about their experience within your school district. So overall when you ask that question you look at this it comes out to about a negative -4 for a net promoter score from your
students your staff it goes up to a three. Anything positive in education is is counted on as pretty good. Um I think Amazon has one of the higher net promoter scores in the industry in private business and that's about a 60
55 60 last time I checked. Um, but it's just a good way if you ever want to talk more about that, you talk to your administration or whoever, but if you ever want to talk more about how can you year over year do a net promoter score with your community, it's it's an interesting thing to do and I tell
districts consider doing it because it is a measure that can be tracked over time, right? And that's always something school districts have a have a hard time doing is getting a metric that is repeatable and is uh statistically
relevant. So that that's fun when you look at that. But I broke it up here because people don't you know anything eight n or 10 is probably pretty good for a student. Um so we're not die hard net promoter. This is a negative 34. We're not using it that way. were just
saying that that 11 and 14% 25% of your kids give yourself a uh 9 or 10 as a score. Yeah. Which is which is interesting. Um this is what factors help you learn furniture options and comfort. Um that
those are things that should be improved which I thought was interesting. That's a good uh a good point to look at there. This is a a telling argument about your your district and your facilities is how often can you find a quiet place to
work? Again, another interesting point. How satisfied are you with the facilities? And then serve. This is your demographics of your support staff, your teachers, um your bus drivers, your administrators. You got a good mix of
people especially because you have more support staff volunteers than administrative bus drivers. So it's a good spread there. And what best describes you again this is good information. I think you had about um you had 29 opt out parents people who
sent their kids out of the district who took the survey. I think you had around 40 or 50 people that were u taking the survey that were uh employees of the district as well. So you get a good spread between the different schools.
Again, here's this is comparable data that you can look at for your employees. How likely are you to uh tell a friend or send, you know, say, "Yeah, this is a great district." The highest would be from your employees, which is good. I mean, your your employees generally uh I
think feel pretty good about your your district here from the data that I can see. How do you rate the overall physical condition? Employees, again, give it a four. Not bad. You've got uh a good spread there. And then what facility factors do you
believe most help kids learn uh best? Whereas with the students, it was the ability to move around. Teachers think it's adequate classroom space, the temperature, and the ability to move around with. So that's that's interesting. So that's in
the bottom half. numbers up top for students and then the overall condition of the school is pretty high there. And then employee data, what extent do you think the district and this is a question that will help you understand if teachers are
liking the district enough to stay? It's ret that's about retention. Uh make you more inclined to stay. 20% says a lot to some extent, very little, not at all. So it it's just an interesting way to ask the question, how
satisfied are you with your physical space and attracting parents to enroll. That's another one that's important to districts with retaining and attracting staff and students. And then the parent survey, yeah, you go through and there's some commonality
between the the parent, the student, the employee, and then the community member. Um, parents think that the best thing that helps students learn the best is that they can work without distraction. Well, students that was way down on the list. Students are they they tend to be
able to work through that distraction, right? Whereas when I was in school, I had to have it quiet, but that was a long time ago. We don't have the distractions back then that we do now. And maybe that's debatable. I don't know. But according to these set of students,
it's a little different. We got parent data. Parent parents feel like your your district is in pretty good physical condition and and your schools are. You walk through I had the the privilege of walking through all your schools. They're clean. They look
great. It it's good. It's it's some there's some nice facilities here. Then here's the community. Um and the community says the best way best most important thing for kids to learn would be clean fresh air. And all these things are important. None of them are that
important, but it's just interesting to go through and look at what the community thinks, the students and the parents and the teachers think. And the community thinks that, hey, the schools are pretty nice, so that's that's a feather in your hat. And and uh it's a good thing. People feel pretty good
about your your district building. This is where the magic kind of happens and and where I'm not going anywhere. And so if if you as a board member says to your superintendent or whoever, it'd be really interesting to compare this data with this data that they put in the
survey. And we can do that. We can come back. I'm just I put a few of them in here, but we can disagregate the data however you want to show what students and parents and community members, whatever combined data you would you would look for. And I'll give a print
out. I'll have that actually tomorrow. Um it's on my printer. I didn't grab it, but I'm having that tomorrow. So, I'll have that tomorrow for you. It'll be a print out and it'll include a lot of a lot of the other uh comments and sorts of other things that are hard to put into a survey, right? At least a
presentation like this. But again, you have a really um consistent spread across all of the examples of of this one would be how to rate the overall physical condition. Most people give it a four. The open
enrolled out gave it the lowest score which is interesting. You can draw your own conclusions there but there only people who took that survey that open. This is interesting. Again this is this is really getting to the question that's important for future planning. And if
the board ever decides to run a referendum in the future ever, um I would suggest doing a survey ahead of time to really explore what the what the appetite is from your community. And we can we can we've written a lot of those
different types of surveys. When there's value included with the survey, like here's what the district is thinking of doing and if these projects are satisfaction satisfactory to you, would you be willing to support it? here there's no value associated with it.
There's there's nothing that is tangible. So you're asking people are you willing to just give money to improve improve your facilities. It was interesting because well of course you you see this employees have the highest response for five which is very supportive and the orange one is which
is not supportive and you have parents which who are the second largest and supportive group and you have community members and then the open and rolled out again only 29 people there uh are the least supportive but the one thing that
I look at and I see from a um an outside perspective was when I look with this data and I see this quite a bit is you look at the community there's your there's your hard right that that is what you have to work on you have to
give the value you have to you have to understand why you're doing what you're doing and um if you can do that you have 21 23 and 24 over 3 four and five from middle of the road like they could go either way to yeah I I'd be kind of
supportive to very supportive and we know There's early adopters in every community. It's usually about 20 25% that are just going to always say yes because that's what they do. And then you have this big, if you think of it, a bell-shaped curve, you have a big group
in the middle that could go one way or the other, right? And as a school district, I always tell boards, just be honest with people and be transparent and build that trust with them and then tell them what you're doing and why you're doing it and then show the reasons for why it's important. um and
then the rest it'll take care of itself or it won't. Right? So to me that that's a pretty good that's a pretty good indicator that a lot of people in this district um would support a good project right down the road something. And again
this is before it was widely known that there was a there was an IQ project coming from the board board authorities. And then here's another example of combined data. Um, this one's always interesting to me. If people give it a zero, this one a zero
because the question is how important is schools and the quality of your schools to home values, to the local economy. When people put a zero, they're just angry and they're probably putting bad numbers on everything, right? Because we
all know and and this is not just me saying it, but the better the community school, the better or the higher the value, better the economy is within that community. And same thing with the overall likelihood of recommending St.
Franc. And this is what you experience drop off pickup. This gets into some of the more um direct things that that you want to know about, but we didn't have a lot of projects. Now, in a typical situation when we go through a community engagement process and they recommend
you need to do or you should consider doing this, this this and this at and immediately you should do these things. Then we would send out a survey after that um communication process and the board had a chance to workshop and then check and make sure people understand
what you're doing, why you're doing it and get a feeling for it. This this one we knew and we put it in there because we knew that was one thing the board had been talking about. Um but it gives you some good data. You know, mostly safe, congested at times, but mostly safe. Um but that that's
good data. It's good data to have even though you only have 800 people out of 12,000 homes. Um, still only 6% but it it's still statistically five five to six points one way or the other. And again, that's just stat segregated
data that's combined. And if you if you think of anything else you want to try to do um and disagregate, we can do that. That's again the facts to help students learn. So my as I look through this and I read
through everything and I looked at uh some of the com uh the comments and I read through those you know in in my opinion you know you have a community that cares deeply about it schools. I saw that in the uh task force again
there's only 15 people uh 15 20 people 15 showed up 20 signed up and I I think that is a pretty good representation but that was my sentence. the community cares deeply about the schools and is open to improvements when there's clear
need, strong justification and confidence in how decisions are made. I could use that in a lot of districts. But that that was one that just spoke to me. People do care. Uh they are concerned and
they want to be involved. And then questions and thank you for again for letting me be a part of this opportunity. The survey did become less important as we started the communication process because the process went longer and it changed from being a two three meeting process to a
longer process. And plus the uh the work that you did as a board going to board authority made this just a little bit less um important to to stay on top of. But it's good to go through.
>> Any questions for Darren? >> Do you know the numbers like how many community members versus parents? >> Yes, I do. Community members um were so there are 500 or 800 total. about 350
community members versus uh the parents out of the eight of them 300 30 I think it was 350 I get you absolutely yeah and parent parents were the biggest group and that's just looking at the 813 that
were were in the survey excluding the students any other questions for D, do you get any data on the 12,000 homes? Like what percentage of that 12,000 homes represents parents versus members?
>> Yes, I I have if I'm if I have your question right, you're wondering of the 12,000 homes, how many of those were parents? >> Right. So, you can compare the 6% to the overall total percentage of the community. >> Um, I do not have that on the top of my
head, but I can find that. I'll do that while you guys are doing your other stuff. I'll I'll write it down because I have the spreadsheet. I just go through. Look at >> that's kind of related to Mr. Shon's question. >> He's talking about what actually voted for that 800. I'd be more curious about
what the overall dynamic of St. Francis District compares to parents versus actual community members because then you can kind of get a good idea what that 6%. >> Yep. And if if you do I think there's been some some awakening of some people maybe
to uh and it happens when you start engaging in community like this. If you do another survey down the road, you don't want to do them like constantly and they get fatigued with it. But if you do another one um I think you get a better return on it. I do because is
especially if you use the data to inform some decision- making as a board then if people know that you're actually using it and it's like wow look at look at what they did with that and conversation about it that it's used to help determine a path forward or more to take
those surveys in the future. question. >> All right, Darren, thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. >> We appreciate it. We understand that as we continue with this process, if there's >> data that we want to see differently that we can reach out to you. So thank you for that.
>> Okay. Uh next agenda item is uh 5.3 insurance rates for 2627. Our HR director Brandon Nelson is here to present updates. As you can see there was a significant increase in the public employee insurance program otherwise known as PEEP. That affects uh 345 of
our employees are members of that. But you'll see that dental life and long-term disability have remained the same or decreased. >> Yes. Good evening, chair, members of the boards, superintendent Anderson. Um the district's finalizing the insurance
plans that'll be in effect for July 1st, 2026. The insurance advisory committee has met throughout the year and the following is the result of all that work. As chair mentioned, um, health insurance is going up. Um, with the
public employee insurance program, it's about a 19.63 to 19.9% increase. That's the range. Um, there's four options with with the insurance plans there. So, that's what the range is for that. The school district's in a
four-year commitment and does not have any other options but to accept the renewal um, and continue on with PEEP. So that's um where the district will go for health insurance. Moving on from health insurance. Uh the district
conducted a request for proposal for dental insurance. The district is self-insured for dental. And so this uh request for proposal was for the um the administrative services of that self-insured plan. and the insurance
advisory committee reviewed the results of that of those um RFP and there is no recommended change to the carrier which is currently Delta Dental but continue to be Delta Dental and there's no change for the rates for next year. So that's
good news. um the experience probably um would want us to nudge a little bit on rates, but um as we reviewed the entire situation, the recommendation is to keep the rate the same amount for next year. So that's good news. And then finally,
the life insurance and the long-term disability. There was also a request for proposal for those services. Um the insurance advisory committee reviewed those results and the recommendations to stay with Guardian as the carrier which is our current carrier and there is a
decrease for life insurance um that is about 2.8% and then um a 6.3% decrease for long-term disability. So, um, with the exception of the larger increase to health insurance, um, the other numbers
are coming in good. And so, that's nice to report that. And then just a reminder that open enrollment is May 1st through May 15th. And so, that is coming up right at home. It's this week, right? It's hard to believe May is already
here. Um, last thing I wanted to do is thank the insurance advisory committee for all of their time and dedication. It's a lot of work and it's a lot of information to go through. It's a complex process and we appreciate their time. Stand for any questions that you
may have. >> Are we two years into the current PEP? Is that correct? >> Correct. So the renewal would be for year two of four. >> Yep. >> So we're locked into PEEP and then we can go back out and Okay.
>> Correct. Any other questions? >> So, I know the um we can shop elsewhere over 20%. Is there any interest in talking with Education Minnesota and maybe getting something together to kind of look at
the nefariousness of them ending that at about 19.6 or 19.9. Seems like there's an awful lot of weight that could be thrown around and uh perhaps not be taken advantage of. I know health insurance is going up, but for them to go up just shy the part
where we could review seems a little suspicious to me. Is there any thoughts or conversations on that at all? >> Uh the board would like the administration to have those discussions. We could do that.
>> I think it's ridiculous. I think it's also like thumbing their nose at the fact that we're stuck in this group. I know everyone's interest is going up, mine's going up, but um it's not that much. And then also, uh this seems a little blatant and we have
the pound in our room with Education Minnesota and maybe this is something we can team up with them on. I would be interested in that. But Jake, if you're good with that, I'm going to have I'm going to just push it back to the insurance advisory committee and have them push a recommendation forward for
us if that's something that they want. Does that make sense? I think >> that way the broker's part of it we can see if that's an area that we can go. >> Thank you for considering. >> So Brandon, you'll add that to the advisor.
>> Any other questions or comments for Mr. Al Carson? You have any? >> I don't. >> Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Our next agenda item 5.4 before history of reports. >> All right, have a couple of verbal
updates and then three items in the written report. First, as everyone knows, we did settle on teachers last Thursday. So, the tenative agreement uh will be considered by the union and then we'll come to the school board hopefully at the first meeting of May, but we'll
see how the timing works out. Uh principal Austin did report that uh the prom went very well on Saturday. I was not able to attend, but he was pleased with what happened. Couple of quick things on the written report. I did meet with Weston Ralph,
uh, the mayor, the current mayor of the city of Oak Grove, um, last week. And, uh, first of all, Weston has been the great collaborator. Uh, ever since I've been here, he's always reached out to have regular meetings with me. Uh
sometimes Nate, our chair Bird, goes to those meetings as well. He's open to hearing suggestions and questions from community members. And uh so I'm going to miss him, you know, that he's not running for mayor again. But I do want to recognize, you know, everything he's
he's done in terms of reaching out and working with us. It's really appreciated. Uh two of the things that he did talk about would be the completion of the fire hall and city hall uh in the city. It's right next to the current uh city hall. Uh looks like
it's going to be a wise investment by the taxpayers of the city program. I think it was a really smart move. Uh there's also a lot of road work uh involved in that area. I tried to write down all the road work as he was calling me and I I don't trust my own
handwriting to share that information, but there are significant road improvements happening uh this summer and over the next few years. uh he did say that uh he would reach out to the uh public works department to see if we could meet uh to discuss uh potential
impacts uh at the early childhood advantage center. So u he always follows through with what he says and so I'm sure there'll be a chance for us to discuss with the engineers at some point. So thank you Mr. Shrock for bringing that up as a topic of
discussion. uh staff lounges. Uh the um Mr. Linguist and I walked through the high school on multiple occasions to try to identify some new staff lounges. I shouldn't say
new to ident or to narrow the number of staff lounges we have in school. We have somewhere between 10 and 15 places where staff members congregate. And we understand, you know, why they've done that in the past. Um but you know at least our
thinking is that we want uh adults to be eaten where there are sinks um where there are good spaces that can be shared by multiple people places where we can put in appliances like refrigerators and microwaves that meet
fire marshall code and those kinds of things. So we walked around a building identified some and then we're working with Mr. Austin to kind of finalize that list. So, I just want to let you know that we're working on it and as a as a part of that, there'll be a push at the
end of this school year for staff members to take home their personal appliances uh because they they don't meet fire code. So, that'll be coming. The big topic on my written report is the immunization plan. And uh right now,
well, let me tell you, the state law requires that students attending our physically attending our schools uh either take the immunizations required by the state uh or submit a medical exemption form or
submit a conscientious objective form, you know, taking certain patients. So they need to do one of those things in order to continue to attend our school. It's required. Right now we have about an 85%
compliance rate the state law. So we have about 350 or 400 kids that have not completed the necessary paperwork. If that's just immunization shot uh information from the doctor or injector
form or something like that. Uh, so it's only 85%. Uh, we need to get that up to 100%. Uh, in terms of or I'm sorry, that's how many are actually immunized. My apologies. 85% is is the number of kids who have all of their immunizations on
file. Uh, if you look at the compliance rates, it's just under 91%. Still a significant number, as I said, about 350 to 400. Uh so you know one thing that we have not done in the recent past is to
exclude students who are not compliant. Other schools and most schools throughout the state of Minnesota do have an exclusion date uh that they've implemented. For example, I know uh requires it. Most of the schools around
us you know require it as well. And uh so the the current plan right now is to have an exclusion date on November 9th of this year. So by that date, we expect that all kids will either be immunized
with documentation on file or fill out a really simple form saying that they object to those immunizations. So they don't have to be immunized. they do signer sign a document saying that they
you know are conscientiously objective to that. So that's what the state law says and so that's what we really want to focus on. The um Holly Poy Al Schloman and I have been meeting a few times. Dax Larson has
been part of those discussions in terms of the outreach that we want to extend to our families so we can get as many of these documents um in our system you know as possible. Uh and so that will we wanted to share
this plan extended plan with you tonight before we went out you know to really start pushing it. Um, and so we're hoping to get started on that tomorrow. And it will include a lot of different things like social media posts, direct
mailings, the family, certified letters if we need it. I asked Vanessa to figure out or help me become a notary public so that you know I'll go out places to get signatures. You know, we already have a nurse at each site who is a notary public. We could do that at open houses
and other events uh because we want all of our people to to be compliant even if they don't choose to be immunized. I think wisely Minnesota is one of those states that does not actually require the immunizations. We just require the
documentation of immunization or the contious objective forms. So that's kind of where we are right now uh with students. Uh the state does not require us to capture immunization rates for
staff members, but we are also going to make the strong effort to encourage staff members to document their immunization stats so that they have it in case we need the information. And that's important for the next part
that I'm going to talk about. uh regardless of their compliance status. Um if there's a measles out or if there's a measles case involving one of our students, then uh we have to report it to the
state. Uh the state will work out with us to have kids sit out from physically sit out from school for 21 days or longer if they are not immunized. that these students and staff members have to
be physically away from school. So there's a long run out process on how to identify and um those would be kids in close contact with somebody with a measel. So it would be all kids in the district. You know, we'd have to
determine like u if there was a elementary child in a third grade classroom, likely all kids in that third grade classroom who are not immunized or they need to go home would need to stay home for 21 days. Even if they have the conscientious
objective for filled out, we'll have to look at, you know, bus routes. You know, when kids are on bus routes, then likely we have to do the same for others who are not immunized on that bus route. middle school and high school, it's a lot more complicated because we have
kids all over the place at lunch and uh in different classes. So, I'm hoping you don't have to worry about it at all. That's the last thing we want to be doing. Uh but we want to be forthright with the community that that could happen. um to at least become compliant
with state law and you know in my opinion hopefully you know more immunized so they don't miss out on days of of school if if there is so that's the latest I have as far as immunization status >> Mr. Sure.
>> Do you know other schools logistics what their percentages are? >> I don't know the exact percentages uh but what from what I've gathered we are on low and I'd hate to conjecture conjecture as
far as what I think others are. There may be some in our area that have similar low rates but I think we're one of the the lower ones in the broader area. other districts you work. >> I have no idea. That was never really an
issue there. So my guess is that we probably had 98 99% right. Those are smaller schools before co you know a lot changed because of co because of the vaccinations that were out there.
You know these vaccinations are very different um in my mind. you know, measles uh vac vaccines has had good success for 50 years. Um and you know, although I will,
you know, I think all of us know there are risks whenever there's a vaccine given. I mean, there's a special federal fund that's set aside in case there are challenges because of a a death or injury if someone takes a vaccine. Uh
but if you look at the overall rates, it's still safe safer for kids to take the vaccine on average than if you don't. So, but you know forthright that you know there's there's nothing in life in life
that's a guarantee. >> Do we have plans to do any vaccine clinics? I know we did one at Cedar Creek last year. Yeah, we've had um a vac vaccine clinic I think the last couple of years and I know that's important to Holly Koi. I don't know if
those arrangements have been made but that's our plan. Yeah, we want to reduce the barriers for for families to be compliant to get the immunizations if they so choose because it's the parents
choice. Uh and so that's one of the ways that we can reduce the barriers. Uh, another way is to have notary publiclix at all schools so that when um when uh someone needs a notorized statement, they can go to their child's school and
get it notorized which is done, you know, like that. That's another barrier that we can ease um you know, so we're going to do as much of that as possible. Uh 21 days is a long time to be away
from school. In the slim chance that we are sending kids home, >> do we get a plan and process in place to let those kids continue with their education for that year like we did for co? >> You bet. >> Okay. You bet. Uh, and that's u one
advantage we have now that that we didn't have six years ago is that there's a kind of a way of doing it, you know, that we've used before. We're not big fans of digital learning, don't get me wrong. You know, I or we think kids,
most kids will learn better in physically in school. Some kids do really well with digital learning. That's why we have things online. So, that's a great option for some kids. We want our kids in the school as much as possible. If they're off for 21 days,
then we will have classroom teachers post their assignments and other resources on a digital learning platform and kids and their parents can access it that way. uh that will be a a change in
practice for our elementary teachers uh because often they'll email assignments home or we'll have a sibling take them home, you know, those kinds of things. Uh but we're really going to push for putting that on a digital platform and in the end I think they'll
appreciate that more. >> Mr. It says the teachers would take leave are required to was there a class could they teach it online? Uh we have not discussed that specific
question. Uh right now though the stance would be if a teacher cannot be physically present if they would need to take a leave. We could we could put post the assignments in other ways but we have not officially discussed
that specific example yet let's say that they were out of the classes what would happen to them what if they're in they don't have the classes gone
What are they doing? >> Well, that's the part we haven't we haven't talked about that specifically. Um, my guess is that most of our teachers are immunized. The problem is they may not have documentation.
So, I got immunized when I was in Montana and I don't know if if my immunization records have been transferred over to Minnesota system. And so that's something I need to do is to call my doctor, go through the state system, go back to H Montana, you know,
at the the hospital and get those records. And so we're going to be pushing staff to do that. Um, but you know, if teachers are not immunized or if any staff member is not immunized and the state determines that they need to stay away from school, they're going
to stay away from school. So, in over the next few months, we'll figure out some of those questions and that's one of them that we'll be addressing. Any other questions or comments? >> If you know of anyone who is not immunized,
you know, uh if they're willing to give me a call or give their school's nurse a call, um either to find out more is information about immunization or to come in and sign the form. That would be a huge help. Forms have to be
notoriized. I wish they did. It's a huge barrier for people. If we didn't have that barrier, I think we'd have a really high compliance rate, but it's a pain to find. There's no doable. You know, everyone does it, but Vanessa's an
at school with. So anyway, we'll give you periodic updates as we go. >> Thank you, Mr. Anderson. All right, moving on to our next agenda item. Uh item six, which is our one and only action item for tonight. Approval of
policies 410, 503, 515, 5:30, 6:15, 701, and 7:21. Uh we saw these on the April 13th meeting at the first reading. Uh all of the changes are highlighted in the information for the background information sheet and then the changes that were discussed in the board meeting
were already made um to the policies that were talked about. We will need a motion to approve the policies. Is there a motion? >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you, Mr. Shoner. Any
discussion on the motion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor of the motion signify by saying I and raising your hand. I motion prevails. 70 to zero. Thank you. Next agenda item is uh seven upcoming meetings and topics.
Uh are there any questions or comments about upcoming meetings? See no questions or comments. A reminder that we have >> Y go ahead. I was I've been talking about possibly working with the libraries and see what we can do to better that situation and
also increasing the uh uh effectiveness of our like behavior and control. >> Yep. You can uh shoot a request. I have both of those on my list and you can shoot an official request to the superintendent myself. >> Okay. >> Do you need an official one before we
>> No, I have I have them on my list. Okay, cool. >> A reminder that tomorrow we have a work session uh to discuss the community engagement task force. Um there really is nine priority areas that that task force came up with and we're going to
have a discussion about the areas that we'd like them to dig deeper and provide more information. Uh and really it'll set the stage for a new board charge for that engagement task force as to what they're looking into. Um, before we do agenda item eight,
Darren, did you have any numbers you wanted to give to us? Followup numbers. So, uh, community members 213 that's with no kids or the kids were gone. Uh, parents of current students, 511.
There were 59 employees. Uh, parents of students that were enrolled out, opted out, that's 29. Seven recent graduates. And then my guess is he's still looking into the numbers on the housing piece.
That's going to be a little bit harder to figure out, but >> yeah, that is it. >> And maybe we that's something we look at when we expand. But thank you Darren for that. Uh agenda item eight, school board member reports. Member Anderson, >> I'd like to thank uh the teachers the
and the custodians um and all the other department units that we've negotiated in the recent months. I'd also like to thank the unaffiliated employees for their feedback um for their um their
benefits. Um, and that'll be hopefully coming forward also at the first meeting in May if everything works out fine. So hopefully we have two ratified contracts before that meeting in May. That being um the custodians and the teachers.
That's all I have. Oh, one other thing. Um, meeting of birth of the teachers met uh last week and we are adding an additional meeting um in October to discuss um
a path for um late starts or develop um professional calendar for the school calendar >> for the school calendar. Rob's favorite topic. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> With that, me
um attended the once upon a mattress and like was said earlier, those kids do an amazing job. They run the whole thing from every little minute detail. They're doing it. They do amazing job.
Grand promise weekend. There was 440 kids that attended which I think was the most we've had in a long time. It was nice to see all those kids all dressed up and then had me confer and great.
That's it. >> Mr. I don't have much. I just like to highlight some great conversations I've had with uh my friends over at Cena Creek on talking to teachers that have been there longer than I've lived in the district. I've talking to EAS longer
than I've been married um bus drivers and parents and there's a lot of really good feedback about uh things going on over there and constructive criticism and I just want to say keep your chin up. >> Thank you, Mr. Green. member Black.
>> I just have one update. I spoke with Councilwoman Angie Bray Johnson um about the issue in front of the early childhood center. So, there's not a lot that they can do right now, but they are talking about putting flashing lights up just to kind of nyx the safety concern
that's happening. >> Thank you, member. Um I also attended the uh Once Upon a Time concert with Bob and Jake on Friday night and it uh brought my seven-year-old daughter and another neighborhood girl and they had an
absolute ball. So, thank you for putting that on. It was awesome. It's all I got tonight. >> Uh we had the insurance advisory committee meeting. Uh you've got that report uh tonight. Uh there was a health and safety. I was not able to attend that, but there was nothing major that
came out of it. uh to bring to the board's attention uh mediation session three and you all know that that ended with a tenative agreement with our teachers. Um a highlight to Aniston Roof, a new school record was set uh in
the 3200 meter. Uh so that's 2 miles in 10 minutes and 50 seconds. Uh unbelievable, but a new school record. So we're going to see a new name on the board outside the the track. What was the time? 10 minutes 50 seconds. 10 minutes and a two mile.
>> 2 mile 3200 >> and the Sunday performance of Once Upon a Mattress was the best uh performance as well. It was a great great night as well. That's all I have. Carson, do you have anything else? >> I don't have the one about the same
play. And I know we've all said it several times. One thing I noticed with Mole, every performance I go to is that she has a great way of growing up, you know, younger kids into bigger and bigger roles. And it was really evident, you know, this past weekend with that
performance where you have, you know, the lead actresses and so many others and you just see the growth. So kudos. >> Absolutely. Our last agenda item is adjournment. Are there any questions prior to a motion being made? No
questions. Is there a call to motion to adjourn the meeting? Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you, Mr. W. Any discussion on that motion? Seeing no discussion, all in favor signify by saying I and raising your hand. Um
motion prevails 70 to zero. Thank you. Meeting is adjourned at 7:34. I was waiting. >> Yes, I was. >> New record set marathon.