our consultants share preliminary findings with district leadership identifying key themes around academic excellence equity and student well-being there are still a few more groups that the consultants would like
to hear from so we so we have upcoming focus groups scheduled i want to thank everyone who has contributed their voice to this important work last Thursday St park Middle School hosted its first
multicultural showcase students families and staff came together to share performances during the school day the event highlighted the importance of creating spaces where every student's identity is honored and celebrated thank
you to the staff and volunteers who made this event such a meaningful and joyful experience additionally the middle school and high school have upcoming theater performances of Singing in the Rain and Little Women these are just a
few of the things that are happening across the district yesterday I held a superintendent question and answer session for families i heard directly from families and answered questions about district initiatives including updates on the strategic plan academic
priorities and other areas of community interest we hope to foster open dialogue and strengthen partnerships between families and our schools i encourage all families to attend and participate in future
opportunities there are many more opportunities for engagement within our schools we are beginning the the search process for our principal for Susan Lingren Elementary School principal Pollockch has spent many years with the
district and his presence will be missed thank you all right thank you Dr hines for that superintendent report uh that brings us up to number six on our agenda which is discussion items and that um for the first thing we have on our
discussion items tonight is community education budget presentation and is that you director Magnus and and Director Howard and director Howard you're coming to the table here um I believe that we had a preview of this at our last study
session too this is an a bridged version yes so we'll just run through this so um we have some context for the action items later great thank you so good evening Chair Cox Superintendent um Carla Hines and members of the board we're glad to be here tonight to take
you through um the a review of the community and school nutrition budgets so we just want to make sure that you're prepared and have the context for taking action and as Chair Cox said we've reviewed this um previously this is just a reminder that we're deep into the
budget process and one of the important things we do is update the current budget so we're preparing for the audit and then as we prepare the budgets for next year you can see here we are in April almost to um the final approvals of the budget which will happen in June
so we'll we'll quickly move through the community service budget and overall it's an improved budget from original which we have been anticipating um under uh director Howard's leadership the community service program has flourished
and gone from a negative fund balance to a really nice positive fund balance so we're thankful for that on the revenue side um in overall community ed revenue will be increasing by $686,000 the majority of that is in
tuition and fees and that was because of conservative budgeting around the kids place program and I don't know if you want to add any context around that um and you'll see the other side of that here in expenses where we held back on some salaries um knowing that we were we
were waiting to see if these programs would fill and we could hire the the commensurate staff right and then just some additional cost containment strategies we had in place um and we were able to um expand um some of our offerings with uh at a
particular a couple of particular sites as well as kids place preschool um so then that also required additional staffing so we were able to take some uh participants from the weight list and add staffing so and they're just going to
put back real quick so there's a $686,000 increase in revenue offset by a $535,000 increase in expenses um so the total fund balance um is increasing for community education by
$357,000 then as we move to school nutrition um Tammy was here last um time we met the school nutrition revenue is increasing we're recognizing the new federal rates and the changes to state and local revenue based on free meals in
the state of Minnesota we added this slide um we thought we had it in there last time we described what's happened with the state rates and how large the the state reimbursement is now and what an important part that is of of school nutrition and we're hopeful that that
will remain in place it's a really important part of a student's day and it's um helped our participation and I believe the um ease of students experience in the lunchrooms having free meals so we're very thankful for that um
expenditures are going up by $169,000 um a lot of that is in that supplies area we're watching food prices we're watching potential tariffs and other things that might impact the prices of ingredients and so we're just being mindful of that budget so the
entire school nutrition fund balance is going up also by $357,000 it's important to note that these are two funds outside of the general fund we cannot take this money and move it to the general fund however if either school nutrition or community
ed go into the negative we must take general fund money and move it into those funds because we cannot close them with negative balances so these are vital strong programs in both community ed and school nutrition that serve um our community and our students in really
important ways and the really strong budget management by both Tammy and by Director Howard um save the general fund and really serve students so and families so here's our next steps tonight later um we're asking the board
to approve these changes to the budget and then we'll be coming forward with the budget um board next year fiscal year 2026 for all funds on June 10th um for a review and then to be approved on June 24th can I ask a quick question
um this is relevant to something that came up in our listening session earlier so if we were to have reduced or lost um some special education funding can the community uh service and school nutrition budget
um like for example for Kids Place if you have kids who require special education supports while they're at Kids Place can that can that fund balance be used for the for that we already have a tax levy for the for the students who we
serve in Kids Place with the disability um so there's a tax levy and those those separate funds are a part of the community service fund but beyond that's that's already a placeholder in the community so they're
categorical funds specifically for the particular program use but we do get um funding for um children with disabilities and we do apply that currently to our ch our kids place program so that's how we're able to increase staffing to support students
that have um special needs if there were further cuts there is not any flexibility under current law to take funds from community ed or school nutrition now there's banter about creating um more flexibility so that fund balances might be moved into the
general fund but that would take a change in law thank you other comments questions again you've heard a lot of this which just informs sort of the conversation that we've heard here i one big takeaway I had that
I just want to echo because was just how much Tammy works to get our meals in uh at a reimburseable budget and how helpful that is because that means then we've got a and not just a meal just a
nutritious nice attractive meal from what I understand too and that just has a benefit because we're giving good food and we're getting fully reimbursed for that or reimbured to the maximum there and I just really appreciate that that we have somebody who's taking the time to do that so thank you any other
comments or questions i don't have questions but you know you already talk about it but because all of the community me and and the nutrition so those those are restricted plants we can always I
think we should keep reminding that always all the time maybe we can build in a disclaimer in each board presentation right at the beginning a big slide that says uh these are the funds that can and cannot be used
um it is tricky it is it's very complicated and I think we always say thank you for navigating us through the complications and that it's not just you it's a small staff of um people that are doing that looking at that stuff and making sure that we're we're following the letter of the law and making sure
that we're being smart and all sorts of things there and it's and it's not easy um so we appreciate that very much all right unless there's anything else then we'll move on to our construction update thank you director thank you Director Magnus and we'll bring up Jim
Lang and our facilities and safety manager and you have a convenience i do construction representative yes I do thank you very much uh Superintendent Hon Chair Cox fellow members of the board thank you for this time i brought with me tonight uh Richard Yali he is
one of our superintendents from Canut and Construction and rather than listen to me talk we're going to let him talk this time so we have a a brief construction update it's kind of an exciting time we're back into the thick of a lot of construction going back on depending on which way you came in you
would have noticed the stadium is gone the the stands are gone and it's an empty shell out there right now um Aquilla is going up uh the we'll let him talk about this as we move forward here so uh Hines of Cox board members appreciate and thank you the opportunity to have
you come and talk to you what's going on um if you have a questions of on each project just let me know first up will be the community center central pro sorry I'm getting ahead of myself central Community Center project um this one is a renovation of the pool locker
rooms and the pool and then gym locker room started and then if you go to the next slide ch or is this the So this is a down in the locker room area this is like the main joint hallway we're moving into the finish stages down there so this is what a finished wall
will look like when we clean it up a bit and this is the joint area will lead to three separate locker room areas there'll be a men's a women's and a family in the middle and then next slide and then here's a look of how far we're we're pretty much getting close to the done stages for all the restrooms and
the bathrooms in there uh res the flooring is currently going in this week as we uh speak so we are getting real close to being done with there we do have um a new lift that will provide for handicap accessibility from the locker room area
up to the pool deck area this was one of the bigger challenges we we encountered with this bu with this age of the building and the pool and the location um part of the referendum was to make sure that the pool the community spoke that they wanted to have uh handicap accessibility to that so that lift will
lower them down into a a central station between all the lockers that whether it's a family member whether it's a a male or female can they can they go into their lockers from there off of off of the new lift so Yep and that lift I mean what I'm trying to remember is that like
because this building has been pieced together over time right i think you were sort of suggesting that even like just because things weren't level there just weren't like natural places because this has just been pieced together and somebody thought at one point well we can fit a pool here we'll sink at 4 feet and all sorts of things right yeah i
mean you if you look at it the where the bottle of water you see right there is actually the pool deck so and it's actually sitting at the and then the metal at the bottom is actually the the level of the locker room so the only difference is you know five feet here
but it's a big five feet and it it was a real challenge both structurally engineering and everything else just to find the location that this would work for all the all the locker rooms and getting to the pool so we lost a little bit of storage up in the pool area but
in doing so we made sure that you know the community members and everybody has access to our pool now jim is correct that was a very fine balancing act between everything meeting clearances and everything to fit that in and have that work uh next picture so here's a shot of
the pool we are pretty much done in this room we have the new diving blocks on they've refurbished the gutter and recalled it there's the new ADA chair in the way we're just at a kind of a pause in this room until we're ready to refill
the pool and in a little bit here and then next slide and then with this project also here's we're far along in the stages of installing new pool equipment and mechanicals for the pool so it'll be pretty much close to a new
infrastructure for that pool inside and then here's some shots of the main floor gym this will become so this was the old basketball court gym that this is going to become the new gymnastics gym and this shot also gives
you a good look into the new openings that you see for the small annex area of gymnasium room that'll be available and I believe we're going to be framing that in soon and they'll be open to that space and this is actually a really good structure shot of the old history of the
building where what you're seeing there would have been the old auditorium archway from the backstage to the front of the house and you'd be in the front of the house looking so I kind of thought it was a interesting shot showing the history of the building and where we're going with it um and then
here is a shot picture of the what will become now the new gymnasium or a basketball gym and a few other sports uh pickle ball and a couple of bad and other things will be available in there and they're starting to put new HVAC and things in there and padding will go in
soon so we're on This is the old gymnastics right this is the old gymnastics gym all our um all the equipment will be up in this area here that you're seeing where the lifts are currently so rather than when we had a gymnastics meet it
was kind of challenging for us because not only did we have the one lower gym was full of equipment we had to bring up uh the pommel horse the uneven bars set them up get them up there and um it was a big challenge for us so now when we're
completed with this project gymnastics will be in one location and everything will be in one location i don't remember but my daughter so you had to run up and down the steps no there will be no more of that so and next project up was going to be the
Aquilla edition and remodel uh we're this is about 15,000 foot addition along with new spaces for kindergarten classrooms and stuff we'll kind of expound more if you want to go to the slides Jim this is the current timeline that we are
looking at for Aquilla um we're start we will anticipating to start to do the remodel portion when school ends inside the building our goal is is to turn over the office and sensory resource areas middle of August support them for start
of school activities and then have the cafeteria area which is the high most intensive amount of work for the summer be done right before right we want to have that completed and it's going to we're projecting it'll take us right up to the the wire there
then moving into the fall October is the time frame we are projecting to have the building complete from a standpoint of getting a certificate of occupancy get it final cleaned and ready so that the district can then in the month of November the infrastructure furniture
technology items that will go into the classrooms get that set up and then a move will happen and the ultimate goal Jim I believe is you guys want to have students in there on January 5th when they return from break yeah so one of the bigger challenges we faced was uh when we had to bid this out in two
separate phases first was the phase for the addition and second phase was for interior work and that um this there was a little bit of confusion between the city us and the watershed district all trying to get this uh September one date
in place um in the in the meantime with many discussions with Canutes and myself and Patricia um it became pretty apparent that the new addition was going to struggle to be opened in dime um so the focus then became or is now to make
sure that we don't interrupt school that they could start on time they will still have the interior renovations done ready for them to start school while we finish up the new addition and then move into it on a gradual basis the next logical
time frame came after winter break that it would be set up ready for them to go so when they came back from winter break they were going to be starting kindergarten would be starting in their new classrooms and we would have everything functional rather than um we looked at the intention of potentially
working overtime and working Saturdays and Sundays it didn't seem to be fiscally responsible to do that right now the the dollar amount was rather shocking let's put it that way when you start adding overtime and and Saturdays and Sundays uh to the to the union
contracts correct so the decision along with Maria and Dr hines was let's make sure we've got the interior of the building this the the structure ready to go for them and we can concentrate they've been operating without the new kindergarten rooms so we really aren't
going to be the one challenge we're going to have to do is focus as where because the band room currently is going to be the new corridor or part of the the cafeteria leading into the new uh addition so we're going to have we're going to find a space for band in the
interim while the new new addition is being completed um were there any surprises from the watershed district like we had none from the watershed uh so far we were fortunate i think we did have to go
about a foot deeper and maybe a little bit wider on our our rain garden that we have out there the bigger push back ironically was from the city and they lost a softball field for the summer um you know which realistically the district actually owns that is our land
and we have anou with the city and I after discussions with Jim and some of the city folks it was like we've got to have space because I can't take up the playground for lay down area for construction materials and by saying we'll return it back to what it was um
they were happy with that and finally so that's the field that's on our side of correct but there's still fields on Yes we in Aquilla Park yes we didn't touch Aquilla Park we are just just using the current field and if you've driven by there you'll see a lot of equipment down
there right now so okay thank you do we have to put an awning on the field there no I'm just kidding i'm just kidding we do we do we get it that other agencies are involved with this and it's sort of you know I have a connection to the watershed district i used to be more connected with them and understand their
mission and stuff and it is frustrating sometimes when we we have a lot of these things that we too so we get it we get it did you Yeah there's a couple questions here question um trying to think of everything that's you know changing internally in the current
structure um this for the start of next year are there any other temporary spatial constraints that um because we are add like I said with um we are making some new sped areas over there um creating some more quiet areas quiet
rooms if you will for special needs students that need to have that area so those will be done before the start of school that is our mission is to make sure that those are done and I've pretty much given the ultimatum that we don't have a choice here those are going to be done and we will be ready for uh
September 2nd actually is when school starts next year so because I kind of remember the whole parking lot did you yes i think oh central I have like Yes can we give a timeline same way
you um so we are going to be um pool and locker rooms are going to be uh operational and available roughly um about a week after the 4th of July um and then the intention is to have substantially complete with the
remainder of the gym the training room the boardroom the gymnastics gym and the annex gym um the parking lot out here is getting redone um a lot of exterior doors are being replaced and upgraded um that is a substantial completion I
believe is August 29th on that yes um but we will still be needing the boardroom and that training room because of the amount of technology going into that um we are looking at potentially another about another month to make sure
that we're set up and ready for that we were we're hoping like I said it's it we're stretched right now thin on that and I if you saw the pictures if I go back to the the the gym picture being the auditorium one of the major constraints we were running into was
engineering wasn't signing off on the load restriction on the floor which used to be the seating so when they took the seating out they built the second level there to match the level of the stage and we we can't find any prints that
said how they built that um and so engineering was like I can't sign off on us driving our lifts across there we've got to we ended up rerouting a lot of duct work because we couldn't go across this area and so that was one of our
other challenges with that gymnasium slashstage area auditorium that used to be there so yeah I mean I was being flippant but I'm also very serious like are we you know we had to delay the start of school wasn't it this year because of
parking because the parking didn't get No it was no what was the because we lost power the power two days so I mean are we yeah is there will there be a secret contingency plan just in case we can't open
a given No I'm not the interior portion of it I'm not worried said we've gone over this schedule time and time again to make sure that we can reach those date and what the terminology that Canudson uses a lot and I've come to accustomed to is called a summer slam
this is a pretty customary interior job for a summer slam to make sure you're done in time for the start of school we are don't have a lot of structural loadbearing issues that we're going to have to deal with um with Aquilla and
that was part of an EV uh engineering val value engineering that we did a little bit later on with Canudson and Cuttingham the design because initial design had a clear story in the in the cafeteria twotory clear story all glass
wall and we started looking at that and I asked the questioner early on and said "How are we going to do this and still be ready for school?" So we revamped the roof line to bring it down to the
current roof line with a with a I don't say what an arched sport in there yes such that you'll still have more light in there but yet we're not going to have a full twostory clear glass in there simply because with all the structure
that that we would had to have done Kenudson myself and Cunningham reluctantly agreed that the schedule was not going to make it so we brought it back to within an area we believe and are confident that that cafeteria and
interior structures will be completed on time and in the remodel area is going to take priority we have our workflow set up that we're going to be tackling the office areas and that first and then the
cafeteria and then move into the addition stuff during so that that area is going to take priority because that is the most urgent goal for you guys to have a successful start of school so and this is actually what the remodeled floor plan will look like um
so essentially we took out room um I don't know if I got to go right right over here which room 208 which was a sped room and now that becomes uh part of the office area and and conference rooms and more offices for staff and
then over on this one over here is the revised sped area with the quiet rooms um we are adding bathroom over there for sped students the north Yeah the north room has a new bathroom it's enlarged a little bit to accommodate special needs
and lift and some things like that too that we talked about or is that the lift for some of the the Hoyer lift and that yeah yep that'll be part of this as well yes and then the inclusive restrooms on the cafeteria side and that Yeah so with the new cafeteria over in this area
right here we have put uh what is that five six new inclusive restrooms over there high school yep exactly they'll look and be modeled after the high school so and then next one is a slide that's going to show the addition floor plan so
the four kindergarten classrooms are out on the west the new music rooms on the north side the um kids place which which I'm understanding is like the daycare before and after care where my kids go the Yare program currently kids place operating out of pretty much a closet
over there so they have their own space their own storage let's be clear the kids aren't in a classroom no the program the program that staffing the offices the storage are in class okay yes so we're doing that and then also on the right which we call flex um this
whole area over here is the new storm shelter um which is about the the panels are all up if I'm not mistaken right correct storm shelter up we're um finishing up some detailing of the panels and we'll be looking to push
forward on doing that we can actually we have some pictures if we want to go through so this was a a picture about the end of I'd say the beginning of Marchish first week of Marchish where we completed the soil correction and then the next couple
three pictures are so this is a a look of the storm shelter area with the foundation going in with all the formwork in and we poured very shortly here is a picture of the classroom area with the foundation in and the center walls being poured and then I got
another picture kind of showing we're back filling the foundation and here's this a look of the center commons where this will lead into the new cafeteria and then I do have a couple pictures of here is a an action picture
of the company setting pre-cast panels and then this was about the time when I turned the presentation in of how far it is and we are fully complete now with that structure and we're starting to No that's good then we're starting to um
interior and backup CMU walls in the classroom area going up right now as we speak so that's kind of a little update of where Quill is at uh high school stadium this project is taking down the old homeside bleachers building a
storage space for school district for storing things um and then also a team room storage or storm shelter area underneath new bleachers on top and then replacement of the turf field and field
uh sidewalks and improvements around on that side and then so this Go ahead yes yes so So the the structure on the right on the right hatched in has four bathrooms for
the team rooms and we're um any sport can go in at halftime or at recess and and meet there and have restroom facilities there's three restrooms that were added on the storage side that is I believe Jim that's where the fan stadium access is correct and then the new
bleachers will be set on top of that i have a question about the team rooms yeah this might be a logistic thing more for gym or something like that is that stuff when if somebody rents the field or uses a field do they get full access to that stuff or is that sort of um
that's still under discussion so okay we haven't decided how we want i have a quick question for cost saving the turf look like new can we reuse it and you know and it's funny because they they what they've done is we're recycling the the the fill in there so
they spent the last week going and essentially vacuuming out all the sand and the rubber material which we will reuse on the new one going down so um and if you know he walked me through it and he says "You're at the right time when we did this." because he started
showing micro splits in the fiber and the seams uh and that would have become uh far more problematic in a year or two if we weren't doing this right now the average lifespan of a turf field is 8 to 10 years we're already at 12 with that
so we've got our we've we've gone beyond technically our expectancy of that and I put I counted that to you know our ground staff taking good care of it making sure that we do have them out doing their compression tests on an annual basis and doing a once over every
every every once a year or so and then here's some renderings of what the design from Pope did for what they anticipate the new stadium shelter and structure will look like uh front view and that and then and then here I
took a picture we already took taken the press box off and stored it on the side and then actually this was when they started demoing the bleachers last week and now as Jim said the bleachers are entirely gone and this is a picture of what the
actual pre-cast panels will look like most of what you'll see on the exterior is going to be the panel on the the left with the brick and then the behind the scenes stuff will have the the city's requiring that we have the panel on the left facing anywhere that's readily
viewable from a street so and then the last project is the Can I do one more thing about the stadium just to to while while we were on it the um taking out of the bleachers they've been similarly some questions about their
lifespan too take it but but also some mostly functionality yeah functionality because they're not they weren't ADA compliant and now we are fully ADA compliant um we have a much better ramp system going up that allows uh people to
use it um in the current stadium that we had we had one area where they could be now whatever section students parents grandparents want to be we have an area uh set up for them to be if you're if you're in a wheelchair that they will actually be in yeah I think that was one
key thing that I actually heard and seen with the football games is that we had um a kid who wanted to participate and be with his peers in the cheering section and didn't have that option to do that and now and and now that's part of it i also know that like some people that I know including myself appreciate
that we'll have some railings yes going up and down the stairs too because that's been a challenge for some people too which is not necessarily a full accessibility thing but proves to us how accessibility benefits us that's all and that was the other point I was going to bring up is yes there will be railings
on every section set of stairs going up and down so I've watched people trip that are using other ways and it was an awkward rise overrun scenario so it wasn't a natural step going up there so you kind of half stepped it half down and you're not
quite there and it wasn't so much going up it was going down yeah that you had the challenge so Okay and I and I just want to clarify review um for those folks who may not have been here going attending um schoolboard meetings since
September that um one the bucket of money for infrastructure is different than the bucket of money that goes to operating costs like teachers and things like that and then my understanding because I get a lot of questions from swim parents for the swim team is that
the the changes in the stadium were necessary correct and so we had to make necessary changes so in addition to those necessary changes a couple things happened one St louis Park the city came up with some requirements am I correct
and then also um we also are just taking for the field replacement it was because of all of the other construction we did we were we've been fortunate in the cost savings we've had that we've been able to wrap but also there was also deferred
maintenance in there and if we didn't do it now that would have increased further down the road i think there's just a heightened awareness right now in our community about how we spend our money and that um we did not decide to do this on a web no that it was a necessary
change that we need it was it was always in the the bonding referendum that we went through we expanded a little we added the turf as part of that just because we had hit the the life expectancy of the turf and so
and then the last one is the restroom remodel at the high school and real quick it's we're just doing two restrooms one on top of each other so that we're going to be replacing the plumbing and infrastructure all the way throughout in
house and it's just it's going to be uh basically new finishes new um plumbing reput tile tile walls um vanities and fixtures and us yes so this was also as we've talked
before we were going to try to get all 14 of the bathrooms done um the challenge was we were going to initially try to do it with the project we were just running out of time um and we couldn't get it done during that period of time so what we did is we these are
going to be two of our for lack of a better term uh initial experimental bathrooms to see how this design works i mean it's going to be very similar to what we currently have updated um rather than singular hand sinks we have and those god-awful round Bradley trough
sinks we're going to they're this sink is going to look just like the one outside the inclusive restroom so it'll be a solid surface it'll be nice and clean it will function properly um you know so you know the other reason we
chose these two is because then that finishes off the A-wing bathrooms because of the inclusive restrooms first through third floor will be completed at that point in time and then we'll systematically look at B-wing and or C-wing whichever we feel is uh on the
next I anticipate is taking about two to three more years to get all the restrooms completed in in the high school um I the other challenge with doing all is we would have to almost shut the building down again if we were going to go through and do all the restrooms so it' be shut down for yet
another summer i think they've endured enough for the last two and a half years that it was a chance to get them back in there and let them use the great spaces that we've just completed so I think if you can do these bathrooms for $400,000 for the next few years and
we can adjust our school start so that's part of the Yeah just kidding i'm just kidding the landlord will be approving the bids for this for this process is it just a joke because it's the many things as we talk about the many things that overlap and things that we have to battle all the time and why whatever i'm
not going to get into it any more than that okay other real questions comments for people we I think we we interjected with a number during here but are there any other comments i think we're we're just grateful to see that we continue to improve our facilities as um Vice Chairman or Yeah vice Chair Mini said
like uh we are um we have different buckets of money and this this is largely money that's coming from our taxpayers we're appreciative of that that this is money that they've said yes go ahead and update the facilities it allows us to have great spaces and modern spaces and inviting spaces and
inclusive spaces um and also um uh comparable spaces to what we see at some of our other schools nearby that can have pretty they have new builds and some other things too so we know that we're limited with some of our structures but we just I think appreciate I I don't know i think I've
seen this from I was in the learning design team as they called it back 15 years ago when we're just looking at this stuff conceptually and we're like what are we going to do how are we ever going to get these buildings updated and we're getting very close to being through all of them and getting completed and it takes time and energy but we've had a lot of good thinking
that's all I can say michelle just one quick question have we purchased pretty much everything that is going into these or are we going to be seeing um We do always in the project budget for each individual project we
have we always have a line item and it's called PP and E uh uh or FF and excuse me sorry not PP furnitureures fixtures and equipment so there's usually a line item for every in there that we go ahead and if it's furniture if it's uh new
equipment if it's air handlers that I'm buying because I can find you know purchasing through the state contract rather than through a contractor it's more efficient if I buy them directly and then they install them um so I guess what I'm really asking is are we anticipating tariff impact on our
purchasing you know I think we're early enough on that I haven't heard the big one is going to be the furniture for Aquilla um and so far I think we've got our numbers in whether they're going to like CO whether they hold to those or not there's always a small caveat in
their contract that says due to you know forces beyond our control you know we may see increases in this so far we are they're telling me no but we're still four months away from delivery date on that but it's good that we're at this
point and not three years ago correct correct so I just want to know if I can like as a child of the 80s that round where I'll save you if you like it there are some people that might need a planter and I was just appreciative that my daughter
got to see what it looked like when I went to school by using those round things where you put your your foot you step on it squirts out and it squirts all weird a and I think there's only one left in the district that actually works out that way we some of them been
upgraded to the electronic eye that when you wave your hand underneath it it's supposed to come out well those electronic eyes don't always work the greatest no I I know that from personal experience as well appreciate but I will save that for you i'll put your name go ahead quick
question yeah uh you had talked about in the boardroom and training room some technology uh constraints could you uh would you be able to share what some of that technology is just the overall um because it it has a lot of uh technology
going in there with with wireless microphones TVs monitors uh cameras that sort of thing that you know we want to make sure that that is up and running and running right before we open that up everything that will make this kind of
experience better for the community absolutely yes yes we won't have that i think a lot of people would be appreciative of that so I think you should make it acoustically designed so we never need any of the the equipment too no I'm just kidding but all right any any other questions
comments really again appreciate all the hard work you're doing here things are looking really great and we I think we're getting I don't think we're hearing any blowback so to speak or feedback from the community that's negative about this um but I just really appreciate the work that you're doing thank you thank you very much thanks for
the kind words and appreciate your time thanks that brings us up to consent agenda which has a number of things on it our payroll accounts payable dispersements electric fund transfers bank charges investment holdings donations personnel minutes and then um
the second reading of votes uh for policies in the 100 200 300 series which we talked about wait that's a separate thing sorry okay sorry so it is they're on the consent agenda all right yeah that's what I thought okay
and yeah 70 yeah okay i just it said presenter and I got thrown by that okay yes these policies which we talked about last time which were things that um that uh Oh my gosh annual review annual review that we had done just to look at
things and things that were kind of non-controversial and we can always change them if we need to later on but we wanted to bring them up to speed and make sure that they were good and we had put eyes on okay it is recommended that the school board approve the consent agenda with the following business and personnel items for the April 22nd 2025
school board meeting as presented do we have a motion so moved moved by Director Casey do I have a second second second by director Williams all those in favor say I i any oppos passes 70 great all right can I just quick say I know we don't
really do discussion on this but this again goes back to the listening session is that the donations right i just want to flag that we've got donations from some foundations from the St louis Park American Legion the Vikings um and we got a donation from an
individual named Frank Johnson who donated $500 for Michelle Bryant a social worker to buy supplies for the groups that she runs and so there there are opportunities out there for folks to donate yeah draw attention to that and I
will call out that if we ever as a board want to consider moving something out of the consent agenda permanently so that it's more recognizable we can do that there's some options for that i think we should try to streamline things to keep things moving along but understand that that can also have its negatives where
things like that get missed so but I I think that a couple people missed that the Minnesota Vikings donated money to our girls black flag football team and director Anderson how many girls came out for flag football 75 i believe 75
my daughter being one that's amazing all right any other Sorry to interrupt i just I appreciate that thing to do yeah and like I said if we want to talk more about some of these things I think we should too and whether we want to do
some things or follow up whether there's some other ways we should recognize that it's built into this business meeting but there's other ways we could be acknowledging that too as a board or as a district I think right all right that does bring us up to 7E um which is 8 oh 8 sorry I skipped
over that okay 8 to A which is approval of the midyear budget um school nutrition and community education um it is recommended that the school board approve the midyear budget for school nutrition and community education as presented do I have a motion on that so
moved moved uh by director Casey i'll second that and then that brings us up to discussion director Magnus is there anything else that you need do we have any other questions for Director Magnus about this um this is stuff that we've
seen now twice um pretty straightforward if there's no other comments then all those in favor say I i any opposed passes 70 okay that brings us up to 8B and it is recommended that the school board approve the acceptance of the health insurance provider and the
associated rates as presented um and then there's a resolution that I need that I need to read related to this too yes okay okay so that is resolved that the school board of independent school district number 283 approves the self-funded
rates for the district group health and dental assurance with the United Healthcare UMR and Delta Dental for the 12-month period from July 1st 2025 to June 30 2026 so I'm going to do motion second and then we'll have discussion okay so is there a motion on this can
you call that can you call well can I get a motion to bring this to the table okay moved uh by Director Ibrahim do you have a second on this second second by uh director Anderson okay now discussion and director if you would like to if
there's some more context you want to provide here maybe maybe to introduce it or Yes so um good evening members of the board yeah um so each year um we every two years our insurance goes out to bid to
the market and um what ends up happening is we have an insurance committee that comes together they meet once a month it's made up of different members from throughout the uh employees throughout the district who represent um their employee groups and we come together and
we monitor monthly the progress and what's happening on the self-insured plan um and then every year every two years when it goes out to bid the insurance committee comes together they review the bids that come back we had two different companies that were that
um offered competitive bids this year um Blue Cross and Blue Shield in UMR um and after reviewing the bids and um consulting with One Digital Chase Ambro who is our consultant that we work very closely with it was recommended um that
we stay with UMR for a number of different reasons and we're looking at about an 8% increase in rates um which may seem high but it actually is pretty low when you compare us to other school districts surrounding districts um a lot of school districts are seeing double
digit increases and technically we should have probably taken a little bit more of a increase but because we've been managing the self-insured plan and the reserves um we have built up they they're recommending that our reserves be about 40 45% of our annual spend and
we are up we're we're a little bit higher than 45% so we did do we did made an intentional decision to take the 8% increase and we'll monitor that closely over the course of the next year to ensure them the plan maintains and we'll reevaluate next year to see where we're
at thank you all right did you have any other questions director okay other questions comments this has been I think we I don't know if director Casey remembers like I think remembers the cost things and how challenging this well we saw double
digit before we went selfunded so this is just great news um I mean it does seem like high compared to what we've had in the past several years but not compared to what we had before that we had a lot of ups and downs um so the the percent that we've been able to hold has
really helped us be much more um even I guess on the on the increases so and you probably said this but the the the group that makes the decision is made up of folks from all of our bargaining units and Okay yep and we're very intentional and actually tapped a couple on the
shoulder just to make sure that we have continued representation across because I think getting that uh perspective of each employee so you know they're not surprised when these things happen or we're not rolling these things out and people are asking what's going on so um
yeah we've been getting good intendance great can appreciate all that so we've had a motion and a second any further discussion and all those in favor say I i any opposed pass the second zero all right this brings us up to um approval
of high school restroom renovation bids and um this would be I'm going to ask for a motion and second we can have discussion if we need that it is recommended that the school board approved the high school restroom renovation project as presented do I have a motion to bring that forward i'll move it do we have a second second uh by
director Anderson uh any questions do is there anything that you want to offer this is related to what we just saw the the the renovation bids happened yeah i mean like I said the total number came in about 15% more than what we expected however with you know this is where the
tariffs may be ineffective because of supply chain and this so um you know that's where we are at right now any other questions or comments about this discussion all right then hearing none all those in favor say I any oppose
passes 70 brings us up to board member updates thank you everybody for getting through all of that um our regular business meeting here and which where we take care of all these business items and and um it can seem very like boom boom boom but I think it's designed to
be that way so that brings us up to board member updates which gives us an opportunity to get outside of that to talk about anything else we want to do about our connections in to the community particularly our leaison assignments or anything else that we're going to provide updates on so I'll open up the floor to my fellow board members
i'll um the I sit on the senior advisory committee and um several months ago somebody said hey can we do do can we do shredding um and so shredding shredding yes and um because sometimes those big
shredding events are like hard to get to so um Katie from the senior um senior advisor group and they pulled it all together so there's going to be a free for all and it doesn't you don't have to be a senior a member of Lennox free for all shredding event at Lennox Friday May
16th in the parking lot um the lower parking lot at Lennox from 10 to 12 and you can bring up to five paper grocery bags of items to be shredded per vehicle please remove all paper clips and staples so that is um super exciting
because it's it was just an idea that came out of the committee and they're making it happen so um but that is a super helpful service I think that they're going to be able to do so May 16th excellent uh I went to the multicultural night at the middle school last Thursday um I was
able to see the jazz band perform Isn't She Lovely by Stevie Wonder i thought it was beautiful and I said he would love it if he got to hear it um I wasn't able to stay long but um there were two sets of brave people that did duets and they did very beautifully doing it uh and
also the Somali dance and I just love the admiration from the crowd from their um their peers and how they cheered them on and how like they were even I think more excited than the people performing or just to see their peers so that was lovely to see um Central Clinic is going
to be temporarily closed it's not open during the summer months but we are hosting a immunization clinic Wednesday April 30th 2 to 6 at the middle school you can go to the district page for more information um and Susan Lingard has
their last PTO meeting of the year next week on Tuesday April 29th 6 um 6:15 p.m members Director Abra yeah I just want to add uh SWAT middle school families and the
community uh tomorrow from 6:00 to 8 there will be a multicultural show i don't know is it the same the one I don't know but it's going to be great performance in so it's happening tomorrow and it's open for all the
community that's between uh 6 to 8 um I have a couple so start with um just an invitation for thank you for staying for the board updates for everybody who stayed because sometimes this is when you hear about how we do go out into the community and we try to connect with um
folks aquilla's um carnival is this Sunday um if you've never been to Aquilla's carnival you should experience it because it's a lot of fun also Aquilla has an online auction going on right now and they have some fantastic prizes i know because I have often
participated in the Aquilla online auction um and so I've gotten great facial products and hopefully my dog will get some i'll be training um from a local thing i also attended my first uh Bright Works um assembly meeting and boy
was that really interesting and I have a lot of learning that I need to do um there's a lot of learning but um I think my if I had two takeaways or possibly three takeaways is one it was
refreshing to be in a space with other um board members from across the metro area who are um experiencing everything that we're experiencing so they're um have some anxiety as they watch the
state legislature there's some anxiety about um the federal government what the federal government is doing um so it was uh interesting to hear from them my second takeaway is that um I think with the read act we need to
be patient in how it rolls out um my impression of right works and this is as a not just as a board member but also as a person who's in the classroom um they're building the support structures
for readact as they roll it out um so Bright Works is a um I forget the word corporate collaborative of different areas that are trying to support schools as they roll out letters training as they roll
out training for um our math programs as they they support extracurricular things through Spark Path um including the young authors conference that I will be attending in um a few weeks so uh they
did hit me up to be on the executive board right away so uh I I look forward to learning more um I think there's also some unease about how state funding is going to continue to uh
support bright works who supports districts in giving that really important professional development and professional learning to to teachers so yeah it was I have a lot of learning that I got to do by the way um on the
Breit Works topic they are typically a co-presenter of the fall AMSD conference yep and so if you for fellow board members any of us can attend that fall conference yep um and so if you're interested in learning more about Bright Works and or AMSD that's a great
opportunity and to connect with other districts too so just want to put that on your radar we and we're talking about an AMSD don't want to quote this i'll get back to you but about what if that what we if they have ideas about what that conference should be about i think they're still taking ideas and still are
interested if people have thoughts about what those what that could be okay that's all I want to say about that back to you no I mean I guess the only other interesting thing um is that they have a small part of Bright Works there's a um they they don't have every region
um people in place to support every school district across the state yet so they're getting there um and then the other thing they have a mighty but very small group of culturally relevant um trainers it's like three people that
they are they're trying to hit all of the all of the states and high needs for for that and I thought that I was impressed with their presentation and their efforts because three people for the entire state of Minnesota seems a
little under staffed yeah I just had a couple quick notes uh Dr hines already alluded to a couple productions coming up and I've seen a lot of signs in my neighborhood for a Peter Hobart production coming up for Aladdin this coming week so I'm excited
for that um and then uh there's also a PTO meeting for Peter Hobart coming up uh next week on Wednesday um and I think that's everybody my uh I
attended the final PC meeting i was one of four parents there that night so I do encourage parents to to to show up for that and I would say that one thought that somebody expressed was I that parents are worried if they come to it they're gonna get assigned committee work and it really is like a site
council or or PTO meeting where you can come just to hear about what's going on and we had a nice presentation by the um social studies department about AP human geography which came out of a coffee with the principal conversation where people were asking about it i didn't see
a lot of carryover to people who were asking about people that were there but it was a really great presentation and I found it really enlightening and and just want people to be aware of that so um and I know that I did I think maybe you alluded to this little one that's coming up this starting this weekend and some other things going on at the high
school um so I think that's I think that's everything i think I can't remember between now and our last meeting if we've uh Ram Ramadan finished up right i think we we've celebrated the end of Ramadan want to recognize that and some great things that we've done in our district and celebrating and
recognizing um all sorts of people here we I heard we I heard a lot of that tonight too so also Easter over the weekend and Easter yes and Easter as well um all right if there's nothing else then um I will call this meeting a journ to add