##VIDEO ID:kLFM7r4svUo## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e a regular business meeting of the St l park school board for June June that's which we thinking January 28 2025 um call it to order before we get going I'll read the land acknowledgement we are gathered on the land of the Dakota ojibway peoples I ask you to join me in acknowledging the Dakota ojibway Community their Elders both past and present as well as future Generations St Louis Park public schools also acknowledges that it was founded upon exclusions and erasers of many indigenous people peoples including those on Whose land the school district is located this acknowledgement demonstrates commitment to the dismantling of the ongoing legacies of colonial power and the district's desire to support the ongoing work of local indigenous communities to thrive in our schools okay with that read I will move on to the agenda and approval of the agenda on the agenda tonight we have public comment and I don't know if we have anybody signed up for public comment nobody's signed up nobody's here for public comment okay um superintendent report discussion item 6A Phase One Design Team update special education we have 6B the mmkr report um for the fiscal year 2024 audit results to accept those we have 6C an update on budget forecast and enrollment projections we have our consent agenda we have action items uh 8A which is policy development second reading of uh policy 903 visitor policy and then we have board member updates and adjournments so do we have a it is recommended that the school board approve the agenda for January 28 2025 as presented do I have a motion move moved by Celia second by an all those in favor say I I any opposed passes 70 okay just checking one more time nobody's here for public comment okay as a reminder people can provide always a speak at public comment we have other options including um emailing the school board at our Schoolboard email and reaching out to Independent Schoolboard members and then I think there's also some listening sessions coming up too if people are so inclined with that I we'll turn it over to um item number five superintendent report and Dr H thank you chair Cox all right every day I have the opportunity to see students and staff live out our District's Mission our mission is to see Inspire and Empower each learning to live their Brilliance in an environment that centers student voice and experience to create racially Equitable learning that energizes and enhances the spirit of our community the past month has been filled with opportunities to connect with our community first I'd like to celebrate our Middle School quiz Bowl on January 18th the St Louis Park Middle School hosted their Aspire students at Park performing High Intel recall exercises e e e e to because we're in this you know continue to be in this temporary space and we have a lot of people here tonight the best that you can to project you're speaking to us but for some of the people in the back of the room may not be able to hear us so the best that you can do to remember that protect CR people here all right with that Dr Duffy so superintendent superintendent Hines chair Cox members of the board um it's my honor to um bring the special education design team here tonight to have them share a little bit about their work in Phase One um as you all know we have three phases to our design team and curriculum and instructional uh review process and um this team is in phase one they uh came together last year um as part of a Consulting team and um volunteered their time more or less to uh really put together some incredible work here in phase one so um I'm going to turn it over to them to introduce themselves good evening um we're going to introduce ourselves and then talk a little bit about um a racial Equity purpose statement introductions why it's important to us and what we've done so far in phase one I'm Megan studard I'm a special education teacher at Aquila Elementary I'm Blair Oki I'm a special education teacher at the middle school I'm Christina Doyle I'm a bilingual speech language pathologist at a co elementary I'm Christine toris I'm a special education teacher at the high school uh so a little bit about our racial Equity purpose statement at St Louis Park public schools every student regardless of race gender socio economic status or neurodiversity deserves the opportunity to thrive as empowered leaders and add vate advocate for the their individual needs our commitment as anti-racist Educators is to challenge the status quo and excavate deep-seated racism within the public school system we Embrace neurodiversity and recognize the unique strengths and perspectives of our black indigenous Latin Asian and people of color bopak students as well as neurodiverse students St Louis Park public schools upholds an inclusive environment where all students feel valued heard and equipped with the tools necessary to advocate for themselves throughout their lives we hold ourselves accountable for fostering advocacy inclusion and high expectations for all students uh together we transform special education practices to ensure that every student has the opportunity to succeed Thrive and lead with confidence in their identities and as a part of the phase one process we've have all started reading um the unteachables it is a book by Keith Ma on disability rights and the invention of black special education so um as part of our work Alex MCU who is another member of the um special education design team was not um able to be with us to here tonight um so she highlighted a little bit about why this work is important to her um and she mentioned that our special ucation students are brilliant creative and exceptional individuals who are deserving of equal opportunities including access to culturally relevant rigorous curriculum a strong voice in our school system and inclusive community building in all spaces in St Louis Park uh for myself this work is important for me um because I am an AFR Latina and a bilingual speech language pathologist um this statement embodies actions that will address the road of special education as a system that has historic ly oppress the most marginalized um and my why is that the hearts of our students are the most important part and I value each student's story and believe that they show up authentically to our doors each day it is our responsibility as Educators to recognize and teach to their Brilliance racial Equity work requires that we engage in continuous self-reflection and learning it means listening to our students acknowledging their lived experience and creating spaces where they can engage in honest and meaningful dialogue about race power and privilege um my why we have a responsibility as ra racially conscious Educators to provide the best education possible to create lifelong Learners historically special education was created to continue segregation within the school system sorry I can't see the rest of that um within the school and our current reality is that there is a disproportionate representation of students of color within their special education system special education students Des deserve the same opportunities to show their Brilliance free of labels and biases this requires requires us to review who why and how students are entering our special education system at St Louis Park um I want to ensure that every student I work with has access to a rigorous curriculum opportunities to build meaningful connections within a supportive community and the chance to experience a sense of belonging in our schools um so why is this work important um as a district we intend to address the persistent divide between General and special education ensuring that all students have Equitable access to resources and opportunities knowing that the current system often treats students in special education as an afterthought perpetuating racially and neurodiversity um predictable outcomes that reinforce the systems of impress oppression um we need to Center the identities of our students and Empower them to advocate for their individualized needs and we intend to make a commitment to challenge these inequities dismantling impressive structures and fostering an inclusive educational environment where every student is valued and supported so some of the work that we've done so far already in phase one which is just the idea of knowing ourselves as a program um we've created our racial Equity purpose statement which is what you heard this evening we've begun to read the UN teachables by Professor Keith maiz to gather information on just the history of special education um we've gathered parent teacher and parent professional feedback through um just surveys and focus groups and listening sessions um so the idea is that student data will be gathered during future listening sessions um and then I um had the opportunity to disaggregate some of our special education enrollment data um by primary disability free and reduced price lunch School race and gender so some of that data we will be diving into during our work questions thank you for this such a important Focus right in the intersectionality of um race racism and ableism right um I'm really interested in that disaggregated data is that something that you'd be able to share with us at some point just so that we can start to get a handle on what you're looking at and how you're using it yeah sure yeah and we're excited to share it so the data that we have right now is disaggregated for kindergarten through a transition plus programs um so we are still going to be we're still Gathering the Early Childhood data that going to be really significant in terms of some of the disaggregation there but um that was the kind of the plan was that as a team we could share that data at a Schoolboard meeting um just to kind of identify um where where are we kind of seeing some of these patterns of um almost what we would say segregation Ray racial Equity um and ableism um in our program so yeah and one thing this came up for me previously at a previous meeting but um I don't know a lot about best practices in special education but we you know obviously we're a small District compared to many of our neighbors here um but I know for example at each of our elementary sites we serve students with special education needs across a variety of spectrums which in some ways you know sort of meets a goal around keeping kids in their Community right with their peers but also what does that do to our outcomes right and is that um spreading our staff too thin and so I'm just really interested as you're looking at that what you're what you come back with in terms of best practices for a district of our size when we're looking as you're disaggregating data and looking at what's going to actually lead to the most Equitable outcomes thanks for your work thank you I don't have questions but I just want to say thank you you guys all the day since morning till now it's school yeah and now you're here you know especially you know some of you have young kids too two of my favorite teacher here thank you just say thank you appr that I'm just I'm I'm excited that you're here it's been I mean we've been going through all these and this is the first time we've gotten to talk about special education um and so I'm I'm glad you're here and I guess um I don't want want to like I don't this is I don't want to ask this because I you probably don't know yet but I just I I'm and I'm sure you're thinking about like what I what I think what I want to hear is like what is the scope right what your because it's like huge right it's potentially huge and I mean I heard you talk about identification a little bit I heard you know I heard a couple a couple of other things but I you know I'm on the the board of 287 and I'm thinking like referrals right I'm thinking like there's a lot of layers here so um I just want to encourage you in in in this work and say like we're looking forward to hearing more thank you I think I have I have a question just to follow up on that and I'm still hear from other board members but um like can you give a snapshot of what all the services are that you provide because for the sake of people at home and maybe for some of our newer board members or for people like me who've been here for a while and don't necessarily understand that I know you may not get everything but I think Speech Pathology and I think it goes wider than people think so if you could just to the best of your ability talk talk about what some of the services that that are that you provide we I guess we're a little different um like I service um I students with cognitive disabilities or maybe a more severe autism um but also do some inclusion work so some push in at the high school um your speech but you guys want to talk about yours yeah so um some of the services that just kind of across the board we provide are speech language pathology we have occupational therapy um we contract with 287 for de heart of hearing um Physical Therapy um uh we have Reading Writing uh math support um we also like social emotional skills emotional regulation um and then also help like kids with functional organizational skills too which kind of gets to so we call it like from from a funding reason we call it special education and what people think of traditionally as special education I think it might be a little bit far removed from where we currently are that's that's what I'm trying to do is maybe like lay out that and maybe that's part of phase two is talking to us and sharing some of that information people better understand I just wanted to tag on because that's in open people's questions I just had one quick question but also thank you for your work and staying this late um and doing all of the extra work on top of it uh I'm in the classroom every day I know that our special ed teachers and our support staff are the Angels of our building so I really appreciate all of the hard work that you do um so the only I guess it would be interesting I guess from my perspective to know you had mentioned predictable outcomes but as a part of your um as a part of your racial uh Equity purpose statement and I'm just wondering if you've looked at outcomes like what um so have you had an opportunity to look at our graduation rates um post secondary options and the things um of that nature so that are we avoiding predictable outcomes are we are we the norm or like what is the comparables with other districts of size um because I mean I I understand very well like the going into the system and going into the special and over um diagnosing but I also think that there's also some kids that are getting some health that maybe wouldn't have gotten help in the past which I'm really thankful for but I would also just like to know what are those outcomes like do we have a high percentage of special students who are going on to postsecondary options are we how are we helping them if you have time and I know you don't but it would just it would be an interesting um I guess for me it would be some interesting dat to get any other comments questions it's a lot to take in it's a lot like I said I think we're just excited to be hearing from you all and as people have said um we know the hard work that you do we know that it's underfunded by the state we're very aware of that and there's plenty of people who are trying to leverage that and say if this is a requirement that we must do why don't we get more funding to do this work and it's it's it's frustrating for us as as board members too that that's you know not a higher priority least it is for me so um thank you anyways uh any other comments questions otherwise we'll just thank you and let you get out your thank you thank you all right other departing that's uh coming up to the de here we have um Patricia Magnuson who's um Regular visitor here to us and today she's here to talk about the mmk report and um to accept the fiscal year 2024 audit results and I think she has some guests with her as well today so good evening is everybody accounted for thank you thank you all right sorry good evening um superintendent Dr Hines chair Cox members of the board um I'm happy to introduce you to our Auditors from what was mmkr you guys can talk about the new firm um name um you have seen Jim mikon one of the principles of the company and we've been working um really closely with Jackie hugall for some of last year and all of this year and you um will get a chance tonight to hear about some of the great work Josiah's been doing he's he started July first you know we were partway through the audit and has just gotten us up to speed and really got us through the audit he has done tremendous work and we're looking forward to really great things so I will turn over to Jim yep well thanks for yes um my name is Jim mikon I'm the managing partner or at least was the managing partner of mmkr CPAs as of January 1st our our firm has merged with a uh a firm named Elby Carlson they're a about a 50 person firm and jointly will be about a 100 person firm 90 to 100 uh really uh uh you won't see any changes uh in services at all my governmental team including Jackie and two other governmental partners are moving into their space and just be part of a division of their larger entities so we look at it as a win for everybody win for our team a win for their firm as well as a win for our clients and and providing uh broader and bigger resources for our our clients so I bring it up here mainly because I am representing mmkr because this was issued under mmkr but officially we're lb Carlson at this particular moment uh so I do have control of that oh yes uh so I'm just going to run get into my presentation so um it is a requirement of the district to have an annual financial statement prepared um uh that financial statement you receive probably in the packets that that you were provided um as part of our particular audit process we're required to do a number of other elements uh um that are controlled or or provided by the office of the state auditor as well as the Department of Education as well as the federal government and it includes things like auditing the schedule of federal awards that you received which is about 3.8 million this past year uh we audit your internal control specifically around financial reporting uh we audit your uh compliance with various laws and regulations that relate again to financial reporting um we also audit your compliance with u um Federal programs specifically um related to a major program that gets selected Rand not randomly I guess rotationally this year we audited the special ed program but it rotates depending on federal rules uh we also audit your compliance with Minnesota laws and regulations which is Guided by a list of laws provided by the office of the state auditor I would just interject that the um audit reports are also on the district website so for anyone who wants to look at them they've been out there for a while good very nice so as part of the audit process we issue What's called the management report and in that management report we provide a lot of other of results and some Financial Trends and know I'll go through those um as part of the PowerPoint uh that I provided um so the first and foremost we were able to issue an unmodified opinion on your financial statements uh this year we did Implement a new uh standard on uh group Capital assets uh that particular standard actually required us to go back in time a bit to come up with uh Capital assets that were purchased um really in groups um and and record them collectively versus individually um actually uh that particular standard added about almost close to $3 million in capital assets to your system um which was really mandated by the the government EIC Standards Board that we do that why I bring it up here really is is highlighted in the opinion that we gave that we implemented that no real concern just noteworthy um so continuing on I mentioned that we audit your internal controls over financial reporting and we did Issue one finding specifically related to that uh and that relates to uh um the uh cash reconciliations the bank reconciliations that are done really on a monthly basis and it it probably includes Investments as well but uh deposits are usually the main uh reconciliation processes that we're going on um most of our commentary relates specifically relates to the timeliness and accuracy of those reconciliations um um I think Jackie put it about one you were describing it I think there was a conference call even yesterday on this particular topic but but we felt as part of this control that the control systems were in place if you will the the the techniques that you would go about to uh complete the process uh so if somebody you know the the staff were following those techniques they would have followed and completed correctly and accurately well that wasn't happening they were they were not completing them timely they weren't getting them accurately completed which is a limitation um you know you you really want to get those Bank consulations done timely there's activities that are going on in there that might surprise you or or be in error that you want to correct quicker rather than later uh in a banker installation is probably the most important control I think uh of a of a system of internal controls if those aren't done timely or accurately it really weakens the overall internal control system uh um where we're at today on that I I say this in all my presentations and audit comes with comes with uh finding this is one of those um so the so the importance of the board should be well what's the corrective action what are we doing to correct that particular element and there is a corrective action plan that you'd see in your your information but um you know I would suggest that um you know that's already corrected it's already been going on it's already been implemented better uh oversight and timeliness of reporting we haven't audited that but that's my expectation or but this will be eliminated into next year and that is what's happening so you know if um Josiah was one of the first things that he did when he walked in the door was took over that project and got it under control and he and our new accountant have been working on that on a monthly basis and making all of the the reconciliations and journal entries into the system that come as a result there's a lot of stuff that happens in a bank statement that are automatic deductions for insurances and and all of those types of things and they just and they have to get recorded on a monthly basis and we're we're doing that on a timely basis question this is accounting practices of of like internal control sorry can you repeat what you said those uh findings what that those changes is it the accounting practices yes okay yeah so internal control would be the accounting practices that you have over um the bank reconciliation so we're saying there was a weakness not so much in the controls but in them following the controls or not following the practices that yeah okay continuing on we did have two findings to report specifically related to um your Minnesota legal compliance audit which is again your your our testing of your laws and regulations in compliance with them uh we had two findings to report first one relates to uh the timeliness of payment of invoices so there is a Minnesota statutes that requires you to pay all of your invoices within 30 days via the receipt of the invoice or receipt of the services whatever came later uh so we randomly test that we tested 40 items and noted six of those 40 were not paid timely or within that 30-day window um uh um that is a finding that we see a lot uh in our audits it's very kind of one of those that just kind of comes up uh most of the time it's a recordkeeping you know situation uh specifically around I'll give you an example of an example of one that might have occurred here which is well um I ordered 10 chairs and only got nine and so I didn't pay that invoice because I only get nine chaires why would I pay for the invoice and that type of thing is okay you can do that if you don't really feel like you got the service or the the the item that you ask for more then no you wouldn't pay that invoice but you need to document why why am I not paying it timely why is this invoice not being maybe I got it late from the vendor I know there's all kinds of reasons but it's mostly in this case a documentation sort of thing um invoices get paid late for reasons typically but if you're not documented we don't know why so uh that's probably uh the corrective action plan here just looking for those things making sure uh when their invoices are being paid that they're documented when they're linked can I just is it okay to ask questions yeah yeah absolutely yeah absolutely it's easier probably this rather than waai till the end um I think this is the third year in a row that we've had at least so I've only been on the board and had three of these and so for every year we've had the same one is that normal or is there is it normal probably not no um it's something that uh we do see you know that that um that it continues it shouldn't you know right you you don't want we do not want it to continue I think another thing that Josiah brought to the district in the month he was reconciling our cash was um we have an automated system called we call it's called droplet and so now all of our invoice payments are um digital digital and and we have a paperless system so and we're meeting every week every month with our budget managers to make sure that they understand how important all of this compliance is I think in the in the in the realm of seriousness the cash issue was a very serious issue this issue even though it comes up every month or every year it's been coming up it's um in the realm of seriousness we're paying our invoices on time I think the issue that we're not very good at is documenting why we're holding an invoice I'm still holding for instance an invoice for a year and a half from an organization that I'm not going to pay and I better document that really well when if that gets pulled at some point when we do pay it it's going to show up as an untimely payment do the budget managers know where that documentation needs to go yes so they have like a form that they fill out yes it's an online form it's a really slick Dr Hines uses it um it's it's a it's the best um change in practice that I've seen in the district um that's going to make it that should make a difference in this and that's that's new as of this year it's new as of like July 30th okay yeah when was the audit done pardon when was this audit done uh the fieldwork took place throughout fall the fall but transactions are only through June 30th right through June 30th of 2024 so we should see the shift in that in the next in next year we have a um fairly new account um accounts payable clerk as well and he has a really good relationship with everyone that's paying invoices and I it would be a big surprise if something slipped past Scott but um we just have um a different set of staff and and a really good control in place with this automated system so I think we have all the practices in place these are serious I'm not worried about the findings um if that makes sense but it's super serious say that I'm particularly worried about particularly like the documentation of the untime like you know I think we pay our bills um it just flag for me because every time I sit for the audit I go back and look at my notes prior year a this is the third time so it's a very good observation running notes do it all right the second finding you'll see is related to unclaimed property um the district is required to report unclaimed property to the depart the commissioner of Commerce each year uh unclaimed property in most cases not all cases is really uh uncashed checks uh if a uncashed check sits with the district for more than 3 years you're required to turn it over to the to the state of Minnesota not all districts do that they generally try to find these individuals and pay them so they get their cash um but anytime uh there's un claimed checks you are required to submit it under a unclaimed property report and you're even required to file that report even if you don't have unclaimed property supposed to file a zero report uh that particular report did not get filed this year until uh we not we noted it and assuming it got F that um uh but that's a in terms of your severity of findings really fairly low I don't believe there were any unclaimed properties to report even so you're really failing to file a zero report the best way to put it so yeah it's pretty minor in and I can tell you the reason you know if it's interesting to you the reason it happened is we had a we had somebody helping us from an outside firm with fixed assets we made an assumption that the report was filed didn't check that's not okay so that's on you know me as your business manager um and so it wasn't hovered so so we do have in our report a a followup on prior year findings um we do have and it's not in the PowerPoint but uh there were two findings last year one on collateral that was eliminated and one un quotes that we did not report on again this year so back to your point uh there we did eliminate uh findings this particular year and and um I think it's important and I'll get back to my PowerPoint um uh um and and I say this with true honesty uh the district is taking these audits very seriously they're they work very diligently with us and our team to get these dos done and get them done appropriately and and and intently um and that's important um if if that's not happening it can be a long uh process and and we we and our team collectively is working diligently to get these audits done uh in an appropriate fashion and and at times it comes with findings and you know the most important part is that corrective action plan and getting those corrective action plans implemented in place so that we aren't coming back with findings um year after year so all right so on my PowerPoint um we did uh issue as I mentioned a clean opinion on the single audit of federal Awards we did not have any financial report as well in the not in the compliance areas nor in the internal controls over those Federal Awards as I mentioned and that was in the special education program uh so I'm going to continue on skip that one go to this one uh so so that's really the compliance part of our audit um certainly U we've talked about all the compliance areas and this is really the financial report report part of the audit and we start here with a a graphical presentation on uh Statewide information um and this particular graph shows a Statewide uh fund balance as as a percentage of expenditures it's a widely used uh ratio that's used by the Department of Education um you use it internally for your in your fund balance policy it's important to note that the two calculations differ they are not the same percentages even though they might look like they are the same they're using different numerical calculations very very a board assigned amount for severance that um to the state appears to be unassigned or unreserved and we have it assigned internally and that's okay that's good it's just as board you need to understand that that's the case they're not the same percentages why this is in the report it really highlights a couple things you can see that Statewide we're we're at about 20% fund balance typically it did go up during the pandemic and it's come back down uh after pandemic dollars available at the state excuse me at the federal level have dwindled um districts are are experiencing some Financial challenges um you can see it in the blue is really the district's numbers um and as you can see we over uh pretty much a 9 10 year period of time the fund balance has gone down and this is the first year in sometime that we've seen an increase in fund balance which is uh probably the biggest highlight of this presentation is the stability of the fund balance this year good news there it is good news and you won't you'll recall the finance advisory committee's recommendation last year to increase fund balance to and they use this exact graph in their report last year you and don't be surprised you'll probably you'll see the recommendation to grow the fund balance to not go down to the 6% board policy and grow it up to 12 to 15% so that's probably a recommendation you'll see from that group again wow at that one there we go uh so I uh um I moved to this graph which is the uh revenues these are Statewide information again uh this one shows governmental funds revenues on a per student basis um you know really reflecting that the district received $2,127 per student in revenues um this past year some things that stand out on that particular graph certainly are the increase in the revenues you can see it went from uh 21,000 per student to almost 25,000 per student in in one year uh uh property taxes and state AIDS are a function in many cases of the funding coming from the state um you have increase in your Levy this past year the basic formula allowance increased um uh as well as things for special education and compensatory all of those categories increased uh in this particular setting you receive more revenues for Food Service the the free meals program coming out of the state uh increased um community service is increasing on this particular graph which Jackie and I talked about this we haven't seen that very often as we go through and do these presentations it's usually going downward thankfully it's not here at the district and the last one is Debt Service and that really is a function of the capital program you have going on um and it really stands out you know on that particular presentation how that's impacting uh you from a revenue standpoint we also have this particular graph on expenditures this is expenditures on a first student basis uh it shows that you spent $224,950 per student in 2024 um you can see there when you look at that particular uh graph two areas to me stand out the people supportting Services as well as um the special education area are two main ear increased areas um people support services was mainly driven by Transportation uh some of the trans Transportation challenges we've heard that before you know many of our presentations again Transportation are costly an increasingly costly area um but also special education there's a lot of needs out there in our community um those that sit on the 287 board are familiar with uh uh such a such a need but it's also impacting your your individual District um and then last you can see that special educ excuse me The Debt Service fund number is well increasing um and it shows up uh on that particular graph there uh so this particular graph shows the the starting to get into individual fund information uh here's your general fund uh this shows the general fund financial position using fund balance as a indication of equity we do provide cash as well as well as expenditures to show kind of the volume of your organization um um but I look at this particular graph it did show um you have a an increase in fund balance at least in total um sorry it was a decrease of about 390,000 so pretty much a break even position the unrestricted amount you can see went up slightly uh very very little um see if we have it there it is this is probably a better depiction of the fund balances um showing uh the individual fund balances in total as well as them by category um some of the uh categories stand out to me so in total this particular uh uh decline of 390,000 uh was better than projected by almost 3 million $3 million so that's great news when you start a year you adopt a revised budget you get to the end and you're at a break even status if you will U most most for all of that was in revenues revenues were almost all of the amount above expectations I think expenditures were I don't very close 880,000 uh to budget so most of it is in revenues and I'll show that a little bit later uh what what occurred in revenues that caused that but I want to reflect on this particular graph first and foremost and that relates to the fund balance policy um I don't have on this particular graph your percentage um because it's written in the documents and it's a bit uh the calculation a bit uh specific you say to the district so we don't prob generalize it here but at the end of the year the at the end of the day the policy of the district states that the district will establish a minimum unassigned fund balance of 6% uh of expenditures there's some other wording in there but 6% is really the floor that you have you get below that floor then things should happen differently if you will at the end of the year year percentage is 8.3 so you're you're above the 6% floor just slightly um you can see there on this particular graph using using our calculation of unrestricted 7.8 um so you're above the the floor that you need to be in terms of fund balance which is very important fund balance is important um as a policy as a board that should be your focus uh your policy around fund balance if you start to fall below then you should be hearing from patrici or team how we're going to adjust that or how things are going to look going forward it's really an important uh a number to reflect on okay continuing on this is the graph I referenced to earlier the general fund revenues um general fund revenues were about three 3 million above expectations in the final budget um a lot of categories came in better than expected um a special education Aid general education Aid investment earnings donations activity fees grants um all of those things added up to individually small amounts but collectively a large amount um of overall revenues um which is very much a positive of to the district um as a whole as I mentioned earlier we had some increases in overall revenues uh but I won't get into all of that on the expense side you can see we uh um and salaries and benefits certainly stand out in this particular graph uh but I mentioned uh expenditures came within 880,000 a budget um that's super good uh we really nailing it when it comes to that particular number uh there was kind of a swing one way and a swing the other way for in a couple categories specifically around purchase Services as well as which was mostly transportation and then cap capital was uh less than budget um but net things were very close to expectations in terms of uh budgeted expenditures so uh uh we do have multiple other funds I'll try to touch on them uh the Food Service fund you can see here uh had a slight decline in overall fund balance but certainly the Food Service fund was positively impacted by the state aid program the free lunch program you look at those financials you'll see a significant increase in activity uh um in terms of Revenue and expense just based on the the programming that's happening um certainly that particular fund is in a solid financial position the community service fund wow look at that I was in we when we were preparing for this I that was a highlight to me like wow that's super good look at look at shout out to Patrice Howard yes uh most of that increases really in programming if you look at it from a auto perspective the program fees went way up and they were above expectations so whoever's working in that space like you said they deserve some credit I I will suggest as an auditor we do a lot of comparables and it doesn't look like that in most districts there are many many districts struggling in the community service area so it's doubly good when you throw that into account point out in school nutrition as well shout out to Tammy Morgan but last year was a year when the high school was serving cold meals in the um outside of the cafeteria so to have been that successful at the largest school in that environment and we're seeing really good participation this year now that they're back into the new cafeteria so say more about that community service fund um highlight um that's because we have people who are taking classes is that more programming and more um attractive programming which says we're yes we're making attractive what our community is looking for and people are willing to pay and we don't charge exorbitant fees for that those classes or anything like that either so it's sort of okay I just wanted to get really clear on that in terms of what that means and yeah okay that's great so this isn't on my presentation but I will reflect on this um uh just for sense of this discussion here one of the funds that the district have is to build a construction fund uh that particular fund spent $44 million in this past year the reason I bring that up that's a pretty big number but also that has a significant impact on your District every one of those invoices has to be approved every one of those has to be vetted every one of those has to be bid out every one of those has to be you know looked at and made sure that it's uh happening appropriately all kinds of factors are impacting what the area that I work in which is in the business office and um that just needs to be understood I don't really have any more commentary other than that is you're really having a you're having this influx of more data and more information more needs into your business office solely based on what I just can't 44 million um the fund balance in that accounts 80 million so you know there's going to be more there's more activity so something to be aware of as you look at operationally what's happening at the district can I ask a question about that so um how many people in the business office are handling our staff is with two payroll we have an accounts payable payable and accountant senior accountant and myself I'm Patricia so total of six I don't know if Colin or and can remember back but when Sarah and I first joined the board I thought I could have sworn that the business staff had been reduced is that corre it had shortly before then been reduced yeah yeah but we've been functioning with this level of staff for a while and we can do it it's it's tight you know with these construction projects and and Co yeah they aren't going to be there forever and we've got a great um team with conent with uh conent Construction in an online um process of payment as well so it's just a lot of trying to get a big picture of the operational and so what I hear you saying is that in 20 would have be would have been 2022 I think I think I I swear it was like right before we were sworn in um that it was reduced and then we have a larger influx because of all the the construction so y'all are busy you're doing a lot of so that the six out of 40 out of compliance is not it's not terrible and not anything to get bad luck of the draw because we've had you've had to um balance a lot of things okay is that did I summarize it correctly yeah absolutely okay I would I'll just Echo um I've been to two bit war I've been a lot but I can suggest that I've been a uh districts that have the same number that actually hired outside accountants just specifically to be construction manager accountants specifically to and they had threeyear contracts and that was their whole goal and you haven't done that not to say that you should I'm just saying it it it does happen hey this is an influx and you're you're working through it so yeah so uh I'm going to I think that was the last presentation I did want to mention one other fund you do have several funds and one other fun that stands out to me is always the the medical self-insurance fund uh you are self-insured for medical and that particular fund did have an improvement this past year and is really at about about 40% of its operations in fund balance which is like a little bit less than what the industry States but overall doing quite well uh so that's the end of my presentation I did Issue what I said as a clean opinion on that basic financial statement we had the one material weakness in on the bank reconciliations the two findings on legal compliance and then uh talked a lot about fund balance and the other funds and some of those activities so uh that's the end of my presentation I can ask answer any more questions that you might have for me questions I'll be back next week to start next year right kind of it go yes well again we're appreciative of this we're appreciative your present to give us an understanding of what's going on here we're appreciative of our business services office for the work that they do and we hear that you guys are making improvements all the time and and have navigated through some staffing changes and all of that that makes it really difficult but just appreciate that you're doing hard work and we have a check against that that um seems to give us good information some good counsel so really appreciate it and thank you for being here thank you for the good news thank you all right we don't have this as a action it is there an actual there is not an action item because you just accept the that's what I thought yeah it's an acceptance right yeah did you get that Clerk Anderson it's just acceptance to okay but that brings us uh Patricia you get to stay here and talk about thec which is an update on budget forecast and enrollment project um we did hear a little bit of this at a previous study session so that we could ask some questions about that and that can inform some the conversation here today um so I turn it over to you yes director Magnus yes thank you again um in here so the presentation doesn't seem to be there yeah but they actually presentation yeah I have it yeah it's not loaded up into the PowerPoint overall power do you want me to just do yeah have it memorized do you need a minute here do we want to get that loaded up in here you can just refresh to CL oh there yeah looks like it's there right y it's there it does say 6D and this is actually 6 C but uh think we're fine with that that's our only issue here thank you chair Cox superintendent Dr and members of the board this is a familiar presentation um for you in fact the date is still January 14th it's the same presentation that was provided um at the January 14th meeting um and it's also been recorded since then and it's posted online but it's really important important information you know you heard about the audit and um as we reflect back on just our practices internally to make sure we're giving you good information in budgets and financials but um this helps to provide some context for this situation that we're in and when we see that fund balance page um uh in the audit we can you can underscore the situation we're in right now and really understand that so we're going to talk a little bit about historical information we're going to talk a little bit about um our preliminary work to to update this year's budget so that we can um have a close and accurate um budget by the end of the school year and then are thinking about the fiscal year 2026 process so looking back when um this is just for the general fund um a question is where does all of where does our money come from and you saw some of that in Jim's um presentation for the audit but the school district lives and breathes by state aid 67% of the revenue in the general fund comes from state aid about 70% of that Aid comes from one funding formula there's um a few funding formulas one is our basic funding formula and then um special education Aid which has really increased um with some changes in legislation those two funding formulas are very important to us 29% of our revenues comes through property taxes and in the general fund some large um parts of that are the are two voter approved things the voter approved operating referendum and the voter approved capital projects Levy for technology also runs through the general fund there's a small portion of Revenue it's about $2 million in federal funds in the general fund and then there's a small amount of revenue for um interest earnings and local locally generated fees and gifts and donations um this chart um is the first of two that shows how we spend that money in the general fund we are a um staff intensive business so 70% 77% % of our money is spent on salaries and benefits the next largest portion 16% is in purchase Services the majority of which is transportation and the costs of transportation and then 7% is supplies and other types of equipment that are purchased from the general fund another way of looking at this is to break down our spending by program um the salaries and benefits so if you go back um to the 77% of salary and benefit benefits who are we paying with um in salaries and benefits 80% of our spending for salaries goes to instruction and instructional support staff members folks who are in classrooms in buildings supporting students directly 11% is Administration and other support including um administration at the site level principles and other support administration at the sites at the district office and then support staff at the district district office Human Resources business office um superintendent office 5% of our um spending on salary goes to people support services so other staff that are in building supporting students counselors guidance Health um Health Services nurses social work that type of thing and then 4% is for custodial and other support in the buildings this is similar to the chart that you saw in the audit presentation that shows us the history of of fund balance and we have had a declining fund balance for several years and what a declining fund balance um this was intentional by each board um to use fund balance and use resources uh for kids in the current year there's a balance in spending resources for students this year and saving resources to guard against future um future issues and when we got to 8% that's and finance advisory committee made recommendations and the board accepted to hold fund balance and ultimately what that means um in a static Revenue environment is that cuts will have to be made so we'll talk through um how we got here in general revenues do not keep Pace um with expenditure pressures and you you're hearing it across the metro area and across the country for school districts being a people intensive business costs rise every year and when Revenue doesn't keep pace it gets us out of balance quickly um for our school district this is a a chart that shows the last several years in enrollment and what our future Trends look like um for the for the last several years our enrollment has been declining again another issue and concern that you hear across the state and metro area but I want to point out a little um glimmer of hope that showed up if you look at these um the years that are in dark orange we anticipated a decline in enrollment coming from last year into this fiscal year down to 4,212 but in reality this fall we have 4,350 um five students our enrollment has actually increased from last year that has not happened in in recent history and it's sort of an outlier um for a lot of school districts we're watching that closely we knew we had some new development coming um some familyfriendly low-income housing that might attract students so we knew that that might come but we didn't build it into our projections um we did we were able to staff for those increases in students um so some of this additional Revenue will be offset with additional costs we do anticipate our enrollment decline will continue an increase from one year to the next is not the trend we have changed our some practices some really important practices in making sure we're communicating with families and getting back to families in a timely way in the enrollment center and um improving our educational outcomes is a is one of the things we do to help attract students um we in our current projections are projecting a decline in enrollment we discussed that pretty thoroughly at our last um Finance advisory committee meeting and we'll be coming with recommendations around that um in a couple in a few weeks the basic funding formula U this shows the history it's that one of the biggest this is about 70% of our funding so it takes enrollment which has been declining against a funding formula that has been increasing at around 2% per year the um formula that we're using um for next year is what is currently estimated at the Department of Education and increase in the formula which is our um dollar amount of Revenue in general state aid per student an increase of 2.53% that's currently in state law which is brand new for us this is the first year we're going to be testing this law which says that the funding formula will rise with inflation and this is the current estimate we're in the middle beginning a legislative session so we'll see what comes out of that I haven't heard any talk about about this estimate but that's what the current number reads um 2.53% so that's what we're building into next year's budget this this chart is one that's used Statewide um it came from the association of metropolitan school districts and ERS and Associates um what it shows is the difference between what the formula is which is currently $ 7,281 and what the formula would have been if since um 2003 the formula had been connected to inflation this is somewhere around $5 million now annually to our school district had the formula which is just 70% of our state aid with that formula would have kept up with inflation and it starts to exhibit when costs are rising at the pace of inflation but revenue is not a gap continues to build and that's how fund balance declines and cuts have to be made this chart shows on the other side of the Ledger if we have declining enrollment because of or declining Revenue due to inclining enrollment and stagnant funding our expenditures have been growing at about 2.68% annually over the last several years on average and this is in the general fund um and we're making a similar estimate for next year um in the general fund as we begin to build um our ideas around the budget cut that has to be made as we enter next year and I just want to um point out here in an organization that's nearly 80% salaries and benefits and as costs um of inflation rise in a in a um salary intensive budget um and if we want to keep the best and the brightest staff members in our organization cost for salary will rise and cost for benefits will rise over time it's the nature of our organization and to have kept expenditures at 2.68% reflects the budget cuts that have been made over the last several years we didn't make Cuts as we entered into this year and um you can see that we expect um expenditures to rise this year we've used a lot of um budget balancing tools to navigate um these situations we've used fund balance as you saw the district receives um a few specialized Revenue sources like some federal funding um the long-term facilities maintenance funding um we have our capital projects Lev you for technology our voter that voter approved Levy we try to stretch those dollars and utilize them in the most strategic way possible um to put um Staffing and and resources in classrooms and to support teachers and students and it's helped us to reduce our budget reductions and use of fund balance um we reduced our transportation service um gosh it must have been three years ago now where we reduced the footprint of where families can receive a ride to school that saves saved us funds and it's something that we did um that has been difficult and continues to be difficult for families we just can't afford to um go back to that full service Transportation model we have reduced support staff um in the past and all departments um took a 10% reduction that might be what the time frame you guys were referring to every department and site in the district took a 10% reduction um within the past 5 years this budget timeline is similar to all years where as you know we are planning for a $2 million expenditure reduction in next year's budget as we build out the budget the yellow highlighted items on here are things that we point out that are part of our normal process um but we are highlighting because they're important to a budget reduction process their human resources related items we have been through a a period of data collection over the fall we're in the middle of preparing budget recommendations for the board and that process will start in March we might be here as early as February 28th with Finance advisory committee to give recommendations um we're meeting one more time and if we're ready we'll bring those recommendations to that board meeting that night okay again many of uh most of us I think have seen this in a in a board presentation but um to our our study session but um we're still open to questions here so anybody have any questions here gay did you have a question yeah I guess uh just to add some clarification around that Gap what did you say the Gap was in state funding from that like two decade long chart for one given year um I can give you the dollar amount per student you can see here between 8,645 to 7,281 it's $5 million it would be in this this year we'd have 5 million more dollars in Revenue yeah that's huge um and even if we wanted to we wouldn't be able to like say increase the tax levy or anything we are kept we are kept as a lot of the metro area districts are right now mhm um and and just one other thing that I've I've heard some recently you know we've been uh making these improvements to our buildings they are wonderful improvements but you know they do cost money that does not come out of the same funds as no that's separate from the general fund those are in a um building construction fund which by law um all the revenues and expenses have to be accounted for outside of the general fund so even if we hadn't done any of that it wouldn't matter to our current situation exactly thank you go ahead can I follow up on that I just want to like say again what you just said the first thing you said about um the cap cuz I don't I I think that's like a not an easily understood thing but like tell me if I'm wrong we have um the I can't remember what percent it was that comes into our general fund from our local property taxes that's our local operating Levy so every 10 years we go out to the voters and we ask for the the approval of our operating Levy and there's a cap in the amount that we can receive on that from the state so the legislature says there's this is how much you can receive so even if we went out to our voters and 100% of St Louis Park voters said we want to give more money to the operating budget of the school district we can't exactly yes that's right we're limited um yes by state law in all of these categories it's a pretty highly regulated industry yeah so just that I like I don't think I understood that fully for a very long time so I think it just it's it Bears restating again but we really are under a lot of rules um that we don't control we we um we have a lot more control over our expenditures than we do our revenue and I think it's also important to understand that um an operating Levy is different than a the capital technology Levy which is different than our bond referendum which is building and maintenance and those types of things so even when we're asking um for voters to approve increased funding for our schools um depending on the question that is on the ballot that is determining where that money goes so we can't take the extra because we had an additional $5 million from our um interest earnings or right interest earnings we can't invest that into our operating level and we can't put it into our general fund the government doesn't allow us to do that so it has to go where it has to go it has to go into the right bucket and so I think that was also an important thing and I guess I've worked on so many capital Levy and bond referendum uh voter campaigns that I that's how I learned that but I don't think I knew that going into um actually working on a campaign with this um improvements in our buildings were long overdue and in a in in a a roundabout way um they will improve results for the general fund because we have out we had outdated air Handling Systems boiler systems um areas that were inefficient for cleaning and as these improvements come to the district it will make us more efficient um in our use of energy and and in the way we're able to address cleaning in the building so in some ways um eventually these improvements will help improve um our operating cost keeping us competitive too but I want to hear from from director uh I the question I'm I probably have the idea but I'm just asking you for the sake of the community um are there any significance forecast or change in Revenue based on uh FY 2024 MH there any change um the thing for our school district this year um one Revenue change will be because we have increased enrollment this year that's really good news that will increase our Revenue um we're watching this legislative session um there might be some reductions in Revenue um from the governor's Proposal with some categories of Revenue that may be eliminated um we're just in the middle of this session so it's hard to to know but for us the most significant thing is increased um enrollment which will increase our general fund revenue and um yeah increase our general fund Revenue I'm getting at your great we increase 143 yes it's really great news yes thank you yeah I mean some of that was what I was speaking to about I think we may be looking enticing to people too and that could be some of our facilities some of the quality instruction a lot of things that go into that too so um I think there's a a lot of things to go around in terms tonight too were there additional comments Questions AB yeah um so every day I eat lunch with my colleagues and one of my colleagues is a former School Board director um and you know my colleagues were talking about the budget situation that a lot of K12 um districts are going to be facing and um and there's some changes that I know as a teacher I would really like to make in policy um at the at the state level um and as a board member I can't change that policy and it can only be changed at the state level um and my colleague said you know as a board member what I learned on the four years that I was on the board is that the vast majority of the time as a board member has spent you know lobbying to your legislators to try to get them to understand the the situation that we're living in and so I think that to a certain extent um we are dealt the cards that we are adult and we are I'm looking at that dollar and I'm like ripping up little teeny tiny pieces or whatever but I think that uh the power really I mean I I love that the community is reaching out to us going to our listening sessions and telling what is important but we also need to tell the state that we value public education we value 12 um a free and the free education to all of our kids that's not just um you know like a babysitting it's we're actually giving them opportunity and access to a better future and so you know reach out to your your state legislators reach out to your your colleagues and your family members who don't understand how Public Finance works and say we need these things and um some of the plans for for public Ed are quite frankly frightening and they're freaking me out as a public school teacher and I don't you know there's nothing as a i we're the most brly boarded I've ever like to teachers that I've ever heard of but there are things that are happening at the state capital that we have no control over um so I would just really encourage everybody to I I don't know if the funding formula is even an equitable way of deing up money to kids and that are the most important resource of our of our communities so that's my biblical statement for the day I'm a little feisty today too because um I don't know of a district right now that's not going through budget cuts and I my position was cut last year I'm dealing with that I'm split between two buildings because they cut um 2.5 positions at both the middle school and the high school where I teach so I mean this is a live reality for me every single year for every teacher I was going to say I know we hear about from our peer districts too everybody who's facing this and and um and there's lots of ideas out there we see different districts doing some different things and um as we said in response as I said in response to one resident it's um really complicated sometimes to compare a district to another district and so while that is interesting and informs us and we want to hear those ideas to think that we could do exactly the same as one other District um you know I was just name a steep presentation for example they was saying was one of the largest school districts in Metro and they're just talking about how they've already down to one staff person to to serve something like 4,000 teachers in their district for for one thing so like it's challenging so you can't it's really hard to compare those and the challenges that they face and it's it's a lot out there um so we appreciate and that was my other appeal was that if people have ideas if they have thoughts I mean send it our way we're trying to take in that information uh we did get an email from somebody and appreciate them taking a look and pouring through some of the information and doing their best man they tried hard I mean you know there's a lot of data there's a lot of information out here there's a lot of numbers a lot of things to look at so en join our finance advisory committee join our fin advis a part love to that's I that was one of my first well was one of my third ENT I think into service here um but yeah so really appreciate that and um look forward to any more over in the future thank you thank you all right that brings us up to the consent agenda which includes um our business items our payroll um recap of expenditures electronic fund transfers account payables dispersements investment Holdings Personnel minutes from uh several of our board meetings and then the high school trip to Thailand Cambodia Vietnam with those items um it is recommended that the school board approve the consent agenda with the following business and Personnel items for the January 2825 Schoolboard meeting as president do I have a motion move by I'll second it um all those in favor say I I I any post passes 70 great that brings us up to 8A action on policy development second reading of policy 903 visitor policy um director zuku are you presenting on this we have you listed as presenting on this so we at least coming to the table here to join us to talk about this um this was introduced in our last board in our study session study session so um director yes so this is our updated visitor policy so as I shared at the study session the language within this policy reflects the language that's in our handbooks mostly I know there were some changes that were added in over the course of the last week that reflects some additional information in case we needed to uh monitor access to the building to any thirdparty visitors so that could include um anything like CPS it could be um including nonprofit organizations or other visitors that our sites may not be aware of their arrival on site so what that does is it allows us to um ask ask for identification including badge employer um and put some more protections for us so that we're ensuring that our buildings are safe and I made a mistake because this is an action item here I want to make sure that I have a motion to bring this forward so do I have a motion to bring this forward a second okay all right now discussion any questions comments feedback thoughts for um Ashley here I think we appreciate the updates and we appreciate that it's timely so thank you all right with um with that um all those in favor say I any POS passes 70 great okay that brings us up to board member updates any board member updates for start yeah um I'll try to go kind of click here so a few things I met with Dr Robinson um I just had some questions about her role and what she helpes for St Louis Park so um the top three areas of challenge that she mentioned were family connections academic performance needs to grow and providing options for families um and the top three improvements that she's kind of focused on right now it's restorative specialist proactive with supporting students and families um Shifting the mindset of staff and providing support services to high needs kids so I thought that was great I went to msba um I did the Roberts rules it was really intense and now you can't unsee that yeah but it's a good training this is this is the Terry Marrow did he do it no somebody else else facilitated it and then they had um some students that helped facilitate it so they did like a mock setting of a board meeting and how to um motion and move things and if someone makes a motion within a motion within a motion how to di it back and do the right so we were all confused we left confused but um they gave us you know hand out and pamphlets and if you do have questions Terry Mar it could be okay um and then they mentioned that um they have po Arians on some boards and it's like I haven't heard that term does one of us act as that or no it's like a separate staff role but it's usually for like bigger stuff I I don't think we need aary all right um a lot of us at my table workingus like what is that you it's like for really big Bard me like really big bodies and they kind of explained that too that they are different rules for different bodies and I I didn't know that so that was something I learned um and I did a couple excit visits I went over to Susan lingard and um they kind of just updated me on how we are going to address um some of the stuff that's happening in our community with our government and making sure that families are connected and feel safe and students feel safe in the building um and also the same thing at um the park Spanish emersion so uh I went to National Day of racial healing um Dr Dey did a great job um my table was really impressed with your dialogue and some of the other people and just learning your background and why you do this and what's important to you all and it hope kind of rten a lot of our understanding too um in general about what you do in the district and um what comes with it and some of the hurdles you had to overcome so that was good to like connect us all on that level uh oh and I was I was going um so Dr Hines won the I want to be able to read it here but Dr Hines won the lighthouse award and the lighthouse award is an annual award given to one black indigenous or person of color Public School Superintendent and one Public School Board member that demonstrates a commitment to racial equity in their District this person has served as a beacon of light and hope in the journey towards racial Justice and education for all students and I had the honor of receiving her award for her [Applause] thank you thank you I appr um this is very humbling um say we have the honor we have the honor yeah um the music is going to start playing you off and I'm really trying to fight back the tears but um this is very emotional for me because it's personal um I do take the work that I do to heart because every day I look at the individual young people that doors are closed before them and I sit in a seat that will work intense Al to ensure that every door that is possible will be open to every student so they have a choice as to how they are going to live their future lives so this is very humbling for me because um I don't do what I do for recognition I don't I don't do do it for the title I don't do it for people to Pat me on the back I do it because to whom much is given much is expected and I have a I have a duty to give back to the community so thank you all for your support thank you all for giving me this opportunity to sit and do the work um again all the babies in St Louis Park from birth to Earth are my babies and I will make decisions that will benefit all of my babies so thank you congratulations okay who else has an award to give to or just other updates to provide no one can follow that I have I have two small but important things but not not like that um the um I'm so excited to be back on the Early Learning um committee this year and they are going to be hosting okay the snow melted today so presuming that we get more we're all we're just I've done this before put it out into the universe we're going to get more snow so that on Saturday February 8th um The Early Learning Center can host their sledding party at Wolf Park from from 10:00 to 11: so if you want to go sledding hopefully they'll be able to do something um they're going to have hot cocoa and Treats in the Pavilion I know they've been cooperating with the city to get the Pavilion and everything all ready so um join them for that and then um congratulations to the high school one act play who took their um their show on the road last week to the first round of the one act competition and they um made it to the second round so they're going to be doing it again on Saturday in the second round of the one competition and the show is Koda Chrome and it was um it was very moving I was surprised I did not know my my kid did not tell me what it was about and I was like oh my gosh this was um it was it's a really very moving show so uh good luck to them on Saturday and we don't have an award to give you but I understand you also have an honor uh related to District 287 oh that you like to speak to that you were elected as chair U yeah I'll serve as the chair for the intermediate District 287 [Applause] other updates other s come yeah so uh I just want to say congratulations I have the honor me and uh I also attended the ran healing too uh I also attended the ER lenning though I don't have kids there but all my three kids there with uh uh director an Casey I kind of miss that area what else I don't know I should write next time but I know some other things I'm I'm forgetting but yeah site council meeting which was different they um change it to community dinner and uh I next time I'm going to update you you know everybody to come there a lot of food Multicultural food was there different F so it was great defense and from now on I think they they will be calling Community Diner meeting so uh yeah I had a a chance to visit uh both Susan lingren and uh the high school in the past uh month and um especially with the the high school it was really great to see spaces that we've seen before but actually like filled with things and and students being in them um like the the cafeteria with the hot food service and it smelled amazing uh I wish I could have gotten some um and um it was also great I had I've never had a chance to actually like tour through the the whole building before so like seeing some of the creative spaces that we have for students to offer just some extremely unique opportunities that are amazing uh including like the the SC program uh that space is really cool um and some of like the the engineering design programs that we have it's uh you know blew me away I was very impressed um and then I also had a chance to attend um the uh the day of racial healing um and it was a beautiful wonderful uh opportunity to connect the community um around a super important topic to our community and I would highly recommend anyone uh next year to to go if you have a chance also attended Susan linger Festival of Nations also incredible uh experience beautiful Community Building uh just a super uh great way to spend an evening and connecting with with families so uh also if you're in the Susan lingren Community please check that out next year it's just an incredible event so um I wanted to just note for folks that the um PSI imagine Fair science and Imagination fairs tomorrow evening for um and I know they've invited us to be judges um I'm not able to be there but in Prior years I have and it's really exceptional so encourage folks to do that um and you know I just wanted to to note that I you know I missed the day of racial healing and I wasn't here at our last meeting um my board colleagues know but my father-in-law passed away a couple of weeks ago and so I've been away from uh the board table and I'm not able to attend some of the events um he was he was the mayor of Hopkins and the city council member of Hopkins for a really long time and had a major impact in that Community if you've ever been to the Hopkins Center for the Arts there's an art gallery there named after him um and he owned a music store on Main Street in Hopkins for many years and so um so last night we had a joint meeting with the city council and I couldn't help but thinking as we sat there about how much he would have wanted to hear about that meeting he most you know he really felt like city um elected politics was the way to make an impact and so um apologies that I've missed many things but I've been with my family and I just wanted to take moment to honor my father and La um his service to community which helped Inspire mine as well um and then lastly I just wanted to say um in what has been and will undoubtedly continue to be challenging times um to our students to our staff to our families um see you we value you um for your full Humanity you're welcome here so that's where I go tonight do you have no I've been struggling to get through finals and survive whatever terrible flu that I had um yeah I just wanted to the two things I wanted I I met with director eval athletic director to talk about about um some stuff because I am the athletic advisory committee and we're working to improve that and we have a model I think we're going to be modeling that a little bit after some of our other advisory committees and getting some parent involvement in some like quarterly check-ins like Seasons ahead so that we can talk about things and provide students and parents an opportunity to be part of that so I'm I'm really excited about that because relying on me to be that key connector is not the best thing I try um and I do welcome parents though to and parents have come to me with ideas and questions and concerns and so I do welcome that as just director eal so encourage that and then yeah I just wanted to hit on last night's meeting that was an opportunity for us we do it um we haven't done it for a couple years um but it gives us an opportunity to connect as elected to talk about common issues where we overlap whose responsibility is what how can we support each other and we had um some good conversations there last night and we're looking at how we can sustain some of that energy in in a in a um achievable way too it's really hard to get all of us together but I think there's some ideas there so um wanted to do that and um I know we have a a listening session coming up too and I think we need to confirm what board members are going to be there so I just want to double check before people leave or that we connect at some point about that so um and uh Echo um what Sarah has offered about how important our students are to our communities and the efforts that we are we are taking and things that we're thinking about and um yeah okay all right with that um I will um as I said I don't think I need to to take a vote right so I'm just going to adjourn this meeting here at 80