Um, we are going to open tonight up with public comment. We have one speaker. Um, I will quickly read the expectations. Public comment expectations. The school board encourages community input while comments and questions are welcome. Law prohibits the board from discussing
concerns about individual employees or students in a public meeting. The board will not deliberate, discuss, or engage in conversation with speakers. However, the board may ask administration to review the concerns presented. Speakers must present their testimony in a respectful manner. Vulgarity, character
attacks, malice, or specific complaints identifying staff or students by name or implication will not be permitted. We will stop proceedings immediately if employee or student privacy issues are raised and direct the speaker to forward comments regarding individual employees
or students to the superintendent. Um with that we have one speaker this evening and that is Ellie Gray. Welcome. And you can sit right there. And director Hawkard here has those time cards.
Okay. I'm sorry. Where is the time card? She'll she'll hold them up for get organized. Awesome. So, thank you to the board. Uh my name is Ellie Gray and I am a new member of the Stillwater community, a
parent to a first grader at Afton Lakeland, also a young toddler, uh and the daughter of a teacher who taught at Oakland while junior high for over 34 years. My husband and I, who both work full-time outside of the home, moved
here to give our children a better quality of life, to be closer to nature, and to benefit from the outstanding education this district is known for. Unfortunately, our experience so far has left us disappointed, discouraged, and kind of confused. Not because of the
educators, we can't wait to meet them this week, but because of the administrative processes we've encountered so far. I understand that it is not the district's responsibility to provide child care, but it is the district's responsibility to provide
timely, accurate information so that families can plan around critical deadlines to ensure that communication around programs like Adventure Club and Community Ed are clear, consistent, proactive, and accessible. As a new
family, we were shocked to learn that Adventure Club isn't lottery based and that incoming families are essentially deprioritized. In a district with no alternative care options nearby for school-aged children and where many families have relocated without support systems, this is kind of
shocking. You can't promote the district as an educational destination and then bury new families at the bottom of the list when it comes to afterchool care. Since registration opened in February where I registered immediately as soon as possible as an outofd district
unenrolled family because we didn't yet have a mailing address in district and hadn't yet closed on our new home. We were told we were number 10 on the wait list. This past July we were still number 10. In seven months our status had not yet changed. I've had to
initiate nearly every inquiry about our status on our application with regard to our adventure club. When non-school day registration opened, I ended up troubleshooting system issues for two hours with district staff while at work. Issues that ultimately led to a
district-wide registration delay. I've had multiple calls with community ed about catalog errors, conflicting dates, incorrect dates, and banner notifications which indicate incorrect pickup times referencing last year's school times. Families are forced to
register for community classes without knowing if they'll get into adventure club, then cancel those classes when they find out otherwise. Taking spots from families who could have used them is chaotic, unfair, stressful, and messy. As for the programming available,
none of the timelines align. None of the dates match. Register for your bus needs before you know if you get into afterchool programming. Register for community ed before you know if you get into adventure club. Need a non-school day adventure club? Sorry, you're
actually not going to know until two weeks prior if you get in. And we might actually change the location which may disrupt your morning by about 40 minutes. I don't know about you, District 34, as an employer, but how do you manage the
volatility and uncertainty that you create with this chaos? To date, we've received no welcome packet, no checklist, no guidance on integrating into the district, just a trial by fire, and the determination and grit of a relentless mother determined to ensure her child has the stability
and structure she requires. Thank you. I'm sorry. We're gonna have to end your time at um uh but thank you for that feedback and um we will follow up. Thank you. Please do. Thank you. Okay, with that um we'll call this meeting to order. Joan, roll call.
Dr. Kursovich here. Dr. Hawker here. Dr. Kellenberg here. Dr. Law here. Dr. Parker, yep. Here. Dr. Theander here. Chair Sherman here. You have a corb. Great. All right. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance.
I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. Um, I'm going to go ahead and make
a motion to approve tonight's agenda. Can I get a second, please? I'll second. Great. Director Theelander with the second. All those in favor of approving tonight's agenda, raise your hand and say I. I. I. Opposed.
Passes unanimously. We're going to move on to our superintendent report. So today I will first talk about transportation. And I'm going to say that it's a normal start of the school year
for transportation, which is an abnormal experience since I've been here. Um, I think this is the first time I've been at since I've been at Still Water that we've had what I would call a traditional start of school without
major issues as we have the last few years. um issues we're dealing with today um are are I mean talking to the folks in the in the transportation department and um throughout the central office um are pretty
traditional as far as start of the school. We've got families concerned about the two-m zone because we're enforcing the the two-mile zone for the secondary. We have families confused about the locations of bus stops. We have families uh who though we have
asked for months and months and months telling families to please opt in. We have families opting in today uh for the first time. So, um, and again, these are legitimate concerns that families have and but it is
something that we are, uh, totally, um, capable of, uh, responding to and, uh, we have, uh, um, I I just want to I think we've done a just tremendous job, Carissa, Tom, and team, um, of really
being ready for school. and uh um this is how it's supposed to be. It's not perfect. Uh we still have some work to do ahead of us over the next few weeks. U but just a kudos to them for uh getting us to this point. So um that's my my perspective from uh um from what
I've seen the last couple years. Uh regarding Adventure Club, uh we have eight people who are in the process of being hired. It's not a guarantee that they'll make it through the process. Um but it's a it's a considerable um hope
depending on their availability. These eight people would make it possible for us to serve about 100 more students. So that would cut that list in half. Additionally, we have five people who have interviews scheduled and another six that uh we've reached out just to schedule an interview. That's another
total of 11 people. So, um we realize that there's still a waiting list and we realize there's still families um waiting. Uh but we are we've got some good news. It sounds like it's coming. And if if we get twothirds of those people, um we we will be in a much
better shape than we are today. So, uh that's a that's a again pleased but not satisfied. We won't be satisfied till everybody gets it. Um had a chance to visit all but three of the buildings so far over the last couple days. Um, I will tell you, you've got a great group
of uh teachers and administrators here in the district who have a can do attitude and uh a lot of smiling families, a lot of smiling faces um throughout the district at the ready set go conferences or or at our uh u back to
school events we had yesterday for our sixth and ninth graders and uh and then we had the entire secondary back today. Um cell phones. So today is the first day with our new cell phone um policy. And I think I got reports from two of
the three secondary buildings um where we have school. Um so at Oakland Middle, we had three cell phones confiscated today. At the high school, the report is we had a total of 12 confiscated, an average of three per pony center.
Teachers reported the kids were amazing and they would never have believed it. So, um, you know, we are we are totally in the honeymoon period, folks. Um, but, uh, um, I I will tell you also, I think that the teachers, um, I think in
all all three of the buildings, um, are ready and primed to, okay, this is a it's a culture shift and, you know, we are serious about u student learning and their mental health. And so, uh, I think that's another great news story. So
that's uh my update from day one. Great. Thank you. Um any questions for Dr. Funk before we move on? Yeah, one question. You said if all those people were hired that you could accommodate 100 more. How many are we looking to still accommodate? We had if we hired eight who were in the
process, we could accommodate hundred more. Okay. And then we have 11 more in the process besides that that we've reached out for interviews. So, if we were to hire all 19, we would clean clean the slate. Okay. Um, so again, that's not all of them
will probably make it through the process or be hired. But, uh, um, considering where we've been at the start of school years since I've been here, this is, you know, we're well ahead of where we were, but we still have room to go.
Okay. Um, moving on to my report tonight. Um, I have a superintendent evaluation summary for the 2425 school year. This is something that I read annually, so um, bear with me. The
Stillwater Area School Board met in close session on August 5th, 2025 to evaluate Superintendent Funk's performance following his third year leading the district and to look ahead to the upcoming school year. This is the final year of his first contract and the
next year will be his fourth year in our district and the first year of a new three-year agreement. Superintendent are evaluated across eight professional standards including governance, finances, communications, operations, human resources, teaching and learning,
student support, and ethical and inclusive leadership. This year, the board's discussion focused around teaching and learning and student support. Open two-way dialogue strengthens the partnership between the board and the superintendent, ensuring that successes are both celebrated while
organizational challenges are acknowledged. Through this process, the board provided both recognition of accomplishments and constructive feedback with the shared goal of continuous improvement in teaching and learning. Dr. Funk continues to prioritize curriculum and investment.
Curriculum investment and professional development tied to the district's strategic and pony plans. Progress continues toward building aligned systems that support academic growth in school culture. The board discussed issues related to teacher professional development and how to balance necessary
accountability with the importance of moving forward together as a unified district. The board also expressed a desire for reporting on the impact of newly adopted teaching and learning initiatives and emphasized the importance of communication of clear communication with students, families,
staff, and the community as changes are implemented and measured. Student support is a priority across the district. Key initiatives this year included the adoption of a phone-f free policy, expansion of the bar program, implementation of district-wide identity
harm protocols, and clear behavior expectations, as well as adjustments to daily start times in the academic calendar. These efforts demonstrate the student that student well-being remains front and center in district decisions. The board also highlighted the importance of measuring the impact of
these supports to ensure continuous improvement. The board acknowledged the challenges of the past year, including leading during a time of significant financial constraints. Last year's budget reductions, combined with nearly 6 million in adjustments this year,
required difficult decisions to minimize impacts on students, families, and staff. Looking forward, the board and superintendent discussed the need to review and align strategic plans with budget realities, generate new revenue, identify operational efficiencies, and
rebuild the district's fund balance. The board also emphasized the importance of curriculum implementation, communications, visibility, and continued relationship building to support staff development and improve student outcomes. The responsibilities of a superintendent are substantial. The
board recognizes Dr. Funk's efforts and commitment and extends its gratitude to him and his team for their continued dedication to strengthening and improving our district. This work is a shared responsibility. All ultimately done to support our students and ensure improved outcomes for every learner.
Thank you. All right, that concludes my chair report and we'll move on to our consent agenda. That is on the screen. Items A through J. Is there a motion to approve
tonight's consent agenda? I'll move to approve. Great. Director Hawker with the motion. And is there a second? Second. Great. Director Lowour with a second. All those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda, raise your hand and say, "I." I. I. Opposed. Consent agenda passes.
All right. Moving on to strategic direction A. Ensure the learning process is adaptable to meet individual student needs. We have a start of school staffing update. Welcome, Chris. Good evening, directors. Nice to see you all.
Dr. Funk. Um, so I am just here to give just a really brief, uh, update on our staffing situation. Um, uh, first off, let me just let you know that I'm pleased to report that all of our regular, um,
regular education teaching positions have been filled. Um, we have two special ed openings. um one is at the high school which is actually a year-long LTS or long-term sub position. So that one um came up recently and then we've had um an addition to Lake Elmo
that's a 0.5 um add to staff. So pretty excited about that. Um our greatest need continues to be in our custodial group. Um we we still have seven openings um in the um head engineer and second engineer positions. Those are um proving um
extremely difficult to fill. Um we're working on some recruiting efforts. We've sponsored ads on Indeed. Um we've got um we're working on an option to do a quick apply so people can express interest really quickly and then um the custodial um team uh leadership team can
reach out to those folks and start asking them questions and see what kind of qualifications they have just and then see if maybe they should apply or maybe not. Maybe save them a little bit of time. Um, and then, um, we have a we're part of an ad on the back of the community ed catalog. Um, and then we're
going to also work on some, um, some broader website ads and possibly do something like the postcard that we did with nutrition services in the past to see if we can generate some interest. Um, and then, you know, hopefully through the negotiations process, we can, um, help uh, that particular job
group as well. Um uh I'm also pleased to report that we're down to six PAR openings. Um there are three CIP openings. Um one opening at the high school, one at the middle school, um and one at Anderson that just
came up. Um we continue to fill um openings at nutrition services and adventure club. Um the openings in nutrition services were down to um pretty much just the the the float positions. Um but then we've had some a
couple of resignations. Um so which does happen and this year we haven't seen quite the parah exodus that we have seen in past years which is a really good thing. Um and then lastly just overall we've hired 37 new teachers and 19 paras
questions for me. Yes. Chris, are we seeing the the uh impact on summer unemployment this year like we did last year for people who are retiring at the last minute or Oh, not as much. We just have not really seen like the huge exodus like last year. I think we
had 11 paras that said, you know, I'm done like right away in August. Yeah. Um I haven't seen that this year. That's great. So that holds. Do are other districts struggling on the custodian front? Is that something you're seeing in other districts or
I mean it's custodians have been a challenge you know even in my past um filling those positions is kind of tough. I would say not necessarily other districts but other entities um are competing with us for custodians. Okay. So that's that's a challenge.
Okay. Right. So private sector positions are stealing away our custodians or possible candidates. Thank you. Other questions? So, if you're short a couple pairs, short a pair at the high school, somebody else has to fill in for that spot. Who who does that?
Um, oftentimes we get a sub from from teachers on call. Subs. Okay. Or sometimes they'll, you know, they'll work out schedules and they'll kind of combine, but um the first go-to is to find a sub. Okay. How does this compare to last year for
Paris specifically? Um, I think for Paris, um, it's, you know, at this point we have a lot fewer openings at this point. Last year we were probably closer to 15 openings, um, just because we had, you know, so many people leave, um, at the last minute. So, I actually feel
like we're sitting pretty good this year. Thank you. I think the contract settlement, you know, may have had some influence. Great. Thank you for that update. Any other questions? Great. Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it. All right. Um, our next agenda item, we
have many policies here to review for a second read and a um board action. Uh, so under strategic direction C, utilize systems and align resources in an efficient manner to support learning. We're going to bring Mr. Lee up and we're going to start with a second
reading of policy 616, school district system accountability, and we'll follow that with an action on the same policy. Yeah. Wonderful. Uh this this policy uh is a mandatory policy. Um it really is a kind of a just bringing a couple things
um couple changes in titles um regarding um some definitions. Um so it was first uh the first reading was on 617 uh25 and since that time uh we have not received any further input regarding u
based on that first reading. Um so I think it's the committee's recommendation to consider it for a vote. Great. Um so unless there's any comments I I don't think anyone has sent any comments. So we can move to the action
on this policy. Is there a motion to um approve policy 616? So moved. Great. And Pete, take you for the second. Thank you. Um any questions or comments for Paul? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and vote on
approving policy 616. If you're in favor, raise your hand and say I. I. Opposed. That passes. Okay. Okay. And now we'll move on to uh second reading for policy 612.1 development of parent and family
engagement policies for title one programs. I'll turn it over to you again. Yes. Um this is a mandatory uh mandatory policy and it brings us into alignment with the federal requirements uh really under the ESSA um for that. So it uh is
a mandatory and recommended. It is a new policy for us. Um and again we did the first reading on June 17th and since that time we haven't uh received any further input uh regarding this uh new policy.
Great. Um assuming that there um isn't any further discussion on this policy um I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to approve. Is there a second? Director Law with the second and opening it up for any um last questions or comments to Paul.
Seeing none, all those in favor of appro approving this policy 612.1 raise your hand and say I. I. I. Opposed. Policy passes unanimously. And our last policy for the evening is a second and final read for policy 8007
which is health and safety. Yes. Uh and this is a a recommended policy. We had uh originally uh last approved it in 1998. Um so it was revised by uh MSBA in 2022 and this is
in alignment uh with that MSBA recommended language um and had been reviewed by the committee. Again first reading was on June 17th and again we bring this forward for potential adoption. Great. Okay. Um
we'll go ahead and move to the action. Is there a motion to approve this policy? Move to approve. Great. Director Hawker with the motion and Director Thelander with the second. Any comments or questions for Paul. Okay. All those in favor of approving
policy 807, health and safety, raise your hand and say I. I. Opposed. Policy passes. Thank you. Thank you, Paul. And under strategic direction D this evening, develop strong partnerships with the communities we serve. We're
gonna have a bond update, which is always so fun. Um, and so that's gonna be with Mark, but I see, um, Superintendent Funk, uh, just got an update for you. We had two phones and one watch taken from Stillwater Middle School today. Great.
First watch. That's really just great results. So great. All right. Good evening, board, Superintendent Funk, members of the community. So tonight, I want to give you a brief update on the construction since we've been through the summer and heading into the fall and and this school year of current where we are in all of our bond projects. I quickly want
to just kind of give you an update on the construction to date, kind of talk to you about some resources to follow construction online if you'd like and then just kind of revise some of the pictures and images of some of the facilities, what they'll look like at the end, and then open up for any questions or comments that you may have. So, just to kind of remind everybody,
there's kind of four um actually five pillars of the of the bond. One is um get a new um Bayport Elementary, update and get a new uh Lake Elmo Elementary, remodel and expand Oakland, um get the high school or safety and security districtwide, which would be the high
school entryway, as well as some other safety improvements that we will have within our district, which we'll talk about here in a second. So, moving on to Bayport first. Um Bayport and Lake Elmore very similar in terms of progress of where they're at. So, I won't get into a whole lot of detail about them, but just as you can see from a site
perspective, um we're finishing up footings and foundations at both of the sites. Um as well as accesses into the um site, both the parent bus uh the parent pickup and drop off as well as the car pool and parking lots and those sorts of things. Um the ponding is in place. If you drive by, you'll see the
storm water ponds. They've did the seating here a couple weeks ago, so you'll start to see some of that native grass and native seeds come come to fruit here in a little bit. um as well as they start with a steel structure as well as a pre-cast plank. So, as you look at the image here, this is from a
couple weeks ago. You can see the steel um being set up here at um Bayport and you'll see that at Lake Elmo's as well. If you drive by both sites here in the last couple days, you'll notice the pre-cast plank is going up around the gymnasium. So, it's a different um those are storm shelters. So, just the construction the way they're made is two
different types of materials and sets. So, if you wonder why the difference is between what the gyms, the pre-cast plank and the steel structure, it just has to do with the storm shelter um at both of the buildings inside the gym and the gymnasium. So, um we're we're making really good progress on both of them. Um
kind of our critical path is to be enclosed by the time winter hits. Um so, we can be fully enclosed and have temp, you know, windows and those sorts of things, but we can be inside and be ready to rock and roll through um our winter months. So, as we move on just to some of the images, just a reminder that each of our buildings has a different
theme. And so, the Bayport theme is just where it's located next to the river is the river theme. And then just our entrances are kind of the waterfall. So, that's why they're kind of blue and they have that cascading windows with the waterfall. You'll notice our academic space has the um like the rock sediment
um like you're going through the river and that's kind of see the different layers of you' be in the river of the different sediment um rock there that you'd see. And then the back overarching areas with the cafeteria and the gym and some of the higher levels are kind of the bluffs. So that's what that um
darker color is is the overlooking bluff area um when they'd be in the kind of the river bay. So just kind of the nature theme brought within our schools. Again, just look at the main entrance as you come in with that um water waterfall theme. Looking at the media center here
is kind of your media center classroom. Um, up above you have the science classroom kind of overlooking the the learning commons or the media center. And then there's a classroom there right by the media center if a a teacher or staff member wants to be a class there to do a lesson or a teaching point and then have the kids there check out
books. Moving into the classrooms, they're set up in learning studios. So each grade level has their own pod or learning studio with a flex learning space in the middle. So that's kind of what an image you see here is kids and adults working out in the commons areas. And then around that you can see
different individual classrooms for teachers to be. So they can have their four walls if they need to have a lesson and you know they're taking a test or some quiet reading or whatever that looks like. But there's some lessons that they may want to expand or have more room and they can expand their classroom and flex out into those individual learning spaces.
Again just kind of look what a a typical class would look like. And then lastly looking at the gymnasium. Um this is a one-station gym just for the size of the building. I think Lake Elmo will be a two station means there's two gyms um at Lake Elmo just the size of that building. Moving
on to Lake Elmo. Uh again there's an aerial view of that. You see the building it's larger. So the the Bayport school is about 600 students. The uh Lake Elmo is 1100. So just the size of the building um is just obviously bigger. But you can see the steel the
the pre-cast plank that's on there kind of the first and second floor. If you look at the bottom right hand corner that rectangle that's the gym. So that if you if you drive by right now at um Lake Elmo, you'll notice that all those pre-cast walls were in. A couple unique things with Lake Elmo. When Lake Elmo was first being built, there was a
cement structure that was going on. And I I can't tell you how many people ask what in the world's a cement structure doing right in the middle of it. Does anybody know what it was? The elevator shaft. The elevator shaft. Because of it being in the middle, they had to construct that first and then put the pre-cast plank um around that. Um Lake Elmo just
got uh yesterday, they got the transformer. So XL started at Lake Elmo and then they'll head to Bayport, but the uh transformers on site now they have site power. Um so that's it's coming along in a in a pretty cool way. The other part with Lake Elmo that I want to just touch on briefly here is the road work. So Kitty Corner to this
is the intersection of 10th Street and Lake Elmo Avenue. If you driven that over the summer, you notice there's a lot of cones and a lot of lanes being blocked at that intersection. Most of that work is our work and it's a couple different projects in a couple different phases. So, right now you'll see lanes
being closed because they're adding turn lanes for on 10th Street for our parent pickup and drop off. They're adding the turn lanes onto there. That's why they're widening the road and that road is is coned off there. If you look on Lake Ammo Avenue coming from the south, just south of our property heading,
excuse me, just north of our property heading south right before we get there, they're adding the turn lane for the buses to turn into there. So, that's what the um cones and marked off there is the turn lane. The other part of that um cone, actually the second part of that is also utilities. So there's a lot
of utilities that need to be hooked up from adjacent neighborhoods um with water and power and fiber and those sorts of things. There's been a lot of those connections. The other one that's going to be starting now is a temp light. And so we had a lot of conversations. This is where the coordination really came in with the
city and the county and the watershed around that intersection of 10th Street and Lake Ammo Avenue because the county has on their capital project in 2028 to make that intersection a roundabout. And so in the meantime, until the county has
the funds to do it and it's two years out, we talk we'll have temp lighting. So, if we go in there and you see the light poles are going to be constructed now to have temp lights for two years until the county is able to do their project. So, if you're wondering why in the world that we're putting temp lights on in a permanent building, it's
coordination with all the different entities is saying it doesn't make sense to put up permanent lights knowing in two years you're going to take it down and have to reconstruct that. So part of that as we're redoing the intersection, we're kind of setting our temp lights, widening the road, doing those sorts of things in anticipation for the county
work to happen during the 28 construction season. So just you kind of know what's happening now and then what to anticipate here a few years down the road. So I'll kind of pause here just because the elementaryaries are a little bit different because they're new buildings and you know if you drive by every time you drive by you're going to
see new structures going up and different things. Um, but I just kind of open up before I get to the middle school and high school around any questions or comments that you have from the elementary standpoint. Yeah. What about the bus and uh parent access? So, it sounds like at Lake Elmo
you'll have parents coming in on one street, buses on the other street. Bayport that's probably not possible. So, will there be two turn lanes? How will that work? Yep. So, it's it had to be the same turn lane. So if if you at Lake Elmo the the turn lane, excuse me, at Bayport the turn lane's in. Um there's a it's our
parking lot. It's a bus loop, but it's also the city parking lot where they have Barker's Elps. So right now that parking lot's in. It's gravel. We haven't done the the asphalt lift. That'll be next year. But that parking lot's already open. If you have little kids playing soccer or they had te-ball or anything over the summer, that
parking lot's accessible for um community use. And so that parking lot will be our bus drop off. And then once you go in, if you take a right, then you'll be a a car pool A and a carpool loop. We had conversations originally, we wanted two separate ones, but they
were um too close in proximity with the county. And then also, if you had one taking a left, one taking a right, they were too close where they might may not see each other, which create a traffic hazard. And since that's a county road in front of us, they didn't want that um right left to be on their road. They
wanted that more merging to happen on our property. So, the merging between the carpool and the bus will happen on our property. So, we'll be able to to um control that as we access the site. Okay. And then I was going to ask the same question on Oakland, even though you're not there yet. Um we have separate
Yep. Uh are you adding anything on 10th Street for Oakland? Um 10th Street. No, I'll get to that in a second here. Um but no, there's nothing on No, but I'll get to that in a second. Thanks. Anything else on the elementaryaries? Yes.
Oh, I get to go first apparently. Yeah. Um I'm just curious um in terms of schedule, how are we doing? Um in the broad scheme of things on the schedule. Yeah, that was my last point. So I I'll skip to the end if you want to, you know, to steal the thunder. But on both of these, both from a budget standpoint
and a schedule standpoint, all of our projects, we're on time, we're on budget. We're really in a good spot on both of those areas. Um the beauty of both of these sites, um Oakland's a little muddy, um but Lake Elmo and Bayport are very sandy. I mean, so we've had some heavy rains and other than a
few ponds here or there, the most part people can work the very next day. So we've been very lucky with just the sight conditions that it had the the rainfall hasn't hindered us. Wow, that's impressive. Yes, very much so. Dr. Funk, any significant change orders as of yet?
Nope. Okay. Okay. Um and just looking at just some of the images. So, um Bayport had the river theme. Moving on to Lake Elmo, just with this adjacent to the Lake Elmo Park Reserve has the prairie theme and just where the building is located. Um so,
again, kind of the entrances are more the tree trunks, the more base of the um um building. And then as you look at the tall structures in the back is kind of the skyline. So, you'll see some tree or some clouds um and the the skyline. And then the classroom spaces are kind of
the stocks or that prairie grass um which we'll get to here in a second. Here's just an image of the um building as you walk in um the main entrance with that prairie theme. Again, here's their uh media center or uh learning common space. Moving on to the cafeteria.
Again, you're going to notice there's a lot of natural light and a lot of that nature theme being brought not only from the outside but as well as the inside of the buildings. again what look at their learning studio kind of what their flex commons look like and adjacent to their classrooms and then the gym it kind of
looks very similar to Bayport but if you look in the middle there you'll see a tan or a beige kind of tall structure there that's a dividing wall so just from an elementary standpoint just have two classrooms if they want to close it and they can have both two full-size gyms or they can open up that wall and
have one big two twotory gym or or two uh fullsize gyms if they would Now, moving on to Oakland. So, Oakland this summer, um the really only thing that was done and completed this summer was the um parking lot. So, there's a lot of conversation from the county
about trying to take the queuing off of Manning and bringing that again onto the Oakland site. Now, just the proximity where the building is to where Manning Avenue is, that's a a difficult task, but we're trying to take as much queuing as we can off of Manning and bring that onto our site and working on different
ways about double stacking some of the cars that get on site and and those sorts of things. So, from a completion standpoint, that was the only project that was done um and completed. The rest of it is ongoing um and work here over the school year. So from the outside, so if we look at kind of what's going on
here at Oakland, um just a reminder, there's six classroom spaces that are being constructed, two science rooms, again with the additional capacity, and then two full-size gyms. Currently, Oakland does not have a full-size gym. It's a little bit smaller than a competitive gym, so there'll be
significant more gym space added to Oakland. That's just the addition. And then once that's completed, then we'll work inside the building where we're going to take the current gymnasium and turn that into a a a more updated and more right-sized me media center for
what a middle school looks like. Also, within the gym, we're going to carve out a little space for an additional music room. Just as you add more kids, you obviously need more science classrooms, you need more music space. So, there'll be an additional music room that will be added that as well. And then the current media center for just literally how small it is will become our student
support services. So, it'll be kind of our counselors, psychologists, those sorts of things to try to take some of those student support services away from the office to kind of distinguish office um space from student support space from kids so those don't kind of get intermixed um with our students. And
then getting um director Kelzenberg to your question. So, if you d have driven on 10th Street um over the center, you kind of notice some of the trees were down. There's kind of a ravine in the trees. That is for our connection and hookup for city sewer and water. So currently it's right across the T Street
on 10th Street and then they're we have it connected on our end. They need to take it under the road and then we can have hookups. We're looking to have that hooked up around MEA um to get city sewer and water for us ready to go. For us, city sewer and water is important. That's something we need to have done
before the end of the fall because to have that hooked up means we can get our gym completed. And the goal is to have our gym completed around spring breakish, so we can transfer all of our FIAD classes away from the current gym, move it to the new gyms to give us a head
start on reconstructing the current gym into the library and music space. Just that remodel is going to be more than a typical summer would entail. And so we want to try to do that at the end of a school year when kids kind of know the entrances, they know the routine versus having some of that construction bleed over the beginning of the school year
when you have new kids, new staff learning routines and those sorts of things. So that's our goal right now is to get City Sewer and Water hooked up, get our gym ready to rock and roll around spring break time and then be able to start to do some of the things inside the building um and get ahead of the summer.
So that's Oakland. Any other questions or things with from Oakland? Yeah. So, two two gyms at Oakland, right? Correct. Two fullsize gyms. Will there be any seating or room for seating? So, yes and yes. We actually um there's going to be within the two in the middle, there's going to be a competitive court which you're able to
pull down bleachers um fullsize bleachers and it's also the bleachers going to be able to hold um a full school assembly. Currently, they don't have a space um for a school assembly to be. So, and then when they have the nights or weekends, if community ed or there's a tournament or whatever are
using both, it's kind of like the pack where you have those three um three three levels of bleachers three those will be able to pull out for those small gyms. So, we'll have bleachers for the both of them and then we'll have one pull out for the competitive court in the middle. Spectators will appreciate that because
I've been to those games and you line up along the side as if you're another coach to to watch the game and so this will be great. Yep. Um, and then again, just looking at the image just to remind you. And so this is a a picture of the media center, what that look like. There on the left, the middle that tree trunk um is the
office and the circulation area. Uh to the right of that is a hallway. Right now is adding an additional hallway where the current gym is. So right now there's really only two hallways at Oakland, one on each end, and it's really a pinch point during lunchtime. as they transition between lunches, that area gets very um compacted because
there's also lockers in there and to create a central hallway to give more circulation for space is really going to ease passing time um especially during those lunch hours. Here's just another image from the media center looking inside kind of at that circulation or office work area and you can see the
stacks and workts and those sorts of things um around there. There's also kind of a commons there adjacent to the media center right by the cafeteria if there's additional space needed or some kids or class want to break out. What headphones doing there? Um those are approved by the district um
done before the policy was in. Moving on to the next image. Uh and then just here's the six classrooms. They'll have a little flex space um and some conference room area there and the six classroom. very similar to kind of our elementary setup of collaboration. Um, bringing that
theme to the middle school level as well. And then this is the entrance into the gym. Um, that picture there in the middle, that Oakland with that O is the current center court of of the current gym. So, kind of trying to bring that along to kind of have the past kind of blend with the with the new gym and the
new spaces. Now, moving on to our high school and our district-wide security. Um the high school entryway um was a huge success that was done over the summer. Um you can kind of see just the space there how cramped it was before. Um we definitely
needed the space um and additional sight lines to the rotunda area. So before was it was a very small area that especially during passing times there's a lot of kids coming in and out of the building. There's visitors coming in for speakers. there's parents there to pick up their child and it just got very hectic of
who's coming in, who's coming out of the building from a building building security standpoint. This here is able to open it up. Um, give us more space for, you know, if they're visitors or people waiting for their kids, there's a space for that. There's a kind of a flow for kids to check in and check out and makes it a safer environment for for
everyone. And really, we have the added space um from two areas. One is we added on about 800 square feet. And literally if you walk into the building, I have a picture that has the front of the building that we were going to show here, but I was like, I don't even know what we're looking at because it looks like the exact same of the building. The
the bricks is a great match. This is, you know, usually do an an addition and the bricks don't match. You kind of see where that is. This brick is a spot-on match. So, I really give you a picture. You're like, I don't even know what I'm looking at. And then the other part we got additional space is we took the locker bay in between what used to be
the main office and the um black pony center. we took that um excuse me, White Pony Center. We took that locker bay away and have a increased um space there. So, it really isn't any academic space or the the student experience really isn't impacted by having more
secure entryway for our kids. And then lastly, just a couple other projects that kind of go under the radar but also really enhance our security districtwide. The first one is security strobes. And so, um, we'll come to a, um, bid opening here this fall where
there will be kind of a blue flashing light if there's an emergency in places that typically it's hard to hear an announcement. So, think music room when it's going on, in a kitchen area, if you're in the band room, if you're in a gymnasium, just some of those spaces that you're typically in a building outside that you don't hear the
announcements very well. If you need to be an emergency, that strobe light will be flashing. And so like if buses were to come up and they see that light flashing, they know not to drop the kids off to keep them in the bus and and move on to a different location. The second one is radio communication or updating our walkie-talkies. Our walkie-talkies
are about 15 years old. Um so we just need to update our radio communication system in all of our buildings um just to get with that newer technology. And then also with security cameras. Um most of our buildings, not all of our buildings, but most are up need upgrades as well as additional cameras and um
kind of um areas that need additional spaces. So those three bid packages will be coming to you this fall. Um so we'll talk more about those once um once we brid those bids here in the in later this this school year. So
great with that. Um a couple things. Um, there are monthly updates on our website. So, if you're on the the Stillwater School District, if you go under bond projects, hit the menu, go under bond projects, and then you'll see a link for each one of these projects, and it'll say
construction updates. In the construction updates, it has more of the construction um photos there. You can see month by month. They'll have like all the May pictures and then the June pictures and the July pictures. You kind of see the progress from month to month. The other thing that is really cool is
each month we do a a drone footage of all the entire space of all the area. And so it's the exact same path the drone takes every month. But if you watch them, you see the same things, but you can really see the progress of what it looked like in April, what did it look like in May, what it looked like in June. And there's really significant
progress monthtomonth to month. you drive by and you don't think there's a whole lot going on, but if you take, you know, five minutes and watch that video and you see all those months sequentially, you really see the progress that has been going on since we broke ground last April. Lastly, um I want to have just a
shout out to one of our unsung employees, Tony Wilker, who works behind the scenes um tirelessly, not only with the bond projects, but with all of our buildings to make sure they're looking sharp and getting ready for the school year. um doesn't get noticed, doesn't want to get recognized, but just here at this table, I can't thank him enough and
for the work that he does um just goes unnoticed. So, I just want to say thank you to him and his work is great greatly appreciated for all of our staff, just not by me, but um all of our bargaining groups really appreciate the work that he does. So, with that, I'll open it up to any questions or comments that you have.
Yeah, Tony is amazing. So, I I love the shout out to him. So, um I just want to also just because I was at and saw the high school, it was such an amazing transformation and I can't stress enough the safety upgrades in there. Just to go in before it just felt so dark and
closed off and you didn't really know who was coming and going and um it I mean now it's just bright and totally open and just much more safe. And so I just want to thank the architect um old and and Kra Sanderson for all their work because they just do phenomenal work for
our district and our building. So um were there questions about like the high school in Oakland or the safety upgrades? And these are also all on time. Yep. And on budget right now we're we're in a really good spot.
Are we preparing families for like I mean I don't know how the construction is going to look at Oakland when it's in process and they're in school. Is it gonna is that something that the students are prepared for or the bell schedule is going to change slightly because they're not going to be able to go all the way around. They're
going to have to so they're I talked with uh principal yesterday and so we're prepared to make the shift u to provide students the necessary time to to figure things out. Okay. So, yeah, they're they're planning it and we've done this a couple times
before. So back in the 16, 15, 16 school year before in the high school was done, adding the ninth grade, all that, you know, construction in the back and all that area during there. Couple years ago, we had the Brookview expansion was done during the school year. This is very similar. So the last couple weeks, um, myself, the reps from Krauss Anderson have been walking with the the
principal and vice principal about just what does carpool look like, what does buses look like, how do you access the fields, you know, for FIAD class as well as um sporting activities. So, we created a little path for them to be able what door do they go out, what door do they come in, what path do they take to the fields and back? How does recess
look? Um, so we kind of walked all the different parts of the day um with all the admin team so they can communicate with their teachers and then staff and then if they have any questions, we're always available for with them if they need anything. Great. Well, thank you too, Mark, for all your hard work on all of this. We're fortunate to have you and Tony. So,
thank you very much. Um, if there aren't any other questions, we'll be done. Thank you for that update and it's a great website. I I love the website. So, all right. Tonight, um we have two closed sessions. So, I'll go ahead and read the um
the adjournment notice. Uh we're pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.05, subdivision 3C3, which allows the board to go into close session to develop or consider an offer to purchase or sell real properties. The properties are
identified as 111030 Stillwater Boulevard, Lake Elmo, Minnesota 55042, the former or current Lake Elmo Elementary School property. Um, I'll go ahead and make a motion to adjourn to close session. Can I get a second? Second.
Great. Director Theelander with a second. All those in favor of going to close session, raise your hand and say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries unanimously. We'll go to close session.