We're good? Okay. All right. Welcome this evening. We want to start out with a a special recognition tonight. Um we're recognizing our food service department and so Mark is here to make those introductions and you guys can just sit right here. Welcome.
Good evening cheers chair Sherman superintendent Funk members of the board. I have the honor and privilege tonight to introduce a few of our nutrition service team. Um over the winter they won an MDE contest which is say yes to school meals which ran from January to February which invited all
school districts across the state of Minnesota to showcase a unique breakfast or lunch item take a picture of it. Our winning item was a meatball and ramen meal. Um that won the picture and I don't want to steal their thunder so at this time we'll let them introduce themselves well introduce our school
nutrition team. Hi thank you. Thank you so much for having us. I'm Kelly Lindquist. I am the department manager. Nicole Sigman nutrition services coordinator. And we really appreciate this time and recognition to the hard work that our team is doing. This was
the first contest we have actually entered. So it was extremely exciting when we found out we won. So it was across the entire state. We actually had the head of nutrition for all of MDE come out to present the award. So it was Wow. Um our chef Brandon who is new to
the team in the past year and a half we've added some new people in order to do some of these fun things like this and recognize the exciting things we're doing in our department. So he came up with the the recipe and our Stillwater high school team was pictured here help bring
that to fruition and to serve it to our students. So it's part of our ongoing efforts to bring new um cultures and new variety to our menus to help kids see us as um evolving and not the traditional
school lunch that we've had. Yeah hopefully the first of many. >> [laughter] >> Yes I was just telling Mark with we got a Vikings football signed Vikings football. So I said I want to start a trophy case cuz this is the first of many. Absolutely. to add to and our
students here will benefit from. Absolutely. Well congratulations. I just have to say I mean so much of what our kids do and take in body wise like the food and the nutrition is really key to having a successful
academic career and physical well-being. So thank you for I mean it's much more than just putting lunch on a lunch plate. It's it's nice for I think our entire community to hear it's done with such thoughtful intention. And I know our students benefit from it as well. We have one of those students
who may be able to say some more about the lunches but I do hear anecdotally that they have just kind of elevated quite a bit in in And it is so much more than just you know serving food on a tray to the kids. We our team has such great passion
for feeding kids. All of us do and that's what brings us together. You know it might not be the most lucrative it might not be the most um It's not easy. No it is not easy. There we're very highly regulated but we have such a passion for feeding our kids and
you know as a program leader I am so proud of what we put out and we have MDE come here. They were just amazed. They're like can we take pictures? Just the fresh fruit and vegetables we put out every day and you know we didn't do anything special for them. It was just what we do on a normal day. So I'm
extremely proud of my team and what we put out every day for our kids. It it matters to us. It really does. Well we're proud of you as well. Any other comments or questions? Yeah. >> I'm really curious about this winning dish. Can you talk a little bit more about what you served and how it was
received by the kids? Are they adventurous eaters? Like are they going to try this? Did they try it? It was it was on our fall menu. It was a a new recipe. Um we had we have mixed reviews. Um we're considering about making some
tweaks and bringing it back next fall. Yeah so it was meatballs with ramen. Ramen is so popular with kids. So are they adventurous? Not as adventurous as we would like. You know it's something we have to we pulled it from the spring menu to introduce some new
things while we work on making modifications to bring back for next year. So kids need repetition. Yep. Those are the studies. Keep putting it before them. So we're not giving up on anything. Some things are really popular some are not. Um and our our one big goal for us
moving forward with these new positions we've added is increasing student engagement. So we'd love to get in front of student groups and help that have them help us help us hear our some ideas. What what what's great? What's not? What what would you like to see? What can we do better?
What do you love about the menus? So Well maybe yeah maybe the student here can pass that along to his and his the people following him. Any groups we could get in front of and bring our chef in to do some sampling and some surveys we would love to do that. Great. That's awesome.
Any other questions or comments? Here and then Yeah no congratulations and thanks for all the work that you do and I would just have to share that I love your scones. They're so Joe knows. >> [laughter] >> It's easy to mess up can't serve those to the kids. Ow. not meet our guidelines. Really easy
to [laughter] mess those up but those are really good. >> [laughter] >> Well continue the carb theme I'm lucky enough to go join join the kid for for lunch every once in a while and the walking tacos are fantastic and the the breadsticks are the chef's kiss but um I
just got to say the the staff has is so welcoming so caring for the students it's palpable. You can really see um the difference they make on a day-to-day basis. So just really appreciate them. Yeah thank you for pointing that out. >> They work really hard. They do they work very hard. You know behind the scenes
we're there we're support service. We're there to help support them so they can learn why they're in school and um our staff care so much. I mean so many of them know every student's name and they share the same passion we do. You know they're not in this for
the accolades the money. They're in it cuz they have a passion for feeding kids and it shows every day. Well yes Pete. I can imagine the frustrations. You make something really good and I'm thinking the instance when I was at Brookview eating with those kids and your chicken
wild rice soup and this was great. I thought I picked the right day. None of the kids were eating it. So you make the best thing but you still got to get those kids to eat it and you want to have something more than square pizza all the time right? Yeah and it's it's hard to get them to try new things and
you know that chicken wild rice one of my favorites too but and we have to kind of partner it with something very popular to keep so the kids will eat. You know most importantly we want them to be able to eat something but We're hoping to be able to expand our
nutrition education to students as well. We have very limited time with students to actually teach about nutrition so we try to do that through our menus. Um and like Kelly said just the repetition of making sure that they're exposed. Um one of the other things we did is we started
adding pre-packaged salads um and more on the line salads for elementary students so that they kind of get used to the idea of a salad being paired with lunch which has been really popular. >> Yeah. Yeah, and we have Bento boxes coming soon.
Yeah, so we have a lot of lot of ideas we're going to be implementing. I bet our staff also appreciate the variety as well because you're serving them as well. >> Something we're working on right now is getting more staff. You know, for $5.50 where can you get? Right. As many fruits
and vegetables as you want and a full menu, you know, a full entree. So, that's a big push for us too is to getting more engagement with that. Soon to be CSB delivered. All right. Yeah, we have we have a lot of ideas. So, keep an eye out. Great. Well, we're very
grateful for everything you do for our students serving them food and just being a friend and someone that they can talk to. So, we appreciate that. And thank you for coming in and your time off here and so that we can kind of help recognize you the way you deserve. So, and I know this you guys are two
it's a large team. So, thank you to the entire team as you've pointed out. So. Great team, yes. I couldn't be more proud. Great. Well, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. >> [applause] >> ALL RIGHT. WE DO NOT HAVE ANY public comment tonight. So, we will call our meeting to order. Joan, roll call.
Director Gerspach. Here. Director Hawker. Here. Director Kelsenberg. Here. Director Flower. Here. Director Parker. Here. Director Thelander. Here. Chair Sherman. Here. You have a quorum. Great. Let's stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right. Um next up on the agenda is the approval of and I'll go ahead and make a motion
to approve. Is there a second? I'll second. Great. Director Thelander with the second. All those in favor of approving tonight's agenda, raise your hand and say I. I. I. Opposed? Agenda passes. We'll start with our student report. Welcome, Zach. Thank
you. For our student report, it is upcoming AP testing season. So, a lot of students have been studying getting ready for the AP tests and if they're taking any CTE classes, then they don't have to even worry about it cuz they don't have to take a test which is nice. Um but upcoming events for student council,
we're hosting a spikeball tournament, pickleball tournament, and then we will be having an ice cream social and a senior sunset at the end of our year and then also decision day where we're handing out our caps and gowns and seniors will be able to wear represent wherever they're going whether it's a
four-year college, if they're joining any branch of the army military or any of the trade schools. We'll do that in the courtyard. They'll be like lemonade, cookies, a lot of fun and we're just wrapping up the school year. Crazy. Mhm. We're at that time. Yeah.
All right. Superintendent? I'll give my report on the legislative update tonight. Great. Okay. Um and then I just want to very quickly tomorrow is administrative assistant recognition day. I know Joan loves this part.
>> Thanks for the reminder. >> [laughter] >> And so the board has a little something for you which I'll bring to you after the meeting. I won't pull you out for the cameras. But I just know that all of us want to express our sincere gratitude. You do so much for everyone at this table behind
the scenes. And so, thank you for that and we greatly appreciate you. So, just a little round of applause for Joan. [applause] I think you can not as much as you deserve. So, okay. That's all I have and we'll move on to consent.
Is there a motion to approve tonight's consent? I'll move to approve this consent. Great. Katie with the motion. Is there a second? Great. Chris with the second. All those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda, raise your hand and say I. I. I. Opposed?
Okay, consent agenda passes. Um we are going to start under strategic direction A which is ensure the learning process is adaptable to meet individual student needs. Our first report is from the high school and we will welcome
them up and as we well, I think you've got Rachel and Rob and I'm not sure who else. Is that it? Becky. Oh, Becky. Sorry. Welcome. So, we're here today because earlier the board had approved a
a large amount of courses that enable us to offer online and associate of arts degrees in school, different strategies to recoup some of the revenue we know we're losing to PSEO
and online options. So, we're here to get kind of a very early update on that on how things are going. Well, thank you for Chair Sherman and members of the board, Dr. Funk, thank you for having us. A pleasure to present. I'm here with Becky Hopper who's one of our school
counselors and also Rachel Style who's one of our two pathways coordinators. And as we talk about just some of the the changes in programming that we have been implementing over the course of the past semester and past year, we'll really kind of highlight it in two areas in particular for you tonight. One of
which is the online program that is relatively new to us this year and the second is kind of an update on some of our concurrent enrollment pieces and and how those new course opportunities are shaking out in light of student registration here this past winter. Great.
And can I just say before you start, this is probably when I'm out and about this is the these are the programs that get the most attention for me just out in the community. People are really excited about it. So, I'm so glad you're here to provide the update. It's really the word of mouth is I know it's early on but it
is spreading and we're all doing our part in getting the news out there too. So. Well, I appreciate that and obviously as you said it's it's early and we don't know all of the things that we don't know quite yet but I would agree with you the early returns are really really encouraging. So, we are
just really positive about kind of for our first time out of the shoot and our first experiment with some of this stuff, the preliminary indications are that this is really good and appears to be really healthy. Joan, you want to advance the slide? Or oh, I yes. Joan's going to do that right now. >> [laughter]
[clears throat] >> So, as I mentioned kind of two areas that we'll break down for you tonight. The first is in our online programming. We've presented to the board before around some of the the goals of our online program and what we are looking to try to achieve. The bottom line is is
that we are trying to meet student demand. Students quite honestly are searching for and seeking out online opportunities. There's a variety of reasons for that and we worked pretty hard to put together a pretty
comprehensive survey that went out in the spring of last year to try to identify what some of the motivating factors for students and families were. That's important information for us because that helps us tailor a program that if this is what they're looking for, we need to
try to be responsive to that. You can see there's a laundry list of reasons up there. Obviously being asynchronous provides some more flexibility with regard to the timing, being able to pace themselves. There can at times be a perception among students
that maybe this is an easier opportunity and so some of them are interested in that. There are a number of students who are interested in having that flexibility so that they can kind of play that off of their co-curricular activities, especially if they can find a way to link that maybe at the end of the day, maybe that gives them the flexibility to
participate in a job or a sport or things of that nature. And so, there's a number of other pieces too and also just want to kind of highlight the idea the the mental health and the social anxiety. Those are are pieces that qualitatively I think we've
definitely felt since COVID has has kind of been a a thing in back in 2020 and and we're still kind of trying to figure out the best ways to be responsive to that. There's a numbers up there for you to to take a quick look at and I'll just highlight that the numbers that are there
reflect numbers of students. In a little bit in a couple of slides, we'll kind of break down for you the number of actual course registrations cuz there's a difference between total number of students and total number of courses. In this particular instance, this these numbers reflect numbers of students that
are choosing online. And you can see there's just a there's been a pretty dramatic jump this year as we have now offered our own internal online programming. The numbers 302 and the 347 that you see are primarily
attributable to online health and PE. Ed. Those are two courses that we have offered in house for a number of years and as we've talked about to this group before, one of the primary motivators of students taking that is the constraint that our six period day
has kind of forced them into. And so, as students are looking for the opportunities to take all the things that they want to during the school day, they've needed other outlets and so that's where those numbers are. But you can see that those numbers have jumped dramatically from 347 up to 900 with all of the the new offerings that we've had
this year. Anything that anybody would want to add? Just to give you a little bit of insight into you know, who has signed up for these courses. We have as you can imagine, we have students kind of all over the the board. We have some students that continue to
dabble in PSEO while also taking online. We have a number of them that have signed up for online in the past. We have a number of them that are new to online. We have some students who receive special education services and are on IEPs. We have plenty that that are not. For the most part,
our students are relatively high-achieving bunch with an aggregate GPA of 3.28. So these are students who again, you know, while there is some perception that you know, students might be looking to take a an easier route. These are also motivated students and these are
students that are looking to to find ways to to fit more into their schedule and this flexibility allows them the the ability to do that. In terms of where students are going, what they're signing up for, we did track obviously through through student enrollment and as you may
remember, the courses that we've offered in the online program are required courses. So we have not yet expanded out into electives. So everything that you see here is a requirement for graduation. The number one course continues to be online wellness through movement. That's our
online fi ed class. Followed closely by social studies at the senior level with online econ and online government. Those are two 12th grade courses. And then also in fourth place, no medal I guess on the on the podium, online English 12, which
also is obviously a senior level class. But there are a number of other courses there. You can see we offer online English 11, English 10 being required courses, number of math courses offered. But that's where the our top students have landed. I mentioned [clears throat] earlier that
I would give you some numbers in terms of total registrations. These These numbers in some way might even be a little bit more meaningful than just the the numbers of students because this also has other implications for us financially. So as a district as we try
to measure again, how healthy is this and and is this a a wise investment for us to be to be going after? This is really where a lot of that comes through. I'll just point out again, there's three-year trend data there and you can see that on the left-hand column in the the red box
there, these are still about our high school students who are enrolled in one or more externally unnormed online classes. So that means an external provider like a Northern Star or a Blue Sky or something like that. In 2024-2025, we had 602 courses, total
course requests that students were taking and last year that jumped up to 982. So again, more than 50% increase in just one year. And as you may remember, I kind of referred to that as kind of the the tip of the iceberg. You know, we
were all of a sudden recognizing or we had reached a tipping point kind of in terms of what what we felt we needed to respond to. We don't know as of right now what our external online numbers will be in 2026 and 2027 because students are still
flushing some of that out. What I can tell you is that the numbers that are there on the right, those are the number of SAHS courses. So the courses that we have offered, again, you can see numbers kind of comparable to what we talked about
before in the 300s and the 500s because those are primarily just when we offered health and fi ed. As soon as we expanded those opportunities out to other classes, our numbers jumped from 500 students to or excuse me, 500 course requests to up over 1,700 course
requests. So we tripled the number of course requests by offering it. So if you are baseball fans and you remember that movie Field of Dreams, if you build it, they will come. We built it and students came. Numbers on the right in the the blue box
there, those are online students who are attending somewhere outside of Stillwater High School as full-time students. So in 2024-2025, we had 95 students. Those are numbers 9-12. So it's tough to get a breakdown.
I think if you looked closer at it, I think most of those students tend to be in grades 11 and 12 as opposed to grades 9 and 10. But again, those numbers reflect high school students grades 9 through 12 that are seeking their opportunities somewhere else. In 2024-2025, we had 95
students who were going full-time online outside of our district. Last year there were 86 students. This year again, we don't quite have the numbers yet because we're waiting to see kind of what the returns are and and how many how many people do we actually have in seats when school opens in August.
But we'll we'll have a better handle on that in the fall when the fall rolls around. Yes. What were our goals for students or courses? What I mean, which which metrics did we use to set success and then how did we stack up against them? Yeah. The primary goal of this honestly, like
I said earlier, is to meet student demand. And we are looking to offer quality programming that retains students. And so when we look at the number of students that go externally for online or that go externally for a
program like PSEO, those are numbers that we track every year. And again, as those numbers were increasing, our primary goal was to stem the tide of the number of students that were doing that. And rather than losing those students to an external
entity, we our primary goal was to offer something in-house that kept them here in-house. And so all of these are the exactly the types of numbers that we would sit down and and continue to track to determine how effective we've been. And if I could expand on Rob's comment,
[clears throat] one of the trends that we noticed with our students taking external online courses was their completion rate or pass rate was significantly lower than our in-person students. So the team that I've been working with to since June has been focused on how do we
create a quality product so we are seeing a higher pass rate and success rate with our students. So I would say a supplemental goal beyond just recapturing our students is creating a high-quality product that's comparable to our in-person classes. So we are
seeing our students learn and thrive in an online environment provided by our high school teachers. It's a great point. You know, we've talked about our students pass rate and and failure rate. Those are certainly metrics that we track regularly in school.
Our numbers actually just came out for graduation this past year and again, we continued to up the bar a little bit and we're up around 96%. So only 4% of our students are not um making adequate progress towards graduation and that number's been pretty
consistent over the last couple years. And when we track the the number of courses that we have in our building, those numbers obviously are comparable throughout the course of the full scope of programming. What's the what's our pass rate and what's our what's our failure rate? Our failure rate is
hovering around 4%. As Rachel mentioned, one of the numbers that we noticed with our students who signed up for an online class outside, that failure rate was up closer to 20%. It was up around 18%. It was north of 18%. And so to Rachel's point, one of
our our goals was to say, look, if we know that there is a different level of expectation associated with our teaching staff in terms of how our teachers communicate with parents, how they're going to involve parents, how they're going to go the extra mile for students, meeting students where they
are. Rule number one, go for every student. I don't know that every other organization, every outside organization is going to have that same type of mentality for our students. And so we figured that if we could set up a comparable program here with our staff
who's been trained in different ways and has a different level of care and expectation for our students, that'll that'll translate to better outcomes for our students. Yes. Question just while this slide is up here. So like these 86 students here, full-time elsewhere, are they even our
students at that point? I mean, do they Yeah, they're not. Included in Stillwater stats or not. So it's like same as if they're going to some other school. Correct. >> Okay. The the TBD numbers, is that something that you could provide the board supplementally? I know that Dr. Funk sends out like a weekly email that just
to is that something we can have? I know you said probably closer to the start of school. You'll know in the fall. Okay. Yeah. That would be helpful. I think for the >> because a lot of this is intertwined with PSEO and all of the PSEO stuff really gets settled over the
course of the summer. You know, that's a it's a huge challenge for us. When our counselors come back in the fall, one of the first tasks that they have is to sit down and look at the student registrations that have come in with PSEO because all of those have a corresponding impact then potentially on
our schedule. So their job is to say, okay, this student has now finally indicated to me that they've signed up for comp one and comp two. What's the comparable class on their Stillwater schedule that I'm going to have to take out to make sure that that goes through. And kids change their mind. Kids Some
kids get in, some kids don't get in. They've indicated an interest early on that they're going to do this, then they maybe don't or change their mind or all of that jockeying continues to take place over the course of the summer. And as Dr. Funk said, we come back in the fall and then we've got a we've got a
big cleanup on aisle five to to try to >> [laughter] >> take care of. Yeah. No, just and no rush on it. I just know that the board is also interested in some of those the revenue recapture aspect and some of that additional detail. I had one question and I don't want to put Becky
on the spot, but >> [laughter] >> I'm so curious from a counselor's perspective cuz that's I'm so glad you have her here. How have our students Um, from your perspective, from your view, how have they responded? Cuz I know we've heard from Zach in the past that this would be something he wishes he
had. Well, you know, of course he's graduating, but Yeah, no, I think they've responded positively. We've really seen a great desire for flexibility, I think I would kind of name as the number one item that students are looking for for various reasons, you know, why they
would want that flexibility. But, allowing them to, whether it's work more at their own pace, do that work from home or from a coffee shop, whatever it may be, I feel like that has been kind of the the primary reason. And so, it's been interesting going through
registration with students. You know, we we go through registration with every student as they complete it to see who's chosen it and even asking why or when are you hoping to have that during your school day if we have control over that piece. Um, and so, yeah, they they seem excited, which is encouraging. Good. And
I mean, it's early on, so It is. Um, I can go back to the TBD number for you to um Some students are already enrolling for the fall. Um, Northern Star is kind of one of the biggest um schools that our students are use as a supplemental provider. They're open
currently to sign up. So, students that are currently doing that may know, I can go ahead and register for whatever class I want to do next fall at this time. Um, other students haven't maybe made that decision yet. But, they technically have through the 15th day of the semester to make that change to not have a
penalty a negative penalty to their class at Stillwater High School. So, that would be kind of the final day that we would know those numbers, but majority we should have earlier. Okay. Thank you. And lastly, just to sum up some of the features then of our online academy. Obviously, this is designed to be
flexible for students. It has an emphasis on personalized learning. So, again, as students can kind of go at their own pace, they can ask questions as they're comfortable. And as Rachel talked about and I I kind of double down on the idea that these are courses that are designed and taught
by Stillwater staff. That's one of the main selling points, I think, of our online academy. We think that our staff is better than the average bear, thank you very much. And I think that that's been born out time and time again. And so, providing the support system and I want
to give Rachel and her team just a ton of credit. They have done a ton of planning. They have organized student handbooks. They have talked about philosophical approaches. They've talked about best practice regarding online instruction. This is not simply taking a course and throwing it up online and
calling it an online course. Our teachers are getting professional development in the art of online instruction. And I think that our our students are going to benefit from that. The piece that we'll talk about a little bit and I'll maybe defer to to Rachel to give a few
more of the the specifics and the details, but we'll talk with you a little bit about our concurrent enrollment. As you know, we've expanded our concurrent enrollment offerings. Concurrent enrollment means that students enroll in a class at the high school and while earning
high school credit, they will concurrently get college credit. We have partnership agreements with a number of post-secondary institutions. We partner with Bethel University. We partner with University of Minnesota. And one of our
most prominent partners right now is Minnesota State Mankato. And the idea is is that again, by signing up and enrolling in a concurrent enrollment class, students can stay here at the high school. However, they will also earn the college credit that a number of them are seeking
either through like a PSEO or some other advanced type of opportunity. And two of the offerings that were new this year out of the shoot are and this has been a massive undertaking and again, I want to give Rachel and her
team just a a ton of credit for recognizing the the need for this and the opportunity to be able to provide this for our students. Um, but if our students are intentional about the courses that they sign up for, they would be eligible to complete the Minnesota transfer curriculum, which essentially is their first two years of
kind of general education squared away. In addition to that, there's also an opportunity for them to earn an Associate of Arts degree, which is a little bit more advanced even beyond the the transfer curriculum. There is a very set prescribed number of courses that
students have to take. There are upwards of about, Rachel help me out, I want to say almost 10 different buckets that represent areas that students have to have coursework in. And so, students have to be really super intentional about making sure that there's room in their schedule. And I want to say this
is something that would not have even been a possibility for us to offer on a six-period day. This is another you know, as we talked about what are the benefits of changing a schedule and why would we do this? What's the impetus behind doing this? The impetus behind doing this is
freeing up the schedule frees up opportunities for students. So, this is part of how we have tried to live up to what the the capacity of this new vehicle really is. And as you can see, the the early returns are are really encouraging because we have 40
students that 40-plus students that have indicated an interest in pursuing the transfer curriculum. And a cohort of about 30 students that have indicated that they are going to pursue the the Associate of Arts degree. And Rachel, there's anything else that you want to add to that. Yeah, so so Robin and I met with
families in February. We invited every student who had a 3.6 or higher to meet with us to talk about these opportunities. Really strong positive feedback from our community on the opportunity. It's not the right fit for every student, but for several of our students, they are looking at this as an
advantage. And even if they don't commit to one or the other program, the amount of access our kids have to take early college credits on our campus is huge for families. So, we've seen exponential growth year after year in our concurrent enrollment program. Honestly, I every
day I get an email from a staff member, how do I get, you know, how do I get involved in this? And so, our staff are excited. Um, they're not getting any monetary benefit. They are giving up their time to become credentialed and our students are taking advantage of these opportunities. So, we have over 30
classes currently that when a student is intentional in their planning, can earn a credential or a degree that they can take with them, which is on average about a $25,000 savings per student. This current year, our students saved $1.4 million in cumulative costs. So, that's
fantastic. And as we look ahead, again, the excitement is growing from students and staff. So, I'm really excited about that. Um, I worked with all of our counselors and hand scheduled every single student and course mapped their plan. So, our students feel confident, their families feel confident in being
able to achieve their goals by the time they graduate. So, it's really exciting for families. In terms of some of the benefits, um we have presented to this group before, but obviously, first and foremost, we are increasing access to rigorous opportunities for students. It's the
opportunity for college credit and hopefully represents some of the best of both worlds because it's the college credit that students and families, quite honestly, are seeking. Families want that because that's money in their pocket. Um, but the advantage is is that students don't have to leave campus to be able to to get it. You
don't need transportation. You don't need um to worry about overcoming some of the other obstacles with regard to to equity that it presents by by offering it in-house. In addition, again, by by offering these
courses with our staff, um, our hope is that this builds confidence in our students that they can do college-level work. They're going to get exposed to rigorous opportunities while they're here in school and that's going to set them up for uh, when they leave us. And all of these opportunities, obviously,
are are tied into pathways, which increases the level of relevance, purpose behind it, and just the level of readiness. And as Rachel indicated, when you add up the the dollars that are saved, um, you know, by using pretty standard
um conversion units for what a college credit costs, our Stillwater families saved over a million dollars this year, $1.4 million. And um, that's backed up again by by Mankato State. The Mankato State rep, I don't think, makes a point necessarily to travel to
every school that they partner with when they look to host information nights, but he comes to Stillwater because he knows that we are going to have a stronger degree of partnership than almost any other high school that he is working with and the number of parents and families that come to ask questions
um to get introduced to the program. He that's the the audience where they can they can talk through all of that. And we had over 200 people showing up between the the meetings that we hosted, which again, was just a a fantastic turnout and I think um people have been
very appreciative of it. And I'll just kind of point out Zach's comment you made earlier. Some of our students are taking AP tests over the course of the next month. Our students who are taking concurrent enrollment get transcripted credits. So, there's no high-stakes test at the end of the term. They are in
college classes, the grade they earn is the grade they earn. So, the stress level in the building over the next month is going to be greatly reduced. You're nodding cuz you get what I'm saying. [clears throat] Because our kids have been doing it all semester. So, that's a huge advantage for our kids. They're earning credit in
lifetime that is transcripted to take to their partner school, which is exciting. Another piece kind of going hand-in-hand with this is um we really feel that the the schedule and the concurrent enrollment offerings that that have are really part of what allows
students to be able to access the different pathways that we offer. We are trying to obviously be very intentional with our course development and what kinds of opportunities we are offering for students. The next step then is making sure that just because you offer it, is it actually accessible for students? Do
they have a way of going through that? And we've talked with this group before a little bit about the idea that in each pathway there are multiple programs of study and a good healthy pathway healthy program of study should allow for introductory course opportunities,
intermediate course opportunities, and advanced course opportunities. If you don't have advanced course opportunities, you really don't have a program of study. You really don't have a pathway necessarily in that area. And concurrent enrollment is a part of how we meet that requirement and that component really
for a pathway because that's our that's our rigorous opportunity. Did you want to speak? >> So, we have two things yet, your online classes and the concurrent enrollment. If this is a Venn diagram, is there any overlap where kids are taking online classes
to get the concurrent enrollment? Not currently. So, this first year is our pilot year. We are offering 12 online courses. All of them are on level, so they're grade level courses. As we look to the future, we know that our students are seeking concurrent enrollment in the online space. For
example, of our students who take PSEO, 75% of those are taking them online. Okay. So, we know our kids are seeking that flexibility, so that's definitely a conversation we're having in the online space. Our immediate need is looking at some of those required electives like
personal finance and art, some of the non-core courses that our kids are currently taking online. So, that's the immediate focus this summer. But as we grow into the future, looking at concurrent enrollment, even looking at some of our special education courses will be the next phase of implementation
with the online program. Thank you. We got to go slow to go fast. So, we're we're starting with that. I think we have nine courses coming out of the shoot for for online. 10 10 brand new courses. All right. And then lastly, I'll let Rachel kind of take the the lead on this, but one of the other new programs that we're
offering this year is the the healthcare program that allows students to get a CNA certification. We actually just posted for this last week, so we are in the market to hire an outside person that's got the the certified nursing background to to come in and
teach our students. And Rachel, anything else that you would want to add about that? >> Yeah, I'll just share when we were with here when I was here last time, one of the things we talked about was an opportunity with the new schedule is being able to expand our elective programs and incorporate electives that meet labor market demand and align with
growing and innovative college majors and programs. So, one gap we noticed early on is healthcare. Healthcare was the number one area our students indicated they wanted to go into, but we only had one course on campus. So, Bob Mening and I have worked
over the last two years to build out a healthcare program. And so, you see on the right side all of the different coursework that is available to our students. We had the human anatomy physiology, tech and medical devices, it's a mouthful. But all of those other courses are brand
new. Every single one of those filled next year. If you look at our introduction to healthcare, we have four sections of that, which indicates we are meeting a need students have been asking for. Four of those courses are aligned with Bethel University. So, those students will get college credit as they
matriculate through the system. And at the end they will have a CNA license or credential and they will have a Bethel healthcare credential, which has weight. That was made in partnership with Medtronic. And so, that's just one example of a pathway where we filled
these sequential courses to meet student demand and labor market demand since we know HealthPartners and Life Link Hospital is one of the biggest employers in the region. So, you can see also we've been working hard behind the scenes to secure grants to help offset
some of those costs. Beltmann's Landing has donated a significant amount of supplies to build our CNA lab. And through other grants, we are purchasing additional healthcare supplies to build the CNA lab. So, this is just one anecdotal example of the types of new
courses that our new schedule has allowed us to develop and implement over the course of this next school year. Uh this is a great program. I think the CNA program is fantastic. I have relatives that have their kids going through their their equivalent program
for CNA and it is great for their college applications. It's great for their career readiness and just trying to figure out what they want to do. It's a fantastic program, so congratulations on getting that done. Uh two questions on it. One is how do we evaluate our partner
endorsement universities or or colleges? And second, maybe for Bethel specifically, do our students have to sign any pledges or any certifications with Bethel? Great question. So, for the Bethel component, we have asked for interest. They are not
committing. So, if they choose to take introduction to healthcare and they choose not to take the remainder of the courses, that is their choice. We strongly believe in student choice as the motivator for our schedule. But asking for them to indicate helps us to know how many students to prepare for
as we develop courses into the future. Bethel University created that credential in partnership I mentioned Medtronic and several other metro area healthcare providers. And so, what our healthcare providers are telling us is when a student either applies to college in a healthcare profession or applies to
their first job, they see that credential and it has value. We've been very picky in our pathways department in determining which credentials we implement into our program and making sure that our employers recognize those credentials and that they have value when a student is building their resume.
So, yeah, we selected Bethel. It's the same program that St. Paul schools uses and they've seen great success with that credential there. And they're not required to sign any of Bethel's standard student documentation. Okay. Thank you. You are you referring
to their faith commitments and so on? No, they are not required to participate in that. Thank you. Rachel talked a little bit earlier and it was kind of a perfect segue, but our last slide here just outlined some of the other new elective opportunities and Rachel talked about
kind of the the path that led to the CNA development. That was really based number one again on student interest as students were indicating via survey what kinds of opportunities they were looking for, but also number two trying to marry that then to labor market data. We don't
want to just offer all kinds of opportunities that represent dead ends for students and and don't take them anywhere. And so, we're trying to to kind of balance the two of those and that's the the background then that goes into the development of new courses. Rachel has done a great job working with our staff
kind of outlining, "Hey, here's where we have potentially a a gap in our areas of programming. There's a need for students here in this area. Do we have somebody? Would you be interested in considering this?" But we kind of we talked with staff who have the talents and the the gifts and the interest in some of the
areas that represent areas of need within our pathways. And some of the other ones that we have come up with are an introduction to computer science with Python. There's an intro to guitar class for our music offering for kids that are interested in music, but maybe just
outside of the traditional band, choir, orchestra that we have offered in Excel that for so long. Happy to say that course registered off the charts. We've got like four sections of that that we're going to be running next year. So, there's just a ton of kids that are interested in that. Data
science, cybersecurity, both new. And if we think again of just about AI and the logistics around that, how do we how do we prepare for that? How do we prepare students to be good users of that kind of technology? So, just a couple of the the ones that
are up there, those will continue to be healthy hopefully going forward in the future and just a little bit of insight for you so that you know how some of those courses are arrived at. And I'll just kind of piggyback on the left side. We received an MDE grant to expand our early child
early childhood education program. So, we are working with our social studies department to develop a child psychology and adolescent development course, which will be a prerequisite to a preschool lab. So, for those of us who are as old as I am and remember the daycare we used to have on campus, we're working with
Amy Bergie to find a satellite school to bring back our preschool program that will be staffed by our students. So, we're very excited about that. We secured another grant this week for some additional ethnic studies courses integrated into additional coursework, so we're excited
about that. And a teaser for some future courses, we're going to look at a concurrent enrollment ceramics, looking at exploring culinary arts, an AI class, and even creative writing. So, exciting things are on the horizon for our kids at the high school.
Very exciting. That's about it for for our part of the presentation. Are there any other questions we'd be happy to to answer for you. Dr. Funk. Just a comment. Want to thank you. All of you for your hard work the online component, the the new course
offerings with the high school schedule. Thank you and and your entire team. You know, the board has heard me say this over a number of months now, but public education is becoming is is having competition from a variety of
different sources. And I truly believed though that those entities who are agile will be successful and move forward. And you have just demonstrated incredible agility tonight in your presentation. So, thank you for all you're doing.
Appreciate that and I would be remiss if I did not give a shout-out just to piggyback on that comment to our entire staff. Our staff really are the ones who are working behind the scenes to to make preparations to make this happen. We're changing everything. We're changing
the courses that we are teaching and so in terms of the preparation the curriculum writing that needs to get done that gets done by our staff and even staff members who are teaching courses that are the same or have been offered
previously we're offering that on a new format next year and so they're going to have to change their instruction and so that's been the focus of our professional development this year and I appreciate Dr. Funk's comment about being agile. That's hard. We're a large organization
and um you know, some the analogy I've used sometimes with our staff is we're we're steering a battleship. You know what I mean? And to to Dr. Funk's point we've been asking our staff to step up their game and be more agile than what we have been in the past and they are answering
the bell and they deserve an unbelievable amount of kudos and appreciation because they've been working really really hard this year and will continue working really really hard through the summer through teacher workshop to make sure that we're ready to go and deliver on on day one but our
staff has really really truly stepped up and they are deserving of any accolades that you're willing to to throw their way or as you have conversation in the in the community please pass that on cuz they are deserving of every ounce of it. Great. Yes. Do you have some students
here tonight? I do and I I I almost brought them up right at the very beginning cuz I thought they were >> to Yeah, Avery and We can bring our chairs. These are actually our new presidents
co-presidents for student council for next year. If you guys want to introduce yourselves. >> For sure. I'm Katie Smith. I'm Avery Kickenberger. Okay. You want to tell us anything about you? What are you guys doing? What you're looking forward to? Yeah, I'm very
involved in the music program. I'm in jazz band in the top band and I'm just really excited to fill a leadership role that these guys have made high expectations for. Yeah, these guys really are we really love Zach and Nora and their leadership.
They're very inspiring. But yeah, I'm also in the music program. I play cello. I am on the swim and dive team. I'll be a captain this year well this next year. I do club diving and I do club volleyball. I'm in a numerous clubs around the school. We are both
leaders of our girls in STEM club at our school which was founded this year by Katie and a few others. So yeah, we're just again we're really excited to step up into this role and just continue to bring some pony pride to our school. No yes, they are super amazing on our
council. They have done so much for us and we're super excited to have them next year and it'll be a lot of fun. Are they able to sit with me for the meeting? I was going to ask if they could >> no problem. Right. Yeah, we'll move up there. >> going to they were going to leave but I guess they could sit with you. >> [laughter]
>> Okay. Take a seat. The more the more student voice we have the better so feel free to sit and then leave when you need to. Yeah, pass the mic around. I know from a student perspective if you guys have anything to offer I know you've
been gracious listening in the audience but do you hear anything? I mean you're a little juniors in the school. What are you hearing about these opportunities for students? Yeah, people are super excited. I mean personally I am taking the CNA class next year and I am elated. I am so
excited to do that. I was planning on getting my CNA this summer then I heard they'd be having it at school. So that's awesome. I'm taking part in the online gov and econ next year and I'm really excited because um
this is another opportunity for me to take and I know a lot of people are very excited about the online courses and also intro to comp I've heard a lot of good things >> [laughter] >> That's awesome. We love Mr. Musser. >> [laughter]
>> Great. Yes. So we'll never see you because you're involved in so much stuff here, right? So [laughter] I'm going to have to go to these concerts if I want to interact with you at all, right? Okay. >> [laughter] >> We'll be here. We'll make it work. Okay. I'll just throw out to on behalf of both of these young ladies that are going to be joining you on a more regular basis
next year. Obviously to rise to the level of co-president on the student council you have to be a doer, right? The the student council is involved in setting up any of a number of different events throughout the the course of the year. They are the doers the movers and shakers throughout the
the school but I've had plenty of personal interaction with Katie and Avery on a number of different things throughout the the school year and I can tell you that as students they are both critical thinkers and ask thought-provoking questions. They
they're going to be an awesome addition to to the board and in terms of representing student perspective and asking again thought-provoking questions that's my interaction with them consistently and so I I think that the board and I think our students are going to benefit from that too and so I just I
I want to throw that out because you're getting more than just active kids who are involved in a number of different things and looking for something on the resume. These two these two young ladies are at the the top of the heap when it comes to intellectual thought and thought-provoking things. They're the kind of students we want at Stillwater
High School. Awesome. Well, we can't wait to serve with you so that'll be exciting. Thank you. Were there any other questions? I had one small question and it was related to the grant funding that you said. Is there any concern about like is that do we need
those that grant funding consistently to support it or is there >> questions. So we actually have several grants in motion right now. All of them are intended to be foundational implementation grants and then will be sustained cost neutral into the future.
So we've been very intentional about not pursuing anything that would leave the district on the hook for any additional funds at the grant conclusion. Awesome. Thank you. Anything else? Well, we're excited to hear how this
goes. I mean I'm so glad that you're here Becky because I know this is a heavy lift not only for our teachers but our counselors. It's there's a lot to juggle when you guys say you're you make it sound easy but it's really complex work and it's so important what we're trying to do for the district and for the community at large. So thank you
very much for being here. Avery's excitement is what it is like in my office. [laughter] I'm not kidding. Every time I've been working with a student on the the health care program or doing the CNA I mean it's an incredible opportunity for them. So it's been really fun. So that was fun to see awesome.
Well, thank you guys so much. You're welcome. >> Thank you for having us. Thank you. Have a good end of the year here if we don't see you. All right. Um Our next item is a transportation update.
Well, good evening Chairwoman Superintendent Funk and members of the board. We are here again before you to talk about transportation. Tom Risley and and I have been here a couple of months ago and I know transportation is something that we have talked about at the board level for a while. Largely
because it's one of the most expensive things that our district has to pay for every year. Getting kids to and from school in a large district geographically number of kids that we have to transport it does add up to big dollars and so we have been charged with trying to find
some savings. We've been doing that this year and looking to next year. We have also been charged with trying to find some cost savings. So through this work I want to give credit not only to Tom but also we have Courtney Ulrich and Julie Ownesby in the audience tonight.
Wave your hands up for us there. We like hiding there. I think it's important for them to be recognized because the amount of work that has gone into this is considerable and it's also really impressive to watch this team working together. They are coming up with a lot of really creative and innovative ideas to save money to be
more efficient and frankly to to meet the needs of our families and our students as well. So I just want to give them a lot of credit for the work that we're going to be talking about tonight. They're also the ones who have to take those difficult phone calls and emails when parents are not always happy with some of the decisions that are being
made and they do an incredible job of providing customer service helping helping explain the why behind some of these things and when possible helping find solutions for families when they're needed. So thank you to our team for all their great work. We are obviously focused on providing
transportation that's safe and reliable but also efficient and cost-effective and so we've been looking at different models. We had presented some information to you in February and since that time we've made some more tweaks and changes and what we're presenting to you tonight is kind of our final transportation plan
for the fall and we have already started routing based on this information so that we will have routes out to people this summer in time for the start of the school year. So tonight we want to provide an update and I think the important place to start with this is the why behind it and really this is about cost largely. You
can see on this that our transportation costs are considerable and they have been increasing at a pretty substantial level over the last several years. The really, really good news I want to share with you today is that we were working with Marie looking at our projected cost what it
what we're spending on transportation this year and for the first time in 3 years we are on track to be on budget. That maybe doesn't sound like a big deal cuz we should always be on budget, but we have been spending between 1.5 up to $2 million over our budgeted amount for the last couple of years. So to be on
budget is a really, really big deal. We're very excited about that. That's money that goes back to the general fund to pay for the things that we need to pay for. And this is in part because of a lot of hard work that has happened this year. Some changes that have been difficult for families I think. Some of the things we've we've had to work with families is
on you know, not doing the kind of the door-to-door stops, having families have to walk a little further to catch buses. Those have been some of the things, some walking zone changes, the 2-mile change that we had to do last year for our secondary families with a no bus walk zone. So these are things that have
definitely had an impact on our families, but I think it's important to see that they are paying off and the changes are making a difference. So And that's even more impressive because we're getting funding cut from the state on some of our special ed transportation. So kudos to you and your team because it's a really challenging
environment to begin and the state unfortunately is making having to make their decisions that are further impacting and worsening the situation. So thank you. That's good news to hear. Thank you. Okay, so when we were here in February we provided you with some thoughts on
what we might do differently for transportation and the good news is we have gotten deeper into that and been able to really use some of our existing rider data and looking at how we can create more efficient routes. And we have changed some of what we presented in February and I think most of those
are going to be good changes. Some of it is based on feedback we've had from families. When we presented in February we heard from people right away about what they liked or didn't like about the plan. And so we've used that feedback as well as again looking at some real rider data now that we have that in place and we've had time with our team to dig into our system and
start building routes and kind of doing some of that work internally instead of relying on our vendor to do that work. We've been able to come up with a plan that I think is going to not only bring about the cost savings that we need, but also be more efficient and just make some more sense I think to our families. So we are looking at a two-tiered
bussing model. Currently we have a three-tier, so it's really eliminating that third tier which comes with some considerable cost savings. And then looking at kind of a transfer model for some of our secondary and charter private schools students. So we'll dig into that and explain this a little, but
before we get there I think it's important for families to know that we are committed to the later start times for our secondary students. That was the main piece of feedback we had after we presented in February. And so we have all of our bus routes starting at the same time or even a little bit later
than they currently are. And what that means for a student is the buses leave to pick up kids at the exact same time or a little earlier or a little later than they do now, but kids might be on that route a little bit different. So your time might look different based on where you live and
where we're routing. So your bus stop might be 5 or 10 minutes earlier or later, but the actual ride time of the bus, the time the bus is picking up students is the same if that makes sense. What this also allows us to do is in some cases have shorter bus ride times.
And that's really something we'll talk about later, but by being more efficient and having fewer stops along the way, not stopping at each driveway, but kind of stopping at centralized locations there's fewer times we're stopping which means the bus ride's going to be shorter. And that's been another thing that we've been trying to do is to
really look at the ride times that our students are having. The other thing that we had talked about in February that we were really hoping to accomplish was to change our start times to have elementary school starting closer to 8:00. That was something that we had thought maybe parents would like. Interestingly enough after we talked
about that, people had kind of told us, "Well, you know, we're used to 7:45 now. To change again is kind of a hassle." But it actually ended up being more expensive for us to change to 8:00 in part because it shortened the window of time that buses would get the elementary kids and then be able to move to middle school and high school. So we would have
needed more buses on the road at 8:00 than we do if we keep it at 7:45. So the 7:45 to 2:15 hours is actually allowing us to maximize our cost savings limit disruptions to for families. When we talk a little bit about our afternoon transfer locations,
it gives us less wait time at those transfers as well which is important. Kids won't be waiting as long for a bus. And then it maintains our current bussing model for special education students so we wouldn't have to recreate that model. So we will be staying with elementary start times the same as they
are now and again it really is the way for us to to just get the most bang for our buck, the most cost savings and not disrupt families. So this is what the transfer model is going to look like now. It's really just a simple two-tier from our families' perspectives, district
students. Our elementary kids are getting on a bus and going to school in the morning. That It's just like they do now. New Heights and St. Croix Catholic students will also be riding in with our elementary students same as is happening now. So kids will get picked up at home, brought to an elementary school. Our
students will get off and go to school. New Heights, St. Croix Catholic would transfer to a different bus to shuttle to their schools. Exactly what's happening this year. What changes is in tier two. Tier two we will be picking up all of our middle school, high school, and St.
Croix Prep students. So kids in the neighborhood will all be coming down to a bus stop, they'll get on the buses together, and they'll transfer at the high school. Um I'm going to say this kind of generally most kids. There's also going to be exceptions where we're not going to drive past a middle school to go to the high school and back. So there are kids
who are going to be directly delivered to the middle school. It just kind of depends geographically on where they're located. But the high school will serve as a transfer location for our St. Croix Prep students. So they'll go into the high school. St. Croix Prep students will get off the bus and get onto shuttle buses that will take them
directly to St. Croix Prep. High school students will get off. So that's kind of what that model looks like. Do you want to get into any more detail? Did I miss any important things? No. Can everybody hear me okay? Mhm. So no, that really covers everything. Just we looked at every geographic area
because we have some walk boundaries and such. So on every one of those, if we're coming through we do what kind of makes more common sense. It's not a one not everything is doing that. So Courtney and Julie have been amazing
looking at just the flow and just picking those perfectly up. So because some of those areas we weren't able to do it and we may have to do middle school and St. Croix Prep. We're not loading everybody. It just depends on what makes the most sense. Is that because there's some
really heavy dense areas with a lot of student population because that was some of the feedback. It just some people had a hard time concepting that and it makes perfect sense. So we were kind of looking at that. So So that's the important piece to understand [clears throat] here is that based on your geography and where you are, there
are some students who are going to get straight to their middle school. There's some kids who will have to transfer at the high school to go back to middle school. And it is based on common sense. Like we're not going to drive past your school to make you go here and come back. Um What we do know about the after or the morning transfer
which is going [clears throat] to be different is we will have kindergarten through 12th grade charter students that are coming to the high school and having to switch buses. So we've already had conversations with Rob and his team about what that's going to look like. We will have extra staff out at the bus area every morning to help those St.
Croix Prep kids get off of their bus and find the shuttles. The shuttle buses will be in the same spot every morning. They're clearly labeled with the St. Croix Prep magnet on them. And the way the shuttles will work is kids come off, get on a shuttle, that bus fills, leaves. The next one pulls up, kids get on that one and it leaves when it's full.
We've been doing transfers at our elementary schools for years. This is something we know how to do. Kids adapt really quickly and learn where to go, but we will have that additional supervision on hand just to help. And I heard Rob tell me he was excited about high five and kindergarteners as they get off the bus until like November when
it gets cold and then he might find somebody else to do that work, but we we have had that conversation and they're ready for that. So this also tells you kind of what the drop-off windows will be at the schools too on this slide. We have a larger drop-off window meaning that instead of all of the buses arriving at the same
time and all of the kids getting off buses and rushing into the school which can create some bottlenecks in our schools and and some challenges for our food service and others. There's a bigger window where buses might kind of be dropping off and then moving on to their next school. So at the elementary
there's kind of that 20 7:20 to 7:35 window where buses might be rolling through and letting kids off. At Oakland there's a 10 minutes, Stillwater there's 10 minutes, and at the high school there's a little bit of a longer period too for kids to be dropped off sometime in there and then they'll have time before classes start for them to get breakfast,
get settled, talk to their friends, kind of hang out, not have to be so rushed. So we're feeling good about having those longer drop-off windows because it can get the way we're currently structured it can get kind of chaotic to get in the building, try to get to your locker, get your breakfast, get to class. So that just builds a little bit more time into
that day. The afternoon, again for our elementary schools very simple, kids get on the bus and go straight home. It gets a little bit more complicated at the transfers on tier two where students will be getting onto buses at the high school, New Heights, St. Croix Prep, and St. Croix
Catholic. Again, same thing if they're driving past their house on the way to school they'll get dropped off along the way, but the majority of kids will be going to either Stillwater Middle or Oakland Middle for a transfer. Oakland Middle, Stillwater Middle kids will get on their buses Um, and then they kind of branch out from there. The goal again is
knowing that our district is so long and skinny and that there's in the past we've had buses not really fully utilized. We have a few kids that are going way to the far north. We're trying to put more kids on those buses to be more efficient and use less buses. So, we're trying to fill those buses by having more kids get on them at those
transfer locations. And I want to say um, you presented this previously, but isn't it like for one route, I mean it's like $90,000 to run that. So, I mean these are significant Currently, currently it is about $83,000. >> $83,000. Okay. >> Yep. And I just want to make a comment
that you know, Chris and I have talked about this numerous times um, and I know Dr. Funk and I is the contractor's been doing a wonderful job. It's not their fault. They're doing exactly by the service that we've
requested. It's the contract. When you break the contract down, you know, and if you looked at the numbers on that second slide when we were looking at, you can see the clear break when that contract took place and rightfully so. So, it's one of those and just looking at that
and trying to contain some of those costs because that is very high. So. So, the impact with our afternoon transfers is again, we're going to have some younger students that are having to transfer buses at the middle school
level. So, we will have additional staff out to try to help kids find the right buses. We also have waves of buses coming through at Oakland and Stillwater Middle. And there's a couple of reasons for the waves. One is just logistically to get from the other schools to the middle school takes some time. So, there'll be kids that are kind of
getting on buses right away and leaving and then those transfer kids will come and get on buses. But the other part is there's a lot of buses that we're talking about and to stage them takes room and we don't have enough room to do all of that in one wave either. So, the waves will be kind of right at dismissal. Kids will get on that first
wave of buses, leave, and then another set of buses will be coming in by 3:30. Kids will get on those buses and be out as well. Um So, we have again the high school students charter and private that will be coming to those middle schools and transferring out.
I have just one question. Is there still going to be an activity bus going from the middle schools to the high school? Yes. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So, some other things that are changing that families should know about is you know, we are we are starting from
scratch with routing. So, we are taking routing over from the vendor and doing all of this in house and to be most efficient, we have started from square one and redrawn all of our bus routes. So, things are going to look different next year. Um, people just need to be prepared that it's not going to be exactly the same as what you're used to.
It's going to look different. Um, another big change is centralized bus stops. We started doing that this year and we'll have a few more coming down the pipe next year, but the idea is fewer stops and picking up more kids at one stop. So, think about a neighborhood, you're all all the kids in the neighborhood are going to come to
one intersection, bus is going to pull up, kids are going to get on, it'll drive a few blocks, stop at the next intersection. Um, we do keep those as close as possible. We also look at age like our littlest kids, we don't want walking as far. So, we try to keep that in mind too when we create those. And
another purpose of centralized bus stops is that we want stops to be consistent. Um, families don't want a different bus stop every year and so our goal with the centralized bus stop is you know that in this neighborhood, this is where the kids go. Um, it's going to be that way year after year after year. So, that's
our goal with these stops is to really be consistent with that. Another change is the single pick up and drop off location. And what that means is families can decide that where they want their kids to be picked up in the morning and dropped off in the afternoon. It might be in the morning home and in the afternoon at child care,
whatever that looks like. It's just one though. In the past we have offered the opportunity for people to have like a Tuesday, Thursday pick up and a Monday, Wednesday, Friday. And what happens while that's nice and convenient for families, it's not allowing us to maximize ridership on our buses because
we change constantly how many kids are on there and it's harder for us to to fill those buses and know how many kids were going to be on them. There is of course a joint custody exception. So, families um, if there's a two family household and they're both within that school boundary, we will work with them to make sure that we can
work through those situations. And then we have expanded our walk no bus zones. And by expanding that, what we've really done is just been consistent. What happened when we switched last year is we missed some areas where um we didn't there were walking paths that made it very simple for a family to
walk, you know, a half mile to their elementary school, but we were routing based on roads before instead of thinking about there's that path that goes right through this park that takes you right to the back of the school. So, there were about 400 and some students who were notified in March that they were no longer going to be getting bus service because they were within
that walk zone or that no bus zone. Um, and that's both at the secondary, it's 2 miles and at the elementary, it's a half mile. And the last piece that we've talked about too is we're trying to really maximize our buses so that we don't have as many on the road, which means the buses will be fuller. We are
never going to put them over capacity. We're very careful about making sure that we're never over capacity, but um, we're trying to get away from the 5, 10, 15 kids on a bus and really getting more like 50, 60 kids on a bus so that we can utilize those buses to their full capacity. Um, so families can expect to
see less room on buses. Um, sometimes we hear from people, well, they're they're overcrowded, they're too full. That's not the reality. We are never over capacity. Um, but we might have to have, you know, three elementary school kids to a seat or two high school students to a seat. Um, not everybody's going to get their own seat and that's again just to be
more efficient and saving money each bus is $83,000. So, it's really it's important for us to keep those um, utilized well. With full buses, there is another thing that we have to talk about and that is that we do have to limit what people can bring on the bus. Um, some of this is
safety too. I mean, we were talking we've had situations where there's baseball bats and snowboards and things that are on the school bus or large instruments. And if the driver brakes suddenly and that's not being held on to, I mean that could go flying if there was an accident. There's a lot of a lot of reasons why it's not safe to have all
those extra things on the bus. And then simply with space. Um, if we are having three elementary school kids to a seat or two high school kids to a seat, there's not room for the extra bags and the big school diorama project that you're carrying on. Um, so we are going
to ask that students really bring what they can fit on their lap will be what they can bring with them. And any of those larger pieces of equipment or instruments will need to be transported by families. Um at our elementary level, buses won't be quite as full. There's
just fewer kids being transported. So, there might still be room for friends to come home on a Friday night, bring your friend home for a sleepover kind of thing on most of our routes. Um, so that would work the same way. But our secondary tier two routes are going to be more full and so we will not allow friends on those buses. Um, if a
friend's coming home, they'll have to have alternate transportation on those days. So, that is a change for families and understandably that's probably where we'll get some push back, I'm sure. But it really is again about making sure we're utilizing our buses and and filling them as full as we can so that we are decreasing our overall costs.
We've had conversations with all of our charter and private schools, New Heights, St. Croix Catholic and St. Croix Prep about what this means for them. They'll have the same impacts that we just talked about for our families. In addition, they will be riding with our students and I think for St. Croix Prep, that's
different. They've never had to ride with our students before. So, we've talked to them about what that means and they will be transferring. New Heights and St. Croix Catholic have transferred, they know what that looks like, but this is new to St. Croix Prep. So, we've had a lot of conversations with their executive director and are working with them even in trying to put
something together this summer where families can come to the high school and see what a transfer site's going to look like and kind of walk through that process to give them more comfort as they get ready for that in the fall. And another big change we talked about in February was that we will no longer be busing for out of district students
who are attending charter or private schools. Um, and so there's we've heard from some families about that one, but we've had those conversations and explained why we're making that change. Um, school hours are also changing a little bit for the three schools in part
because we need to make sure that we can accommodate this this new tiered system as well as build a little bit more time in for the transfers between buildings. We were running pretty close this year and we were having issues where kids were getting to school a little bit late at St. Croix Catholic and New Heights especially. So,
we're building up a little bit more time in the schedule to get them to where they need to go. The last piece that we're excited to talk about is as you know, we have purchased a couple of vans so that we can run some of our internal van routes.
Um, we've purchased five. Two of them are being used for special education at the Bridge Transition Program and Stillwater High School. So, our own district staff, paras and teachers are driving those. A lot of that is for students who are doing like work programs. So, they're leaving school to go on a job site for a while and then
coming back to school. So, they're being shuttled between those buildings. Um, but we also have one driver hired now. He's been on the job for 7 days and driving some of our morning and afternoon routes as well as some of our midday shuttles. And Tom just told me
this morning he ran some numbers and factoring in the salary and the maintenance and the vehicle, all those pieces, we have saved $2,800 in 7 days with our new van driver. So, we are really excited about the potential for us to hire additional
drivers. We're looking to hire at least two more for next fall. Um, and then potentially as we see how this is going, we'd like to purchase more vans in the future and have additional drivers because we do know that there's significant savings with this. Um just doing the morning and the afternoon
routes, basically the van driver that covers the cost and then we can pick up any of those midday routes, it's just extra money that we're saving. So, we are very excited about that. Scott's doing an amazing job for us. He's having fun getting to know the kids and saved us $2,800 in his first 7 days, so that's
fantastic. So, with all of these cost savings um that we've talked about, we are on target with our goal that we shared with you in February to save $663,875 for next year. Um and then again if factoring the fact that we stayed on budget this year, so that that will
continue as well. Um those cost savings that we've already already um realized. Um so, that's that's where we're at for next fall. We will be communicating to families. Um our website as soon as this is over, I'm actually going to sit there and hit publish on our website with all of this
new information so people can see it. We'll be getting information out to families tomorrow. Um and answering any questions that people have as they're learning more about this. We are working as I said to build our routes and actually assign riders to the different routes and finalize all of
them with our vendor and by mid to end of July, we will be releasing bus information to families so they know what their new bus stops and times will be for the fall. We are still waiting to hear from some people on opt-in. We've had a a good response from people. We've asked them to opt-in for transportation. Um but we
do need to hear from people. If they do not let us know that they need transportation, they will not be routed. Um and if they wait until the start of the school year, it's going to take time to add them so we can't guarantee that they would be on for the first day of school. So, this is just my pitch one more time to encourage people to opt in.
There's a form available in PowerSchool, instructions on our website, or you can simply just email us at schoolbus@stillwaterschools.org and we can help you through that process. But if you don't tell us you need a bus, you won't get a bus. So, we have to have that information. With that, we will stand for any
questions. Dr. Parker. Thank you. Uh great job. Thank you for the hard work on this. Uh I had a couple questions that came up on this. One, you mentioned that the contract is one of the key issues here. Um I have a couple questions on that, but I guess the first one is if the contract
is the issue if the district board makes their or the board or the administration makes the decision to invest in insourcing this, when would you need to have that decision made by it uh to be ready to go when the contract's over?
We have a couple years left on our contract. Um I think if that was something we would pursue, I mean first off, I think it's important for us to look at the internal van routes and see what kind of savings we have there, determine what um what capital investments would be needed even if we were to switch to vans first. I think that's kind of where we've focused
our attention is if we were to do something, let's focus on vans first. If we were to do all transportation, that would obviously be a much bigger capital investment we'd have to make, so we would have to have a lot of conversation about that. Um I think it would be up to the direction of the board if that's something we wanted to do. We don't have
the capital for that for starters. Um but I think any plan from what I've seen in in my history for districts to make this adjustment, it would be similar what we're doing with the vans right now and that is a
tiered approach from year to year. You know, maybe the first year we pick up 20% of the routes, then we pick up 40% of the routes. Um but I I can't imagine um
I mean, if we have 70 some routes, um we do not have the capital to suddenly just go and purchase 70 buses and and and and mechanics and drive hire drivers. Um it would you know, strategically it would have to
be a long-term tiered approach. Um so, that's my thoughts on it. Thank you. Yes. Um I I can understand the efficiency in the centralized bus stops. And then also in the the 2-mile walk,
but are we taking into account the ability to actually walk on those streets? Now, if you're on Abercrombie, you could there there's sidewalks, you can gather in one of those shelters, but if you're on Oak Green or Nerella and you have to walk to the corner, there's no place to walk, especially in the winter. We take that into account. Yes,
definitely. So, as we're looking at both from the bus stop perspective and the walking to school perspective, we are we have a list of things that we're looking at to determine whether it's a hazardous walk or if it's a safe walk. Um for example, we don't have any students that are walking to Oakland um because there's no safe way for kids to walk to
Oakland. So, that's one example where the 2-mile walk zone really doesn't exist at Oakland because there's no safe walking path for students. Um so, yes, that is definitely something that's factored in. Okay, great. And on that like the new Lake Elmo school in Cimarron, uh will they be
getting bused or will they be walking? For next year, they will be getting bused. It's our hope that we can work to get some safe routes to schools money grant money in the future to be able to help with walking paths and things like that, but for next year, they will be riding. Okay. That is correct. Yeah, we have
been working with the city and the county on that because they are looking at, you know, what kind of intersection they're going to finally be placing there. Um like near the new Lake Elmo and then walking paths and such. So. And I should give credit again to our team. They have
literally gone out to neighborhoods and walked the trails to make sure that they were they were walkable. So, they put on their walking shoes and they've been out a couple different days in different neighborhoods making sure that the routes that we are plotting on a map are actually um routes that kids can walk. And we've had some initial conversations with cities. We will do this again
before school starts um to identify the major walking areas so we can make sure that snow removal and all of those things are are addressed as well. So, if the city knows which paths we need, they have made commitments to try to get those cleared as quickly as they can on
snowy mornings. I mean, I'm kind of thinking the bus route you save would easily pay for even a district employee to go plow a route down from you know, Inspiration to Bayport or um Thankfully, most of the routes that
we've identified are major walking paths. I mean, I can give example, Brookview is one area where we had probably the biggest change in our walking area um because there are so many wonderful trails and paths in the Woodbury community and they maintain those. They're plowing them, they have residents walking them all through the
year. Um so, it was again just kind of a a no-brainer to say, why are we driving kids this way when they can just cut right through that path? We actually had one parent that contacted us that said, you know, I always wondered why my kid was getting a bus. I can see the school from my window. Thank you. Mhm.
Um thank you. And thank you for that. I really appreciate that. Uh my oldest was a three-sport athlete like uh Avery and also a cello player, too. Um I'm and and sports and music are a couple of things that the ponies take a lot of pride in here. We we take a lot
of pride as a district. I'm struggling to say that you know, anybody that is an athlete would necessarily wouldn't necessarily be be able to be serviced by the bus or many of our musicians would not be able
to be serviced by the bus. Um I struggle with that a little bit. I'm not >> So, is there any ways that we can think about a way that this is not applied uh blanket, but maybe applied for buses that are constrained? Um well, I think it's
I think it's fair to say that in most cases, students who are bringing large in- instruments, they they're something at the school already. They don't have to transport those large instruments back and forth for the most part. I'm saying you're not carrying your cello back and forth to school every day, right? And bassists, cellos, I'm not sure about band. Oh, Katie's not here, so I don't know.
Cuz Katie's in our band, but I'm not sure about like tubas. I know percussion, they have like at-home instruments. Yeah. So, most of the So, from an instrument standpoint, I think most of them are provided at school so kids aren't having to lug back and forth. I think where we really are seeing the problem is with some of the sports equipment. And again,
um you know, a lot of athletes, they don't have to be You don't have to be taking your basketballs with you. You don't have to be bringing all your your different things. It's probably more for like skis and snowboards and things like that. But again, that is a challenge for safety reasons, too, why it's not really safe to be transporting a set of skis or
a large snowboard on the school bus. So, yeah, it is it is going to have to fall on families to be able to bring those. You know, Tom and I had talked, he's been in several other districts and he's never not had this kind of policy in place, right? I mean, it's it's pretty fair to say. It it really is because when you're
trying to run economically for those seats, because we're not running our buses to full capacity, but at two to a seat, it could range from, you know, 48 to 58, right under 60. And that's two to a seat and people
are, you know, we've had conversations with our contractor and saw the video and we see a lot of students with one to a seat and then the next report I get from the parent is the bus is overloaded. And we look at it and go, "It only had 42 students on board. It's not even close to being loaded." And
then I look at the next video and I have a bus leaving with 10 students on board. And that's the normal seat. And looking at that, we're trying to capture those seats and that's just trying to save those dollars. Um with sports, I I drove until I got
here. I did a lot of activities and honestly, we never hauled a single trailer. We had under-seat storage for our teams. They put their stuff and a lot of the teams had to put their backpack and their school work underneath the seat or on their lap is basically where it had to go. Now,
that's for a sports trip, but it's kind of similar as you're driving a route as well. So, it it's one of those that the easiest concept it is those kinds of things can sit on your lap. Is it the most comfortable? No, but we're trying to shorten those routes,
too, with the centralized stops. So, cuz every stop that we do actually adds about 2 minutes to a route. But, if you look at the big picture, that does, you know, if we can shave 5 to 10 minutes off a route, trust me, you're going to thank us because now you're not on the bus for
that long. It's 10 minutes less of that inconvenience and getting to school a little bit earlier, you have time to socialize, get your breakfast. It's not such a chaotic mess. I just talked with administrators, as well, at the middle schools. They both love the idea because it's not such a
rush of getting several hundred students in that building within a 5-minute window, get ready to class, and ready to learn. It just it doesn't work that way where we can get them in there, they can do their their breakfast, and kind of have that more of a drop-off school. Trying to play everything out all in
one. It seems like a lot of changes, um but they all kind of go in sync and work together. So. Um the timing. I mean, you currently we try to get a kid from bus stop to school within an hour, right? Sometimes an hour and a quarter for the far away.
But now, are we going to try to do that within 45 minutes to allow 15 minutes to get them from shuttling over to the middle school from the high school? Howard, we still have, I think it's 75 >> 75 minutes. >> 75 minutes is still the longest ride
time. Um we are always trying to be less than that, of course, but again, there's still challenges with those far, far ends of the district where kids are just going to have longer bus rides because they live further out from their building. But, by having fewer stops along the way, again, we're hoping that those routes will be shorter. So, we're hoping that we'll see fewer of the
75-minute coming down. I think our average ride is more like a 20-minute ride, right, for most of our kids. 20 >> 20 minutes or less. And then, think of it this way, too. I understand that the concern with having like that transfer, I'm looking at like St. Croix Catholic from the north side, and they live way
down by Brookview. That's a long drive by itself. But, when we add that, and if we get St. Croix, if we get all those entities, schools, including the middle school and possibly the high school on there, and we make three or four stops, it's extremely short route, but it's very efficient. And we're making those
neighborhood stops. So, actually, in the over scheme of things, it's actually shorter route. Not saying that's with everything, but as we go with that, we're looking at the flow and going, "What makes the most sense? Does that make sense, or do we need to keep the high schoolers out of there, just keep the middle school, St. Croix Prep, and
the other two charter?" So, it it everyone's a kind of case-by-case. So, we're looking at those times. We're tracking on every one of those routes. I mean, I I know it's a puzzle, and I'm just picturing the kid up in Marine that's going to go to the high school, and then backtrack to Stillwater Middle
School, and we'll get that done. >> And again, as I said, if that's not always the case, if there's a direct route and you're driving right past the school, we're not going to make you go to the high school to transfer back to the middle school. So, there are definitely routes where they're going to be stopping along the way to drop kids off. So, we're creating routes that make
sense. Um what we're showing you is just kind of giving you an overview of what it could look like, but knowing that there are new there are nuances to it, and we are I'll call it common sense routing. They're really working hard to just figure out what makes the most sense. So, um you know, if you're driving right
past your house on the way home to go to the shuttle, you're going to get dropped off at your house on the way home before it goes to the shuttle location. So, it will look it will it will make sense. Uh one question I had was, we know that as the state is looking at cutting
funding for transportation, we're I think it's 375 is what the cut is this year. Next year, it's going to jump to 725. Are you anticipating that we're going to grow in these savings with the existing changes that you have, or are
you thinking about how we're going to make the gap up in future years? >> Yeah, our next we've really been focused on our general education um transportation at this point. There's still a lot that we can do in special education, um and that's really where the cuts are happening. So, those are the conversations we are just starting
to have. Um there'll be some things that we're changing. I mean, we've already we've already been doing that, and we will continue to do that. For example, we've really been looking at situations where we have um like single single runs where we have one student on a van just because they've been added later in the
year, and it's just easier to add a van and go pick them up. We're looking at how can we use an existing route to pick up that new student um instead of just always going to a brand new van. So, things like that are costing us a lot less money as we're being more efficient. And again, as we're taking over routing, our team's looking very
carefully about even schedules. If we know that we're picking up, you know, Tom at 2:15, and then we're going and grabbing Zach at 2:20, and they're different shuttles, but couldn't we just maybe adjust the times and pick them both up at the same time? So, we're having conversations with our schools and with our special ed staff about even
changing student schedules a little bit so that we can be more efficient in how we're routing some of those. So, those sorts of changes are the things that we're really going to be focusing on to help address the special ed cost. >> Okay. Future funding. Thank you very much. Oh, yes. The number they showed you is
the floor for savings next year. That is the bare minimum we are projecting. They have not even That does [clears throat] not take into consideration the special ed cost at all or So, this is the minimum amount of savings we are projecting for next year. Our team's gotten very competitive about
trying to find savings. So, when when they find one, they're like, "Yes!" They're very excited. So, I I do think this is a very competitive >> fair. It's two back there against >> [laughter] >> Actually, sometimes three against one, but that's okay. But, that's what's exciting about having this internally is that our team is really looking carefully at everything
that we're doing, and they have the ability then to work with our staff, too, like our special educators, and say, "You know, it would make a lot more sense if you could just adjust this student's schedule by 5 minutes, we could pick up three kids at once instead of just doing these one-offs." Um and those things do add up to real dollars.
Well, just so you put it in perspective, like a one midday shuttle, um if it takes 5 minutes or if it takes almost 2 hours, it's $150 a day. It It equivalents to about 20 almost 26,000. So, just one. Right. >> So, when you do that, and you try to
marry I what I try to do is stack those, and that's where if I have the van driver, and I can take two or three of those, the savings can reach It is almost unlimited at that point. So. And I just want to say thank you because the work you are doing and
and also in our audience is critical because, I mean, public education is under stress financially to continue to offer the opportunities and the services and the supports that we want to during the school day. So, the more that we can find efficiency in how we transport our
students, the more we can protect those experiences that are in our schools. So, I know it's a lot of hard work, and I know you do a lot every day and throughout the summer. So, thank you. And and also, thank you to our current vendor. I mean, our
They do an incredible job, and I know there are some of us who have been here when that wasn't always the case. Um and so, I want to give a shout-out to Schmitty's, too. So. >> Thank you for doing that. They have been incredible to work with, and I know this has been kind of a challenging situation as we're looking at trying to save money that obviously impacts their bottom
line, but they've been amazing partners with us in trying to figure out ways for us to be more efficient and in working with us through all of these changes. So, big thank you to the Schmitty's team for all of their efforts. And I also want to thank families because I recognize that these are changes, and those those are difficult for families.
You know, we're asking kids to walk farther, we're telling them that their bus stops are changing, their times may change, they can't bring friends home with them. I mean, these are these are real things that have an impact on families. So, we just want to thank them for their patience and their willingness to work with us. Ultimately, every dollar we save on transportation is
something that we can redirect to the classroom and making sure that kids are getting the experiences they need in our schools. So, we appreciate their partnership. This is more of a communications question, but because students and our families have to sign up, um is that in
newsletters? I mean, have parents and families have been notified, I'm assuming. >> Yes. It's been in newsletters. We have we have quite a few. I don't know the exact number, but we've had a lot of people respond. We're to the point now where we are having more direct follow-up with the people we haven't heard from, and we're working with schools to make those contacts. Um
sometimes the district newsletter might not be the best way to get a hold of them. So, we're working with schools to make individual phone calls or outreach to families to make sure that they know about this. We also know that there are families for whom language is sometimes a barrier, and so, we're working with our engagement specialist to follow up with families if we haven't heard from
and have them help us get that form filled out. Thank you for that. Any other questions? Great. Thank you again for all your hard work and in getting this all out. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Um
oh, let's move on on the agenda. Our next report is a priority-based budgeting update. And with that, welcome, Marie. Thank you. So, good evening, Chair Sherman, um members of the board, Superintendent
Funk. Uh so, this evening, I'm just going to give a brief um update on where our budget is, and this is just to kind of highlight um some of the numbers that have changed um mainly on the revenue side um
and then just give an update on where our adjustments are so far um as far as the reductions um within our priority-based budgeting, and then just highlight a timeline um so far for the budget.
So again, this is our priority-based budgeting framework. Um and as you can see, we're we're still um working on um those uh allocations with schools and programs. Um we are compiling the budget at this
point. Um working with schools, programs. Um Still working on uh budgetary reductions. Um and you'll see as we get the update on where we are with those reductions.
Uh strate- strategic direction and initiatives. Um again, we fall um under all of those um strategic directions um and also highlighting strategic direction C
um as we utilize systems that align our resources um to support learning. Our focus areas, uh literacy, school culture, equity and inclusion, and then social-emotional learning and mental health. Those focus areas
um as we uh do our allocations and budgetary planning. So our current financial reality, um this I feel like sometimes we just these these themes seem to carry over from year to year, but um it is the
reality of um all the districts um across um the US. Uh there's unfunded state mandates. Um Legislation uh is impacting um things we're doing right now. Um we're
kind of waiting in this waiting pattern. Seems like I was here last year saying the same thing till late June. Um so there are thing the main uh areas again that we're watching are the compensatory impact
because that will have a a larger impact on our district on where that funding lands. Uh and then also our special education revenue will have even a larger impact uh as we go into the future.
And then inflation and rising costs um and our projected enrollment levels. Uh our cost drivers again, uh salary and benefits uh one of the largest uh pieces of our budget. Uh transportation, I
again have to give kudos to the team. Um this is a big uh piece that we did see in our last years uh budget to actual being one of the major drivers of why our fund balance was
getting kind of picked at a little more. And um kudos to them for uh taking the lead and mitigating that cost this year. Special education is another cost driver in our budget and um just making sure
that we're um mitigating costs, but also making sure we're providing service. So that's that's um always one that we have to really be careful uh how we're doing that. There is a maintenance of effort
that we must meet um as far as uh district and state. Um as far as uh what we're required to do. And then external enrollment options as you uh heard the high school team um
present this evening, there are definitely drivers within options um for secondary students and um how we meet those and how we um are competitive in doing that. So this is just highlighting our current
year uh budgeted uh versus actual enrollment uh as of April 1st. So uh our budgeted enrollment um which I tend to stay on the conservative side um uh we budgeted uh 8,076
uh K-12 students uh for our current year that we're in. And uh right as of April 1st, we are at 8,077. So 8,012, good you are Ooh, yeah, taking her to Vegas. >> [laughter]
>> I I just wanted to highlight that that is we are on the mark to um land the year I think in a really good state as far as revenue. Um we do have to watch those people units um
overall as a year as we weight them, but you know, we've been landing each month very close to that mark. So that's good for our revenue. Would have I have liked it to be higher like in our operational? Yes, but you
know, for a conservative budget, that's that's good. Um The 26-27 projected number um that that budgeted is 8,081. We do know there's
there's developments going on um throughout the district. So we are I'm putting a TBD on that actual yet because we may change that or revise as that come fall. Um I'm seeing a lot of you know, open
enrollment applications. I'm signing a lot. Um there's marketing efforts going on. Kudos to the team. Um Open enrollment in? Yes. Yes. Yes. So kudos and
that could change um the developments. Um we have two schools opening, so um that could definitely change efforts. Um Here just highlighting um I know you'll take a look at the bottom line and say
that okay, that's the same thing you projected um back in January. It is the 156 million is um however, a couple categories did change. Uh state aid um that was at 76.8.
Um it decreased to 76.6. Um the state released their what if uh for fiscal year 27. It's a revenue projection model. So they've updated some different categories and formulas um that they do
once a year. And um also I did um obtain the residential pupil units. So there's some um different factors in there um that uh updated our revenue by about
$200,000. And that decreased it. And then the other area that we had a change in is our federal revenue. Um we've kind of been kind of shooting I'll just say in the we've been targeting a number kind of in
the dark because of um not knowing that um dollar amount. And so we did get some additional information. Um we had about $200,000 more in our federal entitlements and grants. So you'll see
that um our previous projection was at 2.3 million in um fiscal 27. It's now 2.5. So that increased by 200,000. So between the two, it's a wash, but again, I like
to have the most updated numbers when I give you a budget um come June and have those assumptions be um pretty close to what we think they'll be. On the uh expendis- expenditure
projection side, um those numbers again are still um accurate. Um we did go through uh those assumptions. Um we are leaving those costs for inflation, salaries. Uh those numbers did not change. Um that
$7.6 million difference is still there for an expenditure projection or the 161 uh 0.5 um million dollars for our general fund assumptions.
So just to highlight a little bit here on uh this slide. So our revenue for um the 2026-27 uh projected budget, uh we're looking at 156 million. Our expenditures, uh we are still
projecting the 161.5 million. So that shortfall is still the minus 5.5 million. Um as of uh last Friday, uh we have made uh budget reductions and
adjust- adjustments uh to date of 5.4 billion. So we have identified those. Those adjustments have been made. Um we are still um looking to cut still um about $100,000
um unless we receive some additional revenue. Uh it's likely. Um I I won't I won't count on it. Um it's likely we'll have more adjustments the other way. Um but again,
we will be able to make um that adjustment. Um and I'll even look at the transportation team because I I think we'll be able to get there. I just wanted to give the board an update this evening where we're at. Um the last uh update we gave you in
early March, we were at like 5.1, 5.2 almost for our reduction list. And so we are at 5.4 now. So we're getting closer to that uh shortfall total that we need to get to. And so um
if we have more revenue um again, we'll certainly give you an update, but these we're fine-tuning um each board presentation uh we give you um on the budget. These are they change as
as they go. Um and so I just wanted to highlight um that briefly and um give you that information. And then the timeline here um again in May um as we go forward
um still working with program budgets. Um schools did receive those um programs still working through uh the details. We'll give you again updates uh throughout May and um early June and then
that last meeting in June again will be the recommendation for the budget approval. So again more updates, they'll get more um detailed with adjustment columns um on what we did for
priority-based budgeting. Right. Again, this one was intended to be more high-level this evening. >> Right. Thank you very much. Any questions for Marie? I appreciate you explaining all that. So And thank you for answering all those offline questions. I really appreciate
it. It's super helpful. And uh sorry I misread that one column. So you nailed me on that. I appreciate it. Um one thing I wanted to follow up on was uh we talked offline a lot about uh quarterly updates. I want to see where we're at in that process. Sure. Oh, yes.
You will um the board will be getting a revised budget or quarterly update that should be at the early May one. So the board will be getting a projection along with the revised budget for the current year. For the current year? Yeah. Thank you. Yep.
Right. Any other questions? Thank you very much, Marie. I appreciate that. Okay. Thank you. All right. We're going to have Chris come up next. We have a um one action item this evening and it's a resolution
rescinding placement of teachers on unrequested leave of absence. Good evening, board members. Dr. Funk. Um so before you we have um something a little bit unusual. Um we are um as as it says, rescinding unrequested leave um
for um six of our teachers who were placed originally on um unrequested leave. And we're rescinding it because it hasn't actually taken effect and because um we are we're able to find positions for those folks. So
um my recommendation is that we approve the resolution. And I'm here to answer any questions. Um I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve. Uh is there a second? I'll second. Great. Sarah with the second and open the floor for questions. Yes, Dr. Funk.
>> Thoughts on where these positions came from? Yeah. So um some of them are um late retirements. And by when I say late, I just mean, you know not by February 1st. Um so not like it's, you know, super late. But um after
the staffing process happened, um so we did get some of that. Um and then also through the staffing process um people made a little bit different decisions than maybe we had originally thought um and had to provide some options for folks. Um and so as we shook out the staffing process, we ended up
having a couple of more openings for folks to slide into. Great. Well, this is good news. It is good news. It's um Any other questions? Mhm. How were the roles or people prioritized and who was rescinded or how's that
how's that process work? So it's all based on licensing and seniority. So you have to be have the right license for the position and then um these uh folks were recalled based on seniority. Thank you. Mhm. They're recalled, but probably for a different position. I
mean Um it depends, you know, it depends on the individual. Some people went right back to the position they they had and others um have a different position for sure. And I know this is all very contractually guided, so I appreciate
you um handling this. We have a first and a second. Um this is a roll call vote, so if there's no other questions, we'll have Joan do roll call. Dr. Kerscher. Yes. Dr. Hacker. Yes. >> Dr. Kelsenberg. Yes. Dr. Lowe. Yes. Dr.
Parker. Yes. Dr. Theelander. Yes. Chair Sherman. Yes. Resolution passes unanimously. Great. Thank you, Joan. Um thank you, Chris. Thank you. Our last uh update is something we're we're talking lots about at this time of year is legislative update and with that
we're going to go to Dr. Funk. So first of all, I want to thank the members of the board here who were able to attend the AMSD legislative session last week. Chris, Allison, Pete, and Andrew. Um so we got to spend the day
um we had a meeting in the morning with all the AMSD districts who were there and then we went and talked to about $100,000." Um the Senate has a plan to hold harmless districts at their current funding levels for compensatory. And if
we were to do that, um we're looking at an estimated increase for Stillwater for about 60,000 and that's based upon enrollment, really. Um so that's a positive. Next one. School safety aid. Um this is a another really good one for the
district. And again, this is only on the Senate side. Um they it's it would support safety staffing, training, and infrastructure. Um and it would be an additional $44 per pupil and we're estimated to be about $370,000 for that. Now we pay way more than that
in student safety right now, so this would be extra money that we would be able to free up other way within the general budget if we were to receive this. So again, very positive coming from the Senate. Uh Dr. Funk, but could that's one time, right? That's one time for the year.
Or would that be ongoing? I think it's ongoing. Yeah. That was my impression. Okay. Can I ask just one question about that, too? So that's that's general fund money, that's not that's not building. That is cur- it would be we've got a funding allocation for for
student for school safety and it would increase that allocation by $44 on the formula. So currently what we do is we've got school resource officers, we've got um social workers, we've got a lot of different people we code to it. And we
spend way more than the amount that they give us um from the general fund. 800,000? Okay, so then of that we would be able to um to recoup part of it with this money. Health insurance. There is a significant
push in the state to go to a statewide health insurance plan for school districts. Um and so within the Senate's um bill they would require as there again, nothing's going to happen with that statewide plan this year. But depending
on what how the government shakes out next year, you may see a push to get a statewide health insurance plan. Um and so we don't know what the impact would that be for us fiscally yet. Um but they're asking for they want a
statewide survey of all school districts so that we can um report that led us data to the legislature so they'll have good firm data as they're moving forward um looking at this as a potential option. Um so that potentially is coming out of it. Again, these are all parts of the
Senate's bill. On the House side Go ahead. Um Allison Sherman test- last week for eight This says 250. It's 250 million dollars. Current law says we've been paying a lot for the cross
subsidy for special education, which we're very appreciative of. But But they're saying, "Well, we can't continue to afford that in the future." So, current law says in fiscal year '27 um state we're going to reduce to special ed aid by 250 million dollars,
which would be a huge hit for districts across the state. So, AMSD um is against this. Most of the major education associations are against this. And as part of that, Chair Sherman testified uh last Tuesday. And and once she was done testifying,
she must have been influential because they unanimously voted to um eliminate that reduction. Um, so the good news is the house has eliminated it. The Senate hasn't done anything with it yet. with it yet. And the governor's recommendation is to cut 300 million.
Um, so this is a long ways to go. And even if they eliminate this 250 million dollar reduction, we're going to have to reduce money somewhere else to pay for it. Um, so this is a good step um in the right direction, but we've got a long
ways to go. And the information presented at um the testimony was our share would is a pri- approximately 1.7 million if the cuts were to go through. So, that would be for not this next year, but the year Yeah.
But I mean a significant um decrease in funding. School safety. Uh this was dead on arrival in the house. Um the the Democrats presented a proposed bill, the Republicans presented a
proposed bill, and since they have a tie tie makeup, um the committee's tied, and so both of them failed to come out of committee. The the real kicker here is one party
is concerned about providing state safety aid to private schools. And they're not supportive of that. In the Senate's bill of that those allocations we were talking, I think they're going to allocate 1.4 million
dollars statewide to the private schools. In In the on the house side, um they're saying no can do. Um, so this is sad because especially with what has just happened, I mean as we continue
to see school shootings throughout America and here in the Twin Cities, um that they can't can't some come to some sort of agreement on this. Um So, that's where I again I'm saying let's push the Senate side who's actually, you know, proposing some um
some aid for schools. Um Another one that's important to us as a district is a constitutional amendment. Okay, there's something called the permanent school fund, and it's a constitutionally established endowment intended to support public
education in Minnesota over the long term. It com- The fund comes from school trust state school trust lands like timber, mining, and leases, and historical land grants. And this changes how the funding is allocated. Um, so our ballpark estimate for
Stillwater, um what happens to happen is this amendment, there's a bill in both houses right now. If the bill passes both houses, um it goes to the voters as a constitutional amendment this fall. If the voters say yes, we approve the
amendment, then the increase um for our funding would be about 400,000 dollars annually. Um, which would be a great thing for the district because we're not increasing taxes on anybody. It's just coming from the uh permanent school fund and how they're calculating
it. That would be for '28, '29 though, right? Yes, I believe Yeah, well yes, it would. It would have to be the following year. Well, following year. So, not helpful for So, there's some pushback on it saying, "Wait a minute. Okay, are we sure that this is money's going to be sustainable? Are we Are we going to
you know, is this too much money to be providing districts?" Um, so that's kind of the other side of the the coin. But the good news is both both sides are taking this up, and I think if anything's going to get done, at least at the legislature, this has a pretty good shot.
So, that's a brief update. The other thing I will say is um and you heard food service was here tonight, and they're doing they do great great work. And you heard them say one of the things that they have on staff is a chef. And people are asking, "Why do
Stillwater schools need a chef?" And part of it is to provide great food options for our kids and healthy options. But how am I sitting here telling us we have a chef when we are cutting, you know, 30, 40 teachers,
uh but we have a chef. And the reason for that, and this is something that we talked with our legislators about, and I I don't think there's any movement on it. The reason for that is this. When school districts went to universal um free meals 3 years ago,
our numbers increased as far as participation. And with that participation increase, we received more funding. And so now school districts throughout the state, many many of them have a very healthy fund balance. And the only thing you can use that fund
balance on is food service. So, we're not allowed to transfer money from food service to help out the general fund. And so last year the food service team came to
Mark and said, "Hey, we want to hire this chef." And of course, with Chris, first question is, "Where's the funding coming from?" "Oh, we have more than enough in our food service fund balance to pay for it, and we can't really do anything outside of food service with this money."
So, at AMSD at their at their monthly meeting, um couple weeks ago, Chris and Allison were both there. Um we had somebody talk about a bill that would maybe potentially allow us to transfer money
out of the food service to the general. And you know, as districts around the state, and I think it's 223 million is what we're cutting in the metro this year, are struggling to get money. They all have this nice healthy reserve in the
food service. So, we asked them, "Would you consider a bill um to allow a one-time or a transfer You could transfer maybe up to 50% of your food service funds to the general?" Um, the initial reaction was no. They
weren't interested in that. Uh but then we talked I I talked to the the individual afterwards, and then she said, "Well, if you limit it to 50%, maybe that's something we could support." Cuz right now if schools want to do this, they have to go and get their own bill
through the legislature to say, "Okay, let Stillwater do a one-time exception." And and so, um that's where a systemic improvement would be would be helpful. And again, that is not going to cost our taxpayers any more money. That's just a
a funding mechanism that they could provide us on a on a one-time basis. So, we've planted the seed. I I don't think anything's going to get done with it this this round, but I think this is something we're going to go after again um in the future. So,
that's what I have as for the update. And I don't know if any of the other board members who were there uh want to share anything on or what their thoughts were on on meeting the uh Yeah, I'm just um I was very grateful that our legislators made time for us. We saw it like you said, we saw half a
dozen probably, five, six. Um And good conversations, but I think it was a cold dose of reality >> [laughter] >> um for the people that were there because I don't think much is going to be happening um despite districts across the state, including our own, just being
in crisis. Um but we'll keep we'll keep plugging on it. Um I don't know. Yeah, I would say too, what it is reassuring that the AMSD I mean, they're they're in
lockstep with us in all of our all of our problems, all of our successes. You know, I mean, they're they're they're in the same direction as we are. And so, it's good to know that you've got an organization that's that's pushing a a similar agenda. You know, we've got help, and Misery loves
company. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We we did meet with both parties, both chambers, and uh they were very receptive to us. But the theme from them, at least I got, was the other side isn't going to cooperate, you know, we we are so much of this
stuff is just dead in the water, so yeah, I'd like to help you, but I can't, you know, myself, so. I thought they all looked tired. Mhm. So, we'll keep um everyone posted, but just keep those emails and conversations going. And if there are community
members out there who um want to also write, um I think that would be helpful, especially around the special education cuts, cuz I don't see that going anywhere despite bipartisan agreement that it's a bad idea. So, I think if we had families writing to their
legislators with that those personal experiences, it might help move a needle at some point. But like you said, Dr. Fronk, the the cuts have to come from somewhere. Um but yeah. More to come.
All right. Um any questions for Dr. Fronk? Okay. Uh with that, we are adjourned. Thank you. Hey, are you good?