a week at and when I go into the buildings I really immerse myself in the building. Um in addition to trying to get in all the classrooms um I uh get into the lunchroom
um bus duty, carpool duty and it really just gives interesting uh um how all the schools operate a little bit differently. You know, for example, uh for recess, Lake Elmo uses flags for kids to tell
kids when to come in. Um Anderson, uh uses whistles. Um Brookiew uses megaphones. Um so it's just fascinating to see the different uh ways that they do it. The other thing uh that I'm seeing at Lake Elmo is holy cow do they
need more space for parent pickup um and drop off. Um and so fortunately we have a huge footprint at the new school that they're going to um um be able to utilize. So it's been really great. Teachers have been awesome. Um it's just fun to see the different things going
on. And um this week when I'm in the immersion classrooms, I'm absolutely clueless. Uh the kindergarteners and first graders are way ahead of the superintendent as far as what's going on. But uh um just seeing a lot of great things. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. I'd love that.
The board really appreciates that. So, any questions for superintendent? Okay. Um, I do not have anything for my report tonight. Um, so we'll move on to consent agenda. [snorts] There are items A through E. Is there a
motion to approve tonight's consent agenda? So, great. Director Theander, is there a second? I'll second. Great. Sarah with a second. All those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda, raise your hand and say I. I. Opposed.
Motion passes. Okay. So, now we're going to move on to strategic direction. A ensure the learning process is adaptable to meet individual student needs. And we have a report here on middle school 8th grade global studies. And I think we
have a few people coming up. Hopefully you guys can all introduce yourselves before the presentation starts. [clears throat] Good evening. Good evening. I'm Ann Jardino, principal at Oakland Middle School. Sky Hookstra,
teaching and learning supervisor over K12 social studies and ELA. Abram, assistant superintendent. Kristen Rowling, principal at Stillwater Middle School. Great. Thank you and welcome. So, we're going to be presenting an update, a needed update if you may or a
needed addition to our eighth grade social studies course offerings. So, at this time, I'm going to pass the button to Sky. So over the past few years, my predecessor has been looking into our social studies um curriculum review. And
so this is set to begin with the new standards next year. Uh one of the main subjects that came up was the reality of our grade 8 global studies piece. And so I inherited that as I took over K12 social studies. And our goal today is really to present transparency, some
clarity, and then a path forward um that we'll recommend throughout the presentation. But our two middle school principles are going to give you most of the information. So our current reality, I'm going to call this out. I know everyone can read the slide, but I have watched online and I'm squinting even with the biggest
cheaters I have. I can't see what's being presented. So [laughter] I'm going to call it out for all of us. So the current reality right now in both middle schools, so this presentation is taking SMS and MS, we have the same is that three of the four core subjects are
offered as year-long courses. So the top is that means English language arts, math and science are all year long. In the eighth grade, our other core course which is global studies is at one semester. What then happens that students are
because of that schedule are able to take four semesters of elective courses. Right now, if you look at comparison of benchmarks for our grades six through eight in social studies, grade six, the number of benchmarks needed to be
covered is 43. They have a full year to cover that. Grade seven, the number of benchmarks to be covered is 43. They have a full year to cover that. Grade eight, the number of benchmarks to cover is 48. they have
one semester to cover. So with this, although if we if you were to go talk to either one of our global studies teachers, they're going to tell you that they teach with their hair on fire. They're trying to cover as much as they can and that they currently cover most of the geography and history
benchmarks and they cover some of the citizenship and government and economic benchmarks. That is the due to the nature of having one semester to be able to teach those 48 benchmarks. So the concern is breath versus depth.
Got to call out did not do any of this slide but I got to give props to Sky who did. And so Sky was able to be able to work with our peer districts to find out exactly what were they doing for eighth grade glo uh global studies and taken into districts that are very similar to
Stillwater. I'll pause and let you read who has global studies for a full year and then who has it for semester is still water. So full year Forest Lake, Egan, Southwash, Roseville, Prior Lake, White Bear, Moundsville, Centennial, and
then one semester long is still water. Recommendation, and I promise Kristen's going to be talking soon. [laughter] Our recommendation is that as a principal and an instructor leader, an instructional leader, our recommendation is that global studies will be provided as a core subject to have the same
year-long to be able to cover the standards and benchmarks that our other classes have. This will ensure that all of our core classes, ELA, math, social studies, and science has the opportunity to cover all state benchmarks and standards and set our students up for success.
This will be done through a change that will be costneutral to the district. So given that recommendation, the impact on the grade 8 electives, moving from four semesters of elective to three semesters
of elective, if you look at um Oakland Middle School, those are the available electives that eighth grade students are able to choose from. So um art and art is a semester. um elective. AVID being a full year
elective, band, choir, uh and orchestra, all music are all one full year. Um design and make semester and and whatnot. And then SpanishO uh world language is actually a high school course for high school credit and that's also a full year. So four semesters you
can you know do the math you can take two year long or one year long and two semesters. So moving from four semesters to three semesters, how it would impact is now you're able to take three semesters. So you could take you couldn't take two year long, you could
take band and a semester. So where that impacts students um in the schools is if you're wanting to take band and a world language or a world language and AVID, um you're not able to do that. So that's how that's going to impact our students.
And then also um not being able to take a high school credit course in Spanish or French um and having to wait to take that in the high school. Great. Thank you for that presentation. We'll open it up to questions. This is um and correct me if I'm wrong, Dr.
Funk, this is not something we're voting on. This is a the course is already in place. It's just we have not been following the state standards with the course. Right. Do we know the history behind how this happened? I've tried to ask a few people who've been here a while. Um, I don't have the
similar answer, so I'm not real sure what the uh Okay. the history is. Okay. Yes. So what we're doing right now in global studies is just cramming it all in in that one semester and we just need a little breathing room to get it in
with some substance and as much as they can get in and then going a little deeper when they need to. Okay. Any other questions? Yes. Um, in terms of the year year-long electives like um, for instance like
Spanish, will there be an opportunity for kids to still take one semester of it or will it be just a year or nothing? I think that's undecided right now. Okay, got it. Um, my only question or obviously I know this is a this is something that has to
be done educationally. I mean, we're not meeting the obligation of teaching social studies in a responsible fashion. And I think the chart that whoever put together that we're basically the only eighth grade that does this in a or attempts to do it in a semester and
doesn't sound like we're doing it the in the way that we would want to for students but it will have an impact because now to because I'm sure at some point in time it was done to allow students more choice to take two year round electives. Um have you been
hearing anything about this from staff? I'm assuming students maybe not don't even know that this is going on, but has there been any feedback at all on this? Alison, I expect a lot of feedback tomorrow. [laughter] Okay. Um, I think this isn't something that
this is something that we've been working on and know that we're going public uh at this meeting. Of course, there's going to be the whole scale of emotions out there because we do heart work, right? We do the the human work. Um, and so there will be people that
will be impacted by uh if a course isn't offered or there's not enough students that want to do my elective that could impact me uh as a teacher. And so there undeniably will be a lots of different motions out there.
And I can report back to you after. [laughter] Well, and I know that I'm sure we'll hear from community members as well um on the school board and uh obviously our first obligation has to be like yours to teach to the standards. And so I want to recognize that everyone at the board
supports all of these electives um as do you as educators. Um the electives don't go away. So please know that middle schoolers will still have the opportunity to take electives. What it will look like might be different. So, if I had the opportunity to choose two different year-long
electives, I still will have the opportunity to choose electives, but what I'm taking might be a year-long, it might be a semester. So, there's could also be the opportunity to be able to take a lot of different things, right? Yes. One of the things that has come up is,
you know, you mentioned the credits for foreign language in eighth grade. [clears throat] And I think one of the things that came up, correct me if I'm wrong, from a curriculum angle is what about Spanish 5, what about French 5? What's the impact on the high school for
that? Sky, do you want to just address that briefly? Yes. So, [clears throat] um, there still would be students who might choose that. I got a question around like amigosiditos going in. The reality is that our current way that we're doing it might have to shift. There are still
ways to do placement tests. There are still ways internally to offer things that our students need. It just might not look exactly how our system is now. That if you take Spanish one in 8th grade and complete it, then you automatically are able to move into pieces. Um, but several schools around
Minnesota are finding creative ways to have their immersion program still offer other pieces. It just isn't going to look exactly how ours is. Um, and that being said, we don't know how many kids might actually still choose a year-long Spanish one in 8th grade. It's not that
it's going away. It's just going to be a reshuffleling based on registration, which is the same process that it always was. It always varies just a little bit depending on registration. Um, but with this one, our students will have all of their standards in all core subjects
first. Um, and I also just want to note that this has nothing to do with our eighth grade teachers. They are phenomenal. They are teaching with their hair on fire to do an impossible task of fitting in a year-long course into one semester. So, it isn't that like if they
just taught it a little faster, they could do it. It is truly an impossible task to do that. And I just wanted to make sure that that was known to of um they are doing their very best. Great. Thank you. Yeah. Um you say this is being introduced
right now. Has this not been discussed with the teachers for any kind of feedback ahead of this announcement right now? Well, in regards to Pete, that's it's kind of a twofold. So, as as Sky had talked about, her predecessor had been talking and this was something that that
I knew as a building principal, as our social studies department knew that this was something that was going to looked at because it was it was it was uh an opportunity for us to look at this and feel like why are we doing this? And so that's been for a couple years, Pete. And it was always we knew it was always
going to be something that we looked at. Okay. Thanks. Thanks a lot. This is great. Great. I really appreciate you highlighting the trade-offs because helping us understand what some of the trade-offs would be is something that's very important. So, I appreciate having that right in the deck and being up front. So, I appreciate
that. Uh, one question is I I don't I guess I'm not fully understanding the next steps or what what happens next after today. So, this would be something that we're doing for next school year. And so we still have three remaining PD days um
that are already slotted for social studies teams to be developing their curriculum going into next year. Um this isn't specific to just 8th grade. All social studies have new standards that are just tweaked every 10 years for that. And so we will be able to plan for a year-long course versus the current um
which is why we need this to go forward now. so that as they're planning and getting ready for next year, moving from a semester to a full year is going to take time and work by the teachers to develop that course. Yeah. Can you you know I'm imagining if I'm a
parent and um you know my child comes to me and says I I can't take four elective courses which maybe that impacts some students. I don't know to what extent, but has there been thought about like how that communication is going to go out? Because most people probably don't watch a board meeting, but as a parent,
I would be greatly concerned to find out that we had this kind of odd social studies class that was not covering the standards appropriately. And as a parent, that would matter to me to know that why we're doing it isn't because we want to eliminate a semester elective,
but it's to properly educate the students in our buildings. Is that going to be sent out? Yes, it will. And so that's some of the timeliness. Okay. As well is because registration begins for us in December. We we start building our schedule. Um
students start making those selections. So that would allow us um in December the opportunity to be able to share with all families going forward like what the reasoning why Allison and then what the options they have available to them. Perfect. Anything else?
Part of the reason we're having them come present to the board tonight is we want first of all the board and the public to be about to to be aware of this. We're not just creating another semester and putting it in the registration guide. Um so as you heard
uh both Sky and an talk that uh the social studies teachers have been working with I think it was Rebecca Beal for the last few years and uh this is this is now it's coming to fruition. Great. Well, thank you very much for this
update and it sounds like you guys are thinking about how to minimize impact with creative ways of kind of offering things. So, I know from um the board standpoint, we appreciate that on behalf of our families and all the hard work that you guys are doing every day. So, we don't always get to see our um middle school principles. So, thank you both
for you and your staff for all the work you do in our middle school. So, thank you and Sky of course and EP too. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Okay, our next item under strategic direction C, utilize systems and align resources
in an efficient manner to support learning. We're going to talk about an action item tonight, sale of Lake Elmo Elementary property. And with that, we have Mark here. Hi, Mark. Good evening, Chair Sherman, members of the board. Um tonight I'm here to talk about the current Lake Elmo Elementary
School. Um back in September, mid-sepptember we put the Lake Elmo school on the market. U we're here to talk about the current Lake Elmo Elementary School. Back in September, we put the elementary school on the market. Um we had multiple people interested in it. Um we toured them um
through the facility, talked through it, and we had one um group uh have an offer on the property. Um over the past few weeks, we've been in different negotiations with that um group and we finally settled on a purchase price and we're here as administration to recommend that purchase price. So
administration recommends we sell um the current Lake Ammo Elementary School to the Valley Community Center for $4,250,000. So with that, I will open up to any questions or comments that the board may have. Great. I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to approve the sale. Can I get a
second? Second, Theelander. Great. Director Theelander with the second and questions to Mark. Great. Oh, yes. I say, you know, thank you. I think it was a good process. We had multiple closed sessions and appreciate uh um you
know, the council we got from our real estate professional, Brian, and I thought, you know, felt really informed and u I'm really excited. I think it's a a win-win for the school district and the community as a whole. So, appreciate the work that you're doing on that. Well said. Thank you. Yes, Dr. Funk,
is there any uh possibility that this could be sold again as a school? Um, no. There is a um clause in there that the deed will have that the the building can the property can no longer be used as a public private um or charter public school or charter school
in the future. So, um that is part of the purchase agreement. Okay. All right. With that and not seeing any other questions, everyone in favor of selling Lake Elmo Elementary property to Valley Community Center, raise your hand and say, "I."
I opposed. Motion passes. Thank you, Mark. Okay. Our next item is a action item for a fisc year revision fall budget 2526. And with that, we'll welcome Marie
Hi Marie. Good evening, Chair Sherman, members of the board, superintendent, uh members of the community. So this evening I come before you to uh present a fall budget
revision. Uh this is a little bit earlier um than we normally do um this time of year for budget revision. Um this is mainly due to um some of our legislative items. Um we had talked
about this um earlier uh in mid June about doing a revision uh mainly due to the legislative sessions still being a lot of those um items unknown when we uh adopted the preliminary budget. And then
um during our um fall um season, we also um have an October 1st uh enrollment count. So um coming before you tonight to just give you an update on those numbers. Uh they are um again
preliminary projection. Again, I um did some updating for our budgetary purposes. So again, uh before you hear, uh this is again data that's um off the uh MDE
website uh through uh 202425. And then our 2526 numbers again are preliminary, but again um those will continue to be updated um for October 1st um within the next month or so. So
you can see there the trend line uh way at the top it it kind of waivers um with uh 202122 um you can kind of see there it's pretty to me uh stable. I mean, we kind of go
up and down a little bit between the years, but as you look um at our current fiscal year October one numbers, we are declining a little bit in our secondary and also in the elementary, the middle
schools um staying pretty stable there um at that 1891 in the middle. Um but again, these numbers are preliminary. um they will change before the end of the fiscal year. Um and again this is
October 1st. This isn't our final numbers for our 202526 school year. So with that I take some trends. Um again this is K12. It does not account for, and again, I just kind of noted that on the bottom of the
chart, any of our uh early childhood uh special ed or the voluntary prek numbers, those also do provide uh revenue to the district, but again, we're looking just at those uh K12 uh
trends here. So, as we look at enrollment in what we originally projected in the preliminary budget, uh in the middle column there, you'll see that we uh budgeted uh
earlier this spring, our projection at 8,100. Uh our actual um October 1st count uh is 8,71. Uh what's important here and why we're
resetting the budget or resetting our preliminary or projection uh at this point in time is the little yellow box to the right. I just added a note there. Um that revised budget
because secondary is is fluctuating a little bit. Um our secondary uh pupil units are counted at 1.2 2 when you do that basic education formula for general ed. So currently our formula there is
$7,481 per student. So when you're multiplying that by 1.2 that adds up pretty quickly. So uh we have about 29 adjusted pupil units that we're we're just level
setting our budget right now because of where we are at with our fund balance. I just want to make sure that we're um setting the lines right now and not later uh in our process. So you can see
that our revised budget uh is going to be um in the 8,076 projection, but it's um you can see that we're adjusting more for those um secondary students.
So, just to recap again, some of the things we included in our legislative session already uh in our preliminary budget back in June. So, um just to recap, the legislature
adjourned um back on May 19th. However, that special session took place on June 9th, and that's where the education and omnibus uh policy bills um were settled. Uh we did include in our original budget
um the inflation adjusted uh revenue formula already um that increase of it was a 74. We added additional to our projection. That was about $1.8 $88 million in total, that 2.74%.
Uh we originally assumed a decrease to the compensatory education revenue. Um there was a lot of um talk about um what they were doing to the formula because there was a 2023 law
um that was enacted that was going to decrease uh compensatory education. And there's a one time only um for this fiscal year um uh session law that was passed. Uh that was about $300,000 that
we decreased that. And then we also did use uh operating capital fund balance of a little over a million dollar uh in our budget for the readact literacy curriculum. Uh that implementation was not fully funded by the state. And then
we have the new paid family medical leave uh payroll tax effective uh this coming January. And uh the employer share is just a little over $300,000 on that piece. So again, I'm coming
before you that last bullet um to show you the other legislative adjustments um as part of this budget revision. So, um, some of the additional adjustments we are making, uh, this
evening for your approval are, um, adding back the compensatory revenue. Um, they're delaying that new formula. um they're actually having a committee um meeting about uh what they're going
to do in the future for compensatory funding, but for this year only um they are putting back um that revenue to either the 24 or the 26 levels based on
uh comparison. So that's $22,000 uh for our district. uh student support personnel aid. Uh this was a new funding a few years ago. Uh they originally uh set the allocation high uh but now they've decreased that
down to $30 per pupil unit for this year and it decreases I believe it it increases a little bit more in the future. So that um impact is just shy of $169,000 decrease.
school library aid um that decreases um to $1027 per pupil unit and that will go even lower in future budgets. So you can see that's about $53,000 uh impact and then um the reimbursement
to special education pupil transportation. So this one was a little hidden in the legislative impact. Um so as you this especially for our district um the costs have significantly
increased for transportation and uh even for our special education pupil transportation. So those eligible costs for reimbursement um we were getting the 100% um that drops to 95%
and then I believe it's 90% in the next fiscal year. So you can see that impact is uh negative 351,000 um for this current fiscal year. And then um they're also at the state uh
retaining now for administration costs or they may retain um for achievement integration uh program uh funding. They're increasing that administration cost. So, it's $12,000 additional that
they'll be retaining out of uh that funding. And then the pension adjustment. Um so, there's revenue there um to offset the employer teacher retirement association contributions.
So, even though we do get that revenue um for the pension adjustments, you can see down below we have to count the expenditure as well. So, it's basically a net wash revenue in and then the expenditures down below. Um,
I see Dr. Funk wants to before you go on to the next slide, I just want to emphasize this is a June surprise for our school district. All right. Our budget, preliminary budget was built on none of these
numbers. Yeah. Okay. So when people talk about contacting your legisl legislator and emphasizing the need to fund education,
this it's very uh challenging for us as a as a district getting this $372,000 surprise um in the from the special
session. So, um I I think it was just uh um a significantly negative event for our school district and for school districts throughout the state. So, um they didn't do us any favors here.
Can I throw would similar districts to us have similar hits just like this? Is I think that might have been what you're saying. Good. Correct. There's a there's an impact spreadsheet by district posted out there on the state website. It was some initial
um formula numbers. I mean, you have to take your enrollment now, but it is out there. Yes. Right. Thank you. Okay. So, those are the legislative adjustments. And I wanted to reflect this because it it kind of tells your
story in the next um uh sheet here or slide on um just some of the other impacts uh we have as a district. Um so our enrollment and and
programming side um we did get some revenue in because our special education transportation costs were higher uh we we are eligible for reimbursement. So based on our uh last year's activity um
in transportation we did uh see a reimbursement uh level of that um of those funds. So, you did see revenue of approximately $900,000, but remember what I just showed you on the previous
slide, it was reduced by $350,000. So, think together as we look at both these slides, I wanted to reflect them a little bit differently um as we look at this as a whole on the next few slides. And and if you think
about from 100 to 95 was a reduction three of $350,000. Look what's coming next year, folks. Down to 90. So you're looking at another if if we maintained our current special education transportation expenditures.
Correct. And then the next line is um adjustments related to the basic formula and other categorical aid based on our enrollment projections. So that 29 um pupil units that I showed you with
our adjusted um enrollment projection that approximately 326,000 adjustment that that relates to the 7,481 um times the 29 pupil units. But there's also other pieces in there that impacts
your your referendum dollars. There's there's other pieces of categorical funding um that impacts your aid, uh your levy amounts, other pieces in there that you have to adjust for based on formula per pupil.
We also did get an adjustment in our county aortionment revenue. Those are other dollars um that that tie to a levy. We do an initial um estimate at the time and then we get those amounts mid year. So I added that to our our
revenue total. So you can see we actually on this slide um as a district have a pretty good positive revenue um as we also have to when you um have
transportation expenditures um we're making that adjustment to the expenditure budget for transportation. So, um adding in um the costs for the special ed transportation increases
and then uh we also adjusted um some staffing adjustments um for enrollment changes and the legislative sessions. So, there were some staffing changes um within the district, a couple positions
um that we had adjusted earlier um this fall um to account for some of those um different uh pieces of the funding that we knew about. So, um those changes have been made. So, if you look at the bottom
line impact here, that $372,000 um makes up for what the legislature um basically took away. Um so, the
bottom line impact to our fund balance is zero. Um we have a balanced budget because we did make up some of our expenditures. And so walking you through the revision
here, um our overall revenue that we're um coming tonight before you is to add 488,000 um to the overall general fund revenue,
but we're also adding 488,514 to our expenditures. There is no addition to our fund balance. Um there, you know, this is a budgetary number. Um if we spend less throughout the year, uh
we may have addition to our fund balance, but right now this is a a revised budget or a budget revision. And so that's the presentation um for this evening. Um for our auditors uh we
do ask that you approve the revision. Um that's uh just protocol and um if there's any questions or additional. So I'm going to go ahead and make a motion to approve before we move into a
question period. Is there a second? I'll second. Great. Director Hawker with a second and then questions for Marie. I think my only my less of a question, more of a comment is um I think that this gives the legislative committee
some good numbers to look at that actual impact of the special session and how we then can communicate that impact to our legislators I think will be really important and and it's a question I know that most AMSD districts are struggling
with right now is how to um communicate that impact because even though there because the um inflation adjusted funding uh you give and you take away and the net is a loss for a lot of districts here. So
Oh, did you? No. Thanks. Sorry. Any other questions or comments? Great. Okay, we have a motion and a second. All those in favor of approving the revised 202526 budget, raise your hand and say I.
I. opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. All right, we're going to move into our policy section here. And for that, we'll bring Paul up and he can walk us through the different policies tonight.
Yes. Uh good evening, Chair Sherman and members of the board. Superintendent Funk. Um, we have a a couple policies to review this evening. [clears throat] Um, and we're going to start with uh policy number 605, alternative
educational services. This would be a new policy to our district. It is a MSBA recommended policy and it contains uh some statutory requirements. So it aligns us well with our statutory um compliance uh with the uh passing of
this and it was reviewed uh by the policy committee um for a first reading. So the the the purpose of this policy is to recognize the need for alternative educational services for some school district students. And in general, it is
the policy, it states, it is the policy of the school district that options shall be made available for some students to select educational alternatives that will enhance their opportunity complete to complete their educational programs. One of the statutory requirements is kind of listed under responsibility um
in section three and that's that uh under a that any student who is 17 years old who seeks to withdraw from the from school and the student's parent or guardian must attend a meeting with the school personnel to discuss educational opportunities available to the student including alternative educational
opportunities. Um so that that kind of that's in statute and is a requirement for uh students that um compulsory attendance is from age seven to 17. So those students that are above 17 um we want to make sure that uh we counsel
them and give them opportunities for alternative ways to to earn their graduation uh with the district. And we're in a very good position with that with our our wonderful uh ALC program here in the district. So, um I think that uh is a kind of a brief
summary. Yep. If anyone has any questions or comments that they want to bring up, they certainly can. Now, this is just a first read, so you can also email your thoughts or comments. Did you? Yeah, I do. Um the alternative education, is that completely separate
from a person's IEP? So, these are choices that someone makes to do one or the other. Correct. Correct. Both. Um and and yes, students with an IEP or students with a disability would also have the availability to attend alternative
programs as well and their IEP and their needs based on that would go with them to the alternative program. Um and they would receive services there, but it's certainly open to all those students. Okay, we'll move on to our next. This is
our second reading for policy 512, student publications. Yes, thank you. Um yes, so this is a second reading. Um this is a mandatory policy. It is a policy that we've had on the on um on our record um last amended
in 1985. Um but the policy is aligned with uh MSBA recommended policy and um I think we went through the uh kind of a brief overview uh at the former board meeting.
So I don't um know if there's questions regarding the policy. Um I Well, I'll just jump in. Is that okay? I so we did receive one community input um and I think you had a review of that uh this evening.
Um we received a very similar um questions um about a day ago um regarding that. Uh one thing just to point out um that um there was a
question I I believe and um that the our policy um deviated from the MSBA language. uh regarding section three um subp part D one and three um and that's
that's not the case. Uh we reviewed that um closely with the MSBA language and uh the MSBA recommended language uh does use the term under obscene as um taken as a whole and that was the question
that was uh provided and some input from the community regarding that. So, um just to clarify that our uh policy here that we're we're uh proposing for adoption um is the exact same language as the MSBA model policy in that section
and it's consistent with other policy we we have in on that we've looked at recently and have on the books. Yes. the the the exact definition of obscene is in in this policy is the exact definition that the board adopted in policy 606.5
um about the library materials and and how that's so it's the same language um that's used in that policy so there's consistency there is there any deviation from MSBA as we on our policy versus what MSBA recommends
yes yes there's one deviation Um and that is found in um section 4 under guidelines under part B. Um as you see in part B there's a list
of um the prohibited school activity is prohibited when the material is and there's this list. So in the MSBA, so our policy has the same nine and then the MSBA had a 10
and that language is is not is removed here and that language states is distributed or displayed in violation of time, place and manner regulations. Then further in the in the MSBA policy
under uh same section um subp part E there is a in the MSBA policy there's a definition of time place and manner of distribution. So, we had had um our
principal Bach um and our um staff that that teach the publication and the um our journalism courses um and they felt that the the um definition and defining time, place, and
manner um wasn't wasn't needed um and wasn't consistent with our current practice. What it does is it limits when publications can be provided to students. For example, in that section, it it mentions like time. It says distribution shall be limited to the
hours before the school day begins, during lunch hour, and after school is dismissed. Well, in the in the journalism program, they actually provide opportunities between classes for students to receive the publications. Um and so it was just they
didn't feel that having this kind of a tight regulation on time, place and manner was needed. So they had recommended to the committee to uh remove that section and it doesn't have any mandatory or requirements under statute or anything.
Paul, can I add just one more thing? If I'm remembering correctly, I think some of it had to do with that it's electronic um distribution and not just paper. So, this policy very much felt like you're handing out papers to kids between classes or before or after class, but in reality, it's all
electronic. Um, so then limiting that time of distribution didn't really have the same impact. Yeah. Didn't fit. Yeah. It didn't feel as if it was necessary. [snorts] And that's the only deviations is really about that first place of distribution. Yeah.
All right. Um, we'll move from report to action on this if there are no other questions. Um, is there a motion to approve? I'll move to approve. Great. I'll second. Okay. Director Theo with the second. All those in favor of approving policy 512,
student publications, raise your hand and say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion passes. Thank you. And then we have one we had I'll let Dr. Funk explain this, but we had the um to bring
up to revoke policy 731 and I'll let you explain. So this afternoon we had our financial adviserss look at this and I haven't had a chance to speak with them yet, but I'm recommending that we don't take any action on this because we were going to be revoking it. So I'm just recommending
just to be sure. No action. So no motion, no second is my recommendation. Great. So, we'll report back after we hear back from from everyone. Okay. Uh, so now we're going to move on to our next item. Thank you, Paul, very
much for that. Um, strategic direction D, develop strong partnerships with the communities we serve and we are focusing a lot on enrollment. And so, with that, we have a report on enrollment marketing update. Wonderful. Thank you. Someone new with you. Yes. Good evening, board members,
Superintendent Funk, and Chair Sherman. I'm here with Melanie Olsen Cox who is our newish I'll say newish she started over the summer with us as our communication supervisor and tonight we want to talk a little bit about the work we are doing in the area of enrollment marketing and really our focus this year
is on attracting um engaging and converting prospective students into enrolled students and you heard Marie say again in her presentation earlier um kind of showing that connection between students and revenue um we don't like to think of it that way always we want students students to come here because
we want students to come here and get a great education. But we do recognize in these financial times that when students come to us and stay with us, that brings revenue in that can help us offer even better programming for all of our students. And so enrollment marketing is a a big focus for us this year. It's not
new. We've been marketing for years. Um we we know that we are in a competitive environment and we need to help our community understand what we have to offer, but we're being even more intentional in expanding our reach this year. So, we wanted to just share some of our strategies with you and I will start by giving a little more context
and background and then Melanie will talk through some of the strategies that are in place. You have heard us talk before about capture rate and what that really means is there's a certain number of students that live within our boundaries. How many of them attend our schools and how many are going elsewhere? And we have a capture rate of
about 71% right now. Um the average in the state is between 70 and 80. I would say a lot of the metro schools are probably closer to that 80 number. Um, and that would be our goal as well is to move closer to that. Um, we have about 8,400 students from early childhood up
through K12 that are choosing our district and I think most of them will tell you they're getting a great experience here and we have a lot of really happy um, families and students. But there are also a lot of students, you can see in that open enrollment out bubble that are choosing other options.
And part of the reason is we just have a lot of options in Still Water. Um, and in our community, there are a lot of options for families from privates to charter schools, um, a lot of homeschool families. There's just a lot of choice here. Uh, and that is really why we see what we see. Um, another fact is we have
a changing population, too. We're an aging community. We have more family or more people living in our community that don't have school age kids than do. So that's certainly a factor in that number as well. Um but overall we know we want to get closer to that 80% number and that is really our goal moving forward
and we have set that as a goal and as a team we kind of looked at what our market share is and where we want it to be and we looked at some of the factors that can impact that. We know that we are also a growing district. We have a lot of new housing especially in the
Woodbury Lake Almo area. Um, so we we do want to leverage that new housing growth and make sure that people moving in know that we are a really great option for their families and we'd like to see our market share rise to where we were like kind of precoid the 2018 levels. Um, so that's about a one and a half% market
share over the next three years is our target and we will do that through a variety of ways. Um, I kind of highlighted it here that we want to grow obviously by helping attract new families. As people are moving into our community, we want them to know what makes Stillwater special and why they should be part of the Stillwater area
schools. We want to start to reclaim that market share. We w also want to make sure that we're engaging with the families who are here, that we're providing them with the things that they need. We're making them feel connected and welcome and valued, that they're having a good experience, because we know word of mouth is the strongest
advertising there is. If people are having a good experience, they will tell their friends and neighbors and hopefully they will want to be here as well. And finally, we want to educate our entire community on what we're doing here. What are the strengths of Stillwater School? What are the programs that we have to offer? And what are the initiatives that we are um putting in
place to make our schools even better for our students? So, those are kind of our overall goals and strategies. Um I think it's important to note too when we talk about marketing, there's a lot of different things. People think of billboards and ads and that's part of it and that's definitely what we're going
to talk about tonight, some of those key strategies. But I think it's also important to look at the bigger things which I think are even more important. What do we offer people when they're here? What are those programs and experiences that they're going to have? And we have to make sure we have quality programs and experiences. That's what's going to draw people in. That's what's
going to make them stay. We've had a lot of conversations around the board table about some of those programmatic changes. And I personally am very excited because I think we are in a a place where we can really leverage and capitalize on some of those changes, especially at the high school level. We've had a lot of conversations about
how pathways and online learning and the AA degree and some of these different experiences are really attractive and I think are going to draw people in or help people stay here. So those sorts of things um when we look at gifted programming and how we can provide better services to our cluster students
and make sure that our gifted students are getting what they need. Um one of the things I'm most excited about is immersion. We've had immersion for a long time, but we've never really been able to market it because we had no room. There was no space for more students. So now, as we move to a new building, we have room to welcome even more families into our immersion
program. So, it's really um a great time to be a pony and there's a lot of great opportunities for families as they are looking at school choices. Some of the other things we're doing internally that I think are important to note is you've heard a little bit about the welcome center. That's really a concept of how
can we provide support to families as they're coming into the district. How can we make sure that um they have there's a language barrier, somebody who can welcome them and speak in their own language and help them figure out how to enroll and what is power school and where do I go for this information. So,
the welcome center has been a great addition. Um this past summer, we worked intentionally to have um our engagement specialists available to work with families with a language barrier and help them navigate the system. We have like a school nurse that's available to
help families if they have health needs or if they need to be screened for things. So, a lot of just intentional touch points over the summer when we don't have all of our staff here to make sure that they're still getting what they need. And then that welcome center is kind of available all year. Um, with Carla Edwards as our new coordinator,
she's really focusing on that experience and making sure we're providing good service to families as they come into the system. Customer service is just another thing we're talking about too. Again, as I said, that experience that people are having in the district is so important. So, we want to make sure that people know who to go to for help, that
we're responding in a timely manner, um that we're really providing what they need as they're in our system. And finally, I'll just give you an example from enrollment processes. One of the things we noticed is um when you enroll in our schools, it's it's a process. There's a lot of questions you have to
answer. There's a lot of forms to fill out. And just one simple thing as we were looking at immersion programming, we had a separate form you had to fill out to apply for immersion and then you had to go in and go through the whole enrollment process. And a lot of the questions were the same. We're like, why why do we have to go over here to fill
out this form and then here to do this? So we streamlined that this year. So it's one place. You just go to the enrollment form. You choose Spanish immersion as your first choice. There's maybe one or two extra questions you have to answer, but it's all in one spot. You don't have to go two things. Those are simple little changes that I think are going to make a big difference
in just making it easier for people to come here. And so we're constantly looking at what we can do to just streamline processes. So those are some of the bigger strategies and then we'll talk a little bit more about some of the more typical marketing like direct mail and digital ads and social media, some of those things that we're doing as well, which
are kind of the fun things too, right? [laughter] So I'll turn it over to Melanie. Good to be with you. Um a moment for the cute babies [laughter] here. Um this is an effort that we do. Um when there's new babies born in the county, we send them um these bibs. And this is not a
new effort, but an ongoing one. And um aren't these little ones so cute? Um we know that when we connect with our earliest learners, it's a great way to engage our new families and it's just a really special time in their lives. So working with them to kind of get them excited about being a future pony is what this one is all about. Sort of sets
the stage for the future. Um, we are in go mode for kindergarten, what I like to call that. So, kindergarten enrollment for 2627 is happening now. Um, tell tell everyone, you know, and we're doing the same thing. Um, the exciting things that that you should know about kindergarten
enrollment, um, we have upcoming parent meetings and tours. So, each of our schools have all of that information customized for their school on their pages. They can sign up to go to school tours or information. Um, we're putting together exciting programming. um for
people to see about the new schools and it's all kind of tailored to them. So, all that's happening, we also mailed out um packets for people that had really extensive information all the way from what's happening with the potential boundary changes to what they need to do step by step.
Um Carissa talked about this, but really exciting. For the first time ever, we can really focus on marketing the Spanish immersion amigos program. And um that's been really fun to to do. So we have kindergarten specific outreach to target families outside of the boundaries. We've really um the
specifics of that are that we've we've gone to. I have to look because remember I'm new from Missouri. So some of the [laughter] the actual details about where we've reached out to, but we've um done some targeting for to kind of outreach those those people that maybe aren't attending right now or that are
outside of our boundaries. We're also working with our community engagement specialists to target our native Spanish speaking families um that are within our district so we can really focus on that immersion with all the space we'll have at the new lake Elmo. Um this is huge. So lots of room for growth.
[snorts] And this one's just for fun um to show you a little bit about what we're doing. One of my favorite things is content and making content and creating of course in our schools and with our students. But now [laughter]
the sign you can't say says we've saved a space for you or something on the little signs that they're holding. But [laughter] yeah, in Spanish and English. So on Instagram and Facebook, anytime we create short v short form video content like that, we get a lot of reach. We get a lot of engagement. It's great awareness marketing to be honest. It's one of my favorite things to do,
spending time in the schools, getting to know the teachers. Um it and it works really well too, right? So, that video um between both has 12,000 views, over 200 likes, and plenty of shares. So, talk about getting people excited about being a pony.
Um some additional things we're doing, we have direct mail. We've gone we have a specific targeted audiences for a postcard for Lake Elmo. It targeted Oakdale and Woodbury residents right around the western edge of our boundaries. And that was about 4,000 of those went out. So, you don't have to
live here to learn here. And then for the new Bayport, um, for this one specifically, we targeted students that are not enrolled currently at Anderson that could be, which is one of our schools where we have the highest rate of people that go elsewhere.
Um, with these campaigns, it's not just mailers. We'll also have digital ads. You'll see social media and more. And you want to talk about future or do you Okay. So, as we touched on briefly, there's a lot happening at the high school. So, we are really excited about all that we can do to promote the new high school
programming. Um, registration guides come out in January and we have a whole campaign built around that. So, as families here are getting registration guides, we're also reaching out to families who may not currently be enrolled in our district who we think might be excited about the new opportunities. So, watch for a lot of um
again social media and some targeted print mailings going out to families across our community and beyond. Preschool is coming up in January is when we do our big preschool enrollment push. So we will be doing a lot of targeted messaging to our um current four and five or three and four year
olds as they're getting up into preschool next year. We've also had some conversation about what gifted programming might look like next year. So as we move the gate program to the new Bayport Elementary. And also, I think the bigger thing that we haven't had as much conversation about is the work we're doing to intentionally um
improve our cluster programs and really what can we do to better support the students who are in our elementary schools and need that additional um learning opportunities in clustering. So, I think there's a lot of exciting things there that we want to let families know about and there'll be more information coming out later this year.
And believe it or not, our high school's 150 years this next year. Hold on just a second. on the gate program. Again, we talked a lot about it with the immersion program. With gate being in Bayport, there is capacity in the in the building. One of the things
internally we've been talking about is do we grow the self-contained program in four or five. So, that's another opportunity that we're looking at and how we would how we would uh um market that. Thank you. So, the 2026 uh year is the
150th anniversary of our high school. So, we're also thinking about some fun ways that we can celebrate the anniversary of our high school, tying it maybe to some of these new experiences, but just also in general, um, it's just a fun time to to celebrate our district. Um, one other thing we didn't have on here that we were talking about a little
more today is our ALC right here in this building. There's room for that program to grow as well. We have a beautiful facility here. We have amazing staff and great programming. So, we're also looking at how we can promote the ALC and uh bring more more students in there as well. So, stay tuned. There will be
many more um exciting things to come, but that's just a a sneak peek. Uh overall, as I said earlier, it's a great time to be a pony. There's some really exciting things on the horizon. We are encouraging people to enroll now. Start tomorrow or start next fall, whatever it
is. You can you can scan our QR code here or go to our website um and we can walk you through the enrollment process. You can also contact us at central services. We have an amazing enrollment processor and Julie Tonken who can walk you through every step of the way. Um and we have our welcome center too to
help people um as they navigate that. So we will open it up to any questions, but um again I just want to encourage people to reach out if they want to learn more about our schools. Come visit um schedule a tour with any of our principles. They'd love to welcome you into our buildings.
Thank you for that update. Questions? I had my hand before you even asked. Um in out in 389 out 3 3,979. That's a big change. The in I would assume that means people from outside of our borders coming in. Yes.
Uh probably not from from the from the east but because of the river but Mameidi South Washington wherever. Right. Yes. But the out doesn't necessarily mean leaving our borders. It means going to the private schools, the home schools, whatever. Is there any breakdown to that? The the out. I can give you a
little bit and we're going to give we have an enrollment update coming, but I I'll just Marie and I were looking at some numbers just the just last week. You know, our kindergarten's a little low this year. I think we're at 515 and we're projecting probably 530 and you know, you just saw those numbers from
Marie here. Looking at the data, we have about 100 kindergarteners who go to a charter school nearby. Okay. Um, so that's a hundred right from the Yeah. And then they then they metriculate
through this system. St. Croy Prep has about 800 of our students who go to school there altogether K through 12. Yes. So the question is okay we lost them at some point along the way. All
right. And so again, I think the challenge for us and what we've been doing and having discussions with the board is what differentiates Still Water for opportunities from some of our, you know, competitor dis competitor schools
or districts. Um, but those are just too little. I mean, they're not little, they're significant. The other thing is I think we lose a a few hundred students to Moni. Um, you know, they're right on the border with us. But do we get some from me? Very few.
We lose more than we get really surprised. So um we but that's going to be uh um an opportunity to have a discussion with the board here in about a month and then we are also have talked about um having
internal discussions on on you know looking at our situation. But yeah, I mean that's really people who live in our communities um choose to hundred of our kindergarters out of the 515
choose to go someplace else. So it could be 615 if or even half of that. So I mean um when when Carissa talks about increasing market share um that's what we're talking about. It's just those um impactful things. And I think when I
talk to my colleagues in other school districts, they're surprised by the number of options we have in our community. I mean, we really do we have the largest charter school in the state here. Um, we have other charter schools, there's privates, there's online. I mean, there's there's just a wealth of opportunity here um for families to
choose from. And that's really really what we are dealing with. What what part of that 3900 out is PSO? That's a portion of it. Um, when I was looking at the numbers, I mean, as Dr. Funk said, charters are probably the
biggest number. Um, and then I would say online is one of one of the bigger ones um when you think about where people are going. So, charters, online, there's a good number, almost 400 that are homeschooling. So, we can break those down a little bit more, but yes, that's definitely in there.
Yes. Can you talk about uh the efforts that you have done or that you have coming up for learning about why people are coming in and why people are ch making other choices to to choose other solutions?
I mean, I think that's one of the things we've done some studies in the past and I would say um we've done probably in my time here about three formal studies where we've spent quite a lot of money to have an outside consultant come in and basically what we've heard every time is that choice piece, right? Like
this is a community that values choice. There's a lot of choice here. Um sometimes it's logistics like just what makes sense for my family's schedule. That's how they're making choices. Sometimes it's because of personal beliefs or values that make them choose something more like an online or a home
school or a private um school, non-public. So, I think there's a a variety of reasons. Um I wouldn't say there's like one clear-cut that's the answer. If only we could fix that. There's people make choices for a lot of very different reasons. Um we could
certainly do another large study like that. I don't know that I would want to necessarily spend money at this time. I think we can do anecdotally getting feedback. We've talked about the need to um re-up our exit survey process. We have done that in the past and then kind of got away from it for a while just because of resources, but I think we
could put some more attention in trying to learn from families as they're leaving. Also to do some entrance survey, too, like why did you choose us? Those are some simple things we could even ask on an enrollment form. So, there's definitely some things we could do internally to get some of that information versus paying, you know, 20
$30,000 for an external study. again at this point that I don't think is going to get us anything really really valuable. Thank you. Any other questions? I'll share one thing. This might be too much into the weeds, but I'm going to do
it anyway. So, um I go to a lot of our events, our band concerts, volleyball, whatever. And you know, we we put nice stuff together, nice brochures and lots of information. Uh last Friday I went to a play at White Bear Lake High School in their new nice
facility. And um anyway, um nice program just like we do, but on the back the whole thing is be a bear. It's information. It's it's a scanning thing. And I I'll share this with you afterwards. So I thought I save these as souvenirs for a while. We we don't have anything like that in
ours. So maybe just having the information available is a great start. I'll share that with you. That's one of our favorite things to do. Melanie was just at a conference last week like we we grab examples from other districts and we're constantly learning from what they're doing. I think that's a easy fabulous thing we could do. We get a lot of people that come into our
schools for other events. Thank you so much for this update. I know that the we have a lot of focus on enrollment rightly so. So, thank you very much. Yeah. And on a on a festive note, thank you very much. Thank you.
Okay. Um, tonight we are going to do our clo we're going to move to a close session. And just to let the community know, we're going to move to a close session and then we're actually going to return with our last um agenda item, which is a a update on negotiations. So,
right now, we'll move to close session. The next item on the agenda is a close session. Pursuant to Minnesota statute 13D.03b, 03B. The governing body of a public employer may by a majority vote in a public meeting decide to hold a closed meeting to consider strategy for
labor negotiations, including negotiation strategies or developments or discussion and review of labor negotiation proposals conducted pursuant to sections 179A.01 to 179A.25.
Um, I will go ahead and make a motion to move to close session. Can I get a second, please? Second. Great. Director Kelzenberg with a second. All those in favor of moving to close session, raise your hand, say I. I. Opposed? Motion passes unanimously and we will
move to close session and return with our negotiation update. Thank you. All right, we are convened back in open session and our next agenda item is a negotiations update and so welcome Chris and Marie for that.
All right, good evening board members, Dr. Funk. Um so we are um bringing to you um a presentation just on um on negotiations. This is the agreements that have expired um June 30th um of 2025.
Um so if uh you can change the slide. There we go. So um you can see these across the top are all of the um agreements that um expire June of 2025. And down the side are some um topics um for negotiations this year. Um you can
see that the ones in that the ones in blue are all settled. Um and so you can see the the percentage increases to the wage schedules um and then um the changes to the insurance language um and uh the um suns setting of the short-term
disability benefits. Um so um the other um um groups we are still in process with. Um some of the discussion um around um negotiations has been really centered on the Minnesota paid leave program that's
starting up in January. Um and how does that fit in with um you know benefits that we already have had in the district. Um the MPL program is um a much broader benefit. Um so um more and more of our staff will be able to
take advantage of it um where they maybe would not have been able to do that before. So, um, for a personal medical reason, to care for a family member, to take bonding leave, um, to welcome a child into your home, um, for safety, um, leave, and then also if a member of
your family is, um, in the military or deployed. Um, and then the leave is is about, you know, about 12 weeks. Um, it can be up to 20 depending on what the situation is. Um so in the in the past that's not exactly under the STD plan
that the district has now um it's only for personal medical um concerns. Um so last year in 2425 the district uh paid $270,000 in claims. Um the short-term
disability program is self-insured for us and so there's no carrier. Um and these funds are taken directly out of the general fund to pay the um to pay employees for their wages. Um we've asked all the groups that have settled to sunset that district provided
short-term disability benefit because um we are going to be paying, you know, over $300,000 a year to Minnesota paid leave to run that program and to um maintain the current short-term disability benefit. you know, if it's
$200,000 a year, um it's not feasible for us to continue both programs. Um and then just the last bullet there, um you know, with our district fund balance at 1%, um the offers and settlements that u
we have, um settled already have been within the board parameters. So, that's what I have for you. Um um does anyone have any questions regarding the negotiations update?
The floor. No questions. Thank you for much ongoing work for I know it's a lot of behind thescenes work to get this done and to keep this moving along. So thank you to everyone involved. So appreciate it.
Great. Thank you. All right. And with that we're adjourned. Right.