I now call order the school board independent school district 624 to order. Roll call. Will the Kirk clerk please call the role? Strife oi here. Thompson here. Ar here. Daniels here. Ellison here. Scar
here. Please stand. If you have a hat, take your hat off. The pledge of allegiance. Give me a minute. I got it. 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. We have before us an agenda. Can I get a motion to approve? So moved by Thompson. Can I get a second? Second. Let's try
OG. Is there any discussion? This will be a voice vote. All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Same. Sign. The motion passes. We also have before us a consent agenda. This contains a variety of business items that come monthly including donations.
We are truly grateful for all the support shown every month by our staff for our staff and students. So, we want to thank everybody that's contributed. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Okay. By sorry, Daniels. Can I get a second?
Second. By Thompson. Is there any discussion? This will be a roll call vote. Will the clerk please call the role? Strife. I. Thompson. I. Arin. I. Daniels. I.
Ellison. I Scar. Hi. Okay, now we're to the public forum part of our agenda. We had zero people requests, so we will not have be doing that. We're going on to ourformational item C1, Dr. Casmichek with student
recognition. Right. Thank you, Chair Aran. Members of the board, tonight we proudly celebrate the achievements of members of the high school speech team and middle school students who participated in history day. Congratulations to each and every one of you for state and national level accomplishments. We also extend our
sincere gratitude to the dedicated staff and supportive family members who played a vital role in these successes. In recognition of their accomplishments, students have received a certificate and a bear pin, plus a letter acknowledging their achievements, was mailed to their home. Now, please join us in watching a video highlighting their
accomplishments. Go Bears. [Music] [Music] [Music]
All right, congratulations to all those in there. I know a lot of hard work went into it. We're going to go on to information item C2, recognition of student liaison. Dr. Casmich, thank you, Chair Aran, members of the board. So, on behalf of the White Bear Lake Area School Board, I want to commend and
recognize uh Lydia Kleinhans, our 12th grade student, and then Thomas Reese. Thomas is here tonight. Um he's our junior representative for their outstanding roles as the 2425 student representatives to the school board. So, thank you.
No, that's okay. Style. So, next year, Thomas will be sitting up here with us as we're we're expanding the up front. So, there's a little more room and he he'll be joining us up front. So, thank you, Thomas, for your
regular attendance. And thank you. We're now on to C3 superintendence report. Once again, doc Dr. Kasmichek. All right. Thank you, Chair Arcan and members of the board. Uh, congratulations to Mariner Middle School language arts teacher Carla Triggs, who was named the White Bear Lake Area
Educators 2025 teacher of the year at a recent recognition ceremony. Also, congratulations to the other finalists and to all those who were nominated this year. Willow Lane Elementary fifth graders are taking over local restaurant Donatellies in White Bear Lake working as the cooks,
servers, and hosts over the lunch hour. Students will be there from 11:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. again on May 13th and May 20th. Tomorrow's May 13th visit will be an extra special one as Gabe Kessle, a Whitebear High School student and former wrestler who is fighting a rare and
aggressive form of brain cancer, will be there with his family. The students have chosen to donate their Donatelli's tips to Gab's treatment. This is a full circle moment. When Gabe was in fifth grade at Willow, he worked a shift during the restaurant takeover. And uh we confirmed I have to make sure Gabe is
the student second from the left. So So he'll be there tomorrow. So tomorrow might be a great day to to to go and and support that project. All right. The high school varsity baseball team has an exciting game on the calendar next week. Not only will it uh not only will they be taking
on our rival to the west, Mounds View High School on Wednesday, May 21st, they will be doing so at Target Field. Tickets can be purchased either through a high school baseball player or coach, or you can find more information uh as a news item on the district's
website. And as the school year comes to a close, a variety of end of the year student celebrations are taking place throughout the district before the last day of school on June 6th. I'd like to offer a special congratulations to those who are reaching important milestones, whether it's graduating from high
school, middle school, elementary school, kindergarten, or preschool. I'm excited uh to celebrate our area learning center graduates on June 4th and our White Bear Lake Area High School graduates on June 5th in new commencement spaces. The high school's performing arts center will house the
ALC graduation and the White Bear Lake Area High School commencement ceremony will take place outside at the high school stadium. So, enjoy the last days of the school year and have a safe and relaxing summer. All right. Thank you very much. Yes. All right. We're down to discussion items
number one. We're going to talk graduation rate and student attendance update. Dr. Gillespie. Hello, Chair Aran, members of the board. Um, thank you for having me tonight. I will have some uh guests join me in just a little bit as part of a panel discussion. So, I'll let you guys know
when they come up. Um, tonight I really want to take time to talk to you about graduation and student attendance um data and really look at in the context of celebrations of where we are, what's the context around that data and then as we continue to get better, where are the areas that we have to get better and are
continually um diving into that. Again, I talk about graduation and attendance data, clarify some of the key metrics. These are metrics that get talked about um across the state. And so, making sure that people understand what they mean and why they matter. And then again, highlight what's working and where we're
growing. So, as you may have seen, our graduation rate um for the class of 24 was just released this past week. Our district um rate for the class of 24 is 91.6%. And we really break that down in three schools that we um have. We have our high school which is
96.5%. Our area learning center which is 77.5% and then our transition education center which that that data was we have it internally but it's too small in terms of the number of graduates to report publicly. And so those three factor into what our our uh school
district um rates are which we are happy that it has increased and that we continue to um be competitive with the state. I think it's really important to note we get compared, which I understand completely why we would with with school districts across our area. And we not all school districts offer the same programming that we do. So, we're really
proud of our area learning center. We're really proud of our transition education center, but that isn't the case in all districts, especially um our neighbors closest to us, and there are friends and colleagues, but Mameidi really doesn't have those programs. They use those programs with 916 where we have our own, and we also partner with 916, as you
know, our high school rate. um is 96.5% which really keeps us very competitive. Um we're the second highest in the area high schools and we're really proud of that. Everyone should be proud that that the nth grade year for these students was 2021 the school year and so that was an interrupted school year for them and
really we worked really hard to make sure we could get as many students to cross um the stage as possible and really make sure that they felt prepared for their next steps whatever that might be. So celebrations if we look at um specifically the high school's
graduating class last year there was 488 students 17 of them were non-graduates but 11 of those 17 had already planned with their teams that they would go on to our 18 to 22 year old programming and so when you look at 11 of those 17 um
graduating according to plan what we planned for them and their teams that's a graduation rate of 98.8% and really something to be very very proud of. The other piece is looking at our area learning center. Many of the students that go there, one of the reasons that they go is they have had some sort of blip on the screen in terms of
completing credits. And so many are credit deficient when they're referred there. And our area learning center at 77.5% is one of the highest and it it really sets out um compared to others that are more traditionally around 50%. which again, not to be critical of them because that is a program that we
provide for our students, but the fact that we're still getting our students to graduate um in that four-year rate is is speaks a lot to the program and the staff and what they're doing. The other piece that we keep looking in and getting better and really my commitment to you and our commitment is to continue to think about what other evidence do we
have in terms of how are students doing academically as we couple that with graduation. And one of the data that we have, which it's lagging, and so some of this can be kind of frustrating sometimes in terms of how we impact our system, is from the sleds data, um, and I linked the website there, but the they
track the percent of high school students needing to take developmental coursework in Minnesota colleges during their first two fall terms. And you may or may not be familiar, but when students take developmental coursework, they have to pay for it, but those credits don't then impact whatever they might be studying. And so for the class
of 2018, 19% of our students who enrolled in Minnesota colleges needed to take developmental coursework. And the most recent data that we have right now is um the class of 23 and that's down to 9%. And again, it's been a focus, as you know, we've talked with you at the board, but we continue to think about how do we make sure students have the
skills necessary so they're successful beyond um their time with us. So, who are the 52 students that didn't graduate? We have um that's across the district. We have 21 students who are currently enrolled with us. Seven who've graduated since the cutoff
and the cutoff for the Minnesota Department of Education is September 15th after the the June that you would call four-year graduation. And so we're diving in. There's a few that we're asking um MDE just to look at for us because we believe we reported them as graduates within that time frame, but
five of them for sure graduated after se um September 15th. Then we have 22 students that we're really looking at um where might they be and what happened. And so some in our system are seven students are designated as a 15-day drop, meaning they didn't attend school 15 consecutive days and then we have to
drop them from our enrollment. Two transferred to other schools and 15 are for unknown reasons. So I'm going to talk to you a little bit about those 15 as well. I think it's important to note that a student when they leave us, them graduating or not graduating counts
against the district or the high school where they were there the most time. So you'll see I'm going to click on a a chart in a second. We had a couple students leave us in 10th grade. Well, that might mean that those two solid years were the longest that they were enrolled in one high school. And so then that comes back to us. So that's one of
the reasons that graduation data is lagging is all the different calculations that they need to do with districts making sure their data is correct and then also um at the Department of Education. So as we continue to think about that was gonna it's going to take me a little bit here. Um, again, we had
52 that have not yet graduated. That's that's 8.4%. And so, I wanted to really look at what do we know so far about their stories? And we're still diving in. Um, our ALC leadership team and our high school leadership team are really working with me, but of that, what student groups do these students fall
into? How long were they with us? What might we find out about the students? And so, we of the 52 students, um, four students are multilingual learners. three students qu or excuse me 36 students qualify for educational benefits or what we used to call um students and families who qualify for
free and reduced lunch. 19 um students who receive special education. Then um you'll see the different ethnicity and race groups that each student falls into. Then as you think about okay 52 students 21 again are currently enrolled with us.
seven have graduated and then that unknown category with two that we know transferred to another school district. We have 22 that we're still trying to figure out what can we do. It's still not too late um to have them come take part in our classes to get their diplomas. And so really right now um
what what we know and I'm like I said it literally is hour by hour. We're diving into it as we got this data last week. Um 10th graders some four of them left us in 10th grade. Seven of them left us in 11th grade and then 12 or excuse me 11 of them left us in in 12th grade.
Half about 16 of the 22 have been enrolled with us and came to us as as middle school students. And so that's one of the areas I'll talk about at the very end. But diving into how do we support students who are new to our system in sixth grade or even at the high school to make sure that they um graduate and feel part of our system.
And then if you look at the credits earned, a total credit right now as we're our current schedule is students need 22 credits to earn their diploma. So we have eight students that are pretty close, seven who are a little bit closer but a little bit further away. And then we have seven students who really aren't very close in terms of
credits. And so each student has a different story that we're diving into. And then again, our commitment is to partner with um principal reit, assistant principal um Jenny Joen, and to really dive in and say, what can we do across both of our programs to make sure that we help students um with
graduating? And then I put over here also, just so you know, 17 students, which I already talked about at the high school, 32 students that didn't graduate were part of our ALC, and then three students in our transition education center. So shifting to attendance and people might think that's a weird coupling that
I'm doing, but part of this is because people are talking about it a lot and making sure that people understand what it means, but also that you understand that we're leaning into it and have continuously done that. So regular school attendance is essential for student success and students who attend regularly perform better academically,
are more engaged, and are more likely to graduate on time. So there's one of the connections. The other piece is as we think about intervening around attendance, the earlier we intervene, that really is the best way we can improve academic outcomes and reduce future academic struggles for
students. So, MDE releases each August something called consistent attendance or you maybe have seen it called the chronic absenteeism depending on um it shift shifted titles a little bit and that data is released each August and it lags. So this August we'll get the data
from the class of the school year of 2324. Um and that data is how many students the percentage of students that were in school 90% of the time and students have to have been enrolled with us for 50% or more. And so it is right now our district data is around a little
between 70 and 71% of students have attended 90% of the time. I think it's important to know that doesn't mean our daily attendance is 70%. that really our daily attendance is quite high because that's what our principles look at all the time. This helps us track how is that accumulation of absences really
impacting our students. And so as we look at it, I just want to make sure that we understand one I'm going to dive in what that looks like for each level, but also that this is just one point of data and it can be um a little frustrating for our principles because it's so lagging. It's good for us as a system, but what they see day in day in
day out and they'll talk about that a little bit and our support teams that they really are looking where who are the kids right in front of me and how do I make sure to positively impact that number and their experience. So consistent attendance data that um the 70 between 70 and 71 it's 70 point
something and it's escaping me right now um is really from the class of the school year 2223 this August 23 24 will be released and then 24 25 would come out obviously next August we do our best to recreate the calculation internally but it is
another uh we're pretty good last we we predicted 22 23 and each number was within 3% but it does take some calcul ations that some frankly if we can get close it's just not worth the manpower because it does take that to have to figure out who's been here how long. Um and we can look at different ways of
looking at data which really is what our data department partners with our principles on. So in this graph 23 24 is an estimate as is 2425 to date and the date was by the end of March that I was able to get and so really what I'm wanting to show is that each one of our schools have made significant
improvement. 2122 was the first time that data has been publicly released um for five years. um prior to that and so it was a little bit of a shock for all of us that that was a way that people were attend uh tracking attendance. That being said, we worked really hard to increase that across the board. Our
elementary saw a rebound faster than secondary and you'll see that in a little bit. But then we keep asking more questions. So right now it looks like maybe this year from 23 24 25 might take a little dip. So what's going on each school, each student, each situation because 90% attendance means students
miss no more. If they start missing around 17 days of school, that's when they drop below um 90%. And as you can imagine, if you have a student who maybe gets the flu or something else and then you take a family vacation, it can be easy for people to accumulate that number of absences. And it's actually
just the way life has collided for our families. Our secondary attendance for middle school and high school took a little bit longer to rebound, but I'm really excited about what we're seeing um for especially for this year. We did have a hunch that the split campus wasn't helping us in terms of
attendance. And that really I think that's one of the reasons that we're seeing such an increase right now at the high school. 9th and 10th graders have the role models of 11th and 12th graders. And 11th and 12th graders really get to be at a school that they've already established a culture and excitement. South Campus was wonderful, but they also 11th and 12th
graders, if you've had your own, you know, get focused on what's next and sometimes engaging in the culture at the high school isn't it just doesn't come as easily. And so seeing that change is really exciting and leaning in and saying, "Okay, but who are the other students who aren't attending at least 90% of the time? And how do we partner
with families to understand the impact that can have, but also find out, is there something that we need to do better at school to make kids want to come to school more?" So, what are we doing? Um we are working really hard. We've streamlined our attendance uh recording procedures
across our bo our um district. We did that last year. Each one of our buildings has teaming structure at each building. They examine monthly attendance data as well as discuss individual students. Um and then we really work hard with our partnership with family and county resources when barriers to attendance continually
persist. One thing that we excuse me realized is we needed to help families know when do they send their students to school when they're maybe not feeling the best but can still come to school. Um especially since COVID if you remember if your kid even had a little tickle we wanted everyone to stay home and so how do we reset this is when you
can send students. So um our student support team created this graphic and it's been shared with families around when do students stay home and when can they come to school. All right I'm gonna have my friends join me now. So, I have four um representatives from across our system. Brian Morris, who's
the principal at Lincoln Elementary, Ryan Clark, who's the associate principal at Mariner Middle School, Ally Losi, um licensed social worker at Central Middle School, and then uh Russ Reeds, principal at the high school, and I have two questions that I want to prompt them with so that they can share some things with you, and
then they'll be up here to answer any questions that you might have at the end. All right, you guys can decide who goes first. Welcome. Um, can you share one strategy or approach your team has implemented this year that has positively impacted attendance rates and what made it successful?
I would just say, excuse me, Brian Morris, principal at Lincoln. Um, across our elementary schools, we uh automated um parent communication for unexcused absences. So, tiered levels of unexcused absences. Um and that has opened up a
lot of time for us. Right. Unexcused absences are um what we use uh for communicating with the county. Also, that's what the county requires that we track. Um sort of taking that direct communication and decision-making piece off our plate
really allowed us to focus on more complex barrier barriers. Um what is what is keeping our kids at home? What do parents need to hear from us to know that their kids should be in school? That they every day they miss is a missed opportunity to learn um and that
our school is a a safe and respectful environment. So, yeah, this year really opening up that time for us to focus on the the individuals um around attendance has been huge. Um at the high school, we really focused on two things. The first one was
um our theme start the year uh and it was around belonging. So we really encouraged our staff to be intentional about how they welcome students to their classroom. Uh we armed them with different strategies like four at the door, a top 20 strategy um as well as
some relationship building um activities early in the trimester or sorry in the semester to help our students feel more welcome and comfortable in the classroom. Uh and then we're much more proactive. Uh we have nine student supervisor hall monitors that are um
doing hallway sweeps, helping students get to school on time. Uh we added a warning bell so students know they have one minute to get to their classroom, which helped. Um we also were reactive. Uh if a student misses two or more classes the previous day, they're met with by a student support specialist the
following day and goals are set um and parent phone calls are made in order to effort uh in an effort to partner with parents. um of students who were absent and then uh students that were on our radar for 10 or more absences in a week
were brought forward to what we call our community connect teams. Those teams um meet and collectively talk about different intervention strategies for helping students get to class. So those were the major uh initiatives this year around attendance at the high school.
Greetings. uh at Mariner uh we believe a a problem like attendance is is a complex problem requires a multiaceted approach and so I'm going to talk about two initiatives one's kind of a bigger scale uh that touches all students and one's kind of more of a a dive down deeper and talk about specific students uh similar to Lincoln we've automated
our attendance letters which gave us a really predictable cadence to when we communicate with families um allowing it to the communication to be really proactive and predictable um and it when parents understand the attendance pattern um that needs to be interrupted early on they can be proactive ive and
they can interrupt some of those attendance barriers before they become fully entrenched. Um we we found that opening up that line of communication with families um it allowed us to create a partnership proactively, right, and kind of work together in that collaborative problem solving. Uh
zeroing in on specific students. Um we also emphasized a sense of belonging. in fact created a uh belonging committee uh comprised of teachers, counselors, and administrators uh that tried to zoom in on on what causes a student to not feel
belonging. Uh and so we leveraged uh data from our DESA uh social emotional learning screener. Um and we we zeroed in on students who who told us through their self-report that they're not feeling connected at school and had our counselors dive deep with students who felt the most disconnected and found
some really interesting things. Um, by holding these empathy interviews, we not only validated those students emotions and feelings about not feeling connected at school, but it really informed some of our practices as we strive to continue to foster building that that community and that connectedness in middle school, which is of paramount
importance, especially in middle school. Um, thank you for letting me be here to speak. I um was struggling to think of an answer to this question because I think what you all are pointing out is attendance is um a very complex thing and it requires a lot of different systems at play. So it's not just one
person that's doing the procedures but we have our counselors, our administration, our attendance clerks, our technology, like all of those things have to be in play to have an efficient and effective attendance system. So Central's worked really hard the past
couple years really postcoid to um create a system that's effective and um Central I think is unique and maybe just middle school and in general as post high school where we have um our students aren't being truent from our classes roaming the building or things
like that but that they're not coming to school. So, we really needed to figure out and partner with our um families of what's happening of why you can't come to school and um trying to do that early as well. So, looking at their data and being able to just kind of plugandplay intervention. So, if you have this many
absences, then you're meeting with a counselor, myself, a a school social worker, and you're doing what we call an attendance success plan. So, we're asking the student um what do you need from your teachers to feel more successful in the building? what do you need to do yourself? What are you
responsible for? And then what can your family at home help you with? And then we share that with their families. Talk a little bit more about, okay, this is what your child said. What are some things that you maybe would want to add? And then letting their teachers know, too. So when that student does come in, they can say, I'm so happy to see you
here today. It sounds like you talked with Miss Luli about this, and here's some things that we can do in the classroom to help support you. Um, school attendance. The number one factor with that is school connectedness. Um so another thing that we've done is start an attendance group and then in that
group we're helping the students um meet some different student support service roles and different school staff members. So our principles coming to that attendance group um our student supervisors, our health office staff, our lunch supervisors. Um so then they
can come meet these people, have a personal connection with them, and then when they're in the building or in the lunchroom, they can say, "Hey, Mr. Kelly, I know you." um so uh just to help them feel connected at school. So we've found a lot of success in some of those things and um being able to just have that
efficient and um accountable system. Thank you. So I hope you're hearing that it really is a multiaceted approach and that each one of our schools is um and levels are taking ownership around how can we impact this. So, it's a continuous area that we talk about and so I asked each one of them to think
about just so you know what's one challenge or area of growth um each one of their teams is focusing on to further improve student attendance or graduation outcomes connecting to that beginning um for anyone could talk that as graduation is graduating from our system but maybe we'll go in reverse order start with you
Ally. Okay. Yeah. Uh the one I thought of is reframing how families view county involvement. So, counties become invol involved when a student is unex has unexcused absences and that's a very
fear inducing thing like being like I don't want Washington or Ramsey County to be involved with my child and thinking about like child protection and things like that. Um, but that hasn't been the case with either counties. They uh really want to support the family, get down to the core of why are you not
coming to school and be responsive and um help that student. So maybe it's connecting with therapy services if there's some mental health going on, um county case management, maybe just needing more economic resources, connecting with medical assistance, any of those things, the county's been super
helpful. So um that's one challenge of sometimes coming into those meetings we have our like feeling more heightened or defensive when um really they're here to support. And then one other thing that I thought of too is um thinking about
attendance as not just unexcused or unexcused or excused absences, but it's really just showing up and being in the building no matter what the reason is. Whether you're on vacation, whether you're sick, whether you're can't get out of bed, we want our students in the building. That's where they're learning, that's where they're connecting with
adults, that's where they're getting food, all resources, all of those things. So, um that's another barrier too of just seeing attendance for what it is. Looking ahead, uh Mariner is focused on uh tackling uh um timeliness of school
arrival. Uh we have a lot of students who show up late and it's very easy to um look at what is uh outside of our locuses of control, some of those barriers that that we don't really have our hands on, right? That we that um feel just outside of our reach. Um and so um we believe there are some positive
gains to be made by improving our family communication and engagement. Um and then also kind of just shifting our mindset and shifting our focus to what we can control, right? The things at school, the connectedness, the um the the warm welcome when a student does arrive. Um and then continuing to invest
in our community and our in the belonging culture that's currently existing um at Mariner to help drive student success. Sounds familiar. Uh so we're really struggling with attendance first period. Um our attendance numbers aren't great
sixth period and um right now we're struggling a little bit around the lunch hour uh which is fourth period. So we are really looking at where are the trouble spots um and how can we address you know students that are arriving 10 or more minutes late to first hour. those count as an absent absence right
now and many of those students end up showing up or arriving at some time. Um and so we're doing a lot of reteing and uh of our expectations around first hour arrival. Um we're moving to a five period day. Uh we did a lot of listening
to students. They asked for more time during passing time. So we're going to honor that. Uh they'll have eight minutes instead of six. I do think those two minutes will matter um just in what students need to take care of between class periods um in terms of their uh
attendance. And then um we're we're still looking for ways to improve attendance with our juniors and seniors, the students that drive to school every day and specifically those that drive later in the day. Um we have a lot of students that leave for 916 or they are half day PSO.
um they might start their day at Sentry and so we know we have a targeted audience there that may or may not return um when they leave campus or when they're uh supposed to be arriving late to campus. So we are um considering all of those factors and trying to improve
our attendance rates for next year and I just think about two things that we've implemented I don't know two things that I think do make a difference and that we've been working on. One is really monitoring that 10% absence, right? That tipping point of of chronic
absences. Um, regardless of reason, I feel like at least I personally have spent a lot of time focused on that. Is it excused? Is it unexcused? But if you're at Disneyland or if you are uh sick and mom calls in, if you're sick and dad calls in, it doesn't matter. Those are all days that you missed a day
of important learning. So, focusing on that 10%, tracking that 10% and reaching out to the parent. um at the elementary level, those kids don't have the autonomy that our secondary level kids do. So, it is a lot of work with the parents. And it's not just harping at
parents about calling in absences, right? It's it's helping the parents understand that your school is a safe place, that your child is wanted there. Um, even if something something bad happens at school every so often, I will admit, you know, kid gets an elbow jab
in the line and is upset and I talk to him or the social worker speaks with him. And if we can make contact with that parent before the child gets home, let them know what happened, let them know how we've resolved it. Um, so that parent knows that, yeah, something
there's something when my child gets home today that I'm going to hear about. um it's not wasn't a pleasant experience for my child, but these people care about my child. These people have things in place to help the experience improve for my child. There's less odds that that child is going to say to mom the
next morning or to dad the next morning, "Hey, I've got a stomach ache and I don't want to go in." Right? Um so just working with those parents um overall around their attendance um regardless of reason and helping them know um that we care about their kids and their kids are
safe and wanted in our school I think is what's going to really help us in the long run. Thank you very much. So as we move forward really um we have some areas that we're focused on as a whole system. How do we continue to strengthen our internal processes? In particular, I'm
looking at our students who maybe um you know, as our schools are doing all this, but what's our follow-up even if we had to drop them because they've had 15 non-consecutive days of attendance, how do we stay connected to those families, make sure kids end up in school and come really wrap around them as a support um because school can sometimes after a
while feel like um we're being a little scary and that isn't the intent at all. It really is to make sure kids are successful. What I mentioned this already, how are we supporting new students to our system in particular when they come new to us in middle and high school um to make sure that they have the most resources for success
looking at those non-graduates and I'm like I mentioned already working really um real time right now on this class but how do we do that more um closer to the graduation so this year class of 2025 when we know who hasn't walked across the stage what does that look like so that we are making sure that students
stay connected to us as close as possible to that four-year rate um so that they earn their diplomas continuously looking at how we communicate with families and engagement. Attendance is one especially at the elementary level, but families do take their kids on vacations and you know we want to support that and don't
want to be a clearing house for it, but it also can be hard sometimes when it is and we're looking at attendance and it is a student who also was sick or had other things going on and so how do we really have that transparent partnership and communication um because we we want the same things. We want kids to be
successful. Um and then finally, how are we aligning our supports across our whole system? And so you've heard each one of um the representatives today talk about their own teams. We're also looking at our ALC programming. And um Jenny Suggest will be here with me and um Russ next at the work study session
to talk about more about the ALC, but also really diving in and doing some program review. It's a wonderful school that's seeing a lot of success and are we really meeting the exact needs that we have in our system? And then constantly and continuously looking at credit recovery options. the high school um added an option this year that really
helped kids ret recover some of those credits that they missed. So, what questions might you have for me or any one of our panel members? Hey, do we have any questions? M OG. So, super exciting the graduation rate
rate itself and also I really appreciate that you're digging in to the percentage and the kids that are not you could say it's a great it's a great rate. we're doing good and not really dig into who is it and you're going right down to the student level. So, I really appreciate
that. I love that you use the DESA um data to make decisions, which is exactly what it's supposed to be used for, and I love that you're doing that um to help kids want to be at school. Allison, you mentioned something um about what programming do we have that um or we
have programming that kids can continue taking classes if they don't graduate. What What is that programming? So, we have two um a lot of our students can be in the area learning center until they're 21 years old um and earning credits and um and then we have the transition education center which ho
houses multiple programs but it really is for students who receive support through um special education or an individualized education plan and they have transition goals and so they for they forgo their diploma and then end up graduating at the end of that time and it always has been till 21 at least as long as I can remember and it was just
extended to 22 um for students last legislative session, I believe. Yeah, that's all. Um, the other comment I was going to make uh was someone said about making sure they get a warm welcome when they arrive and I've heard that also when kids come and they're late, how
they're treated matters with them wanting to be there. So, thank you all for your excellent. Hi, Miss Daniels. Um, couple questions I did appreciate too. Um, all the graduation data and how you're digging into some of those students. And I would
just say all the graduations are so exciting. The big graduation that we used to have at Aldridge and that we're going to have on our field. Very exciting. Many great wonderful stories. Everybody has a story, right? And then if you get a chance to attend an ALC graduation, it's smaller
and you either the is telling you their story or sometime a staff member is telling you their story and it's just so wonderful to hear and some kids have had to overcome lots of life before they graduate and it's um very inspiring and
and the transition education center graduation is the same way. So if anyone in the community or in the school board gets a chance to attend graduation it's always very exciting. And then I just had something about um uh attendance and I wondered if the
bear care clinic has an impact on um attendance or kids getting back to class faster. They have a sore throat, they go in, they don't have strep and they go back to class. I you know that kind of thing because we used to have the only thing we really had was well if you're gone for three days you have to prove
that you're sick and now we have that clinic right on site. So that's so exciting. So I just wondered if you could comment. Yeah, I don't have any concrete numbers, but we do see students using it more um specifically since the start of semester 2. So, I think it took a while for us to kind of gain traction.
Um I do know that students are taking advantage of um getting a im immunization or a booster through the Bearcare Clinic. Uh I know that uh athletes are getting their physicals done at the Bearcare Clinic and these are normally appointments that would have to be made outside of the school
day or during the school day. um but not sure how to track it. I do think it's having an impact on getting our keeping our students in school and then getting them back to class sooner. Thank you. Mr. Scott, um you mentioned um that u
Monomidi uses 916 for transition in ALC, but we offer it here inhouse. So my I guess my question would be um is it because our size school district is larger that we can afford to offer this?
Is that the the main driver for that? Uh I wouldn't I don't know if that was the original driver. How I see it is we're making sure that we offer programs that meet the needs for our students and some of our students. We've had an area learning center for as long as I've been here and many many years prior to that.
And so really making sure we can offer those those um supports for our students. So, we partner quite heavily with 916. The closest um area learning center that they have is on Century's campus. It's called Mameida ALC. Um and they really focus on 17, 18 year olds
who maybe are ready for more independence and it's on a college campus. Well, I think we can partner with them differently and we have kids here that we it we're the closest and so how do we keep them in our district and how do we make sure that we're meeting their needs, too. So in terms of the financial and why we did it, I think it
is really to make sure we have programming that we house internally to really make sure we meet the needs of our students and families. Have we ever thought of providing those services to Monidi as opposed to 916 as a res as a revenue generator? Yeah, I don't know the answer to that. We could look into
it, but not since I've been here, we haven't. I mean, you we do have students that can come from different districts in terms of our area learning center, but I couldn't tell you how many specifically come from. Yeah, that might be a way to get our enrollment numbers
up. Um, you mentioned sled and 9% of the students that are need need to take developmental classes. Uh, which is where it was before. So, it's trending down. Where was it before? 19%. 19%. So, that's a pretty that's a
pretty good um decrease. Um, and does that because I know our test scores in math, science, and reading have been declining. This does, is there a correlation where we would say, well,
those test scores are probably going to go up because now we know nine it's gone down from 19% to 9%. So, we should see test scores go up. That's our for sure our goal. What I what I think when I'm assuming when you say test scores declining you're talking and
specifically about the MCAs, right? The report card. Yep. So the MCAs, it's interesting at secondary. I actually was just asking students questions because um part of it we're wondering how serious students take those tests and um we have quite a few students and families choose to opt out. I'm still
working on that data, but I will present that publicly here. And so I think we have an opportunity to really look at the ACT scores. We offer the pre-ACT in 9th and 10th grade and then 11th grade is the ACT to see what correlation are we seeing there. If we're seeing students who it's dropping for their developmental, I need to dive deeper
into it. We're working on it right now around the ACT. So, I think when I have that, I'll have more evidence to say what is this looking like and how are we feeling about the test scores because we'll be able to compare those even back to 2018 when we had a higher um rate of students needing developmental courses.
So the fact that parents have to pay for those developmental uh classes and these are all college colleges. This is not trade school, right? No, some trade schools have it as well. It's it's whether you're enrolled in a Minnesota college and that's part of the minu system. So some of the trade
schools are as well. So do we do we have any responsibility back to these parents to say okay you know your um your son or daughter graduated um we they they didn't we didn't meet
the expectations so then do we pay for their developmental cl classes because it really would be dependent on the schools what you know I I it's really hard to tell what determines that but for example century when students students needed to take. We had higher numbers of students looking at literacy,
we would say, okay, what's going on and how do we make sure we reduce it? But in terms of it's it's major specific, school specific on why they're determining whether students have the entrance exam and need to have the developmental courses. Do do any school districts pay the parents back for the
developmental classes? No. No. Um when you talked about uh interventions like what's the most important intervention that you can do to incentivize
um students to graduate? I'm ask you guys what you think. Well, I think first the conversation with the students. So we do a student interview, then a teacher interview, and then a parent interview. Those are the first three steps into coming up with
with an intervention plan for that particular student. Um, in some cases, um, we've had success with credit recovery online, um, where students can test out of a class, you know, so they are able to acknowledge previous learning and then apply that to a
course. They're moving through courses much quicker um, when they can do it a second time around online. Um, and then we also have students that um will work through summer school for credit recovery. Um, and then obviously we have
students that are doing credit recovery through our ALC. Those have been great ways of helping students that fall behind early in 9th or 10th grade get caught back up in 11th or 12th grade and graduate on time. I think the other thing that is with which we've, you know, talked about at our last work
study session as we continue to expand those career pathways, having students see, okay, how does what I'm learning in high school connect to what I'm excited about or interested in after school and then all the different real life experiences we can provide for them. So even that day, I can't remember what it was called, the 11th graders where they
all were in the gym. Junior takeover. Yes. No, not the junior takeover. It was where we had so many community members and they were like simulating real life. They chose a test drive of that. Thank you. Test drive to see that and see kids like I had kids come up to me and be like I can't afford my current life on my salary or you know
just stuff like that. So then I think however they're connecting in high school to what they're doing right now till later and realizing we know life adulthood takes you on many different paths. So how do we prepare them for the twists and turns that'll come? You know um now I'm going to switch to
attendance. Um social media can be a double-edged sword. can work with us and it usually works against us unfortunately. But do you see social media having an impact on attendance especially with middle schoolers and
high schoolers? Um you know primarily the negative um parts of social media. Do you does that come up at all as to why people wouldn't why students wouldn't want to attend because something happened on social media? I do
think it comes up. Um I what I would say is I've noticed a lot less of that as we've um tightened our cell phone procedures. The middle schools have always had cell phones out of sight or um but then what uh Russ and the team have done at the high school. It seems like what what gets to me which is
really the big big stuff. I've heard way less of that but you guys have maybe I'm sure it's still there. I would say um maybe not specifically social media but I can think about like technology. Um there I have students that when they're not coming to school, maybe they're at
home then playing video games all day or on technology or things like that. And uh part of my role is in my student support team is educating the families of when that student can't be at school or is choosing not to come to school. kind of maintaining those routines at
home as well because that makes it easier for them to then get up the next day and make it to school on time because they're not up late at night on video games or on technology and things like that. Sure. I mean, maybe you should have them watch the George Carlin
bit where he has, you know, showing up is 90% of success. Remember that quote? That might help. The other thing, maybe can we find parents if their kids don't show? No, you don't have to answer that. We don't have finding authority. Anyways, thank you. All right. Uh, go
ahead. Um, I don't really have any questions. Just thank you all for all the work that you've done. I'm very excited to see our graduation rates going up. And just to kind of comment on some of the social work aspects. As somebody who works in child protection services, I know why
kids don't come to school sometimes. And saying a kid who stays at home and playing video games, it's probably staying at home playing video games because there's a lot of other things in the home that are happening that are out of that child's control and the parents aren't able to control it. Whether they have mental health issues at home,
whether there's addiction in the home, uh, poverty, like there's all kinds of things. I see this every day. I I am on some of those in another school district I work or I work in Henipin County, so I don't intertwine my work with this role. Um, but I'm in those meetings where
we're talking about attendance child protection cases that are happening. And while we can do everything we can do to provide a safe and welcoming environment for those kids to come here, we can't change what's happening in that home. It would be wonderful if we could and I
work with the families. So, we do our best to try to help change those things, but sometimes you just you can't do that. Uh, and mental health month, right? May is a mental health awareness month and so that is a big player in a lot of these cases I would imagine in
our kids who are in that smaller number that we gave who aren't graduating. Um and then when you take into consideration what we do at our ALC and our tech school. I mean it's just fantastic work where we allow those kids. They might not be graduating and
meeting it into that number but they are graduating. And I think if we could like figure out that number and go, well, these were the ones who didn't graduate on time, but this is how many of them we were able to get to graduate at a later date would be um wonderful. And then I
had one more thing, but I think it's going away from my mind. Menopause. So, we can go, Jessica, but thank you all. Yeah. So, just a couple of small things. Um, one, I love that the preac is available. My ninth grader took it this year. Is that something that we've done
in the past? Well, I thought it was the first year for ninth grade. We've always done 10th grade. I could be wrong. I think we did nth grade before, too. Maybe not since co, but I did nth grade when I was back in yesterday year when I was a principal at North Campus. It's hugely helpful because it was it's able to give him a
sense of, okay, here's where I'm at, right? So, I love that. I'm glad that we're continuing that. Also, the um communication that has coming out of the middle school super effective. So, I don't know if you've made changes from last just last year alone, but I know
when my kid is late to class and so I really appreciate that it's it's text messages, it's emails. I know that it's happening. Um, and then the one question I have is specifically about connecting students with the counselors and social workers at the school.
I if kids know that they can go to you and they feel comfortable going to social workers and counselors, they're probably more likely to talk about these things, but I feel like sometimes kids don't know or don't think about that step. So, what do you do in your buildings to encourage students to come
talk to folks? Yeah. Um I'm really proud of our team at Central, our counselors. every um sixth grader they get to meet with their school counselor and then in eighth grade as well they meet with their school counselor to talk about and prepare for um high school and then what
you were saying of kind of like how are we preparing people and wanting to graduate like our counselors are talking about that too with the kids. Um and so then when they go into the classrooms too and are doing lessons um saying here's how you can reach your counselor, here's how you can here's all of our
student support staff. here's who the social worker is, the school psych is. Um so that we're really on the forefront of some extra support for students. I'd echo a lot of the same ideas. Uh and say, um we host some events that make students feel really welcome. For
example, uh elementary students are visiting their middle schools this week, right? Fifth grade students are coming to middle schools and part of that is is an introduction to who their counselor will be broken down by alpha. Um, and there's a few other events that lead up to the school year like open house and and things like that that uh create the
opportunity the entrance ramp into a relationship with your counselor. Our counselors are also very involved in our where everybody belongs program if there was a theme for tonight belonging um which is a longstanding uh program in our in our middle schools that have had tremendous success. Um and so through
the through that programming they are engaging with students um either with like back to school um rallies with our our uh sixth grade only first day of school um or through um some of our advisory curriculum.
Thank you for asking. Thank you. Hi Miss Daniels has a question. Um do the counseling staff loop in both middle school and high school? So they're with the students all three years or all four years in high school? Right. So they really get to know that student and the families. That's something I don't think
you guys mentioned, but I think that was a change we made a few years back and it really I think has such a great impact because you really do know. Um and then the other thing when you have a 15-day drop that student if they come back into the community or come back to live with
mom or dad or whatever wherever they went and come back, they can like reenroll right away. So what they surface again in our community. So, we want them back and we want them to reenroll. Right. Absolutely. Y Miss Thompson, I remembered uh when it
comes to the I was a student who had to take some of those classes when I went to school because I barely graduated high school. Um and so I did do my parents weren't going to pay for me to go to college. That wasn't an option. And I think that's a lot not an option for a lot of our students. It would be
nice, but it just isn't how it works all the time. But just because I graduated, barely graduated, and was one of those students who could have been right on the edge, doesn't didn't mean that I was a failure to the school system. The school system did everything they could,
and they got me to pass that line, which got me that diploma, which allowed me to do so many things because without that diploma, you have to fight to like if you're going to get your GED, I have family members who unfortunately didn't graduate and never got the GED, right?
And so they just go through life with that like, oh my gosh, if somebody ever actually asks me, I don't have that, right? But I have this job I've been working at for 30 years and I'm doing fine in life. I just didn't make it past that line. So I don't want to think that
all of our students who aren't graduating are somehow a failure to our district because they aren't. cuz I did go to college eventually and graduated with honors as an adult working being on a school like so there is possibility and it's just sometimes our life
circumstances don't allow us to be super successful when we're in school and we're younger but it doesn't mean we don't have the possibility to get there on our you know and a lot of times it was school staff and a teacher who made the difference in my life. Yeah, we can
we will share when we share more data um in the fall we get our seven-year graduation rate as well. So for some students um and that is extremely high has been for years. Um you know they need a little bit more time for a lot of different reasons. So yeah and I know it's because we have a lot of wonderful staff in our district. So thank you
teacher appreciation week last week and just in general for everything you all do. Right. I just have a couple of questions because I couldn't I I don't know I had to say uh first Mr. Morris, I like how you talked about it doesn't matter whether it's excused or unexcused
because my question was how do I get an unexcused excused? How does a does a parent have to call in? Is there any time when the parent calls in and said, you know, my son didn't want to come just excuse it. I mean, how does that and how does that work? How do you
determine excused or unexcused? It that's a it's a hard thing, honestly. We do have a list in our policy of um excused and unexcused and then as um you know even absences for illness after they hit a certain threshold we let the families know we really have to require a doctor's note or um you know we do
other support. So we may a family may be really trying to excuse an absence and we have to mark it unexcused but it is because we're held accountable to making sure we're educating students. And so like Ally was mentioning how do we partner those two things because it can feel like then we're not part of the team. um and then the county can get involved. And so it's it's nuanced and
they're all really good at it, but there is gray that we work through. Okay. And then my other thought was um if you have a student that misses first period every day, how does that how does that work when you calculate your abs? I mean, is
it overall because maybe they came to six out of seven or five out of six. How do you calculate your attendance rate? I'll probably have to look into that for you, but we do period attendance at secondary. So those those not attending first period impact us. But how it does
I'll need to double check because I'm it's a and I was just curious because I when I taught I I always struggle too to get my students to come that my driving students to show up to my first period. But I I do agree with making that connection and greeting them at the door
and knowing their names, knowing what's going on in their lives and maybe you're on a firstname basis with their parent and that seems to help. So thank you for all your hard work. Uh, I know we're not done yet. I know that you've got at least another month of things going on. So, keep up the the good work. And, uh,
we run our questions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next thing we have is discussion item D2 which is the first reading of our schoolboard policy 702 720 729 and 7:32. These policies
have been reviewed by the policy committee and they will come back to us on June 9th, 2025 or or another meeting if needed for a second reading. We constantly have our committee um they're constantly looking at our policies, making sure they're up to date, making
sure that there's nothing that has changed in the law. Um and so they they come that way. Uh 702 was accounting, 720 is vending machines, 729 is Minnesota post insurance debt uh
compliance, and 732 was credit card usage. Is any any discussion, any questions about those? Chair. Yes, Mr. Scott. Who who is the chair of this uh the committee that
reviews policy? Who is that? Uh Dr. Kasmichek. Well, um Chris and Angela are the board reps. Okay. There's not a chair. Okay. So, was there, this kind
of gets back to the last board meeting, was these changes, I mean, they look fairly minor, so I'm thinking they're just to true up to legislative changes and things like that. So yeah, MSBA
typically comes up with updates and then we we look at our policies and make modifications based on um MSBA and legislative changes or language that we decide we we want to change. So was
there anything in your I looked at it I didn't see anything material but I mean does did do do you as the I guess the lead the lead person on this committee do you see anything that was material in these
um that's worth doubting? No I don't I don't think so. I think these were all pretty m of them are pretty mundane changes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any other questions? We all these will come back like a letter date to vote on. We're up
to now operational items. E1 action on the student transportation vendor proposal. Mr. Wald. Good evening, Chair Arcan board, Dr. Casmerch. We're here tonight to present uh recommendations for student
transportation vendors for 2025 26 school year and beyond. With me tonight is our director of transportation, Mr. Dave Johnson. For many, many years we refer to Dave as uh Safety
Dave. He has a great handle on student safety in the school district, especially relates to student transportation and is a thoughtful leader that way and he's been leading our uh transportation department for the last year and a half. Also with us is Tom Watson. Tom was a former uh
University of Minnesota finance director, mayor of North Oaks, and he serves uh as a consultant to school districts in a very specialized area, student transportation contracts. Uh there's not very many people in the state who do this and uh none who do it
as well as Tom. We're very thankful to have uh Tom with us. Is your mic on? Yeah, I just turned it on. Thanks. Thank you. I got it before you do. Um the uh there are several different classifications of school
buses um that school districts use. And so we will make reference to these uh class uh A B C D buses as well as type three. And that can be very confusing confusing to people who aren't living the world of student transportation
regularly. So um when I started in this role I really had to okay when you say type C what are you referring to? So put those images up here so you understand. Um our class C and D buses are the big yellows that uh run our regular three
tiers three tier routes in the morning three tier routes in the afternoon. Um, sometimes the type- C vehicle might also be equipped with wheelchair lifts and used for specialized transportation. Um, we run many vans, the type 3Es that you
see there for specialized transportation as well. Uh, and when we presented to the board in March, we shared that we uh run a hybrid transportation system. The district runs some u transportation services and contracts out for others.
Um the diversity of that situation works well for the school district, gives us some local expertise that we think is valuable as we work with contractors and families and we route provide all our own routing services. Um so we're not
relying on people who don't live and work in our community um to understand those uh you know best practice routing. Um first student is our primary vendor has been for several decades. Metro Transportation Network. You've maybe
seen the buses that say MTN on the side run a smaller number of buses for us. Um type type three again we have some hybrid services. We provide some van uh transportation but mostly we contract out with six different providers and
they're listed there. All these contracts expire July 30th and so it's important that we um have been negotiating this process and this RFQ throughout the year. Uh the procurement process was a very formalized process.
Steps one, two, and three are primarily um just defining the parameters, getting the word out to different vendors so we get a the best vendors um submitting quotations. We wanted to have um you
know the very best at the table. Um we contacted some providers directly um in case they hadn't seen the posting. Um we did a public opening of the quotation of the quotes in this room about half the room full of full of different vendors
here. I'm curious how that went. Um after that we interviewed directly with vendors um and were able to get uh what we think were the best prices available. And that brings us to tonight we're making recommendation to the school board. Um at that formal opening in
February we had five full service providers that submitted um quotes um and we had 21 type three vendors. There are a lot of type three vendors out there and uh and many of them wanted wanted work. In terms of the full
service, those companies that provide the larger buses, uh there's not very many of them out there and um and so we we had just five that submitted. Um key factors that we considered um you know,
really about rates. Can they uh can the vendor handle the volume that is required for a bigger school district like ours? What's their safety record? Are their buses in good shape? We reviewed um state records uh for
inspections to see if if the vendors were even worth talking to because if their if their safety record was not good, we just excluded them from um from the interview process. Um then again those contractors we
worked with we had you know we we had relationships with and we knew what kind of performance level they provided. We knew what their strengths and weaknesses were and then as well as um did they meet the criteria of the RFQ. So our recommendation for our CD routes that's the big yellows are the
primary vendor would uh we're recommending that First Student Incorporated um continue on as our primary vendor. They were the most competitive, responsible bidder in the mix. Um, they have a solid record with us.
They have a tra a terminal in our school district which I think perhaps makes them more competitive in being able to start their buses right within the school district and not have to drive from Fidley or wherever to get the buses to pair Lake. Um, and they, you know,
they're a larger company. They have the capacity to handle the volume that we require. Um the agreement with first student is at $454.68 for a route. That's a um increase over where we're at now. Uh
four and a half hours of route time handles the three tier routes in the morning, three tier routes in the afternoon. Uh we negotiated a five-year agreement. They submitted a four-year proposal. We negotiated a fifth year with them. And statute allows us to negotiate up to 10 years with them.
Neither first student nor the school district was really interested in well we would have been interested in negotiating up to 10 with for the right rate but they wouldn't have been interested in talking about the rate we were uh we don't know where the world will be in five years when it comes to student transportation so I feel pretty
good about locking in our prices for five years um with first student we pay the fuel cost so the route the rate that you see here is does not include the cost of fuel um that comes to about $32 a day on average for our buses. Um, first student
is committed to keeping their fleet 8 years or newer, which is about the same as our fleet. So, that rate of 45468 is a significant increase over our 2425 rate of 41618 and 9.25%. And this is where we're really
glad we had Mr. Watson at her side here because uh the rate the proposal came in at a 17% increase and you might remember that from the March presentation and um it was through a lot of meetings with them and um some significant negotiating
to get to that uh bringing from 17 down to 9.25% 25% and then those rates uh uh decrease as through the years to a 654 and then we requested that we go a fifth rate of a fifth year of 3%. and they agreed to
do that and the contract allows us to continue negotiating then in that 2930 year um you know we can negotiate five more years or it might be to our benefit to go for a um you know for a public bid offering at
that point for the type three vendors uh recommendation um is that we go with the vendors listed in this slide there's Is that six different six different vendors? Um they average
$315 per route on the type 3s which is actually slightly less than we're paying this year. Um so this was to our benefit to negotiate though uh with the type 3s and again thank you Mr. Watson for um for your skills as a negotiator
because we were able to get some vendors who were used to charging quite a bit more to drop their rates pretty significantly for us. Um many of these vendors for the type 3s have have a niche. Um one thing we looked at was do do any of them have 10 passenger
vehicles? Not very many do. So we have a few that have 10 passenger vehicles over the universal. Um um we looked at where they where they start. So um oftentimes with the type threes, we're making calls trying to get
coverage because somebody didn't show up at one of the vendors. And so can we get coverage from another vendor? And so we need some flexibility. We went with um providers that the ones we've worked with before we know have been really
responsive. and the others. We uh gained that sense through our interview with them and feel like we have a pretty strong group of vendors here for our type threes. Uh it's only a two-year negotiation with the type 3es and so within that contract, they've all agreed
to match the CPI student formula increase. Um which is great because typically vendors are looking for increases that are greater than what we get as a formula increase from the state. and um you can't continue to do
that for very long. Okay. So it brings us to the recommendation which is um the recommended action is to approve the agreements with the following transportation providers in the 2025
2026 school year as presented. uh type C and D provider, First Student Incorporated, type three providers, Integrated uh transportation, Northline Transportation, ODAY Transportation, Safe Tree, Treasured and Universal
Transit Services. All right, you've heard the proposal. Can I get a a motion to approve those? So moved. Okay, Miss Ellison, take a second. Second. Second by OG. Okay, are ready for questions?
Mr. Scar, maybe this is to um Mr. Is it Dr. or Mr. Watson? Mister was my father. Hey, so what's the, you know, we have this uh fiveyear fiveyear agreement
proposed here. Um, how does this compare with other districts of similar size? Is it is it pretty much this pretty much the same um as other districts similarly situated as us?
Um, good question. Um, just by comparison, American was listed on that list. Um, their proposal was $590 a day. And so if you add the $32
fuel, we are at 475. Um I only do two districts up work with two districts up in this neck of the woods. Um one of the uh competitors to the to the west. Uh I do Monza's work as
well. Um both these contracts are virtually identical. Mhm. Um and and part of what we tried to do in in this case with uh with these contracts, um these are basically price agreements is what they are. And the way
the language in the law now was changed four years ago that added that 10-year window, it's essentially uh the leverage we used and and I think that's what that that sectional law talks about. The vendor has to give you has to agree
to a set of prices for that term whether it's four years, five years or 10 years. First student wasn't willing to do that. We said well don't you want to be in White Bear? I mean you could give us a knock
if you knock your socks off proposal you know. um corporate uh they took everything to corporate which is in Cincinnati and corporate came back and said this is the limit we're not willing to go any further. Um the fact that they
were here um we were satisfied that the prices were probably as good as we were going to get. um the big national firms that can work on districts that command the kind of resources that you need to to support transportation in this district. Um
there aren't a lot of them anymore in the Twin Cities. Many of the big national firms have failed out of the Twin Cities. Um, some of us are trying to work on that a little bit by inviting these contractors to talk now even though the
contracts may not expire for two, three, four more years. The problem is when we go out in January and December and we're going to make a decision uh in May for that next school year, the lead time isn't sufficient for them to, you know, put their best face forward, figure out
their resources. They got to look for properties, etc., etc. they probably got to invest in a lot of buses and many of them can't do that. Um so um I thought we did pretty well uh with these and the other thing I was going to say to Tim um and
we've talked about that we really did take a hard look at which vehicles and the prices involved were serving what services of the district. First student, for example, was was providing also type three vehicles,
vans. Um, they were charging you in the neighborhood of $400 a day. The uh common rate that we've got on three of these vendors is 315. We got you have two of them that are at
285. Um, so if you quickly heard what I just said, that's about $100 a day. And as we know, I'm sure my friend over here can answer this question, but over the next week, um, the legislators are going to consider the governor's proposal,
right? And the proposal has to do with transporting special needs children. This is probably as good as we're going to get with protecting that because, as Tim and I talked many times, um, we are going to be going to the
board with an with an answer, but probably before the legislature adjourns. Well, were mind readers, I guess. U so we don't know quite what that means, but we took all of the type 3es away from these high-cost
vendors. And so the 315 vendors and the 285 vendors, they are people that have been in the business for 10 to 20 years and their do their locations and their terminals are in the pretty much here in the north metro. So there isn't a lot of
dead head time and u so we're getting you I think a better um economic plan with that as well. So I hope that that's a long-winded answer to your question. I hope but that's okay. No, it it answers it was one of the criteria one of the
concerns I would have is as these transportation companies exit Minnesota for whatever reason I don't know what the reasons are. you know, that's going to put upward pressure on prices down the road because there's less competition. So, that's something maybe
in six years we'll we'll see. Um, but um is was there any consideration of looking at the um viability of, you know, the financial wherewithal of these? Was that a criteria? I mean that they're well capitalized, they're not
thinly capitalized, that they have the the they're going to last five years, they're not going to exit, you know, in year three. And in their requirements, they were gave us the assurance that we could speak to their bankers, their
accountants, etc. and and analyze that very answer to that question. um we did not take that step but rather referred to a lot of them with respect to experience and where they're working and how that investment is working etc
etc um across the board on these candidates and we limited oursel to people that uh let me step back there's two issues going on in this market right now there are those providers who are brokering the services they don't own a
bus they don't own a van Um, one of the criteria we used is the district would like to see the provider and the owner of that provider face to face in the district, not some second, third party that's brokering, right,
those arrangements. And I think we did pretty well with with that. Um and the uh probably with respect to uh the capitalization I know most of these candidates there isn't a single one of these candidates that we haven't I
haven't dealt with in this market in another district and so we've looked at them. Uh I know a lot about the school district's response to these folks. Um universal student uh transit for example has been in the business 20 years. um integrated for example that's on the
list I happen to know a little bit about they they it's an organization that was formed two years ago but the principles have been in this market about 15 years they also have 10 passenger and specialized safety vehicles so uh
children that act out in the vehicle and all those kinds of so we got a lot of experience and knowledge hopefully I try to bring that to the district and say here let me tell you about these these particular folks. Remember, we had 21 proposals, we really worked hard with
about eight or 10 of them. Have we ever had uh one of these companies maybe in year two or year three say, "You know what? We got to walk away from this. We're going to walk away from this agreement because it's it's not good for us and we're not making any money, so we
exit." They just exit. Can they do that? they they could um serve notice um as the district could serve notice on them as well that they're not interested in in continuing that. Um honest to goodness, I haven't had that happen.
Okay, good. Thank you at all. Thanks. Other questions? I have a comment and this is just more of a personal comment. I just want to shout out to Safety Dave and the training he does with the drivers and the And I have a relative that lives near me and I often meet this
child on the bus and the drivers and the bus aid is a special needs student. Phenomenal. Just they know the student, they know the family, they know the dog, they know me, they know the uncles, the aunts, they know everybody. And they're so great. And I just have to say
appreciate it so much the safety and care because it's such an important part of a student's day getting to school, coming home, and for parents to feel that their child, whether it's a general ed student or somebody that has is more vulnerable to make sure they're
delivered safely and they have a ride safely. So, thank you all. All of it. Thanks. Right. Any other questions? Thank you. We have the motion in front of us. This will be a roll call vote. Will the clerk please call the role? Strifei I. Thompson I. Aran I. Daniels
I. Ellison I. Scar I. Okay. Motion carries. All right. Thank you. Thanks. The second item we have today for operational item is E2. We're going to take action on schoolboard policies 413,
512, 706, 710, 711, and 712. These came before the board for the first reading in April. See if we get a um first I'm going to go ahead and ask are there any questions? Can I get a motion to accept
these board policies? So moved by Thompson. Can I get a second? Second. Second by Ellison. Any further discussion? Hearing none. Um this will be a a voice vote. All in favor say I. I. opposed. Same side. Motion
carries. All right, we're going to go to board forum. Um, it's now time for any board member that would like to share things. And I want to give you an example. This is a time for us to talk about things that are going on uh in the buildings or something's happening. For example, I'm just going to lead with uh
we are part of Ramsey County League of Local Governments and any and so anybody from White Bear Lake school system, you know, teachers, anybody can participate. Well, on May 22nd, we are going to have a Karoki night in Shiew at In Vino Ver
Veres, we think it was. And so you, it starts from 6:00 and goes to 8. So I'm inviting everybody to our karaoke night. And once again, we're members of Ramsey County League of Local Government. So those are the kind of things we could bring up during the forum. Anybody else have anything to share?
Go ahead. Well, I was I was uh was a privilege to be a part of the teacher of the year interviews and I just want to shout out to all the teachers that were nominated and um it's so inspiring and I feel so grateful that we have the
caliber and this the love and the dedication of all the teachers in the district whether they were part of that process or not. It's just a really uplifting thing. If any of you get a chance to be a part of that committee, please do so. You'll just come home and
just feel like the best and was such an honor. Um, and I just want to congratulate all the graduates coming up and enjoy the summer and be safe and thanks to all the staff and families for a super year. Mr. Scott, you Yes. I just wanted to
make sure everybody knows that we're having our 25th annual White Bear Lake Area Education Foundation golf tournament on June 16th. It's at uh Oak Glenn Golf Course. And your entry fee in includes a lunch, green fee, golf cart,
dinner, drink ticket, and a golf gift. And uh the board's been uh generous enough to be a copper green sponsor for this. So, um, and if people can attend, uh, that would be great. Again, it's
June 16th at Oakland, and check-ins at 10:30, tea off, shotgun start at noon. And I I just want to point out, we use our own individual funds. No school district money was to sponsor that. We all chipped in. So, I wanted to make sure it was real clear. We didn't spend
district funds for that. So, and thank you for all your work. Thanks for that clarification. Okay, Miss Thompson, uh, just a point again about it being, you know, mental health awareness month. I know that there's a lot of people out there who may be struggling. Just take care of
yourself and know that, um, you, you know, get some help if you feel that you need it or just talk to somebody. Anybody that you feel comfortable talking to and sharing can really make a difference. And so I hope everybody just continues to take care of themselves and each other. And just be aware if you see
someone struggling, maybe just ask them, you know, if they're having a good day because that even just that can make a difference in someone's life. Night of Jazz starts in three minutes over at the high school. So if anybody I'm going to race over there to watch my
kid, but this time of year there's so many great concerts happening in the district. So if you have time, go check them out. All right. Anybody had a chance? All right. Well, we're going to go to uh negotiations. This portion of the
meeting may be closed to consider strategy for labor negotiations, including negotiation strategies or developments or discussions and review of labor negotiation proposals uh conduct uh pursuant to Minnesota statute
179A.01 to 179A.25. After we're done with that, we will just go ahead and adjourn. So, you know, you don't have to wait around for us. And so, first thing I need for this is, can I get a motion to move into close session? So, moved. Daniels, can I get a
second? Second. Second. Who? Strip OG. All right. We have that in front of us. Uh, this will be a voice vote. So, all in favor say I. I. Oppos? Same sign. All right. We're going to move into close session. Thank you everybody for coming tonight.