##VIDEO ID:fOF4x8KuKNE## you we are going to call reg SCH [Music] meeting standed States na indivisible approve motion by Don second by Carol any discussion get to feel so formal when I come over here to present and it's not very often that I get to do it two months in a row so this is a this is kind of unique tonight we get to honor our outgoing board member Evan senson who has served for the last four years um we um thank you so much for your time your commitment and your energy that youve put into ausome public schools for the last four years thank you for your commitment to Safety and Security I know that that was something that you've been passionate about the entire time that you've been on this board so um we are so thankful for the voice that you've given to that um space for us and um we just wish you the best as you move forward I have a gift for you [Music] [Applause] Shar b superintend p and members of the board citizens of Austin it's been an honor and pleasure serving with the students staff Administration superintendent Paige and the citizens of Austin some of the highlights over the last four years have been one of the first things that I was a part of was hiring a Dr Paige um it was a pretty exciting time to get on to the board and we all um think that was a good decision so I hope you're here for a while um we had some challenges closing out co uh navigating the financial challenges through that uh challenge I thought we did a really good job the the budget stayed where it should be when we were searching for money so uh we were part of uh redist we redistricting redistricting the the boundaries in Austin uh we brought kindergarten back to Local Schools uh we passed a bond referendum that we desperately needed and we also had we accomplish several several goals um that we should all or that we can all be proud of observing the Democratic process on a local level has been enlightening and it is great to be and it was great to be a part of it it's incredible to see all the work that's done behind the scenes that the community doesn't see the staff um doesn't see the administration and every all the the board work that we do that uh we try and accomplish goals that are ultimately for the good of the students um finally uh thank you to my wife kids and my family for the you've given me with late meetings and running kids around when I haven't been available um the community is in great hands with the district moving forward and the current board and the future board um you know as a alumni of the Class of 2004 of Austin uh never thought I'd be in a position like this and it's been a wonderful uh experience and something I'm never going to forget so Merry Christmas um Happy New Year's and it's always I'm always proud to be a [Applause] packer anybody want to all we are going to jump right into our next agenda item which is our fall activities review with activities director Kate Carter good evening board chair Tob Dr paig members of the board and guests um thank you for having us for our annual fall activities review um as you can see I brought some friends with me tonight that will be able to talk about their programs in a little bit more detail than I will be able to it was a busy fall uh we had a lot of great things happening the first thing we're going to roll right into is um our one activity that actually had an event during the fall our theater program is directed by Kim Potter um this year we had 21 registrations um I don't know if that included uh the like stage crew and all that but um we had the fall musical at Cinderella that was actually own at Riverland this year because we were having some we need some updates at Ellis Auditorium and what I love about Kim is that just the theater Community they're all connected you know Ellis Austin High Matchbox Riverland they all work in Partnership and that just is a really those resources together really give us a great opportunity to put on um some spectacular performances for you guys um our musical director for this program was Kim zerki and now I'm going to invite up Kim to talk a little bit about Cinderella good evening school board members Dr pige and extended guest my name is Kim Potter and I am still the AHS theater director I came to share highlights of our fall activities um I wrote everything down because we do so much that I will forget um this year I Chang the format since last year it was difficult for many of our students to pay for three different activities fees being in two shows and in drama club so this year I am using our email group um as our drama club where I can post different events opportunities and encouragement throughout the year that list is up to 75 students who have not asked to be removed from the group they want to participate even if they can't commit to a show my fun start uh was with more than pink this summer I have been a presenter with since it started but this year I decided to use what I've learned in this position to give back and actually have the group read and perform a skate in Cisco it was well received and I still have little ones catching up and saying I'm doing the class at Ellis that so fun um it's always good to advertise our group fund started this summer when we were asked once again to participate in Austin artworks uh the weekend before school started we had a great group do some short skits and it was well received Ronda rean the Ellis director and I had the opportunity to travel up to the cities and investigate a group in chasa that was having a costume sale and we scored big uh we were excited to share new costumes with Austin and the surrounding areas we also did the same with Albert Le Community Theater because they were downsizing so we are ready for the next few years with fresh materials you haven't seen before and I held auditions the first week of school we needed at least 12 people and we ended up with 20 showing up I knew I might not have as many since this is a princess show but this is a classic that is near and dear to my heart so we began rehearsal the next week also changing the format so Tech was Monday and Friday actors came Tuesday through Thursday which allow them more flexibility in their nightly commitment as requested by the students after last year C briefing we also changed the time to be 6:30 to 8:30 which also allowed them to get food homework done Etc not feel rushed also as requested by cast and crew they requested a long run time so we had more opportunities to rehearse than the fine tuning since we have mea PD holidays everything early on unfortunately as Katie said Midway through our rehearsal we were notified that the Ellis Lake system was no longer working and cannot be fixed due to age it will need to be replaced which is going to take time this was disheartening for our cast because Cinderella is magical uh using a couple of spotlights and flashlights we just weren't sure that that was going to give the quality production that we wanted to share so I began reaching out to our tremendous theater communities to brainstorm and gather ideas ultimately just swinging in to visit with John Dio and Randy Forester from Somerset and Riverland they happened to be chatting I gave them the scenario and asked for ideas companies that we could possibly rent lights from they were in the middle of their musical carry at Riverland and without missing a beat John said when is your show and I said November 22nd through 24th he said why don't you just come here what was my initial reaction um I reassured and said it again what I nodded and I think I tried not to cry so we began making our plans what needed to be moved how many um how we can make this manageable and efficient and get the volunteers we needed we had many hands to help we moved over on November 6th using a trailer borrowed from Mr dundis we got everything over there began reassembling our stage we worked many hours but also had some College theater students show up and help us too it truly was a community event our production ran November 22nd through 24th with attendance being our biggest we have seen since we started three years ago little ones came dressed up in princess dresses they were screaming and clapping as Cinderella completed her quick change and magically came through the carriage the pictures with Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother afterwards were Priceless you would have thought they were at Disney we did have a successful show but during our run we were also invited to have some princesses attend a make a wish event at um Pizza wrench and we were invited to dress up as Harry Potter characters for sweet GRE downtown for a trick-or treat event this year the community wants to see our students in their element being themselves while playing characters having fun and enjoying their High School experience I'm glad we can provide so many options for our theater students thank you uh rolling into fall Athletics first up we have volleyball um we had 61 participants this year it was up 13 from last year we still have five levels of play with Varsity JB B Squad and then the 9A and 9B teams our head coach is Michelle gabrielson and she was also selected as the section 13A co- coach of the year um her assistance this year at the JB level was Chelsea brma B Squad was Gabby Drews and our ninth grade coaches were Bri Nelson and Kylie desan um varsity they had the best record they've had since 2009 so it was a really good year we had two all conference and one All Conference honorable mention and now I will invite Michelle to talk a little bit more about volleyball good evening school board members Dr Paige thank you everybody for having me to talk about volleyball a little bit um so this this was my first season I say back home at Austin Packer volleyball I am a grad and on that um 2009 team that we did finally beat our record and so I just have a few of our highlights this year to share with you guys so we finished the season with the 17 and 13 record which was the first winning season since I was a senior on the team so that was really fun to watch happen um we won the first tournament since 2008 so this year we won the St Anthony Village tournament which was only the second time um in program history that a varsity team has won a tournament for Austin Packer volleyball which was awesome um this one's my favorite Award of the entire season I always stress that players are student athletes first and there's a reason that word student comes first um and so this year the team achieved the Minnesota team gold academic award so getting a team cumulative GPA of 3.75 and higher and so I just that's like I said that's my favorite award um all through the season I tell my team you know if they're behind on tests if they have missing work that it's absolutely okay to be late to practice and go and take care of that stuff before they come to practice and a lot of girls really utilize that and would make up tests or retake tests to make sure that we could achieve that and I think that's um like I said my favorite award because we really have to have students before we can have athletes and so they need to take care of in the classroom before we can take care of what we need to on the court some other individual Awards um so we had academic all state was Leah Joe Adamson as a senior our big n scholar awards were hi hman and Leah Joel as well all conference was Quinn oold and Addison Walsh Quinn achieved over 300 kills in a single season and Addie Walsh had over 500 digs in a single season we also had all conference honorable mention Isabella bolster she had over 200 kills in a single season we had 13 letter letter winners um I just want to thank my awesome awesome coaching staff they do a wonderful job at helping build the program as well as supporting our student athletes and then I want to thank all of our fans and our wonderful student section and fans we had tons of this year which was really awesome um the fan section goes a long way and making sure the girls have energy and momentum on the court so just thank you to everybody moving on AC cross country boys and girls cross country um this year this is a program where it goes 712 so we do have Ellis students involved in our high school programming uh boys we had 19 from Austin High and seven from Ellis and we were up four with the boys at the high school level and we were up one at the middle school level for girls we had 11 at Austin High and 14 at Ellis up two from the girls at high school and up nine at the Middle School uh for cross country Runners we had varsity and JB uh levels this year we made a switch Tony enerson is not the sole coach anymore him and Robin De glavin have turned into co-head coaches um um for the program and they are assisted by Henry henchcliffe and Ruben Perez they had two All Conference one All Conference honorable mention uh one state participant Marissa sh and then girls did reach academic gold and boys were academic silver so to talk a little bit more we have did I give it all away so I'm going to be very short because it's all it's all right there um go thank you um Evan um don't feel any age at all when one of your athletes I think 2004 when 2004 started here in 97 so he was you one of the first one you know kind of ones that came through for me but when they start being on the board and then being off of the board and I'm still here for making me feel so young getting closer to that retirement age but not quite there just age Tony You're Timeless I'm trying um number wise I can't be more excited about what's happening with our numbers as the group you know we were up here um several athletes for the both boys and the girls girls program is actually the largest girls program we've had um since I've been here when when we combine our Junior High um we also had sixth graders that are part of the program um that do spend a little bit of time with us and our Junior High coach does a great job um with those coach Perez coach Hing Cliff again another another athlete that I had nice to have those uh Henry on board uh with that uh season lines as you can see Marissa Shu qualified for the state tournament this was her fourth time she's qualified for the state tournament I think believe she's the third person that that has done that through Austin High through the cross country uh program uh Marissa Thomas Asus and Syne Lewis also were all conference they also were academic All State as well which is a huge huge honor uh for those athletes uh kind of what program kind of lives by we always kind of tell them that we've got really kind of two goals that we have um we want to make them lifelong Learners and we want to make lifelong Runners I think the district goal is lifelong Learners we got the goal of lifelong Runners and we always want to make them you know feel like they're part of the team especially we've got these younger kids that are involved and a lot of the things that we get sometimes the apprehension of some of those Junior High parents coming in is they're a little bit worried that theyve got these Juniors and seniors that are um are there and we always tell them is that you know they went through it too they know how to treat the kids they bring the kids right and they kind of show them you know kind of our way of doing things um and I could be more proud of the group of leaders that we had uh this year and the successful season kind of looking forward to what going to happen up in the Years coming so thank you very much all right next up is football just some stats before coach gets up here did 91 registrations this year at the beginning of the Season that is up 21 from last year uh varsity and JB levels head coaches Ed Schmidt his assistants were Mark Winkles Tom Compton Lyall Allen Blake Harris Jesse CGR Tate kebr Hunter Anderson and James trino uh we have two all district and two all district honorable mention remember we don't have conference anymore for football as it is um they have realigned differently on how we do football but to talk a little bit more about the program coach page school board members U thanks for the us to do this and and if you have questions you can always text or call or email or whatever you have um so this season had several ups and downs obviously uh the email went to all of you with our last game and the decision we had to the tough decision we had to make um with for fitting our last game um like I said at the banquet I hopefully we never have to go through that situation again um took a lot to the last two games were were tough they were tough in deciding do we play do we thrown the towel um ktie and we had long talks about that kind of a thing and U again it was ups and downs when I say those are the Downs the UPS are um a lot of players got playing time um which hopefully will help in the future um and then you saw growth by some of those you know maybe 13 players that um I mean one of our honorable mentions this year hockey player that came out for his first year and made all desct mention so those are the upet you do have the positives in there and and that was a great thing about you know one thing I'll say about the other coaches is no one quit no one ever gave up no one um complained or you know just threw their own toel and we we we coach as hard as we could and we did week in week out um like K said 91 players that registered that's 9 through 12 uh we do continue to to work to build the program um because football is a numbers game um you know when we had injuries and you know we have a junor down we're typically replacing with a sophomore where a lot of bigger schools I should say bigger schools we're one of the biggest schools in our section um but when Cass andon have more players then you they have more to pick from and maybe throw in another junior senior um hopefully next year if all the players come back we return 19 Juniors 23 sophomores and 19 freshman um I believe the eighth graders had 20 plus players this year so we're hoping that we can bring them in typically what I like to do in the springtime with those eighth graders is we have like this time of year is Signing Day for football in college so they have the big letter of intent they sign they take pictures I can go over to Ellis and with eighth graders and do the same thing where they sign a letter of intent to play football with us try to take pictures and throw them on Twitter and uh have them see that their families can see that um throughout the season we had 26 season ending in that was part of the email nine broken bones nine soft tissue injuries eight concussions um not some of the broken bones and fingers so don't it's a physical sport Fingers um I mean that's a concern obviously um also a huge concern for us was the academic issues that we had and the ineligible players at one time during the season out of those 91 players had 21 that were academically ineligible and I don't think we're asking that much to be eligible to play there were times on bus trips where the coaches the JB coaches were going up the down the aisle for them to look their at the portal to see if they had passed the class if they could play that day and again it's just something that we don't want to go through all the time end of the season we had 13 ineligible to play that was another reason we had to for it um in light of that um myself and three other coaches here at the high school uh we're piloting a new program to aim the development and support of our student athletes within the school this program will focus on academics attendance behaviors in the classroom and goal setting uh we're going take a proactive approach to help our student athletes improve themselves uh we as coaches will meet both those individuals on our list every two weeks for the rest of the school year um so it's just extra support it's not you know we as football coach who come sit there and say you have to do this just for football this is for life this is for every sport they play and there's their career here at Austin High School but this is for life and that's what we want to let you know then um when I say the Skyway Platinum District just doesn't have the same big nine ring to it so it's still tough getting use of them um so the Skyway Platinum District uh Isaac Anderson was mention all district he's a junior hun tapio was honorable mentioned all district he's a senior Rob Willis was all district as as a junior and Samuel Winkles was all district and uh Samuel played seven games he he got hurt broke three ribs um and then couldn't play the last game but Samuel had 108 tackles in seven games so 15 tackles per game um he he you know he's a stud's he's just he's a great he's a great athlete great person overall um so we look forward to what he's going to do at St Cloud State because he's signed there for wrestling and look forward to Rob and hopefully Isaac Anders coming back next year and uh make us proud um some of our offseason things that we do weight room opportunities before and we also have a Speed and Agility in the dome that will start in January and that's two times per week for 8 weeks so they have 16 more opportunities too and you know that's for all athletes it's not just football players so if there's anybody in track that wants to you know do some speed the drills be there and they can do that 45 minutes to an hour and throw the football around a little bit and then um last thing I have here is weight room attendance is is where we we really need to improve um like I said football is a physical sport but this is going to help the student athlete be stronger faster help injury prevention and not injury recovery and also it's proven to help with mental health so I did play a little evil on the kids um when Mrs Carter was there we were talking about the for biding and talking I just said listen I just got a box in the office with a bunch of pills in there and you can take one pill a day and it's going to make you faster stronger helps with injury prevention and recovery and help your mental health not a steroid but who here wants to take almost raised your hand and I said that pill's called the waight room and it's there for you every single day so we need to get to the weight room want those things that's there for you so hopefully we're taking advantage of that I know right now the numbers aren't great but we will um probably after Christmas break start to get on that little bit more so hopefully these numbers improve and again hopefully we're not forfeiting any games in the near future I'm going to skip ahead to cheer and then go back to swimming dive um our cheer team is coached by Cassy bour and her she's assisted by Elena moer and they had 22 or 23 registrations this year and she's going to talk a little bit about what they did this year hello everyone thank you for having us here um again my name is Cy mour and I'm our Ching coach this is my second year here um at Austin High um this year we had a young Squad talent wise um but they really did absorb like sponges and they were eer and excited to learn really exciting um even with not a lot of experience we continued to improve um and we on the same one that we were as last year and even improved in our sense um and we had a larger team than last year um so that was exciting coming in as a newer coach and with um newer athletes and we did have a lot of seniors trying trying out which was nice um because they were here like to show school pride and so I had a couple girls literally recruiting like come Che come Che so and so we had like a large group of seniors also um a large group of freshman um that did have a lot of uh talent and they added a lot to the team um we were able to purchase new uniforms this year with the help of the athletic department so that was um great we were in need of that and so they were able um to look nice and show out and those they were very excited even though they came towards the end of the season but we got them eventually um we did have to go through a couple captains this year um but the ones that we ended up with at the end um it does take a lot a lot of people don't realize everything that goes into Che living um it is important it's a lot and that we had um they were younger but they were really excited and they really took on the challenge and they were asking me hey what can we do better what can we do this um so that was really great to see in in our captains um the team was really positive this year um and they truly acted like a family no matter what was happening on the field they continued to to support we contined to show our skills we continued um to have a good time you know even though it's not all about a skirt and a boat um and they're learning that and recognizing that and I think um people are starting to pick up and and hon that um even with that we received a lot of positive feedback um we were interviewed by the day of the news we were shown on TV multiple times I people from you know different cities and counties reaching out to me um I even had a couple colleges reaching out you know asking us we had a recruiter there one game and I'm asking to come join them at some of their college camps um so that's good you know uh Jing it's getting bigger here and it's getting recognized um but even with that I also try to coach them into just being like good students and in our community you know you're a cheer leader um so just having them stand out and it is uh it is a high responsibility that I expect um we were able to cheer for the Kickball team uh coach car asked us to do that this year so so that was fun at the kickball game for homecoming um even with the little change in walking from the school over here so just new activities that we're able to be involved in and kind of like had that charge is is fun um we continue to plan to stay involved um in sh room for a couple of the basketball games any that go on um we're here to support we're here to to continue to grow the program and get better so thank you for having [Applause] us our last um of the coaches that are here and then the other coaches that are not here they emailed me stuff to read on their behalf uh girls swim and dive I think I'm going to probably let Alexa talk about most of the bullets that are on here but we did have 45 registrations which was the same last year so we stayed pretty level varsity and JB uh levels co- coaches for girls swim and dive as well Alexa Peterson and Ryan Kelly and then um Analise Anderson she's our diving coach and she was named section 1A dive coach of the year for the second year in a row um and Alexa and Ryan are assisted by Amanda hemry and Tyler Myers so with that said I will let her come up and talk about their season thank you for having me um yeah if you look at some of those bullet points um you can tell we had a stellar season um we had some ups and downs during the way along the way um Ryan and I are always looking to improve ourselves and in turn improve our team um I'm going to Echo a little bit of what Tony enerson said we have a seventh grade through 12th grade actually sixth grade through 12th grade program um that gets to be a little dicey when you're trying to make a team test to um she was part of that but it needs to be a focus it can't just be start get kids in the water and you know go from August to November um and so Ryan and I really put some time and effort into selecting our captains um kind of laying on our expectations and the need to build team um we have 45 participants this year for the next couple years our numbers look good and then after that we graduate a lot of kids after that two years course um we need our support and people in the community to understand that swimming and Diving is hard but it's also fun and we welcome everybody um and so we worked on that um throughout the year um the 10 seniors we had five captains we had really helped kind of catapult us into the successes that we had um in the middle and end of the season um we worked hard they pushed each other um we infused fun into some of the practices they had Barbie practices a lot pink um and it was a hard set we did but they you know the wearing pink and the having some fun with it um made it doable you know and they look forward to it instead of shying away from it um during the section practices the divers weren't there one day because they came in in the morning and so they had this idea of can we bring in glow sticks and turn off the lights that was one of the highlights of the section team season came back over and over and over again at the banquet so you know a few glow sticks and turn off some lights and there you go so it was fun um and if those things work and give us the results that we got I'm willing to do those year in and year out so um but yeah you look at some of these things um we end up kind of in the middle of the big nine in terms of dual meets and the the big nine meet itself um where we are competing against the three Rochester schools Northfield those are all much bigger schools than we are um but we walked away from there with good experience di Elena Kennedy meet um ree Norton I believe was second um you know and then we walk away with our four All Conference um sections it was Alena Reese um Gracie Greenman as a swimmer who won the backstroke um and then Abby Boon um as well so that was good um moving on to our section meet or I'm G to go to True Team that was a fun meet for us true team is different than other Championship meets where champion needs usually your top 16 Varsity swimmers compete in the finals and actually have a chance to score um True Team everybody who finishes legally scores and so at that meet U we talked this up to the kids we're like this is a great kind of no distress meat to give it your all take a risk go out harder than you think you can they did that um third as a team they got a trophy I have never seen so much jum and for themselves um it was really really fun that had not happened for quite a few years um for us as a team so that was really really fun um our divers for that one they participated um on a different day for a true team but I think overall I wrote down they scored 117 points for us just in that one meet because the four divers all that all finished top 20 um so their points helped get us to where we were um moving on to our section meet at the end of the which is our state qualifying meet as well um we entered day one of sections U with that hype of you guys have been working since August for this and they were in their Tech suits the fancy ones that Olympians wear and they were ready um but at that point we have to kind of as coaches let them go and call their nerves and tell them to go get it and we had 40 swims day one 35 of them were either lifetime or best and if you do the ma that's 88% of our swims that day were best at one point Ry and I looked at each other we're like what's going on and it just kept going and going and you know by the time we got done with that day um we just looked and we're like that couldn't have gone any better so and of those 40 swims top um two Heats or top 16 kids come back for day two um we had almost half of our kids coming back and that was another number that we had um for years so that's all you know Ryan and I write it down on paper we tell them this one back and forth um but they work in and they saw the results at the end um at that meet um we had again Elena one sections Reese was second um Gracie Greenman during that day one of sections she blew her sister Lindsay Lucas's IM record off the board um and had fun taking the record off the board the next day that was fun to watch and then she also improved her backstroke record um time so she was one that had just phenomenal swims um day two Anita our new H butterflyer she qualified for that meat that was a fun one because that was a new kind of swim outside your comfort zone try something new um she did that um along with a lot of other people and just swam really well ended really well um had a fun for a season um and then we sent off our three state qualifiers Elena Ree and Gracie to the state meet um they had goals and they met them um I figure out stage I'm kind of that emotional just said keep your emotions in check I'll get you where you need to be I'll keep you fed um and then go do you um Elena one um reys had a kind of a shaky day one um was in 15th Place moved up to 12th and then finished the last day fth which was a place year before so she was very happy with that and I was glad for them because they're little seniors um so it's nice to have them Reach goals that they had set for themselves um Gracie kept it together she was up there swimming two events this year last year it was just one um she came back day two for her IM um and placed 14th and then one goal for her was to be the North Field swimmer that she's been competing against for years um and in the backstroke she moved up a place she was second place um finished in second and be the Northfield so and your time again so no it was fun it was a good season um as a team it was fun they cheered each other on um it was hard it can be hard but it's also fun at the same time so that's a message that we want to keep preaching um we want people to know that they're welcome from sixth grade all the way up to 12th grade um and that group of seniors helped along the way all 10 of them they will be missed um but they left great work ethic um that the other kids have seen that hopefully that teams in the future will remember so I thank you for your time okay girl soccer uh we had 41 registrations this year that was up by five from last year we have two levels for High School girls soccer varsity and JB we had one All Conference one honorable mention our head coach is Amber r and her assistants are Monica Vargas Stephanie kitr and Emma Gores and Amber emailed this to me just to read on her behalf uh they started the season with the scrimmage against the St Paul school uh their best match was against worington uh where they scored seven goals one athlete scored a hattrick and we had three athletes get their first Varsity goals this year the girls team had growth in our statistic performances we focused on possession passing combination and shot opportunities we went from under 40% 40% possession of the ball to 57% possessions in our games from two passing combinations to our average of five passing combinations we also had an increase in our shot opportunities this season and even scored two goals in our section game the big nine has a lot of competitive teams and girls soccer really focused on each game to improve and get better although we didn't have a winning record we had very competitive matches against barille Redwing and Albert Lee and showed improvements on our stats off the field the girls had opportunities for community and team building one of their greatest memories this season was getting a coach bus to their Worthington game and celebrating with pizza dinner at the GRE at Greenville we also had an outdoor movie night at Westcott a successful fundraising Car Wash and weekly competitions at practice so that was girls soccer uh boy soccer 7 five registrations up by one from last year we have three levels Varsity JB in nth grade we had three All Conference one All Conference honorable mention head coaches Jen Lon assistants are Ryan Mayors GTO Sanchez and H Alvarez um Jen's emailed me and he had this to say uh we had a number of highs and lows throughout the season we had games where we played really well and showed that we could compete with the the top teams in the conference we also had games where most of the varsity team was injured unrelated to the season but related to high school soccer through United Soccer Coaches um Jens was awarded a grant to host a course on Saturday December 7th we have 14 coaches that are involved with the high school and Junior High boys and girls soccer teams participate in a regional di uh diploma course they spent three hours in the classroom and another three in the Dome US Soccer Coaches staff that came up from Kansas City and Omaha did a fantastic job educating and challenging our coaches this is the first time we've been able to host a course of this level in the 20 years he's been in Austin he's excited to see how coaches use this experience moving forward and then our final fall sport is girls tennis uh this year we have 21 registrations that was the same as last year varsity and JV levels we had two academic all uh girls tennis earn the academic gold head coach is Anderson and the assistant is Mark Henderson um Jenna Hensel and Payton Nelson were the our academic All State and girls tennis we are moving to a three class system next year so they're adding three a third class to tennis uh which will be good from a competitive standpoint because it's just going to rearrange some of the levels um and we do have the opportunity to um try to realign and maybe go down smaller division but we'll see how that goes so that's tennis uh pet bands um we had a really good all pet band we had 93 participants up 11 from last year uh the director is Kristof dundis and his assistant is Ethan Quin um he had this to say about pet band find it here fall pep band had a fairly typical season students per at four football games three in the stands and on the field at homecoming and marched in the homecoming parade pet band also performed at two soccer games and one home soccer playoff game band quickly adapted to this year's homecoming changes and students greatly appreciated the modified Parade route that ends at the high school rather than having to walk back from Riverside uh this year is the beginning of the post pandemic rebuild for Austin High School band our current 10th through 12th graders were middle schoolers during the peak of the pandemic which led to fewer students starting baned and more students dropping out before high school in those grades unfortunately this means that the impact of the pandemic for the ban program lasts for 7even to eight years last year was the bottom of high school band enrollment which has had a big effect on our extracurricular b band ensembles however this year we have a strong post-pandemic nth grade class in enrollment is beginning to climb so that was pet band for the year um um I started a new group this year called the bleacher captains these are 15 seniors who applied at the end of last spring they had to fill out a Microsoft form with their interest and tell me why they would be you know worthy of Bleacher Captain spot and this group is super fun to work with we meet monthly and we just talk about how can we increase The Fan Experience um how can we welcome the visitors how can we be support be supportive and theyve really really taken off I mean they have jobs some are in charge of the themes some are in charge of social media um they just are really focused on bringing a really good experience to our students that attend and support their classmates in uh on November 19th I took four which is on the bottom right we went to Rochester for the Minnesota State High School leaks together 3.0 student conference you will hear more about that January I believe they're coming to talk to you about their experience and what they um what they learned from that day but it's been super great and I'm excited I think it's kind of catching on and I'm hoping Juniors at the end of this year um will apply and lead the next group of Bleacher captains um we also had three happen to be winter athletes but they all had signing days in the fall Elena Kennedy in diving she will be attending Boston University Rees Norton diving she will be attending claring college in Pennsylvania and Samuel Winkles will be wrestling for St Cloud State University next year and just scrolling through the social media Pages we were busy this year the activities Department you know they're involved and they want to get out there and make a difference we had National Honor Society induction coach fadness was inducted into the coaches Basketball Hall of Fame the cheer team they put on a clinic on a Saturday and then they get to you know cheer with the Austin High cheerleaders at a game the National Honor Society they go trick-or-treating for cans for the Packer Pantry um the top right there is the cross country team running back from football on homecoming to deliver the football to the football captains Elena's di records uh we have the state club or the the club bowling team the state and then you know homecoming I know we've heard about it a few times but just the change was good the packing event right there is that aial shot and then the band and the cheer team leading us down to Westcott on Friday for the final pep Fest we have our homecoming Court we hired a new uh a volleyball coach for the boys team youth leadership had a blood drive we had section coaches of the year and the so we've had a lot going on but it's been super fun to watch and support them and these kids are driven and and they have a lot of great ideas to make big changes for the better for our school um just some Fall stats 48 fall Sports registrations we have 34 coaches total overall in grades 9 through 12 in all of our programs 38 people helped work our events whether it's selling tickets or doing scoreboard or announcing or working concessions um our fall sports are held in nine venues we hosted 40 home events we had four invites this year that we hosted volleyball for the first time hosted two one date was for lower level the second date was for JB enity swim and dive have their annual invite as well as cross country two section coaches of the year and three athletic letters of intent signings um just some things that the activity department is doing around our strategic priorities uh the first one you know as we've mentioned Gan we've gone digital or we've added digital Al we have digital ticketing you can use card and we still have cash that has been working really great we did our homecoming dance with that we can do prom with it we did theater I even let Ellis theater do digital sales and we just transferred funds into their account so it it's been going really really well um game time that is a music streaming service a platform in which I'm working with that they have employees that vet these songs and Screen them so we know with 100% you know guarantee that the lyrics and the music that's coming from that platform will be appropriate for school events um scorecard the the SC up at the top there that's a data analysis program that I'm working with um that's going to help just analyze our programs so coaches and I can have good you know objective discussions about our teens and how to grow and how to improve um and then just what we're doing um at the school which is this next one I wanted to give you a sneak peek into our newest initiative which is the Packer study table um we just completed week one last week so our advisor for this and again it's having conversations with the coaches about student we need the students before we can have the athletes and you know I think it's starting to hit even the kids that what they do in the classroom affects not only themselves but their team and their coaches and the today things that they are committing themselves to so every Thursday I do grade checks anybody that's on that grade check list meaning two FS or more that following Monday and Wednesday they are required to go to Packer study table for an hour from 3:30 to 4:30 um like I said Eric Anderson is leading it and we also have some Austin aspires um facilitators Teresa Lugo and Johan Reas they come in after school as extra support systems and depending on this goes if there's a need you know we have the opportunity to bring in peer tutors if we need to but after week one I mean it's just it's been a really big S success these pictures are actually from today's session uh Monday today after school so they just it's another level of support for them because it is it's hard to manage being a student being an athlete plus everything you got going on at home and sometimes 30 to 45 minutes of just supported work can be very beneficial um and then Mr Anderson's doing some great things with Packer profile work as far as soft skills when they get in there they have to go right into their portal they have to look at their grades they have to write down their percentages they look at their attendance how many times was I tardy how many times was I absent and then at the end oh and they have to create a goal what what's their goal for the week what are they going to try to you know improve on and then before they leave exit um slip is they have to send an email to their coach myself and Mr Anderson Just teaching them that communication skill and follow through so that's kind of the new initiative um for winter and I'm excited to come back in March or April and give you the winter report but that's all I have thank you for your time any questions you know what I'm actually going to uh put a little time out on the questions if that's okay because um I want to get our student representatives in so you guys have questions for Katie give her shoot her an email just thank you for all you did appreciate your thank you uh our next agenda item we're going to do a little shifter here because um student Representatives needs toou minutes so our um next agenda item is our student representative reports with today I'd like to recognize achievement within our school Community the AHS band teacher Christopher D was honored teacher of the year District this special moment was made even moreable his family surpris with the reward in class Mr recognition is very humble and students will Qui to affm is well deserve they share how he excels connecting them and making the process of learning music both enjoyable and accessible I'd like to add I never had him as a teacher so I asked one of his students today to describe his teaching what they love about she lit up said he can connect any instrument that you've done to one that you're learning and he's super passionate about music and music theory next I'd like to highlight a meaningful project led by the social studies Department in honor of veterans this year all social studies teachers at the high school will have their students write at heartfelt letters to Veterans these veterans or these letters were distributed to local BFW posts in the area in a in Austin and surrounding areas while we didn't get to see the veterans open the letters we are confident that the message we warmly received made a positive impact on all those who received the this month with Joey P we held the second superintendent student ad student advisory counsel meeting during this session we continued working on identifying key issues or positive things that we are working on um students were challenged to think creatively developing developing their presentation and communication skills I'm excited about the potential of this group and look forward to seeing what we can all accomplish together to make the school better finally I want to share a highlight from our music program again the aers and corers have begin begun performing their holiday repertoire in nursing homes at local events and other dinners around the community this is a very cool time of year for them as they get to show what they've been working for and the community enjo seeing them this concludes the first half of the student report any questions are you off to an Austin's performance right now yes I've only heard good things about everything this year so thank you for coming thanks for making it in and go have fun thanks thank you all right Anita you're up next superintendent paage chairperson Dubay and members of the board my name is Anita r and i your 12th grade representative for this year and I will be presenting to you the second half of the student report a lot is going on at AHS as winter break slowly approaches registration for second semester is starting and will end on January 10th so students need to make final adjustments to their schedules and sign up for their classes finals week is hitting AHS students who attend PSO classes at Riverland as the fall semester wraps up next Friday on the 20th winter break for the whole District also starts on December 20th and will be the last day of school in 2023 students will return to finish out the semester on January 2 and will end it on the 11th winter sports are in full swing with the first boys basketball game taking place this week on Thursday as well as a boys hockey game senior night last Saturday where they won 7 to zero against the Trojans from workington last week girls basketball took on Hassen and girls gymnastics competed against the oana Huskies this year the student section has been putting in the extra effort in to our Bacher captains this is a group of seniors who organize themes for home games and ways to keep the student body active during every sporting event a new system has been started as mentioned by ktie um where our activities director helps the students understand what it really means to be a student athlete it is called support study tables and it helps the students who may not be succeeding in their courses set aside time in their busy lives to focus on school work to wrap up the sports update we had three members from the swim and dive team place during the state meeting grae Greenman placed second in the 100 backstroke ree Norton placed fifth in diving and El Elena Kennedy took home the state championship title for the second year in a row the high school posted an essay writing course after school last Wednesday to help prepare seniors to write good applications not only for college but the many applications for scholarships headed their way earlier in November HS sophomore alni Thon was recognized as the rotary student of the month she shared her perspective on the importance of cre creating a good foundation for Discovery and the instrumental part education plays in achieving one's goal finally a group of students were selected to attend a meeting in Rochester where they learned about different opportunities for leadership and then that concludes the second half of the student report thank you for your time do you have any questions yes I need in that essay writing class after school to prepare for writing essays for college applications was there a pretty good uh reception for that I was not able to attend it cuz I was scheduled for work and didn't have enough time to take it off but one of my friends went to it and she said it helped a lot it was also nice that they linked it to the school links account so people could see the events happening and could sign up for for it through that so I think it was helpful especially for people who haven't Maybe started that process so they can fully understand what it was entailing good answer any other questions thank you all right we are going to go back up to agenda item number six our public hearing for truth and Taxation information and public comment is executive director finance and operations situated here for a second good evening chairperson G Dr P School Board it is my honor to stand in front of you to go through our annual truth and Taxation so as we go through this please stop me with any questions at that time um as we go through this our mission is Inspire Empower and accelerate our core values responsible resilient learning and communicator and contributor and tonight we're going to talk about couple's core values being responsible with the taxpayers funding and communicate now today exactly what goes into our budget how does truth and Taxation about and how it impacts our taxpayers and it goes into all four of our strategic um birs so one of the things we look at we look at our desired daily experience as we look at from the students they want to come to school to a safe and weling environment and again as we go through one of the things is we've got to have buildings we've got to take care of the buildings we've got to employ staff and that so again as we go through this TR taxation that's what we're looking at from the student side when we look at the family side of this it's the same thing they want the um students come to a safe and welome environment they want teachers deployed they want Transportation operating and all that stuff so again we're here to walk through that and finally when we look at our staff they had that same thing the safe and welcoming being paid looking at taking care of our curriculum and everything that goes into our budget so we look at Packer profiles um Packer core values again we're looking at responsible again we want to be accountable we're accountable to the board but as a board we're accountable to the taxpayers and that and that's what we're here today is to that us so the agenda today is we got to go through some of the meeting requirements we'll go through our current year budget um we'll go through the proposed tax levy that is actually for school year 2026 so one of the things we talk about is we're present 2025 mbers we're going to talk about how the property tax levy that's going be paid next year actually impacts the school year year from now and then at the very end we'll open up to any public comments so the requirements of this meeting is going to happen be seen November and December 30th it has to start after 6 p.m. we have to have a discussion about the 2025 budget and talk about the proposed tax levy and then allow for public comments we went through this slide just to show that public schools we are funded by three different um components one is the federal government so you'll hear us talk about title you heard over the last four years I talking about Esser funding um also we have special education as Fally funded that is in that bucket then the middle one is state government that's where we're a lot of times talking about our state formula our special education our enrollments is coming out of that bucket and then the last one is local fees and local taxpayers so the the tonight is about the local taxpayers in the piece that is our tax Lev we also have the local fees that are donations um the grants we receive um and stuff like that so again those are the three parts with the state of Minnesota being our largest funded Source you'll see in the slides coming up we kind of break this down and show you how much comes from the state versus how much of our Revenue comes from our local taxpayers one of the slides we we spend a lot of time talking about the state formula um our state funding so we get um paid per adjusted daily cuple unit or ADM and the state legislators have come up with the formula and right now in 20125 we're getting paid 7,281 per student now if you look at that and you look at the inflation and we all are feeling the inflation if you put the inflation into that it should be about 8,645 so again when we look at this we're about 1,364 below what inflation should be we put the slide up here to also stay the the school district the board we're all doing an amazing job with the amount of funding we're getting it would be nice if the inflation percentage was added on to this but again we're going to get $728 per student and we're going to move forward and continually provide the services we do so before I move into the budget any kind couple any questions about the formula why we're here today if that we'll go through the um 2025 budget you've heard words different words on how accounting is done we do stuff that called fund accounting not fun n f so we have fund accounting which is general fund is our is mainly about 95% of our budget um that's where Transportation that's where special education that's where regular instruction that's where Administration um all that goes into it you'll notice that has an aster next to it because that does have a tax ly component we also have a food service fund which is separate fund that has no taxpayer component we are not able to Levy for anything in the food service that is based off the federal reimbursement rate and the state reimbursement rate we have community service fund again there's a portion of that we're able to Levy based on our census of Austin our birth of four numbers that are submitted every year and a small components of that uh we have a building construction fund or a construction fund when we have construction going on we put that in a separate fund because usually that is um has a bond that we've gone out for a referendum on so we keep that accounting differently the next fund we have is Debt Service fund that fund is the debt payment so we've gone out we've got the bond referendum or we've done um ref fr the voters have approved and now we have to pay the debt service payment back that's principal interest you'll notice when we go to that we have to Levy 15% of The Debt Service payment because if our taxpayers are delinquent that's okay we are not allowed to be delinquent on of our bond payments principal interest so that's why they allow us to Levy 5% more and then they do a calculation of looking how where our delinquent payers are and if we do not have delinquent payers then they'll take that money back over time and then the last one is our internal service fund that is where our we are self-insured so our dental and our health insurance come out of that so we are collecting premiums and then we are paying those directly instead of going through a third party component so again general fund community service fund and Debt Service fund will be the ones we talk about tonight with our tax Lev comping last month you guys heard our Auditors up here and they went through the 2024 actual fund balance results and those are sitting right here those were approved and again we are very lucky to have our enrollment continually growing and stuff like that so we had a very positive fund balance over on the far right is the budget that you guys would have approved in June um of 2024 we are now currently in the process of revising that budget based on now knowing our enrollment now knowing some of the costs our staffing and that so we will be in front of you at the end of January for a draft presentation and then in front of you guys again in February to approve the revised budget so again I know that's really small um one of the questions that's out there is you know we approved a budget of 113 million Todd this shows um about 99 million you'll notice there's a couple things that are great out in there that is MD's form and we're not allowed to put our health insurance and our dumal insurance claims information in there that is this is their form we're required to fill out a certain way so that's why this does not tie to the budget you would have approved if you looked into that as we look at our Revenue right now in that bluish color is 77.5 6% that's from the state of Minnesota that is enrollment based that is special education that's why when we're in front of you talking about our budget we're always talking about future years where is our Ro going having Cory on our team is amazing he's got the data we're able to look at where our students are each week and that helps us out tonight when we go through the property taxes we're talking about about 7.92% of the revenue that the the district received comes from this tax levy that we're going to present tonight and then we've got other we got some federal funds that we talk about title Sesser and that so then we look at where does our money go and again this is part of the presentation we give is you look at regular vocational and special education that is direct instructional so that adds up to about 65% every dollar we receive goes into instructing our students but the regular special ocation is Direct on instructional and the other thing I want to point out here is if you look at our admin and this was highlighted in our audit presentation that currently our admin is at 3.59% that is low compared to districts of our size so again we're continually putting the money towards the instruction of the student um one of the highlights is we go through a lot of numbers but I get to spend a little bit of time here talking about the amazing team that I have and you guys heard about them at the last um four me our bond rating is A1 that is very important so as we go out and we look at doing referendums and that we get rated no different than you guys have our personal credit reports and scores that's ours so again we're in A1 when you look at that the school district plays a part in that the residential income of our of our population plays a part into that and the value of our homes play a part into that so again we consistently work towards trying to get that better um we received the 2024 MBE School Finance award um and we've received that the last eight straight years so that goes to the amazing team in the finance department that continually works hard to ensure we are meeting the audit requirements that go into that um just highlighting our audit results because we can't talk enough about them we got a clean um audit on modified opinion and again one of the things we strive here is to bring a fund balance to you guys that is above our current board approved fund balance so we've done that the last few years and we're continually working to strive to that so again that goes into your leadership Dr P's leadership the amazing administrative team that we have here in all our staff and again kudos to the staff that does all the work behind the scenes that helps us earn these Awards so before I slide in talk about the property tax I'll just opening up if there's any questions I know you guys heard our audit last week or last month so I'll just pause here for a second to see if you guys have any questions all right so we're going to go through the property tax Lobby now um this isn't just a one meeting so we start in July and August where the state will open up our information system and we have to provide certain things uh we have to submit you guys approve in June the long-term facility maintenance 10-year plan that gets submitted to them we go through and we look at what our bond payments are going to be we submit that up to them when we talk to them um we have to submit our enrollment projections and this is key we have to submit them for 26th school year 27th school year and 28th school year so we're projecting out three years for them to have a part of this um and then in September we come back to you guys and we ask you to propose the maximum Levy at that time the reason we do the um Ma maximum Levy at the time is the state the county are still working on their stuff assessing and making changes so we ask you to do the maximum Levy so that we don't have to bring you guys back at the end of September and present or approve another number then we the state finally provides us a report then sends out to all the taxpayers in the district a report of what their proposed tax levies are with their um assessed value in that we P this truth and Taxation meeting during this time the board um certifies and then in May of 2025 in November of 2025 we receive this payment so we receive in two different payments a lot of the things we talk about here and is a talk through how this is done um a lot of things are driven by our P count again as we talked about we're submitting three years in advance there's certain things um eligibility expenditure types that we get reimbursed career and Tech at CTE that's something we're getting reimbursed on um our health insurance our retiree health insurance is something that is you'll see on another slide that's called OPB that is something that we spend ahead of time and then we get reimbursed on um there's some things on the population we talked about the census there is the voter approved that would be any bond referendums or oper referendums that have already been approved and then goes into the property Val valuations when we talk about property valuations that's a counting assessory the school district has no um say in those property um valuations at all so how does this all work out we all talk about a percentage tonight Todd why does it my percentage equal to 6.73 there's a lot of things that go under this but the three key variables is what is the market value again the market value of your house is set by the county assessor the school district does not play a part into that and then they go through and state legislators set classification rates on homes proper homes Homestead agriculture they're setting rates for each one of those that play a part into this and then the third piece is what are all the taxing your districts doing what is a school doing what is a city doing what is a county doing so that all goes into a funnel and then it kicks out a property tax that is due one of the things the state does um is they look at what our property valuation of our district is and divides it by our students that bullet item down there is very key the higher the property valuation per student it is the less State funding we receive on certain things like operating Capital long-term facility maintenance so we asked PMA who are our financial advisers to provide us what has our property value done since 2017 you will notice um that the property value for refering market value and net tax capacity has continually increased so the value of our property in our district is increasing at a higher rate than our student enrollment now the blurb in 2023 that spikes up that was common during that year so what happens is a county assessor has to Value Homes at 100 to 105% of what the sales value of the homes are during that time period so there was that during that year um Sky Homes were skyrocketing the price of selling homes with skyrocketing so why we say all this is are our property value is increasing at a higher rate than our student enrollment percentage so what we're seeing is a shift from state aid helping us out with operating capital and long-term facility bance Capital to taxpayers having to fund more of that I say that because when we go through this there's always shifts the state plays a shift of what is going to be state aid and what is going to be property taxes so we're going to show a 6.73% increase in tax levy but that does not mean that is going to be a one for one increase to our budget because again they will shift funding from property taxpayers to State back and forth based on our property valuation so here is the numbers um I know we kind of high level talked about this at the um in the September meeting our general fund is went up about 10.38% some of the bigger numbers is op ref so that was voter approved um and what you're seeing there is an increase two one we presented when we did the um operating referendum and we would have submitted the levies a couple years ago we had a lower enrollment so when I said we project out three years they go back then when those years are finalized and look at our enrollment while we consistently have been conservative in our enrollment projections so now we're getting adjustment back to when that operating referendum and saying you had more students than you projected we're going to fix that so that's there going back and forth so you're seeing that your local optional your equity and transition is all based on enrollment so as our enrollment continually increases the funding on the property side Contin increases the big change there is also op other post-employment benefits as I talked before that's our health insurance so again we have a retirees that are on our health insurance and we are self-funded health insurance so it's either we are able to Levy that money and get reimbursed so that is US looking back at our claims and we're seeing we saw significant claim increase so that's where that 291,000 is coming from so overall the general fund is going up about 10.4% community service is going up um roughly 3.1% almost all the community ed is based on the census um you guys every year submit we um Jen comes up and submits a new census because we're able to do that and so as our community grows the funding um also goes with that Debt Service um you see that line on there is called debt excess that's that 5% extra so again as they come and they look and say well Austin you don't have as many delinquent taxpayers we're now going to take that $41,000 that we gave you in previous years and we're going to reduce that so overall as we stand here tonight we're going to ask that you guys approve 11,424 682 two that's 6.73% we do understand the current climat we understand that this is a a high percentage but again a lot of this is driven by the state based on their formulas this just kind of goes through the higher levels that I kind of talked about that are operating Capital our opep and then other the biggest thing with this is this is a we estimate and then they come back and fix our estimates so this is constantly revolving um document it is right now 45 pages wrong so to go through our 11 I wanted to put this on here just a high level explain a how value of 175,000 how does in an estimated School tax now it's key here is this is only School tax on this so 696 how the bottom is the operating referendum that was just approved about $162 per year is out of that you got a local optional or equity trans um transition that's the stuff that right now we get $724 per student that's making up about $235 on this house the voter approved bonds those are um building refs so as we look at maintenance and stuff like that is making up about $73 we have the debt um piece is $55 and then our operating Capital our long-term facility maintenance is 171 now as I talked before the long-term facility maintenance operating Capital that's that shift from state aid to property taxes and that one depends on our value of our homes one of the things that went into legislation and I'm just trying to think of the Year this went in but this was a big win is we had the add to school credit um so right now of the about $2.6 million of our debt service about $370,000 is going to be paid for by the state so we continually look at this and it's a break down that this is a huge win for Rural school districts as the state is helping to pay um helping out our farmers in that with this tax credit couple other things that are coming forward in 2025 is that the Homestead market value exclusion is increasing so before it was a little lower now it's increased up to $57,200 so that's going to be a break there for homes that were above that they're now going to be or homes that are above the previous exclusion going to see a little bit of a tax credit and the agriculture Homestead is going to go from 2.1 million to 3.5 million so that range from 2.1 to 3.5 those taxpayer owners are going to see a little bit of a reduction in their property taxes so I went through that kind of quick um on the slide there will be a action item in a little bit here for you guys to certify this amount so that we can move this forward to the to the the county and um we can Contin move this process forward so again I appreciate the ability to come up here explain Our Truth and Taxation process in our budget so I'll open it up to any questions you very good well done Tod I appreciate um the one slide early on about State funding and it had U $7,200 then there was a CPI um adjustment and then uh it really should be 8645 or it could be uh but then we got a data sheet a couple months ago that had every school district in the state had 7200 and this and this and this by the time we got over here it was somewhere between 11,000 and 12,000 13,000 per student where does that money come from great question so that comes from this is just the general education piece of a k through 7 K through six students so when we go to 712 it's 1.2 of this but it also adds in our special education so looks at what is our special education expense because the 7,281 is across all districts in the state of Minnesota that's the floor and then as you have students that need special education that varies between each district so that adds on to that 7,000 and then compensatory or free inter you students based on your population that you get a little extra money we have trans um transportation sparsity which is if you are a rural District that's got to drive a bunch of miles in and not as many students you're going to get a sparsity on that so there's categorical Revenue that adds on top of that so we that's why we talk base of 7,281 because that's every District receives that and then based on your District's demographics that can go up to 12 13 14 it also plays a part into the operating referendum some districts don't have an operating referendum so that's why we try to stay with this basic one so we can compare apples and apples across the districts thank you like I said a minute ago I thought you did a great job I know that you love Public public speaking I like talking numbers I do remember though in a in a in a Sumer time and I and I'm not don't take this wrong because I appreciate you're trying to inform me of something I have no idea okay but there was a simpar time when the finance director would stand there and put a on the board on the white board of the the machine there and talk uh and say this is what we're going to do and what do you think we go okay and now we just got a 25 slide presentation what what what what is what's going on um job security um um um and I'll turn over do page if yous but it's it's getting more and more comp complicated again we're we have to deal with what the legislators do and that so um we continually learn every year and we're excited to be tested and we'll Contin I just went to the delegate assembly and I know exactly what you're talking about but I did say to one of the U business directors there's one person on this board Greg Larson who happened to be a certified accountant that has any idea of what you're talking about and I'm so what I'm saying is if I don't understand and maybe uh Joe and Jane consumer don't either they just want to know what that number is how it's going to affect $175,000 house and the rest of the stuff leave it to board work and and your staff who do a real good job of dealing with it yes I agree with this com job security the other part here I think is um us wanted to communicate in in our being transparent buting process so I think we we've done a worked really hard uh to do that for the public uh to take something that's very complex uh that we talk about once a year and and trying to distill that down into you know pieces of information that people can understand or ask questions about because it is um their resources and as stewards of that it's important for us to be able to speak to yeah my suggestion is we're not distilling that at all making work and I I believe in transparency but to learn about the scarcity of transportation funding in fors Lake Minnesota I don't know what that has to do with with other laor taxpayer in the community I appreciate your comments I I think you do a good job to explaining it but uh um I just think it could be distilled thank you I have a question so you said with the the going off for this the tax thing um you're asking for $1 million more for next year is I want to go back and clarify it so it's not $11 more so last year about this time I stood in front of you and you guys approved 10,704 so what we're asking for is a $720,000 increase so we're going from 10 mil7 to 11.4 million so it's not1 million more it would it's roughly about 7 $20,000 month okay thanks it's a very good distinction thank when you say t typically the school district a of public schools are numberers lower than other entities in Mar I'm going to look to some others as this is um year one for me here so I'm going to look to I think I think that's a statement we're usually relatively lower with other tax entities but again that's Year bye piece but we can certainly go back and do the analytics on it yeah we've done a good job absolutely okay Dr page um where is the 720 going to is that just um like cost of cost of living increase um inflation is that what what's happening there with that yeah as Todd showed here we have our um you know we have the state that does a three-year analysis uh of our funding uh they'll reduce funds that we've had before to recapture those that's part of it uh we also have increases in student enrollment um that adjust for those numbers as well um and again liting for the maximum was certified in um September I think is important for many reasons one is we have unpredictable State funding um these are funds that are not coming into the school district this year they're coming in in 2026 uh so that's one one is the other part is meeting the student needs uh that we have uh in the awesome Public Schools we also have infrastructure maintenance uh that we need to be mindful of and being able to project out what goals needs are in 2026 uh is really complicated uh and then I think Al we want to without adequate funding um from a school district perspective that impacts our programs our staff uh so I think what we have here tonight what Tod has shared is it's a good number us to maintain her her programming um all things considered with with our enrollment in the future anybody else have questions thank you for meeting with me today to explain this a little bit more in detail um with the state budget all the headlines in the news now do we have any concerns that um the state funding might be further we don't know yeah you saw we shared in our board update this week too and you I think you're referring to the the forecast of that so yeah they are showing into the future a structural deficit um what that looks like you know three four or five months from now remains to be seen um the uh unpredictability with the state funding I know Don had shared some of this information from the the delegate assembly and we to the board but one of those is the compensatory uh which there is a lot of fun it comes to awesome public schools and compensatory uh they're looking at re establishing how they do that calculation uh and that's something that could have a significant impact uh for for aome public schools want to give everybody time in case there's questions parting out there twice um Tod is our next up I believe on the agenda and I'm not sure I think it's down a little bit after consent that you guys will have a motion to approve the levy certification I just want to thank you guys all for taking the time tonight to listen and ask questions um I'm just going to throw it out there just because is there anybody who wants to make a public comment I have a question come on [Music] up this is more about the math of what you got when you had the abatements and adjustments up yes yeah you have a percentage in there that's in the negative thousand what's going on that okay yeah so what that does is um Excel sometimes does some interesting things and what happened is last year at this time we got a negative adjustment and that is again the looking back the previous three years looking at enrollment looking at all that stuff and then this year we're seeing a positive adjustment so it's taking a negative number into a positive number and then because it's negative and positive it kicks out a negative number um I apologize I should have saw that put an NA on that it's just a big negative number but that is all having to do with the adjustments that the state does in their look back per so that just to make sure we're all looking at the same thing you're looking under the debt Redemption fund number seven is that what you're looking at is this is this 99 going this year we received $999,000 positive adjustments and in 24 we reive a Nega 1,873 so it's showing we're going up 101,000 but it's kicking off a% just because of the math that the Excel wants to do there yeah that's definely a good call out yes all right any other public comments all right thank you are there any delegations we will jump into our superintendent Report with superintendent thank you chair members of the board happy to share my December board report with you tonight uh first of all I just want to welcome Dan zi uh School Board um not every school board May is a truth and Taxation so but uh again welcome uh Dan uh to the to the school board a few things I want to highlight tonight and you heard in the scho report uh but our Austin High School band director Kristoff fundis was named the 2025 Austin teacher of the year um was a wonderful uh occasion and having his children present the award was really special uh and according to the Austin teacher of the year committee chair had RAC uh Kristoff was one of 29 nominees considered for the award uh now that Kristoff has received Austin's teacher of the year award he'll be in the running to be the Minnesota teacher of the year he's not award go through a portfolio process and would be selected to move forward and this has been around more uh over for 20 year life of the program Aus has two nominees make it to the semifinalist stage and the one to make it to the final 10 so we wish him well and thank him for all of his loal contributions I also want to thank the formal Foundation uh recently the formal Foundation board of directors approved distributions of $26 million for nonprofit agencies in Austin and mo County the a public schools uh is very thankful for the horal foundation's ongoing support this year the district received nearly 1.7 million in allocated funds for various programs like technology and the p12 setting our reach program our gifted and talented programs and professional development robotics family literacy initiatives and support for our music program so thank you very much to the former polici Austin High School has been selected as a recipient of the Mississippi welders Supply High School welding Grant uh this award will be uh providing new equipment such as a plasma cutter and welder for our program it's going to enhance our our welding program uh this achievement highlights dedication of our teacher Ryan Stanley whose efforts for applying for this grant in commitment to offering initiatives like the free summer welding training that these done for instructors played a key role in his recognition so we thank him for his efforts and we're going to have a ceremony here in a couple weeks that we um an excellent educator award Mark poppy was recently Nam the excellent educator for KTV this award is a wonderful acknowledgement of the incredible impact that he's had on our students and as someone who went through the K12 uh system here in a public schools I know how these classes like the one that he teaches are so important for our kids and have a lasting impression uh I wish my skills were a little bit better but I really enjoyed all of those classes that I took but I want to thank Mr poy for that we did have our second student uh superintendent student advisory Council this uh past week uh during this meeting our students collaborated collaborated in theme stations on uh brainstorming and refining uh some of the ideas that they've come up with uh so we'll have another meeting here in I believe February we haven't had set a date yet but it's been a really good uh opportunity to work with our students and then finally I just want to sincerely thank Evan senson uh for his dedicated Service as a school board member uh it's been an honored to serve alongside you I appreciate everything they do and done on the school board for the students for the staff in the community of Austin so thank you very much for your service thank you that is my report questions I just like to say that the southeast service Cooperative we do have one welding activity TN of some sort started last year and it's it's really all right depart go for well kind keeping what you said earlier Dr Pig about uh School Finance I went to the U delegate assembly this past weekend in Minneapolis Friday night and Saturday about 1:00 and Friday night is uh dinner and a guest speaker David Schultz from hland University and then uh Saturday morning we we U do the delegate assembly and it's a rather large Ballroom there are tables there are areas we happen to be in area four we're in area four with Tero oana cassid byon Albert Lee Hayfield L Prairie and there's another there's two others over soueast so now multiply this to around my own State and say all have their own area and so there's 123 23 participants there were 130 available slots seven didn't get filled and so we're in the in the room around tables and our microphones placed around the the area so if you wanted to get up and speak about resolution you could do that and there's some people that like speaking and there's some people that don't like speaking there are a lot of people to speak so there were a lot of people that went up to the microphone a lot and talked but it was a spirited debate it was good but there were 27 resolutions and if you want some good reading you're more than welcome to pick this up Dr pagee did share with you the the synopsis of every one of those resolutions if you want to find out the background or things of that nature you're more than welcome to do that uh I would if it's okay I would like to just go over a few I know it's a long meeting tonight I think all these things impact us impact our students our staff and the taxpayers there were 28 resolutions I think 25 of them were um approved by the um the delegate assembly so that's fairly typical uh the first resolution is number two it um it's a it's a really good one I believe because we have these cap projects and you get a bid for something and um you can't get somebody to work on it right away because they're busy doing something so then you have to rebid it by that time it raises in price and there's a resolution to have it be a 3 we minimum to get that bid and also train local individuals to do the inspections so uh just think the money that school days should have to waste because of inflation the next one is a little less um bur shattering but it basically resolves um um each C KN student drinks and at lunch paid for I might not think this is a big deal but uh if you remember a couple years ago children were shamed for dumping their lunch in the garbage what's happened in lot of these districts is a kid who brings up B lunch will go in get the meal dump in the garbage take the ma go out also there students who 6575 cents for a cart of melt multiplied times two or three brothers and sisters in a week can be a financial hardship so we approved a free cart M for students next one has to do with cyber security it's resolution number five um it says there should be a Statewide cyber security task force similar of the South task force and it should have uh the ability to support and guide students in um efforts to secure information and um cyber security issues it's it's it's it's serious some of the people that testify it was a night marriage uh Food Service funds I think Todd mentioned that earlier I think we have $1.6 billion in the food service and we're basically handcuffed as of what we can do about it with it uh this resolution suggest open up the portal a little bit and give more flexibility to districts um in keeping what we said about welding one um um resolution was to improve increase funding for technical education um another one that might affect us resolution 11 uh was a resolution to minimize the use of grants for school systems so that might affect us let me tell you I did some research on this sou Easter Service property which I'm a member of a board member of 84% of their funding comes from Grants they get no state aid we get state aid but then we also can write grants the whole idea is if you have to write grants it's labor intensity it takes away from your educational Endeavors so it's a legitimate legitimate thing we do get some really nice grants as you just talked about while ago which could be affected by this it was defeated by fa so they will be according for us anyway from the Schoolboard Association no limit on grants um there was a resolution to renew if you remember a couple years ago I believe or maybe was last year who was still here we were able to pass a operating ly what without gr to taxpayers okay this one is a capital uh project Levy a one time possibility and the pro the thing is that 100% of these Capal project levies pass so the whole idea is why go the taxpayers ask for permission when you know you're going to get that passed use the word passed a lot um there's a re resolution to uh go to the public to um find out whether you want to go to a f board whoever I don't think we do that but some districts have six members and it becomes very difficult when you three vote this way and we vote this way and then we're just at a a log champ so there's a there's a anah examp those um oh another one here's a we've been talking a lot about 40 School here in paper recently some schools in southeast metasota exploring the idea Chatfield might be one of them um this one has to do with a voluntary District school P program to lengthen to lengthen the school year um that passed um I thought this was a little bit redundant but resolution 21 we resolved that the Minnesota state school board or legislature to oppose Statewide rules and laws regarding cell phones in the school I thought last fall they gave us permission to make our own rules so even though it's redundant I think it's telling um the legislature just don't we want local control is a big thing up there that they a big thing Kathy green was a big local control person and and we probably all are I must say I've looked in the newspaper recently and there been a lot of schools okay beginning of the school year we started a cell phone policy March 25th I believe that's the day whatever it has be and now 15th and now some of these districts are reaching out to the public reaching out to students having inform surveys coffee D to find out doing the right is there something we can do that's here's one that affected us recently with a with a sporting thing thatly where somebody came to the school and ask for data this person identified himself but some places they don't do that and some I think it really said Rochester a9.5 million data and the whole idea of this resolution is you're data down you have to put your legal name down and if you don't if you abandon that information other words if you don't come and check it out and look at it and take it in your personal possession we can assess you and seek payment from you so there's a lot of people there's a lot of bad players I believe who seek a data Dr and then just they want they want to the school uh the next one I to do with Minnesota State High School you had to do with live streaming I'm just telling you this right now if their live stream would be as bad as their streaming of the sporting events that you see on TV I don't want to see the live stream have you ever notice that how bad that is football games in high school league it's it's like you're on South Dakota or something I'm a pro of South Dakota so I know exactly what that's all about um maybe one more yeah the last one has to do similar to the cyber security but had to do with artificial intelligence to come up with the task force to find ways to navigate artificial intelligence I don't know if anybody saw 60 Minutes last night but there was thiso artificial intelligence and he put this into the school system and I grant they show good stuff but it was really really interesting the students and the staff and and interacted it was beautiful um can I just say two other things number one I was very dise usually I'm sitting there with a guy from Triton somebody from Hayfield guy from fa somebody from I get the other day there were three elates from home I thought like I was being home hostage three delegates in that small table from Albert Le and closing uh I just want to remind you the connections program of college is a it's an initiative where uh community members interact with non-traditional students out C last year was the uh the first year there were 15 students 15 um uh Community mbers this year there's 23 students and there's 16 uh committee members so they need some help so if you're interested it's a beautiful prr you you can meet between 12 and 1215 12 and 12:45 or 10:15 and 11:00 it's one day a month you get a lasting relationship with someone you find out about them they find out something about you and it's it's really y assembly it's Grassroots this is really Grassroots as well I would recommend anybody in this T in this room in room to do this it's good thing connections who would the contact ch Chris Rooney CH thank you very much any other board reports Carol I just want to talk for a minute about um I've had the privilege of attending the Austin Packer girls hockey games because my buttons are popping I'm a proud grandma my granddaughter gets to play on the team um and participation in sports is just so much more than winning the girls are developing self-esteem they Lear leadership and communication skills teamwork discipline and develop developing resilience when things don't go as plan Cory's going to help me out for a second and put a photo of first I just want to focus on not the score but look underneath um this is in Albert Lee and they their display actually shows the um shots on goal 74 shots on goal or goalies um had and only let 16 goals in Pucks in the net I thought that was just absolutely phenomenal that means she stopped 58 shots and then our girls never gave up you would have you would have thought the score was zero to zero till that last buzzer rain they were just phenomenal and then um after the handshakes this is what the girls did on the ice in my opinion that was a Class Act by both teams and it shows that there's just so much more to learn from participation in sports I think that Echoes a lot of what we heard earlier with K's report as well I say I you did an excellent article about a presentation last month that was awesome yeah you put a lot of time into that didn't you I did your buttons were not for that my grandaughter I'm going to give a more formal update uh from the Austin Public Education Foundation uh you may have seen the obituary for junor who um was instrumental in starting the Austin Public Education Foundation uh their he and his wife their generous gift um started the hunting endowment which funds all of our teacher grants that we're able to give each year um we spend the interests each year and every year um money is added to those adopts and we just get continually grow and grow um 25 years ago the first total amount of Grants given was $500 and this last year between um the hunting endowment the Packer endowment and another um Family Foundation the h family were able to give out more than $100,000 in Grants to teachers within our school district which is huge so my my primary reason for bringing this up is not only thank um Jim hunting for having that Vision um amongst others but also to remind our teachers that Grant season is upon us and if you're thinking about something over Christmas Vacation feel free to um submit an application for a grant we we try to gr um provide as many grant opportunities as we can um we have a lot of very generous former former teachers who have left who when they when they P their state significant gifts to the foundation were able to give um every new teacher to the district uh a small Grant to not only welcome them to Austin but to help them set up their classroom so when I think of when I hear things like um the horal foundation and their their generous gifts to the district I also think about those individual ual who um you know like like the gym huntings and the hsh family foundation and um oh I'm forgetting her name Annabelle Benson the Annabelle bensons of the world um those the gener generosity of that is is overwhelming at times and it just makes me very very excited that I get to be part of um part of sharing in in the work that that they have put in postly and you know they they don't get to see the fruit of that that um labor and those efforts and now we get to see um things like those Tech suits that um Alexa brought up um those were funded through a foundation Grant and I just I'm going to just keep keep saying thank you to the community for their thank you to all these individuals who um see the need to financially um pour into our students so teachers let's get going it's going to be a fun Year all right anybody else no okay we already had our super representa report so can I get a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda motion by second by Evan to see this from Evan quite a bit tonight hint all right any discussion I just wanted to make a comment about the site report because I think this is just phenomenal and it should be out there um you have the AHS credit recovery program recovered credits in November and then the Austin Online Academy and area Learning Center September 23 courses um half a credit each October was 93 courses and November was 85 that's just phenomenal good call so we have a motion in a second all those in favor anybody opposed motion passes all right our next agenda item is our request for the approval of the final certified 24 payable 25 ly this is our action item related to truth and Taxation do you have more to say you just want me to do it you want I want me read it go ahead why don't you read it I don't have it in front of me so again we're here with the levy certified by the end of December so what we're asking tonight is the recommendation of [Music] 11,424 68151 cents which is a increase of 6.73% so that is what we're asking for you guys' approval today all right is there a motion to approve the final certified 24 payable 25 motion by by any discussion right all those in favor anybody in post motion passes our next agenda item is the request for the approval of our donations evening chair person du Dr Paige and rest School Board it is my honor to stand in front of you again to go through for this month it is such an honor to be a part of a community that is willing to give not only money but time and effort so again these all these donations are um part of our board policy 706 they meet those requirements so I will read these off and then ask for approval at the end VFW Post 121 1216 $200 AHS ban VFW post1 1216 $10000 play target Trap Team DK dtk Enterprise $200 AHS dance team jy's excavation $350 AHS dance team CMP Foods $350 AHS dance team games people play $350 AHS dance team piggy Blues Barbecue $350 AHS dance team BTY Trucking LLC $350 AHS dance team Duffy BP $350 AHS dance team football booster club $238 64 AHS football team Ruben and Jennifer Perez $150 cross country team cross country parents 1,8 on $25 cross country team Jacob and Stephanie zimmerly $150 aest Nas 16 Josh Ben benon gives the max daily $25 APS Joseph hoopman hoopman give to the max day $29 APS uh Mari Joe standing $200 AJ Holton so again I want Tok these individuals and apologize for any mispronunciations on it is motion to the donations motion by Carol second by CC any [Music] discussion all those in favor anybody opposed motion passes thank you is that your last one I think that's your last one or do you have more I don't know which I don't know who's doing the combining place I to okay perfect I done I mean you could just stand up there no I'm good all right our um next agenda item is the request for the approval of our combine polling places resolution for 2025 this is an annual request with um superintendent thank you sen D members of the board uh this combined polling resolution uh is an annual request there was a change in state law this year that if we don't have a change in any of our poll places we don't necessar have to do this but just more ceremonial than anything and encourage the board to approve it in case we have a special election noted it's called it doesn't that R in conjunction with the Statewide election uh combin the poing places the laws are staing equipment for efficiency of each poing site and prior to Direction being conducted the school district is required uh to do a mailing to each household indicating that for their polling location so the recommendation for the board tonight is to approve our annual combined polling places res solution is there a motion to approve the combined polling places s there a second second second by Dan all right we got our first motion good job last and first that was awesome any discussion uh all those in favor I anybody oppos motion passive um I think he's just here I'm just here hello that Wasa and that was what we I only kind of related to the polling place thing I do want to say that I heard so many um comments of gratitude from teachers and parents for not having school on Election Day when we have people in and out of our buildings so excellent decision on the part of the calendar committee I think that's that was a good move and especially when we want our our school buildings to be safe not only for our students but also for the folks who are coming into um do their voting I think that was a good decision I just wanted to share that all right meeting reminders we are not having a study session in December um our organizational meeting will be held at noon on Monday January 6th 2025 in the district office conference room our first regular meeting of year will be held on January 13th 2025 here in the annex Recital Hall right this is your sh Peggy Peggy has second all those in favor pass thank you EV for your time [Applause] want to give you proud of should should be a good good story