##VIDEO ID:lHf-fwtTFWc## e e e we are always good evening and welcome to the regular meeting of the ISD 728 School Board today is Monday September 9th 2024 to 6 pm and I would like to invite everyone to join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America to the IND good evening and welcome everyone it's a lovely Monday evening we're enjoying some warm weather good way to start the school year uh I'd like to remind board members of the protocol reminders and to review the statements of core values and with that I will ENT obain a motion in a second to approve the agenda so moved second I have a motion in a second to approve the agenda all in favor say I I opposed say nay motion passes we are ready to move into public comment and we have allotted 20 minutes for this portion of the meeting and we have uh one citizen that would like to address the board this evening and it is for Lisa Olen president of the era and she'd like to e e e e e e for this evening and we will move on to our um General reports item 8 tonight is our executive cabinet report and first up this evening is our introduction of new District leaders and we have Dr Carrie Rock here the assistant superintendent of educational services for secondary students and Miss Jamie Nord the assistant superintendent of educational services for elementary and they will introduce our new building leaders good evening chair Thompson and members of the board it's my pleasure to introduce some new leaders in our organization this year so as I introduce them I'm just going to ask them to stand and I'm going to share a little bit about about how um their experience and the role that they have here in ISD 728 so first up is Mr Mike Zan who is our new principal at eler high school um Mike is no stranger to istd 728 he previously served as the principal of anenberg middle school and was an assistant principal at Rogers High School from 2008 to 2014 and then at vandenbberg from um just after that for the previous two years he served our district as an English teacher and an AVID coordinator demonstrating his dedication to education and his extensive experience in both administrative and teaching roles within ISD 728 throughout his career he's shown a strong commitment to meeting the needs of students he's deeply um dedicated to enhancing academic achievement for all students and ensuring their success by Ure fostering a positive School environment his ability to build meaningful relationships with students staff and families has been instrumental in supporting students growth please join me in welcoming Mr Zeman to the his new role as eler high school principal congratulations all right we're going to go to my right and I'm GNA introduce Mr Kevin Joost as the new principal at Ivan sand Community Middle School and High School um Kevin has worked in the district for 16 years where he served as an assistant principal at Rogers High School Rogers Middle School and prview Elementary and Middle School prior to its reconfiguration in 2022 he began his career in istd 728 as a member of the district special education department and then joined the ISD 728 technology team um and actually worked to start our online high school program throughout his career Mr Jose has demonstrated a strong commitment to Student Success academic achievement um his and he also has an ability to build meaningful relationships with kids and families and we are excited to have him in the new role as principal at Ivan sand Community Middle and High School congratulations Kevin all right we're going back over here uh next I'd like to introduce Miss Mrs Amanda olgren who is a principal at vandenbberg middle school she has served as the assistant principal of vandenbberg middle school since 2002 22 and prior to that she was an assistant principal at Elk River High School and worked as an administrative intern achievement coach and a math teacher in a neighboring School District prior to that um Miss Mrs Olen is dedicated to ensuring positive outcomes for students she's proficient at using data to make informed educational decisions and excels at developing relationships she's been a valued member of the Elk River Community since 2019 congratulations Manda we going back over here for the rest all right Mr Brian Sher principal at sock Middle School um Mr Sher has served as the assistant principal at Elk River High School since the fall of 2017 prior to this role he worked as a middle school math teacher instructional coach and at the regional centers of excellence in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Education to support schools across the state of Minnesota soda he has a strong background in positive behavior intervention systems Avid in instructional best practices um he will be an asset to the sock Middle School community and continues to serve our families in Elk River many of whom he knows as he worked at Elk River High School prior to this please join me in welcoming Mr Sharon's new role at sock Middle School all right Mr Tom Kish I'm excited to announce Mr Tom Kish as the assistant principal at Zimmerman Middle School High School Mr Kish has worked um at Zimmerman middle school high school for over 20 years both as a teacher and a coach um he will start our new his new position on December 2nd as he's going to continue um his current role and continue his role as a coach for that zerman high school football team we're excited to have him on board um when he starts his new position in December and a grateful that he's joining our administrative team all right next Mr Josh Stefan assistant principal at Rogers High School um Josh comes to us from motanka high school where he has held various leadership roles including a teacher leader administrative Dean an intermediate 4 five lead administrator and Coach uh Mr stepan is eager to collaborate and continue to provide an exceptional learning experience for our students we're confident in his ability to join our team and continue to serve the students in ISD 728 and he has been on board with us since since July and has already made a great impact at the Rogers High School Community congratulations J all right and Mr Kelly faam assistant principal at vandenbberg middle school he has worked in I 728 over the past 20 years spending 19 years at aak middle school math teacher and then joined vandenbberg middle school as a math teacher last school year during this time he has also served as an AVID coordinator Avid teacher and web coordinator um in addition to teaching he has also served as ISD 728 targeted Services summer school coordinator for the last 11 years he's looking forward to teaming with families to provide a positive environment for students to learn Thrive and celebrate their success as they navigate the middle school years Welcome to our team Mr fom I'm turn it over to miss Nord who is going to also do an introduction of a new leader good evening chair Thompson and members of the board it is my honor to introduce isd728 new director of special services Megan Welsh Megan was able to join us a little earlier than anticipated in May versus in July um for which we were incredibly grateful as she was able to start learning about our system and make connections with our amazing special Educators prior to Summer she is coming to us from Hastings School District where she served as the Director of special services we are really excited about Megan's previous experience in federal setting three and four programs as well as secondary transition programming I am looking forward to continuing to partner with Megan to enhance our programming for students with disabilities in isd728 welcome to Megan I'm going to turn it over to executive director Tim casy for an introduction thank you board members I'm pleased to introduce you to our director of Human Resources Shannon Blair Olson Shannon joined us on June 17th um which was one of the more happier days of my career here having Shannon um Shannon brings a wealth of background not only is she a parent in the district for many years her children have gone through our system and the youngest of which just graduated from Rogers High School this spring um Shannon is a graduate of suffix law school out of Boston um has worked in the private sector as an employment attorney um spent several years in the monacle school district as their director of Human Resources took a little time off to be a parent came back to work as a par professional here at isd728 at meille for about six years so she brings that experience and recently worked in the private sector with True Stone Financial as an employment attorney um she's a member of the Minnesota bar association um and so please um welcome Shannon to IST [Applause] 728 well thank you very much for everyone for being here tonight it's wonderful to see some friendly faces that we have seen that have been around for a long time so I'm wonderful to see them in their new positions and welcome to the new faces we always appreciate seeing new faces and new talent and we're Wonder happy that you're willing to share your talents with us and with our students and so we're happy that you're here tonight of course we know that for those of you that don't have to be here tonight we would love you to stay but we also recognize you all put in long hours so if you'd like to leave now it also be the time but if any other board Meers board members have any comments that they'd like to share that would be the time I just appreciate our Administration hiring quality people and it shows in in how people move up in our system and those kinds of things too that we have good teachers we have good administrators and I like to see you you know within our system moving up too and uh thanks for what you guys do and excited to get to know you throughout the year we're glad to have you on board so welcome thank you thank you okay so we're going to move on to item two which is back to school updates from executive cabinet members thank you all again for being here tonight we are appreciate it have a good night this nice I want to go apparently I get to go first welcome Mr casy thank you chair Thomson members of the board and Dr bman I hope you're having a good time great um I'm going to give you just a brief overview of from an HR standpoint where we're at as we head into the to the school year and cover just four topics um and then turn it over to executive director almost to come up and do the business services um with it regarding Staffing um I'm going to go a little Cliff claven on you here for a minute okay so we have a 100 or I'm sorry not 100 1,177 teaching positions now that's positions so some teachers hold more than one position um of those positions as of this morning we have eight openings that we haven't filled everything else is covered through hiring or one way or another those eight openings only account for four full-time FTS so we are in good shape with that um with regard to our assistance we have 403 positions we uh currently have um 15 openings that we're working to fill and some of those openings are a result of as a natural progression a number of our folks tend to resign in August and that's and so we then go out and try to fill those but we're working really hard to get those um food service we have two openings out of our 112 positions and in custodial we have 14 openings out of our 98 positions of those 14 nine of those are lead positions which are primarily evening jobs um which is a little tougher to fill for us but we're working on it um the next is we have trans transitioned our substitute services for assistance and Par professionals to teachers on call now we've only been in it 5 days but our fill rates are running about 70% compared with last year where we were down in the 30s so and that is a result of their much larger labor pool um in order to provide us services so so far so good we're going to keep our fingers crossed um with this one um two other things um we have had a legislative change with our Title 9 regulations and so we are in the process of training our entire staff these regulations were changed on August 1st of 2024 um they have uh expanded what is covered by Title 9 now um for K12 education and also put into Title 9 a requirement to train every employee in the district so through online training working with staff meetings and so on we're going to get that done in the next few weeks we hope um to do that um and then finally there are a couple other legislative things that have been implemented um July 1 to 24 there was an expansion of the earned sick and safe time law which provides sick time for employees and the definitions around how that can be used that also faces another expansion on January 1 to 24 in terms of additional acrs that will be accepted under that law so we're in the process of putting those things together um there are requirements under the pregnancy and lactating mother um new law that we have to require in making um accommodations and providing uh safe places for these folks um there are wage requirement uh now in terms of on all our postings we have to put a wage range on all of our job postings um and other wage requirements in terms of notifying employees of those and then finally there we are preparing for what is coming on January 1 to 26 and that is the Minnesota paid leave Law And although January 1 to 26 is a ways away the reporting requirements are going to kick in here in October so we will have to begin reporting wages and so on to the state of Minnesota as they prepare to implement this new law so any questions any questions for Mr casy no questions but that's amazing some of the improvements we've seen so it's awesome I'm sure Andy can Dazzle you out too so welcome Mr Almos thank you uh chair Thompson members of the board uh and and our community online of course um this is the time of the year in Business Services on the operation side of the house where we breathe a little bit of a sigh of relief buildings are open buildings are operational kids are getting to school on our buses and things are things are really uh uh starting to settle in and smooth out and so we are really excited to be at this point of the school year Summer's a busy time on in operations um on the construction projects um we completed a lot of work this uh this summer and there's still a little bit to do there's still some punch list items that are happening but we worked on Lincoln uh this fall or this this uh summer hanky Rogers Elementary oigo Elementary uh the Zimmerman campus improvements and fields and the in the Rogers campus and Stadium improvements and so again excited to see those things wrap up and and uh come to uh all the fruition that all and all the planning that goes into to make those things happen is just uh is just really nice to see it all come together on the budget side of things um this is the time of year when we start the we start a new school year where we where we wrap up last year you've heard us say that we work in three fiscal school years all the time this is the time we wrap up last year and so we are busy doing that our Auditors will be on site here shortly to uh check those books from last year to make sure we have all the eyes dotted and the te's crossed and we're confident that that will go well once the audit is complete we immediately start planning for the revised budget again the current year and and are we hitting the marks did uh Mr Casi and his team get all those positions filled and and uh what happens to the budget uh in in those revised stages you're going to hear a little bit more about the 2024 pay 2025 Levy coming up so I'll I'll hold that excitement for a little while uh on the Food Service side of the house um I'm happy to report that we started the year with only two openings in food service we that's the best Staffing level we've had in a number of years and so I think uh just like three short years ago we had 20 some openings when we started the school year and so really excited about that Staffing level improving with food service just to reminder that we're continuing the free School meals program every student in our district receives a breakfast and a lunch at no additional cost to families um and so our food service staff uh carry that out really well each and every day uh and we're real proud of them for that with Transportation you know that we've had some major changes in Transportation uh we took on routing this school year and we I'm proud and happy to say that we routed almost 11,000 kids over the summer to start to start the school year uh we know there was a lot of hiccups along the way we know that we have some people still sitting on lists to be routed and so those things will get done and they will get done as timely as we can get them done and get get kids on buses to make sure we get them to and from school as best we can um with that I'll stand for any questions any questions or comments from Mr Almos just a quick question the routing decision what was what was driving that so it's very common that districts are size take on routing themselves and so uh one of the things when we open up an RFB for transportation one of the things that uh biders will look at is to say is routing included in part of the contract or is it not and so it's very common for districts our size to Route ourselves and we're we're hitting that threshold where it's it was time any other comments questions with the construction I mean what a headache and it's always changing and everything else so kudos to everyone involved with in in last minute oh I guess my child does need the bus to pick them up or and um having families with mom or dad or that so or Child Care on certain days so I I can't imagine so but the main thing is that kids are accounted for at the end of the day and when we get the message that all kids are where they're supposed to be it's it's a huge sigh of relief so great thank you for your efforts all righty we're good thank you thank you Mr alos I get Miss Nord welcome good evening we'll play musical chairs um I am here with assistant superintendent Carrie Rock to give you an update on all things educational services so the first item that you see listed there is functional phonics morphology implementation so I'm excited to share that during Workshop week we were able to provide professional learning to our kindergarten through fifth grade Educators um in partnership with Carrie out of the U ofm on our new curricula resource so they are equipped and have started to implement that already the first few weeks of implementation are a lot about teaching instructional routines to our students and really helping them understand what that routine and flow is going to look like in the classroom and it's very um explicit instruction then they are off and running and um what we will see is that our students will just really fall in line with those instructional routines so we're very excited about that additional resource we were able to add this year for our foundational literacy skills instruction starting in November our Educators at our uh District staff development days will begin their structured literacy training um requir ired under the read act so we were able to embed those opportunities within our District staff development days and not push that required learning outside we know workload has been a concern for our Educators so we really worked hard to embed that within our District staff development time um we're excited to bring groups of teachers together by grade level for that so that we can ensure a guaranteed and viable curriculum across the whole District so there will be kindergarten teachers from Zimmerman Elementary talking to kindergarten teachers from Rogers Elementary and so forth um and we will have the different sites host different grade levels for that uh Carrie and I will also be holding individual goal setting meetings with all of our principles and directors over the course of the next few weeks we really value this time to sit down and hear from them regarding what goals they're setting for their buildings or their departments uh we have a very structured process for this that aligns to our strategic plan so their goal setting is in direct alignment um with the goals that are in our strategic plan and we ask them to then develop an action plan the specific steps that will be taken to reach the goals that they set um in that uh document that they create so we're looking forward to those conversations and then we have a follow-up meeting with them in the winter and then another one in the spring as we reflect on the year I'll turn it over to assistant superintendent Rock for a few more updates good evening again um I'm excited to share a couple of additional updates um you are probably aware that assistant superintendent Nord I we work very closely on a number of these initiatives so some of the pieces that she talked about and that I'm going to talk about cross over across Elementary and secondary and we have been very intentional about ensuring things like what she just shared with goal setting um is something that we um do similarly with both Elementary and secondary um leaders in our organization another area that impacts all is we're beginning the work on portrait of a graduate this is identified specifically in our strategic action plan as one of the strategies that we are looking um to complete as part of in the next five years and so we are starting that work which really will help us as isd728 identify what skills um our students will have when they graduate when they leave us so that they can be productive members of of our community which is really one of our main goals and was a need um that came out in our surveying and um Community Cafe process so we're excited to begin that work um and excited to bring that forward to you as we work through that during this school year last thing I'd like to talk about um which I know you are all aware of is we have implemented new cell phone procedures at our high schools so we shared earlier with you in an update that the cell phone procedures that were in place at elementary and middle school have been in place for a number of years but we really work this summer um to enhance the cell phone procedures at our high school um and so that has been going exception well so during all instructional time students do not have access to their cell phones um and I as I connected with building level administrators and teachers both um during school last week and then of course as I was out um at football games on Friday night um they have said that that has gone exceptionally well that students are more engaged that their classrooms are more productive and they are very grateful for the change um and as I've talked to kids they report that it's going very well from their perspective as well so we have happy to see those changes and we will continue to monitor that implementation our leadership teams have done an excellent job of supporting both staff and students and families with that change with that Jamie and I'll be available for questions wonderful any questions for Miss n Dr Rock I had any questions but I can Echo that my husband's been a teacher at Zimmerman high school since 1998 and he said the change is phenomenal and he feels the energy back in the classroom so very happy to have that that's awesome yes student equisite and it might actually be one of the most positive social media conversations out there right now too as people are actually appreciating the cell phone policy change so my 15-year-old too y thank you wow that's wonderful yeah wonderful for thank you all for giving updates and kind of giving us a snapshot of what's going on I know that um work tirelessly to make sure things go really seamless and smooth so we appreciate giving us just a small snippet of things that are going on in your departments and giving us an update tonight so thank you um with that we'll move on to Item B tonight Schoolboard member reports um it looks like I have the first one is the public comment report and we had uh one um individual come up tonight we had Lisa Olen was the president of the era and gave us the highlights of the um for back to school this year so that was our um for public comment this evening and that students citizens who wish to address the school board must submit a written request to speak before 12:00 noon on the day of the um public school board meeting and that they um can set submit the written request to Schoolboard at ISD 728g uh number two is we have the work session report from 82624 and I believe director tban has that one tonight yep I have the work session report uh back from August 26 um the school board discussed various topics individual board members had brought up throughout the year as identified on the agenda this is the time each year the board determines its parameters and provides Direction and Clarity to Administration and staff topics that were not addressed due to time limitations will be brought back later this month and in October October Miss barp D msba director of leadership development and executive searches reviewed the survey results provided um interview training and facilitated the development and interview questions and procedures related to the superintendent search that we are conducting so wonderful thank you and then item three is the superintendent search date and that is vice chair Weiss thank you chair Thompson um as director uh tban noted uh following the work session on August 26 we had a special uh work session um with uh superintendent search um with msba and Miss Dorne um it was an incredible session the server results came back um with a lot of great information I think it very much aligned with the board results um and gave us really good perspective and insights as to what um our broader Community um is looking for um with with great interaction from parents uh staff as well as some students community members and business owners so appreciate everybody's time put into that um the application deadline is today msba will conduct the screening and preliminary verification of references and pre- inters of the recommended candidates so we will look to hear more about that in a couple of weeks we will be meeting um again following our regular work session on September 23rd to determine finalists and interviews will then be scheduled following that we do anticipate that a superintendent candidate would be identified on around October 2nd um if you have any questions regarding the process please let myself know or you can reach out directly to miss Dorne with msba as well wonderful thank you all righty we're going to move into governance we have item a is policies uh number one's first reading the school board will be asked to review at as a first reading the following policies as part of a three-year review cycle 2011 legal status of the school board policy 202 School Board officers policy 203 operation of the school board governing rules board members are asked to review this if you have any questions comments clarification if you can email myself and copy Dr bitman and then we'll have this come back at the next board meeting item two is a second reading over approval it's been recommended the school board approve the following policies as part of a three-year review cycle policy 508 extended school year policy 510 school activities policy 511 School fundraising could I get a motion in a second so moved second a motion and a second any questions or comments from the board hearing none I'll call the question it's been recommended the school board approve the following policies as part of a three-year review cycle as previously stated all in favor say I I opposed say nay motion passes we're going to move on to finance and today we have a preliminary Levy certification information and we have Mr Al Andy alos here is the Executive Director of Business Services and he is here to present some preliminary information regarding the 24 Levy for taxes payable in 25 and to respond to questions welcome Mr Almos I think we're going to compete a little bit with the fan so you might have to have the microphone a little closer to you sure to talk loud enough how's that there you go I think my voice went a little louder when I know the but it's a little warm there we go all right welcome thank you uh chair Thompson members of the board members of our community it's my pleasure tonight to to be here tonight to talk about the levy certification we have coming up um the levy process you've seen this presentation before um so I'm here tonight just really to talk about the process and what this looks like um this is the time of year when mde takes all of our input information and spits out a first Levy run we got that first Levy run today and so we are busy going through that with the fine tooth comb and we've already found a few things that we need to talk to them about um so you are not going to see a levy percentage or what this looks like just yet because we're not ready to go there um but so I'm again I'm here to just talk about the process more than anything um this time of year or if there's anything to take away from the presentation there's just a few Levy takeaways here I want you to know about um every school district in Minnesota is required to approve a preliminary Levy and to set a final Levy and so this is the first step in that process uh the percent increase and decrease is based on things pretty much outside of the school district's control and so we'll see as you see the steps here of what goes into it there isn't a lot of action that we have as a board or a lot of control we have over this process the percent increase and increase does not necessarily necessarily correlate to what you see on your tax statements sometimes that's a hard thing we get some calls about that in our office uh if the Lev is going up 2% why isn't my tax statement going up 2% and there is a difference to that and so there there's some nuances to the levy structure really at the end of the day the levy that we set is a is a dollar amount and that dollar amount is spread by the different tax rates thus the the percentages don't align perfectly that's really the long and the short answer of that uh common factors impacting our Levy are legislative changes enrollment increases and of course inflation again this time of year we input our information into into the summer Levy system mde sends us uh pre-populated data to say update your numbers again enrollment any leases or changes that we might have referendum our um our um our debt schedules health and safety expenses and anything else that goes goes into that system in September we need to certify the preliminary Levy and again all Minnesota school districts do this and then in December after truth and Taxation we'll set the final Levy and just as a reminder we capture the revenue from this Levy in future fiscal years so we're setting it now for Revenue that we will get in future fiscal years there are seven steps to calculating the property tax levy and again we are one step in this process but the first step is the the county determines Market values I want to say that again the county determines Market values I think that's really important because we do get some calls every year about that too my appraised value of my home went up what happened that's not the school district's uh prerogative to take a look at that step two the legislature sets formulas for tax uh for tax capacity the legislature does have the authority to do this and we do follow these formulas as they come out step three the county calculates the tax capacity for each part step four the legislature sets formulas and Levy limits for school districts and step five mde tells school districts what can be levied and how that will be levied so it's the calculations that we have and step six is where you come in as the school board the school dist the school district adopts a proposed Levy in September and again a final Levy after truth and Taxation in December and step seven of course the county um then divides that Levy across the different Parcels in the in in our our school district so what you can expect um just like every other school district we need to approve a preliminary Levy and the recommendation that you'll receive from us is to approve that at the maximum uh at the next board meeting and the maximum means that we get we will get time between September and December to make sure that the levy is correct if it's not approved at the maximum there are some some different nuances with the levy that can cause some trouble so you'll see some Rec that recommendation from us so that we can get it correct and make sure we have all of those eyes dotted and T's crossed and then this sets the stage for us to be able to um approve that in December and move that process forward this is just a screenshot of what that Levy limitation and certification looks like um again its Market values its enrollments it's line by line I think we're up to I think we're up to 40 pages this year uh when I started a long time ago it was at like 20 and so we've added a lot a lot of pages uh in in a short amount of time if anybody wants to learn more about this we are committed to making sure that our community knows what their tax statement says and what they're being taxed for from the school district so we want that transparency and we do welcome the questions we also direct people to our website we do have a a very nice website um designed that says understanding school taxes hopefully we've broken that down so it's understandable but again would welcome feedback if folks have that and with that I'll stand for questions any questions or comments for Mr Almos no thank you you've done a good job thank you I have one for you Mr Almos yeah because this is one I think the public will ask or as a point of clarification why is it we don't certify it at the lowest amount and then change it to the actual amount in December rather than doing it at the highest amount in September and then twing it up in December yeah if the board sets the levy below the maximum as we're finalizing those details we can't go over that threshold so if you set it lower in in September and then we catch something in in that time you can't go higher than that so it can again it can cause some trouble with our Levy if we catch something that's inaccurate or if mde makes a mistake County makes a mistake whatever it might be we that gives us time to catch it and make sure it's accurate so for us really the only option we have to set it higher and we can lower it but we can't set it lower and then higher it in well said y December yeah so if we start at the maximum we can come down yep exactly okay is there any other questions or comments from Mr alos okay thank you Mr Al I appreciate it okay okay we are going to move on to the consent agenda is there anything anyone would like pulled from the consent agenda before we it all righty I'll entertain a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda so move second there's a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda I'll in favor say I I opposed say nay motion passes okay board members look at the upcoming dates of importance it looks like that week uh with our next work session starting off that week we're going to have a really busy week so please make sure you look at those dates because we have um a lot going on that week um so make sure you hold on to this piece of paper and you look at these dates very carefully and make sure you got dates on your calendar and with that I will entertain a motion in a second to adjourn don't move second a motion and a second to adjourn all in favor say I I oppos say nay motion passes and we are adjourned thank you all for being here this evening and enjoy the rest of the evening and a little bit of sunshine thank you so much