##VIDEO ID:AdJykUh4Nek## uh I'd like to call this uh meeting to order and we will start by uh reciting the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you everybody start the meeting's agenda with the approval of the agenda which includes the suggested motions and resolutions do I have a motion so moved motion made by Jones do I have a second second second by Anna all those in favor please signify by saying I I all those opposed motion passes next up we will shift to Dr Lewis with her report uh her superintendent report and staff reports this is gonna Echo here um it is my pleasure to introduce um our audit team and Janelle thank you so much for your work Janelle that you've done I know it's been a lot and we were really close here um to the deadline but much appreciation for all the work that you have done and um I'm excited to turn it over to you thanks so much all right thank you for the opportunity to present with the board here tonight um I'm going to go ahead and share my screen I do have a PowerPoint um with the audit reports um summarized in there as well as some of the charts and graphs that are within the the communication letter um so the first thing that I wanted to cover with you tonight are the audit reports that we issue as part of the audit process um the first one being the the independent auditor report um this report again does talk about the financial statements being Management's responsibility and then our responsibility is to express an opinion based on the results of our test work so you're relying on your um internal team as well as the um team that you have at seot to help pull all that information together and we did Issue an unmodified opinion on your statements this is what's considered a clean opinion or the best opinion that we can offer you it states that your um financial statements present fairly in all material respects the second report we issue is our report in accordance with government auditing standards these standards require us to look at internal controls over financial reporting as well as compliance with various laws regulations contract tracks and grants um when it comes to the internal controls we had one item to report and that's the lack of segregation of accounting duties um due to limited staff that you have within the finance area there are some duties that are overlapping in the transaction cycles that are happening and a very common finding for districts of your size um to have that kind of the cost benefit of adding additional people to be part of the processes so as a board we just recommend that you remain aware of the situation and be diligent in the reviews that you are doing um monthly reports that you get budget to actual reports the list of checks that you get for approvals and so on be diligent in those reviews and then when it comes to compliance we had no um instances of non-compliance to report to you the next report is our report on form guidance and this relates to the federal dollars that the district receives um we did test the education stabilization program as well as special education and we did Issue an unmodified opinion on the compliance with the requirements of these major programs so again another clean report for the district and then the last report that we issue is our report on Minnesota legal compliance uh the state auditor's office gives us a list of State statutes to test compliance with each year and we had no instances of non-compliance so again another clean report for the district and then moving on we've got some um charts and graphs that show some of the trend analysis the first table here is the um general education formula allowance kind of the history of where that amount has been for the last 10 years as well as the current fiscal 2025 um for fiscal 24 you did have a 4% increase um which is the largest increase in the Years presented here um but in a lot of cases it wasn't um sufficient enough to cover some of the inflationary increases that you were seeing on the expenditure side um the next table here includes your resident ADM numbers we like to include student numbers within our presentation um because such a large component of your general fund revenues are based on student numbers um we like to include those in here so the first one here is your resident ADM numbers um for fiscal 24 you did see an increase of about 51.5 n ADM or about 2. 1% and then you've seen some fluctuations in these numbers over the last 5 years that are presented here 2024 was the highest in the Years presented and you can also see that on the the graph here on the next slide and then those ADM numbers are converted to pupil unit numbers with the different weighting factors that we have here so those secondary students are weighted a little bit heavier so you're receiving more aids for those students um so using those waiting factors the adms are converted to the pupil unit numbers that you see at the bottom of the slide you did have an overall increase in Resident pupil units um coin Ides with the increase in the ADM numbers itself but you also saw an increase in the residents leaving the district and a decrease in the non-residents coming in so an overall decrease in the adjusted pupil units or pupil units served and and that's the number that you're getting um some of those State AIDS paid on um so if when you look at and compare the um residents going elsewhere compared to the non-residents coming in you have had a net gain on an open enrollment in each of the five years presented here and then this next graph also summarizes the the pupil unit numbers um that number has been declining in each of the years presented here and then the next graph here charts out the um increases and decreases that you've seen so you can see there's a couple years where you've had increases in the Resident ADM um which is the green bar um but an overall decrease in the pupil unit served which is the blue bar and then following that we get into the financial numbers themselves um the table here shows budget to actual results for the general fund so the first two columns of numbers are what you as a board approved um kind of directive to management of where you anticipated the fund balance should end up for the general fund the final budget called for a decrease in fund balance of about $1.2 million and the actual was a decrease about $2.3 million um couple things going into that in total your revenues were about $138,000 under budget um the largest cause for that variance was the the federal sources of revenue you had budgeted to use more of of your allotments of those Federal entitlements and on some of those you didn't spend the entire amount you um chose to carry some of those over to the following fiscal years and then the other local Revenue category was over budget um historically the district has budgeted conservatively for this area um those are the revenues that are a little bit more unpredictable you did have higher investment income this year with a a turn in the market rates um also Student Activity dollars are in there and third party medical Billings so again those some are sometimes hard to predict those numbers so um the district has historically budgeted conservatively for those and then on the expenditure side you about $1.3 million over budget on there um there were some things in there um technology purchases that weren't budgeted for um you can see down under the other financing sources there's a amount there as well that's not budgeted that offsets those some of those expenditures that weren't budgeted for um but then you also saw overages in things like Transportation costs being higher than anticipated um you also had some Project work completed ahead of schedule so that was actually about $911,000 so between the um technology purchases that are offset with those other financing sources and then the project work that was done ahead of schedule that kind of accounts for a lot of the the budget overages that you had for the year um moving on we've got a summary of general fund sources of revenue um for 2024 your revenues increased about $1.1 million or about 2.1% the increase in the state sources was the largest component of that um some of that again was attributed to the increase in the formula allowance you also had increases in the special education AIDS as well as some other new AIDs that um came about in 20124 um you did see a decrease in that other line item that's that consists of other local dollars as well as federal dollars and the federal component was the largest portion of that decrease in there um and specifically those Co grants you used up a large portion of your covid grants in 2023 um and once the those dollars were used up you didn't have those allocations um to spend again so when you look at the the numbers here your state sources of revenue make up about 76% of your total general fund Revenue so that's where the um student numbers can impact that number quite significantly and then moving on to expenditures we've got the two pie charts here that show um an allocation by par program as to where you're spending your dollars from year to year um when you look at the two years in comparison they're barely consistent as to where those dollars are being spent um and specifically in the the classroom instruction areas the regular instruction vocational and special education um that accounted for about 59% of your total general fund expenditures for 2024 compared to 58% in the prior year so again very consistent there and then the next table here summarizes the overall general fund operations for the last five years um as I mentioned revenues increased about 2.1% expenditures were up about 3.4% um special education and specifically Staffing in that area was about a 1.6 million increase you also saw increases again in transportation costs um you did have expenditures in excessive revenues of about $1.8 million um and then factoring in those um Finance purchase proceeds of $333,000 and um transfers to other funds of about 91,000 so overall your total fund balance for the general fund decreased about 2.3 million um when you look at the bottom portion of that table it breaks out the different component on of your fund balance um so much of that decrease um hit in the ltfm Restriction by spending um some of those dollars as well as the unassigned fund balance um the next graph here the green line is your total fund balance you can see how that number has changed um from 2021 you've been spending down that fund balance um at the end of 2024 your unre restricted fund balance is about 6% of your expenditures your annual expenditures the district policy is to have about 7 to 10% of your annual expenditures in that unassigned or unrestricted category so slightly below that District policy um so that's something you might want to work towards um getting back to that number um there are some dollars um covid dollars in the 2024 expenditure number so it might correct itself um going forward because you won't have those additional expenditures in in your um numbers for the going forward and then the next table here is the Food Service fund um overall you had an increase in both revenues and expenditures the state provided free meals to all students um for 2024 if they weren't receiving free meals on the federal program so you did see an overall increase in the number of meals served you did have revenues and excessive expenditures of about $149,000 so an overall increase in your fund balance here as well and then the last table we have for you is the community service fund um this fund also saw an increase in revenues with increased participation in the programs um expenditures increased with a a new lease that was signed for the year um that was the large component of that and then you also had some other financing sources um transfers from the general fund were in there for operating referendum dollars um the lease Levy dollars for ab and so forth so overall expenditures did exceed revenues um and then fund balance decreased about $74,000 for this fund um we also show the components of fund balance for this fund and the restrictions within this fund that Community Education restriction has been in a deficit fund balance it continues to be in a deficit fund balance so that's maybe a program that you want to Monitor and review the operations of that program um to see if that's something that can turn around on there um but overall that's the summary that we have for you for 2024 um certainly open to any questions if any of you have any thank you any questions anybody all right thank you so much uh we appreciate it yes thank you thank you for your team for the work they put into preparing for the audit and again for the opportunity to work with the district thank you I think do you have a superintendent report superintendent report yep y thank you so much chair all right it my absolute Delight to call up our uh principles they're going to share with you how things are going with the procedures of our cell phones and just as a reminder and you know how I am about the language as do our principles so as part of new legislation our um school board will need to adopt um in March we still are not sure the exact date um a cell phone policy and so right now we don't have a cell phone policy um but our uh principles are going to share the procedures in their buildings what's working what's been needing enhancements Etc and then we will um move to doing our work msba is who we use for our model policies um to look at those to use as uh frame um sometimes we make adjustments to them sometimes we don't um those are that new policy is being rolled out during the msba conference in January so then um we'll be able to get to work but I wanted you to really hear the um true reality of what's going on and while it's our principles presenting they're going to share um um staff voice on this as well principles this is the first time we've launched this new setup um so I think that microphone cord gayy will be just a little tight for you but it should still work oh look at that yay okay take it away okay um well thank you so much for inviting our principal team here to kind of share with you um our current uh practices and things that we're experiencing at our schools um when we centered ourself in this presentation we were really thinking about three kind of major components um and those were around relationships um focus and attentiveness to school and then safety um and so you'll kind of hear some themes through uh our principal team around that um from a relational standpoint obviously uh limiting some of our technology devices that are very prevalent in our world right now um really gives that increase uh face-to-face social interaction um and that's something obviously we see a lot of benefit from um also the distractability uh pieces when it comes to relationships obviously it it gives us that good FaceTime and uh centered conversations uh from a focus standpoint um we really were kind of thinking about it from the lens of Engagement obviously uh achievement is a a great big Focus for all of us as principles and this leadership team and we know that through those um intentional interactions with one another and discussions and dialogue we have that increase in engagement in our academics um also related to that uh you know Temptations are real for all humans and so especially with our our youngest uh Learners and our you know high school students as well having that limited access allows for Less distractability um and Temptation and then from a safety standpoint obviously um you know there's a lot of um things that our our students face each day when it comes to social media and when it comes to uh interactions that happen over the phone um or other technology devices and so um in thinking about that we really want to focus on fostering a safe environment um from a social standpoint from a social media standpoint um and limiting those opportunities for uh cyber bullying and harassment um which are very real and have very big impacts uh to our students and then obviously protecting our kids um you know sometimes from the unknown um that we know can be big big hard things for them so you'll hear that theme throughout the presentation today around why relationships focus and safety are kind of that Center Point and why we're here today good evening all right I'm Veronica mat principal Stevenson and at the elementary level this is not something that really interrupts our day very much at all so we ask our Scholars to keep their phones and their personal Tech away during the day and we communicate that during orientation and really have had no push back um we do allow it at dismissal because we have we all know as parents that we have to allow our kids to communicate um to their parents and and with pickup or any activities um like I said minimal issues I think I've had one thing this year so far with with cell phones um usually in the spring fourth grade that's when we see a an increase uh we problem solve is needed with individual students and with families some of the bigger things that come up is if a student is recording or taking photos of another child or of an adult and a lot of times it happens on the bus which is super fun um because we have little um control over what happens on the bus and we try to teach that uh the other piece is harmful messages outside of school between students um that was the one thing that has come up at Stevenson so far this year and our parents are usually really grateful that they are not continuing to do that messaging at school so uh but we do have to help support when it leads into a conflict or something that's unresolved at school and then we step in to help do some conflict res resolution and then social media posts that something that has come up in the past so before yeah before we go on can I ask a question with the elementaries just out of curiosity how many of our elementary students have a phone uh with them in school it's a great question Ross you know we would have to survey to find out because we asked from the beginning just to keep them at home or keep them away uh but we you'd be surprised there's actually quite a few of them especially with even our our kindergarteners um that might have them they um they do a really great job though at keeping them in their backpacks so we really don't see them much backwards hello good evening I'm Amy Cochran principal at the middle school um so this school year we implemented something new so we at the middle school have had some procedures in place in previous years um and this year this summer the Minnesota Association of Secondary School principles really did a big push with secondary principles around um cell from procedures and this away for the day was um really push kind of through the principles Association and so it was something that we met with our leadership team about and decided to adopt this year um so our procedures right now are we call it away for the day which is a nice little slogan for middle schoolers um essentially means to have your cell phones and technology devices away in your lockers um and out of sight for the school day um and really the idea behind that is that it minimizes the Temptation again as middle schoolers if it's on me if it's on my body if it's with me if it's sitting on my desk I have the temptation to constantly be looking at it um and so devices are allowed before school so before 8:00 a.m. students have them in the hallways then they go on their lockers and then they can have them again at 3: um we do have some exceptions to that students that have medical um situations or maybe other emergency reasons we've also had some meetings with parents who we've made exceptions and I will say with our organization Focus this year with our Avid School wide that's worked really well because all of our students have binders that have pencil pouches in them so any of the students we've made like um kind of specific plans for typically that's where their house so they're still out of sight way um those students have really specific plans with us um and we really know that it's they're out of sight I think one other thing that's been really helpful is that we've had really clear expectations around what happens if I have my phone out if I have it in the hall if I have it in classroom what's what happens and so we were really clear about that from the beginning with both families and with students um and asking families to review that with their students so that students just knew upfront what was going to happen if they did have it out um and so it's kind of a progressive from first time it's you know a warning second time it's uh um students will Dean will take it it will be in the office students can have it back at the end of the day um the next time parents are guarding would be asked to pick up the phone um and then if we get to like a fourth or fifth time typically a plan is created with the family I will just tell you this year the number of parents that have said you keep it until I decide I'm going to come get it we are the housing we are housing quite a few cell phones right now so um but so far I will just say and I am going to share in a couple slides here's just some feedback specifically from the middle school around how it's going but I will say um having really clear expectations and then just being really clear up front has really helped I think students have really understood right away what the expectations are and um we really haven't had a lot of issues with it because students kind of just know what the expectations are all right uh good evening uh Kelly mcconell principal at the high school so a lot of the things have already been said that I can Echo um from the secondary perspective um so at the high school we just say no electronic devices Bell to Bell so before school passing time during our one lunch cell phones electronic devices are in use um most of our students uh are very efficient with her electronic devices um one of the things that um we are working on is that consistency um and so consistency in what what does it mean to have a cell phone out um what does it mean to have an electronic device so it's something that uh first semester has been a little bit um Rocky at times be between different teachers um and so one of the things that we're doing is we have a staff meeting coming up at the beginning of January to actually role play and to to Define with our leadership team what does it mean what is our expectations around that um and I I think we've seen um much more engagement but it's something that is a work in progress definitely at the high school as far as having that clear expectation all staff are following it um and really just having those conversations with families and students um about our expectations when it's not being met all right so just a little bit of feedback from um teachers and families so most of this came from the Middle School and again I know Veronica had mentioned that they um don't have a ton of um concerns there but certainly have had um parents especially like um in fourth grade I think is probably where it's um cell phones are seen the most but just in a particular situation a parent was very thankful that a situation that happened on social media that happened outside of school was very thankful that that didn't bleed inside the school because there was no phones allowed um and so just really parents being very thankful for the um procedures that we have in place we um because the way for the day is new for us at the middle school um we wanted to we've been doing a lot of talking about it and at our leadership meetings and asking our leadership team to really talk with their teams of teachers and what are you seeing what are you hearing um how's it going are there things we need to try and do differently so this was just some specific feedback and I will tell you the number of times I have heard teachers say the first bullet point of just that the student to- student communication has quadrupled this year like teachers are saying kids are talking to each other when students finish their work at the end of the class period instead of having their phones or their faing their phones they are communicating they're working together they're collaborating um so just that like social time with their peers has really really increased this year um with again not having it on their body because even if they weren't supposed to use it during academic time if it's in my pocket if it's with me that's going to be the first go-to as soon as I have downtime because they don't have that Temptation it's in their lockers they don't have that to be able to pull it out um teachers have also just reported in between classes again students some go to their lockers and some don't because they carry their binders with them so there's not always a reason to go to their locker and so then they're spending their time in the hallway and their four minute passing time really um hanging out with their friends and really socializing um again for that peer-to-peer interaction um just an eighth grade teacher shared that Beyond a phone that fell out of their pocket hadn't had one issue in the nine weeks in their classroom and that was in an eighth grade classroom so that's huge I think we just have attributed that on our leadership team of just like the really clear communication and expectations around it and as soon as is we see like oh we're having a little bit of increase this week we you know this week we have 10 phones in the office um like for example yesterday Mr Englehart did an announcement at the end of the day just a reminder as we go into the last week before break here's our cell phone expectations just you know just want to give you a reminder so we're just constantly reminding students and teaching them of the expectations and as a result we're seeing just really fantastic um results our sixth grade team um has really reported like the number of students that will say oh shoot I forgot I have it in my pocket can I run to my locker so students are like advocating for themselves to go put it away um and really um taking that accountability and that responsibility um we've had seventh and eighth grade students talk to teachers about this a lot and like yes we don't love it because we love our cell phones and in the same sense we understand and we get it and now we're seeing how it's changing things and so um that's been really powerful to hear students um just know that students are taking extra work they're you know activities socializing which is really a huge increase um compared to last year and just what our policy was last year our procedure was last year fifth and sixth grade didn't have it but seventh and eighth grade did have it at in the hallways so passing time and at lunchtime so often at lunch students would spend their whole Lunch Period on their phones we also saw a lot of um you know recording of things taking pictures of things that kind of cyber bullying things happening and this year that has been I mean completely almost cut down to not happening so just really really fantastic feedback from teachers and families and I will tell you a lot of feedback from families around how much they really appreciate it and takes the battle out of families to say thank you for thank you for this so it's going at the middle school really well oops that keep going the wrong way one of the things that we set this up um across to all schools uh the school year is really that clear communication to families um so we had uh uh cell phone and personal device user agreements um that we had at our open houses that family signed um and it really laid out really clearly uh the expectations the why behind it um kind of like what what would happen if it was um if they were used um and I think that really helped uh get buying from families um a lot of we got a lot of compliments at the high school in our open house about thank you for doing this I think I'll just speak personally as a parent myself cell phones are really challenging um with cell phones were't around when I I was a kid so it's a parent um because we didn't have that experience so parents have been thankful that we are taking this active approach um so the agreements um they're all linked in here um they're very similar um one of the things that has been really nice in this work is the consistency and um at least with secondary for sure and and I know with Elementary working together to make sure that we are you know we have a lot of families that have siblings in different schools that we are our our expectations are very similar um but fit the developmental you know age of which the student is so all right and kind of last uh the last slides really just talks about some of the resources that we've used um as we made these uh procedures um as we looked at this uh at the research behind it as we communicate to our teachers our families our students about the why and the importance of Engagement um in school so yeah any questions any questions uh yes CH I have uh one question as we contemplate you know procedures or policy uh in the spring I'm wondering what the high school staff and administration and teachers think about the Middle School uh away for the day because it's slightly different right you can the high school can have it out and passing y yeah and and that's really interesting one of the things that I always like to do is to see what other schools are doing other other communities other districts um and that is very similar um we're seeing that just a slight difference between the middle school and in the high school um I think a lot of times with our high school students there's um there's jobs there's other things that that they do need to communicate during the day hey shift is open or I'm not going to cake and you cover me those kind of things and so when we get student voice we get that feedback we do see that need is greater at the high school for those down times and one of the things is just to be very clear it's that instruction time that is that sacred time that we want to make sure that that no electronic devices are being used um you we're going to have to write the policy at some point is there anything that you would love to see in a policy that would support you your staff and your teachers and your Paras anything that you can think of I know it's kind of on the spot I won't we're not writing anything down but this will be my last comment um one of the things that um just having some conversations is is just to the one of the things that we were trying to do at the high school is to get more student voice um in the things that we're doing so I think we're we're off to a good start um but one of the things that whatever we do moving forward is just to make sure that we have that student voice and it's nice to see we have students on the school board um to have those conversations and get that voice uh as you move towards policy don't drop it uh the the only other thing that I would mention is a lot of times with our uh younger friends we'll have like personal technology devices so as we kind of think about like cell phone policy I know that's often what is heard just thinking about personal technology devices as well like from a watch stpoint as well as you know all the cool things that are coming up here tablets those kind of things um so just kind of keeping that in mind when we think about language yeah that's I thinking with the elementary like I know EMT when he was in fifth grade he just had a watch right you wouldn't really know what it is but that thing could be buzzing and distracting and games I'm guessing maybe Amy's got a smart watch yeah we have a ton of issues with watches I say for us we say technology devices because headphones are a bigger deal headphones and however because the cell phones haven't been out they also cut the headphones down because I don't have anything that can to so they typically you know prior to this they would have their headphones in you might not know it I might have some other head covering and my headphones are hiding um you know I'm playing my music so I'm really not paying attention and now that's really just like also not existent I would say that's been really great so just like that piece for us the technology can you know technology as a whole versus just bones other things that connect to it that's helpful awesome anything else support no all right that was a great presentation thank you thank you yeah thank you so much and you all can choose to stay or go up to you thanks again nice work all right next up and I'm just going to pause so you can see the animation so I very honored to recognize Sarah Jones and R Meisner it was perfect timing yesterday their certificates arrived so recognizing them on um Faceook is 1 through 4 of the msba training and I did tell them that they can share anything that they would like about the training but it's not a forc share so I'll let you too you have something um I know a lot of us have done lots of different parts of it I think that it was really helpful coming into the Schoolboard role just so many things to learn um thank you so yeah I'm very thankful for the opportunity to be able to go through all of them and just different glimpses it also was really helpful to meet lots of board representatives from different districts I think that that was really valuable to build that Network as well yeah I I think that's uh the key points right there sharing the experience with other board members and hearing the stories and challenges that they have and the solutions that they've come up with um and having gone through them and having been uh on a different School Board in the past going back to these classes the just being reminded because there is a lot of stuff that the school board has to do and just so um you know even taking them again and and it's kind of a continuing education thing uh was very helpful to me awesome well congratulations and thanks for taking the time to go through those courses and workshops thank you next up I'm excited to update you on the strive field trip so Lori and I are strive mentors and strive as a program through the rotary and um two weeks ago we were able to visit an NOA hanen Tech College I had not been there you Lori hadn't um as well and um we were able to hear about their programs offered such as nursing lab electrician lab and Automotive lab and their um mannequins in the uh nursing lab are racially responsive they're all different ages they're birthing babies and they're breathing so it's really exciting to see all of that innovation of what what's similar to a a lab experience so it was just so exciting to see and we had a student in our group that was highly interested in the nursing program um this is also with Columbia Heights students so we started here and then took the bus over to Columbia Heights uh to pick up students there and then went um to the college visits then we went to an NOA R Ramsey Community College the rotary buys lunch for all of the students and the mentors so that was nice for them to get that um campus experience we did see some um current Fridley students there that aren't part of strive as well as some um Fridley Alum so that was fun for our students to be able to connect um Anoka Ramsey Community College um felt very different Lori had been there before it was just a a very different feel um from the first one so it was nice for our students to be able to see that um and we got to see uh different programs that they have there as well so just a great opportunity also dri students are eligible for a scholarship through the rotary and um one of I an NOA Tech matches it or Anoka Ramsey I knew I would get that mixed up Anoka Ramsey matches it and Anoka Tech is looking into that so it was just a really nice field trip there's um more field trips coming up and also we have I think a strive mentorship on Thursday session as well um strive we also do things like um help with uh getting the FAFSA filled out in those pieces so it's nice to be a part of that oh yes so excited about this slide as well so um I it's unfortunate that Stephen isn't here because this is really out of his um team Stephen is also a lion as as Eric Keeler for did I miss anybody else that's I don't think any okay um so we were able to help so Community Ed as well as Fridley lions we jointly put on this um holiday lunch it is a big deal this is my second year going much more active in it this year than I was last year uh Lori was there Stephen was there both years as well it was just so exciting they we had a cut off registrations at 280 seniors and our seniors that come they get a full um think of it kind of like a Thanksgiving meal and they only pay $5 and then the lion supplements the rest and this people as I was checking them in they're very much like have been looking forward to it for 6 months and it's just so exciting and then their outfits I mean you saw we stepped it up this year um but ours did not match to the level of theirs and the picture that you see I don't actually have a hat on that is an interesting accidental um posing of their centerpiece thing so it looks funny everyone's like I love your hat and I'm like o I'm not wearing it but it was just really nice um to be there and to see our seniors and I can't even tell you the number of times when I was checking people in they said congrats at the referendum so happy about that so it just it just was a really special event we um ran out of seating um we think more than 280 came that registered but we let them through the door um obviously so it was just a really really really wonderful event and our black and gold Gala coming up here in January we're so excited to have that again um and just asking people to please order their tickets or their tables to donate and we are so honored that we will be recognizing our golden apple recipient as Renee vangorp who I know we can all agree absolutely um deserves this award and um we're just so excited to honor her I have broken protocol and since I couldn't tell Lori to make the slide I'm going to switch over I'm excited to introduce buo bu we recognized you at the last board meeting but we're so excited to have you join our team this is end of day two as our senior officer of HR and Anita our HR specialist started last Monday and what a difference it makes to have you and I just want to give a special shout out to Lori and Michelle um they really have taken quite a bit on um really since July and August with HR and then um when we ended our uh contract with C so at the end of October they exclusively did um the HR work for the entire month of November and then half of December so thank you so much for doing all of that and we are very indebted to you for taking that piece on and um are just so excited to have our new team in place so welcome officially boo thank you um and with that I will entertain any questions um that you have about the report great any questions all right moving right along we'll jump into the business action items uh first up the chair would entertain a motion to approve the audit results that we heard earlier today do I have a motion I will move to approve the audit results misner with a motion do I have a second second second by Anna all those in favor of approving the audit results signify by saying I please I all those opposed passes next up we have I would entertain a motion to accept the tax levy final certification of pay 25 Levy do I have a motion I have a motion to accept the levy motion by Meisner again do I have a second second we're staying consistent second by Anna uh again all those in favor please signify by say saying I I all those opposed motion passes next up we have a resolution or I would entertain a motion for resolution of accepting gifts and that the School Board of fley Public Schools accepts with appreciation the following gifts received by the school district um we received a $334 donation for popcorn at the free Family movie Nights given to us by the frle Education Association do I have a motion to accept the gift and extend our gratitude so moved motion by Stark do I have a second second second by Jones this is a roll call vote we'll start with Miss Anna hi Miss Jones I Mr carop is I Mr Meisner hi Miss Stark I miss Amed hi Miss shy hi motion passes next up the chair would entertain a motion to to approve the contract with the Center for Effective School operations and notice of termination do I have a motion uh so moved motion by misner do I have uh any conversations or questions on this before we move on chair I'd like to just uh chime in here if you don't mind um we have been with ciso we started with uh ciso Finance in late November um early December last year and um then HR in January and then transportation starting in February and ciso really worked uh side by side with the district to Gap fill and to really help to get um processes systems procedures in place um we found that through staff input and just other pieces that for the HR contract it was really um uh more beneficial for us to have our house HR after we had that uh transition time with ciso so that uh portion of the contract ended in um October 31 which is why we're bringing it forward now to have the contract uh for transportation and for finance through June 30th we're finding the same thing with finance and transportation um have really benefited from that work and getting feedback and so forth that we want to um bring that work back in house um at Fridley and again um appreciative of the work that ceso has done with that ceso does have 120-day notice period so um if we don't provide notice by March 1st then the contract Auto renews so that's why we're bringing this um forward to you is to approve it now without the HR portion and then authorize uh the superintendent to notify ciso both finance and transportation that we do not wish to extend the contract Beyond June 30th thank you chair awesome thank you any other questions or comments I would say that we really appreciate the partnership with ciso and being able to fill the gaps that we have step in when we've needed support um when we've needed to fill positions and I would Echo the same thing that superintendent Lewis said that I've heard also from staff and from our community that it is really valuable to have our own employees in house to have them local and housed but that that we have really appreciated the Partnerships awesome thank you and I would also second that motion when you are there if you are there we're there second uh and I would just Echo uh what Dr Lewis and Miss Jones had said as well uh so with that this is a roll call vote uh Miss Anna hi Miss Jones hi Mr car up is I Mr Meisner hi Miss Stark hi Miss Amed hi Miss shy motion passes next up we have uh the chair would entertain motion to accept the consent agenda which covers uh the minutes from the last meeting new contracts amendments leaves of absences resignations and terminations and also the American Indian education application and program plan uh no need for a roll call vote here all those in favor please signify by saying I I all those opposed motion passes um next up and to finish we have some important dates um coming up we we have the IB diploma celebration and silver platter breakfast at the Fridley High school media center on December 18th at 7:30 a.m. on December 19th at 7 p.m. at the district Auditorium we have the Fridley High School Holiday Spectacular no school starts on December 23rd through January 1st for winter break and then on January 3rd at 7:00 at the district Auditorium we have the free family movie night where we'll be feat featuring Kung Fu Panda Four movie The Middle School Dance for 7th and e8th graders is on January 16th at 4:00 at the middle school I'm a bit surprised my seventh grader didn't tell me about this and then we also have on January 15th the earning college credit at the fley high school info night at the district Auditorium 6 o'clock on January 15th and then we have Bingo Knight which I understand earlier this week was a great SU at the Middle School uh we're having Bingo night at Stevenson Elementary on January 16th at 5:00 no school on January 17th for planning and evaluation n school for the Martin Luther King Jr holiday on January 20th and then our next board meeting will be January 21st here at the community center with a 5:30 work session 7:00 public comment and then 7:30 business session and then I would just add also we have the flee uh Foundation gala on January 30th held at Jack's Cafe I encourage anyone that hasn't bought tickets please do so and looking forward to a great night to raise a lot of great money for some good causes with that I would entertain a motion for adjournment do I have a motion so moved motion by Jones so I have a second second second by Anna all those in favor signify by say and I please I I all is opposed we are adjourned at 8:22 thank you very much for