##VIDEO ID:iGWVjea9ZSQ## [Music] welcome everybody to our referendum Community session we're hoping to get a lot of good work done here um again really appreciate everyone showing up um my name is Jay carop I'm the fly School Board chair honored to have this role I've been with the district on the school board for about 5 years now I think uh fantastic experience um I'm I'm truly grateful for the opportunity to address you tonight as We Gather to discuss a critical matter uh that will shape the future of our schools and certainly our community um I would like to first take this opportunity to introduce my fellow board members uh either here in person or certainly uh watching the the live stream uh via internet uh we've got Nikki an Vice chair Nikki stand up we have uh Ross meiser Clerk and then I'm guessing probably watching remotely we've got Sarah Jones oh was she okay so Sarah will sneak in here in a little bit we also have uh Eric Keeler he's our Treasurer and then I did see Iana I thought there she is Iana stand up thank you um so each of us is here tonight uh whether we are in person or online because we believe and the power of Education that transforms lives uh they strengthen in our community and they will certainly build a brighter future for our students we also recognize that providing the best possible education requires investment it requires an investment in commitment and the collective support of our entire friendly Community tonight we'll share the details of the referendum we will explain why we believe it's essential and answer any questions you may have we want to ensure that you have all of the information you need to make an informed decision before we excuse me before we begin the presentation I'd like to acknowledge that we all have a shared value here and that shared value is that we all want our children to succeed we all want our schools to be safe welcoming and equipped to prepare our students for the challenges and opportunities ahead and we all want our community to thrive the referendum before US represents an opportunity to reaffirm these values and invest in the future of our students our schools and again in our community as a whole I want to express my sincere gratitude for your presence tonight and your continued support of our schools your participation is tantamount to our mission which is and this isn't our mission statement fley Public Schools is an international connected community that boldly and passionately supports every student with that I'd like to turn it over to Dr brender Lewis our superintendent I am Brenda as Jake said superintendent I'm also a mom of three kids in the district so I have have a 10th grader a ninth grader and a seventh grader and I also live in friendley public schools so it's great to have you here tonight um I was getting a few phone calls and emails which was great in anticipation of this and that really helped us with how we frame the presentation for you tonight the number one question I get is are you telling people how to vote I actually can't tell you how to vote because as superintendent of schools I am uh for purposes of the law and honestly in workload sometimes I'm considered a 247 365 District employee so you won't see a yard sign in my yard you won't see any sort of Engagement around yes or no my job is just to tell you the facts what I will tell you is the staff and the school board that are in the room for tonight's purpose all of us are here conducting District business so that means school board members also will not be weighing in on yes or no and neither will employees however I'm the only one that has the 24/7 365 rule so when you talk to school board members um outside of this space or board meeting or when they're conducting District business or staff outside of their contract time they can certainly weigh in with you on that if they choose so just wanted to let you know that cuz sometimes it's frustrating uh I had a caller last week very passionate and she said to me why won't you just tell me to vote Yes and I said cuz it's illegal for me to do that so it was just um really good and that surprises um folks as well so with that we wanted to just start tonight with a basic video that overviews for you a little bit about Fridley Public Schools but more about the state of education in Minnesota in 2023 as a result of a large budget surplus the Minnesota Legislature approved significant funding for schools but there's more to this story beyond the headlines with the new state funding there were also new mandates adding new expenses for our schools school funding is complex with most Revenue coming through a combination of State AIDS and locally collected property taxes the majority of our District's Revenue comes from the state in the form of general education Aid we also receive funding for spefic specific categories but we can only spend that money on the category it was allotted for in other words just because the state is providing us with more dollars does it mean we can use those dollars wherever we like the remaining revenue for our district comes from local tuition and fees federal grants and local property taxes the largest portion of our budget goes toward paying our teachers and staff our people are our biggest asset and our most significant expense our budget also has to cover cover other things such as curriculum technology Transportation operations maintenance and administration the state mandates some of our spending for things like special education services and certain required courses but many state mandates do not include enough money to pay for them so we have to take money from other important budgets to cover those mandates other factors that impact how we spend money include inflation class size ratios aging buildings emerging techn techology and the specific needs of our students and while we work hard to balance our budget every year sometimes unexpected factors can make a significant impact when we find ourselves in a situation where the needs of our students are outpacing the funding we receive from state and local taxes we may go to our community with a referendum to ask for additional funding each year we tackle the challenge of balancing all of these funding sources and expenses to build an effective budget School budgets can be complicated but what isn't complicated Is our commitment to using our resources wisely on behalf of our students we strive to be good stewards of the resources our communities have entrusted to us while putting the needs of our students first by working together we can keep our schools and our community [Music] strong so you can follow along on the presentation tonight there's QR codes at your table as well as you can um scan this one but it might be a little bit difficult in the back this presentation also will be on our website tonight we're going to talk about our operational needs our building and facility needs proposed solution the tax impact and then at every table we will have most every table we'll have a board member and at every table we'll have an administrator and so they'll be able to uh engage in discussion field questions and any questions that they can't answer we have a team up here that will also assist okay you heard on the video talking about the gap between State funding and the cost of educating each student in Fridley it continues to widen our formula allowance from the state of Minnesota if it had kept up at inflation we would have received an additional just both of $4 million and aid for the 2324 school year this is not unique to Fridley when you go to larger districts like in okah hanapin you'll see a much larger Gap smaller districts smaller Gap but still impactful on their budgets as well many school districts 70% in Minnesota rely on local taxes for operating levies that requires voter approval and that helps us to bridge some of that funding Gap I get asked probably the number one question I get asked about Open Enrollment is do my tax dollars support kids that are open enrolled into fredley yes they do so we have our operating referendum our Levy is based on the number of students that are enrolled in our district Fridley is and open enrolling about 40% of our total enrollment some might pause and think o that seems like a lot Fridley is one of seven districts within Northwest Suburban integration district and that involves a number of districts that surround us including Buffalo Hanover Montrose Anoka hpen oio Brooklyn Center and a few more and the purpose of that is many many many years ago there was money allocated through integration Aid at a state level and then at a district level that invited districts to join integration districts and what that does is it broadens opportunities so Fridley Public Schools is a magnet for international baloria so that means any of our schools here with the exception of our ALC and our Vista setting for program are considered part of Northwest Suburban district and what happens then is any of the six other District students that open and roll into us they get free transportation and the same is said about when we open and roll students out they get free Transportation if they go within there and they might not want to choose Fridley as an IB but they choose maybe a steam magnet so that's part a large part of why you see those open enrollment numbers people say to me like H if we just ended open enrollment then my tax dollars wouldn't be so much well if we ended open enrollment as a state level because it's state law if we ended open enrollment the kids that are open enrolling out of fredley would be here so you'd still be paying on that local Levy so just wanted to explain that this is the number one question I get about that so if you you look at how much revenue we receive in Fridley public schools from open enrollment it's over 7 million or excuse me over 8 million a year that we realize it's not a small amount of money and that's over 70 million the past decade if we did not have open enrollment of students coming into our district we would see much higher class size us that's what we would honestly see because if you think about that you think about taking away 40% wouldn't it be great if that 40% was a class of first grade A Class of second grade a class of third grade but that's not how that necessarily works right so that's again I just wanted to hit this front and center because open enrollment can sometimes be a hot topic for communities so I just wanted to share right away that yes property taxes are paid on every student that attends Fridley but not on Resident students that open and roll out not on Resident students that choose homeschool not on Resident students that choose private school whoops our proposed solution here this is you Jason right yes sorry about that I'm calling up Jason msen Berger who is our CFO here's the clicker Jason good evening everyone again my name is Jason mberg I'm Chief Financial Officer for Fridley Public Schools um thank you for being here this evening to to hear um about um our proposed solution and that comes on Election Day November 5th this year um where we'll be asking you to vote on a new operating referendum or Levy um we say Levy levies are for learning we're going to talk about bonds in a little little bit bonds are for building um so here levies for learning the new operating Levy would begin next school year so school year 2025 26 and would generate about 1.1 million in new Revenue um the revenue would help us stabilize uh District finances and reduce our projected budget Gap you see we say reduce budget Gap that indicates there's a larger budget Gap that we have to navigate um and we're we're looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of three half million um of a budget Gap so this is one of our proposed Solutions um to close that Gap and we'll continue to work through Administration on what those other uh reductions uh and and solutions can look like the operating Levy Authority provided uh through an approved vote would generate um it's $424 per pupil or per student um so take the $424 times the number of students we serve and that's how you get the 1.1 million in Revenue oh I go the other way so what's the tax impact of uh the new levy on a home valued at $250,000 it's about four or about $11 a month on the average home in Fridley which is $313,000 it'd be about $14 a month and on a $400,000 home we're at $17 a month you have the ability to go on the website um on that QR code um and plug in the value of your home and it'll show you what that tax impact looks like so you can get an exact number uh based on the value of your home so operational needs what if question one is approved on the left side um we're going to do our best to maintain the current class sizes we have to maintain the instructional support that we have those are the the uh the the additional staff and pair professionals and and others within the schools um to support our students uh we'll retain uh the staff the the highquality staff that we have and attract additional highquality teachers and staff and we would avoid cuts to programs and services those all sound like good things and that's that's what we are hoping uh with a passage of uh a levy that would provide if the referendum is not approved um we're looking at significant reductions again we have that large budget cut um so we would need look at significant reductions uh for next school year to stabilize our finances um we're also likely looking at reductions into future years um uh reductions in at one point in time are not going to solve a long-term uh structural issue so we'll have to look at reductions into the future and then we'll still come back uh more than likely um and ask the community for another Levy um and that may be in in November of 25 or Beyond um depending on uh what the circumstance looks like the need is there I think is the bottom line we have the need for additional uh uh Levy additional funds in order to close that Gap that Dr Lewis talked about um that gap between the state aid uh the money the state provides um and the cost to educate our students and so that Gap um is is why we come to the community and ask for a levy this is is a small chart if you're following Along on a on a device um it might be a little bit easier um on the uh what we're showing here is the the comparable uh school districts and surrounding districts uh nearby um and the amount of uh property tax levy that they have in place uh the third bar is Fridley we have $599 of a uh operating referendum in place uh currently um and you can see how that uh charts against our surrounding community in the middle you see a black bar that says State average it's about $1,000 per student um so we're at about $600 the state average is 1,000 um and the the Metropolitan average which is two bars over also in Black uh is about $1,500 a student and you can see uh there's quite a range um from where we're at at 600 all the way up to Minneapolis at 20 300 per student and that's why funding uh differences exist um within uh within school districts because they have different amount of referendums in place so what if the referendum does pass where will that put us and you can see our our bar jumps up we're at $1,023 which is still below the state average we're estimating the state average would increase to about $1,100 the Metro average is sitting at about, 1500 someone help leave it up to me V there we go all right so again this chart is showing if the referendum would pass um the amount of Revenue we receive per student would go from about $600 per student up to uh 1,023 uh which would still put us uh below the state average um and certainly below the Metropolitan average um here in our area I'll turn it back to Dr Lewis uh to talk about building and facility needs thank you so much I wish I was standing in front of you and saying we are asking to get bright shiny new and beautiful we are not in our district with the Aging buildings that we have we have an Ever growing list of deferred maintenance I am often asked to talk about what I mean by deferred maintenance have any of you noticed our new parking lot that we have nice it's nice right do you think that was a necessity or a nicity NIC a nicity I wish it was a nicity let me tell you the state of the parking lot when I arrived last year we began to dread any storm any even light rain what would happen is we had rain and water that would literally flut our building we were at a place where we had to have our parking lot pumped out and in the month of October we pumped it out eight times does anyone want to guess how much that was per time to pump that out 2000 a time exactly correct we had to have that pumped out on a holiday anyone want to guess how much that was 4,000 good job yeah exactly exactly the amount of money we were spending just to pump this out last year was not okay what did you have to pump out I know it's crazy I love your tone of voice yes what do we have to pump out all this water was coming we had a pond that was formed anytime it would rain and the water would run into our building in the back parking lot of the FCC yep so it would run down into our building and what happens when water runs into a building like this many of you have been here when this has happened for our senior programs soaking wet carpets right and it was coming 4 feet in from the windows so you extract and you extract and you use towels and you do all of that and what happens with a building when it's flooded maybe five times in a month M mold so last year in October we had to do immediate mold remediation then we had to replace carpets that's why we need to really look at our buildings we still have a further problem in this building our windows are also leaking all the time always so that's another fix so I wish I could say to you this was to get different things it's to make sure that we take care of our assets and what's happening is the amount of dollars it's costing to take care of our assets is pulling out of the learning bucket um so in schools in Minnesota like Jason said there's the learning bucket and then there's the building bucket well the building bucket when you run out where do you pull it from the learning bucket right we're pulling out of our learning Bucket over $2 million a year I also get very nervous as the superintendent about a catastrophic failure what do you think I mean by that a boiler goes out right a big expense that's not this that would be over and above that to replace that so we're really coming to the community to say we want to take care of the assets that we have we want to keep our assets safe we want to fix things when they need to be fixed if you wait to fix roofs and you wait to fix leaks and you wait to fix Windows does it get cheaper or more expensive more expensive right so we want to be fiscally responsible and cost as less of money to make our assets last longer sometimes you'll see referendums or bonds that are run for additions new schools up grades that's just not what ours is for our pro pro solution is Jason is this you on the propos it's me is $30 million facility Bond referendum Jason's going to talk about this in a minute so I think before he talked about on the learning it's a little north of a million dollars of Revenue we would get a year this is $30 million this actually comes at a zero tax impact it sounds like fraud right so Jason's going to talk about that it um has to do with Debt Service expiring and our district has done a really excellent job with Debt Service and how that's spaced out so that in the future like now the district was planful many many years ago to say we want our debt service to fall off gradually so that we can continue with deferred maintenance projects and a way that doesn't hike taxes so he's going to talk much more about that with you I'm going to call up our colleagues from Apex and they are our team that comes in to all of the buildings they know the DNA of all of our buildings and it's kind of like when you take the car to the mechanic I get terrified when they come to me to tell me what their assessment is because you never know if it's going to be $400 or 2300 so they look at everything thing and talk to us about our vulnerabilities what they also do is they talk to us about immediate attention is needed on this Brenda we think you can wait four to five years on this we think this you should be good and don't even need it in your 10year plan so they're going to talk about a few more specifics for you thanks thank you my name is Robert Kowski I work for Apex uh facility Solutions uh we're a construction management engineering firm that has been working with the district for several years now we went through and did a full building site HVAC electrical systems overhaul and kind of looked at all the different systems all the different facilities there throughout the multiple buildings multiple sites throughout the district um a lot of them really aligned with the district and what their current Visions are and what their needs are so safety security um the academics where the classrooms are how they're actually interacting and how some of the other facilities kind of interact with not only the community but also the students and the staff and how they interact with each other one of the things that we really looked at was you know Safety and Security looking at Windows looking at where the cameras are where the card access is and really what's the ability for people to get in and out of the building safely and how can you get the key management the people that need to get in and the way that they go and how can they get in there safely and securely is a very key item that we're looking at for all the different buildings all right I'm going to guess on a button all right I got it right now the other side is is you know we were talking about is water you know we're always looking at how is the best way to keep the outside outside and the inside inside so Roofing Windows building envelope the way the tech pointing is how can we make sure that that water stays outside then nothing deteriorates a building faster than water water mitigation water control is a big key item that we're looking at Roofing is a big one that we're looking at throughout the whole entire District this building is kind of one of the first key buildings that we're looking at for roofing replacements for window replacements because we know there's been water issues and we're trying to keep that all out a lot of the other windows are original to the buildings 1960s 1970s Windows just don't last forever that we're really looking at getting those replaced as part of the overall process of it we're not really looking to add it to it we're just looking to replace for what's there other items that we're looking at is flooring walls there's a lot of vinyl flooring a lot of original flooring from the 1950s 1960s that you can keep waxing the school district has done a great job updating the buildings updating as it is waxing the floors trying to maintain the systems that they have you just can't keep fixing stuff that is over 50 60 70 years old as much as you can try to do it they just need to get replaced and this goes back to the students making sure they have proper lighting proper environments and the proper facilities to actually be able to go into a room and not worrying about all right is that floor tile coming up or you know okay the carpeting is still you know 20 years old right what how is that affecting them and be able to get into a good learning environment for all the students other things that we're looking at is that the district has a great facility as the pool that pool facility is a great asset that is within the community itself but there really is no family changing area there is no areas that they can go in and you know properly get kids changed and have there so kind of renovating that Locker area so that way there is the proper facilities for not only the staff but also for the community because it is such a great asset for the community itself you know and we're talking about the Safety and Security we're always looking at um how are the parking lots set up what are the kids there are coming in not only the the busing situation as the buses come in to make sure the kids are dropped off safely how are the you know older kids at the high schools when they're driving in and being dropped off so we're looking at the high school and kind of figuring out what's the best flow for the best security and the safety of all the students that and the public that are coming in uh for the facilities also the the community center we're looking for here the they've got a great Early Education System here um but the playground system is kind of what we call at the end of useful life it's just at the point that just needs to get replaced plus there's a lot of really good learning um applications that come out in the last 10 years of how you can actually learn as you play and so getting some of that learning and playing activities to get better find motor skills gross motor skills that they can actually do on the playing equipment they don't realize that they're learning but they really are the other one is the the stadium the the track that is out there has gotten to the point that the um Minnesota Youth Athletics has essentially said you can't hold any Fields here so getting that renovated getting that back to where it needs to be getting the storage getting the um the Press Box so that way it's usable and you're not swinging in the wind as the you're watching the games and watching the sock ball and the or um soccer and the football games so that way it's a safe facility for everyone to have and then is usable for decades to come think I'm so we talked about the Gap in general fund of almost 3 and a half million 1.1 would be solved by um a new operating Levy um passage of the bond helps the general fund as well um currently as Dr Lewis mentioned we're spending um uh some of our learning dollars on deferred maintenance and so passage of the bond referendum would reduce about a million dollar out of the general fund um and and be able to uh update those deferred maintenance items which would free up money and help solve or or start to solve that budget Gap that we have in general fund so property tax impact as Dr Lewis mentioned there is no tax impact um and she's she's right this is a good deal um uh where else can you get $30 million with with no tax impact um and I'll come back to that slide in a minute so what is going on uh she mentioned Debt Service we currently um uh take out debt um in these types of situations like this Bond referendum I should say we issue debt usually over like a 20-year period so think of it as a mortgage for the school district uh in order to uh pay for these deferred maintenance items or or do buildings and and additions and types of things um so Fridley has done a number of things over the years and and taken on additional debt that debt is starting to be paid off um and so it's freeing up tax capacity um so that we could take on additional debt we look at it as Dr Lewis said as a way to structure our long-term debt or or what those those needs are longterm um and and be able to pay for those over the period of time by keeping your taxes relatively flat um so when we talk about bonds um we try and wait till we pay off um one of those pre uh debts in order to issue a new one and so this is just uh the case that's happening so we have uh existing debt that is falling off in uh calendar 2028 um so if if this question um was not to pass um your taxes don't go down next year um they would uh go down in 2028 um should we not uh have anything pass until then um what we're able to do is structure the debt so we make uh largely interest only payments on the front end um and then start issuing those or start making those principal payments in 2028 to pay down that debt over that 20-year period that's how we're able to keep the tax impact at zero um which is obviously a great value Jason can you talk about why the ballot will say it's increasing tax yeah um we don't control that so um you can see in the small print down there state law requires bout language to include the statement by voting voting yes on this ballot question you are voting for a property tax increase um that's required under state law so we're asking you to issue $30 million of debt for the district so we're taking on additional debt and with that um would come a tax increase with the exception of us uh being able to reduce it um because we're paying off other debt that doesn't get combined in the question uh so the text or the question on the ballot is simply um your voting for a tax increase because you're voting for $30 million we're trying to share the story of why that tax impact is going to be zero but on the ballot it's still going to show as an increase even though your tax statement won't change I keep pushing the wrong button my apologies um so uh just as we did with the the levy question so what if question two is approved um so we've got $30 million roughly of renovation and improvements at all district facilities um so this is every site will be impacted and benefited by these dollars the amount of Revenue taken from the general fund to cover the renovations and repairs will be reduced um saving the general fund about a million dollars per year and putting that money back into classrooms and then ultimately helping to stabilize the district's uh general fund budget if the question's not approved uh funds will not be available to address the continued facility Renovations and repairs um it will likely be necessary to use general fund budget um again uh to continue to help cover facility Renovations and repairs and they're not going to go away right um it's just those of us that are Property Owners um we continue to have to invest into our our homes to keep them updated and that's the same with the school uh buildings that we have we have to continue to invest in them uh to keep proper learning spaces in place and this is a a great investment and asset that you have within your community um and so we would likely need to consider another Bond referendum into future years should this not pass okay just a couple more um statements before we open it to table discussions many of our restrooms and other uh learning spaces are not ADA Compliant so when you come for example to see our summer musical that's not able to have a wheelchair in most of the restrooms that we have throughout our district that's just one example so we really need to be ADA Compliant um with how we do our facilities I wish I could tell you that restroom that we showed on the photo was the worst restroom that we have in the district that's really what all of our restrooms look like um our pool again it was talked about how that's a very uh very much much a Community Asset unfortunately this year we had our Aquatics director cut herself from her elbow to her wrist on loose tile we had a student from another school district injure herself during a swim meet to the point that she couldn't swim because our tile is literally falling off in the pool and outside of the pool where always relle will say to me um we need to change the filter and I say are you going to drain the pool and she says hopefully not but I'm terrified that if we drain the pool what do you think I'm worried about it's not going to be able to be filled back up right so again these are just the pieces where people are realizing injuries in some of our spaces um we have this meeting called meet and confer where I get to meet often with a board member with our um teachers Union and one of the requests that came last year was can we please get furniture that doesn't cut our students open and that's just literally the metal it was breaking and cutting students open so again I wish I was coming to you uh when I was in Rochester Public Schools gram Forks we got to run referendums for Bright Beautiful shiny buildings ours is just to take care of our assets um and I I wish I could say to you we're getting and all this fabulous stuff is just really to take care of our assets and the community for many years to come so with that board members I'm going to ask you to kind of table share here so that we can have as much um as many tables to have a board member and then there's administration at every table um if you have questions that weren't answered in the presentation just let them know and then they'll bring them up to us and we'll feel questions [Music] all right I wanted to call us back here I would like you over the next week I'm going to give you some homework we're going to talk about on our website and our social media the cost of artificial turf and grass short-term and longterm that was a question so we'll push that out we'll address what did previous $27.5 million in bonds pay for thank you for that we'll push that out um and any other questions that came up at our tables uh the question also was is this subject to inflation yes it is will my taxes go up year after year it depends so we'll explain all of that as well you laugh at that I wish I could say affirmative yes or no but there's a lot of factors so with that I'm first going to thank you for coming tonight you're more than happy to stay I just had someone say should we keep staying keep chatting you certainly can but I just wanted to say thank you so much for being here it was also so nice to connect with people that have said to me I raised my kids we lived in Fridley Public Schools um it's just nice to hear those stories about that as well so with that I'm going to have the official goodbye come from our chair thanks Brenda uh thank you so so much for attending tonight with our busy schedules and our you know conflicts that we have in our lives this is this is very important to us uh clearly we're all here because we care we care about the city of Fridley we care about our school district and we certainly care about our kids that we send to school so thank you very much again uh especially on behalf of my fellow board members uh we simply cannot do this without you uh whether it's in the box or it's in forums like this or if it's volunteering at a school function uh we cannot do what we do as school board members as Educators as administrators without a strong Community to support us so with that I think we will conclude this evening I I we do have a video of this right if people want to reference it later on and take a look at it or share it with your friends and neighbors please absolutely do that um I'm I'm guessing we'll kind of be lingering around a little bit here I I've will commit myself to hanging out as long as it takes to to answer any of the questions but again thank you thank you very much [Music]