##VIDEO ID:I3rLOWD8O8E## we'll call the workshop to order um we really have two things on the agenda here today and we're going to switch up the order on the agenda as it's published uh uh first up on the agenda uh Paul peler executive director of rams is here with us and we're going to talk about legislative priorities yeah and maybe a little bit of an introduction about what Rams is and what they do would be great well thank thank you uh Mr chair uh my name is Paul peler I'm the executive director of Rams Rams is the range Association of municipalities and schools we serve 27 cities 27 townships and 15 school districts all in the tanite assistance area so that's an area that stretches from kasset to Cook County to Grand morray to Aken and elely and everywhere in between I've included a map here of the TAA for your uh convenience we've got all of the school district boundaries are what make up the geographical area of the TAA it's exactly the same footprint as the IB we're named in statute we're u a 501c4 we're an area of government and we are intergovernmental all at the same time so they're simultaneously everything and nothing all at once so but that's a little bit about who we are um and we've represented as an organization the interests of this region for over 85 years um Rams started back in 1939 when the Mayors got together and decided to push back against the Oliver Mining Company taking the tax wealth out of our local areas and not letting our areas Thrive as they should and so they worked the legislative magic established Rams got the tanite production tax into place and went to bat for the needs of rural people all across our region and so I'm proud to be their executive director and uh and kind of take that that charge into the 21st century here um we've got a little bit of a history here I happen to be a balam boy and um I went to Grand Rapids High School and so I'm very happy to be back in my old stomping grounds and I used to work at the rif center um and some of my very favorite memories are some of the people who formed me I wouldn't be the man I am today without the teachers in my life I come from a family of Educators I myself am also an educator um I would I would be remiss if I didn't name drop just a little bit here but um I I'd say some of those formation teachers for me are people like Carol moral people who just had standard very very high standards and made sure you knew it and that uh and if you Rose to the occasion you you really knew when you did and you knew when you fell short coincidentally my father also had Carol as a teacher and when she found out that I wasn't a long-haired hippie like my dad she was like oh thank you so much you know but um but the web family were also very memorable teachers for me um from kindergarten all the way through middle school I know Gary when he passed it was a big shock to the community and uh I graduated with their daughter so it just I know that dates me a little bit but it puts me in that context where my gratitude for what I am today comes from in many ways this district and specifically I I have to call out those music teachers the Brian stubs the Dale Gunderson and Mark Sagar of the world who really set a high bar for me musically um and then inspired me to be music teacher where I served for 15 years and so I taught in Western North Dakota taught out in foston west of buiji and all at small rural schools and now I have a chance to come back home and be the advocate for the Iron Range region that we know as Rams and so it is it is my honor to be here today and always to be in front of a district like this so that's a little bit about who I am and where I come from and oh where your office is we office out of Mountain Iron okay and so I live in Virginia our kids go to Rockbridge schools and uh we've got four kids me and my wife Molly and it's just a it's a great life but it's a busy one so our kids are 11 and under and so we're just going going going um and so we our youngest Carl just celebrated his fourth birthday and so we are just we're busy we're busy right now and so between that and Rams it is a good life and U I'm happy to kind of share a little bit about what we do who we are and why we matter um Rams is first and foremost an intergovernmental organization we try and build Bridges cross legislative and Geographic boundaries across Civic boundaries and get people out of their own silos so that we can realize that we're stronger together um the phrase if you're not in the kitchen you're on the menu is uh exactly what is at stake here is because when we're working together we can make some really good things happen we work with the entire legislative delegation of the range delegation to try and make those things happen and we look for opportunities to build Bridges across cultural boundaries as well as Geographic boundaries we know that the Twin Cities could outvote us in a heartbeat and when it comes to saying what our needs are we don't give up our our god-given right to say what our needs are just because we live in northern Minnesota so we stand proudly in that tradition of saying what our needs are and making sure that everyone knows what that is and that we will be active partners with them and look for opportunities to build those Partnerships across those boundaries so that's a little bit about what Rams does some of the things that we are are proud to say that come from our members are our legislative priorities we've got a a list in front of you our of our most recently done 2024 legislative priorities you can see these are a very Diversified long list and you'll notice that it's not just school stuff on here well it's School Township and City things so if it happens in rural Minnesota and in greater Minnesota in particular we care about it because it impacts us what impacts one does impact all and making sure that others know what the needs are of Greater Minnesota is reflected in these legislative priorities that come from our members so you'll see mining priorities you'll see L LGA support for local government assistance you'll see EMS is a big area of focus you can you understand that very acutely with meds one transitioning over you see that that with that comes sort of growing pains anytime there's a change right you see um e efforts to kind of really contribute to efficient and safe schools so Rams as a school footing we have rural school aid stable schools housing's an issue across the region um it's getting to sound like all the the the tick tock list of the things that it takes to live in a rural place and it actually is so Rams finds itself at the center of what it means to live in a rural place whether that's an effective School that you can afford and a life that you can afford because you can afford your home um it's important to note that just as a side note $1.3 billion dollar was allocated in the Minnesota Legislature in 2023 towards housing how much of that is coming north how's that affecting the workforce shortage how's that affecting your ability to hire as a district those step one lane one teachers who are looking at their paycheck and like hey it's a good life but is it an apartment or is it a house where is it you know that's those are things that aren't just ger main but kind of generic to everyone across the region who care about child care and you as your ECFE teachers your prek teachers you're going to know that over the next 10 15 years it's going to be harder to find those folks like what does recruitment and retention look like for Staffing I for four years I served on the professional Educators licensing and Standards Board formerly formerly the board of teaching or pby so I bring a unique uh policy and licensure Focus to this work as well so in some ways I I kind of have a foot in everything and a finger in everything too and a varied experience that helps bring bring kind of a perspective that's needed so that when someone in one part of the TAA in this region this map says well what about this I can say well have you thought about how this affects someone else somewhere else and getting people out of their own kind of Blinder areas that's a big part of the work that I do so um these legislative priorities came from our members in our listening sessions much like what I'm doing now um and so one of the things I want to ask tell you a little bit about today is some of the efforts that we've uh done this past legislative session as well as give you a chance to kind of get to the meat of it and eventually I'll ask what would you like us to be advocating for what's important to this District what's important to this community that I'm in right now that we should be putting on our legislative priorities for 2025 that we should go and fight for to make sure that rural Minnesota and this area has a seat at the table so one of the things that we've worked very diligently on is housing money we' worked on supporting efforts to keep LGA and CPA High so that that tax burden does not shift down towards the local taxpayers and as a taxing authority of school district you understand that all of these dollars operate in the same ecosystem you understand that if a referendum is out there it operates in the in the in the context of everything else that's out there okay I don't need to tell this group the effects of what that does okay um we're respons we are Advocates of responsible Industrial Development we are supportive of both feris and non-ferrous mining because that is what funds in many ways a lot of the activities of rams and as a benefit to our communities tacket production tax is a large benefit to this District you get $ 1.51 million every year from tanite production tax revenue as as a benefit of being in the TAA and that's a really big deal um it's important to put that into context and to remember that so that when we think about oh who belongs where we all belong together because at one time tyoga pit contributed three million ton of order to that thing okay so when people talk about oh who's in who's out where's where do the boundaries go who's who's effective we all contributed over the life cycle of that pot of money there and that's important to remember um School trust land issues are really important to us too um you'll notice that there's a a Boundary Waters component to this recent conversation there's 880,000 Acres of school trust currently being talked about uh Comet period ending tomorrow I'm looking for input on that like what does that mean for us is that going to be a benefit to us I was recently appointed and thanks to the entire range delegation both um Democrats and Republicans appointed me to the permanent School fund distributions task force we're one of I'm one of seven people who will give recommendations to the legislature about how to spend the school trust account money so we we have a voice from the north we have a voice from the mining area we have a voice from Forestry at that spot so if you have anything on your radar that you want me to consider as we do our deliberations and we work for the vment of all our schools I know this District got $225,000 in uh School trust land dollars last year that's money no one ever has to ask for Levy or do anything for and that's really impactful to our our budgets and now it starts to stack up oh what's happening for schools what's happening in these places the more you dig into it the more you realize that we have to have a healthy conversation about this energy transition something we're interested in this community also knows about energy transition with Boswell uh being on the line in some ways so it's what are we going to do for future energy sustainability I mean this building doesn't run just off of solar wind power you know this this building is these buildings are going to have to run somehow so what what role do we play in terms of elevating the conversation and having an informed one again I'll go back to EMS a meaningful bite was taken out of the Apple for EMS um this last year and EMS is something that no matter where you live in Minnesota you expect and you deserve someone to come when you need them like there's not a single family that goes Untouched by the need for EMS services and Rural ambulances have been on the line for a long time this last year two members of the range delegation really stepped up and led the charge and we're part of a helpful rural Coalition that got a lot of important changes to the emsrb across the Finish Line um we're seeing other members of the range delegation be impactful on um new pilot programs for Workforce training that's also really exciting to see that people are willing to stick their foot out and say you know what we're gonna try this this is new this is innovative this is different than what we've had and part of our greatest challenges is PE of people who live in the North is realize that different can be okay that's really hard sometimes different is perceived as a threat but different is coming and change is coming and that is one of the constants that we would see in our in our work together so I I want to just say that we've got a couple of legislative proposals that are hitting some targets for me uh that I hear frequently when we uh work together across all sectors of government one of them is the dise equity on um seasonal wreck tax abatement we've got for this District the impact would be roughly 19 % or taken into account U on a $500 operating referendum it would lower that cost by about it would pay down that cost by 20% and you know as well as I that that redirects those dollars from the state general fund back to the district where it's generated and it's another way that we can not increase the tax burden but buy down the cost of any operating costs for a district that was a piece of legislation that the members of the range delegation representative list garden house child scraba others um decided hey this is worth our time and we're going to fight for that and so we're hopefully seeking more bipartisan legislators to uh engage in that process and we think we've got some good authors lined up for this next year it didn't make the Finish Line last year it's only an 8 million ask but when things are tight you never know what you're going to get so it's part of that horse tradeing you put it in the soup and you hope like heck that something happens right um we're advocating for additional uses for student support Aid it's a $40,000 bucket that large districts similar to Grand Rapids seem to have no trouble levying because they can find that one extra person but a lot of smaller districts really can't so allow allowable uses seems to be something that seems legitimate especially for smaller districts um also a focus on LTM and roofs uh we know that a building envelope is one of those things that if it ain't there boy sure hard to put anything else inside of it so um making a real strong point this year to educate legislators about the P importance of roofs and that if they're broke it's a joke so we have to make sure that people see what the inventory is across the state where the need is and we deliver targeted need not extra need across the board it's also not lost on me that the state share of Equalization is going down down down down down every year trending towards zero and while that may sound like a Panacea and a very easy thing to say hey we're just going to pour more rocket fuel on that well an okah hennipin benefits even more than some other targeted places in in Greater Minnesota and there's nothing wrong with them also benefiting but let's see where we can Target for Max maimum effect where that need is so that we can deliver on that promise that no matter where you live in Minnesota your ZIP code doesn't determine the quality of your education so i' I've talked a whole bunch man did that feel like a lot um but that's that's a little bit of a Lowdown on Rams and a little bit on me I was gonna ask you um what things did you hear that you want to pull on want to talk about a little bit what are some of the concerns that you're seeing in the district and in the community that you serve what should we be bring bringing to table when we have opportunities as Rams to build those coalitions what how can we be helpful to you and your work and thank you for the invite I appreciate it I'm glad you didn't get the cat Bean on the way here you're right I've been on strict orders not to to see good to see you yeah thanks a lot you're a bad man we have at this table I will I will say Matt sir on our board as one of the two appointed superintendents from the superintendence group and my board chair is Pat maduri who is uh doing other important duties today as a football referee so um which they're short on yeah yes we have at this table talked a little bit about the U uh seasonal wreck property and how important that is and it really needs for us as you pointed out it's 19% big chunk and it's not increasing anyone's tax um people paying taxes are not paying more it's redirecting it back to where it belongs and we spent time at this table talking about that and the need for [Music] that with that go ahead there's uh the egg but you it in Timber to make sure that that is ex excludable or they get a uh we get a break on our uh referendum that they don't pay as much as Ben let me pull on that for a second you're talking about the AG the school component yeah okay and we have a lot of Corporations or private parties that have lots and lots of acres and um they were I I'm not too sure how it worked but I know that they were they were involved in that like the Roy company is one that I know that they have a lower rate than yeah like Farmland forestry land it was all under the egg same egg yep that egg to school buy down was piloted by now Commissioner Revenue Paul marquart oh okay and that scaled up over the last couple years so the buy down is even bigger impact on that because they saw the success that they were having rural farming communities and when people think about farming they don't always think about Timber it's important to expand that mental model we cannabis if I was going to jump in you know one of the real inequities that I see is outstate Minnesota kids do not have the same funding that metro area kids do and and a lot of it has to do with operating uh referendums and if you look at where don't they pass they're all outstate small districts and you know I think the Constitution Minnesota you know calls for fair and Equitable education and that's not the case and I think if you if you if you really wanted to kind of equalize some of the funding Give outstate Kids the same academic opportunity that Metro kits have I think you need to do something uh with some sort of legislation to make it either easier for out State districts to pass or um maybe direct legislation that you know sets an amount that can be be levied and and right now when we run a a referendum like that the cost for our voters is significantly higher in taxes than it would be you know a similar District in the metro area uh you know the tax impact is significantly less and um it's impacting our kids right now thank you for that you the the example of Richfield Minnesota comes to mind my good friend Steve unowsky who I served with on pby he's the superintendent of the Richfield School District they ran the exact same referendum that you guys did at the exact same time and the opposite result happened they have seven square miles for tax Bas you have 2300 square miles that you serve let alone bus and it cost our taxpayers half that's right what it cost and so kind of showing that Tale of Two Cities that's instructive people can understand that they can see oh that seems something seems off there so having people in the room that can can direct that conversation to those moments that's why we're in this conversation that's why we're in this fight you mentioned Equalization and it's it is a onion with layers because you know you you maybe look at that as the the instrument to address some of this inequity around the ability to pass a referendum but then you do end up gobbling up maybe large chunks of funds um State money trying to address the problem in outstate when really a lot of that money might end up getting gobbled up somewhere else but you know Mark mentioned it every single District without an operating referendum is more than 30 miles away from the Metro Everyone there's 92 districts without an operating referendum and all of them are in Greater Minnesota and the you know the point the the point to districts like St Francis and um Jordan um and I I don't think those districts call themselves people in those districts necessarily call themselves Metro District districts um it's maybe convenient to say they're in the you know used to be the five district metropolitan area or the five count metropolitan area now it's seven count Metropolitan and they just keep making that number bigger but um it's just uh yeah the inequity is just so Stark and I you know the the I know one of the things that the uh the the association of metropolitan school districts has looked at is readdressing um local optional Revenue which is you know the one of the other approaches that Mark mentioned and it may be that if it may be that if there's only so much uh room to gain from an from a operating referendum vote that outstate may need to look at that might be our best option to get on board with that plan um because those 92 districts um including us uh it would be interesting to know I don't have this number but how many of those 92 have tried and just aren't able to do it and so at some point you have to look at a different strategy I think and what yeah what new game plan has to be looked at but the facts are the facts are clear what Mark said is is plain as day that uh for these 92 there's a huge inequity one of the other things that I don't think's talked about enough and it's frustrating and I you know when the when you hear things come out of the legislature uh where they establish like no new you know no new levies no new taxes kind of a thing when that's the Baseline it's tough to to I think to Advocate about some really important things but a tax or a funding stream that I talk about is safe schools and you know uh people talk about it more when things like Georgia happen and then as soon as things like you know people forget and they quit talking about it and that's pretty frustrating and the last time there was a significant increase here was after a school shooting and I think that's um I don't know it's immoral if nothing else I so the the wonderful thing about that funding mechanism is that it's incredibly flexible and schools can use it for counselors or nurses or SRO you know or metal detectors um it's incredibly flexible and so it allows districts allows School boards to make decisions locally about what they think they need to do and we're feeling the effects of that we've seen that here um our community we not happy about our the changes we had to make make with our SRO program I don't think anybody likes what's what's happening but it we get to these points where we're making decisions between you know keeping a classroom teacher or keep keeping an SRO and that's kind of a um you know it's a tough situation to be in what are the things you noticing that that would be helpful to put on the radar you talked most the ones that I think of um but I I would just say Broadband is an issue for say Big Fork um or Big Fork school system and it's not an issue because there's not funding it's an issue because those that have the rights to the Broadband right so what's the name of the group it there as an a they have the rights for Broadband so Paul bunan can't go in there Mediacom can't go I mean they they literally have the rights to do it and they're not doing anything so it's just stalled out and it looks right so then everybody gets mad because they don't have Broadband but what they don't understand is that people can't go in over someone else so there's like this lack of competition lack of ability to to compete and so that I think is I don't think Big Fork is unique I think that probably sits in some spaces and because that impacts the Rams District I'm thinking it's probably arve is around in other places yeah but they're not investing like Paul bunan is you know where you can see it going everywhere and that last mile is always the most expensive but they're not even touching it even when there's federal and state funding out there that's a big deal uh for a big fork schools especially as we talk about how do you level the plane field and provide students with say um the state of Minnesota says that all students will have access to these core classes and let's say there's languages and things like that maybe they have to take it online but if they don't have Broadband they can't take it you know so it's so there's just another layer of the inequity so that's so when I look at broadband that's kind of what I think not that there's not stuff happening it's just there's places where it can't happen and you're talking about to the home not necessarily to the Anchor institution like the school yeah well yeah so to the home so I mean all the kids right yep so they they were great when they could when we gave them all the wireless modem modem you know right during and they G okay so I mean just kind of one of those things to think about is as that conversation comes up um for me child care is huge y I mean it's huge we can't bring people to the area young families if we can't take care of their kids um and we're watching that with and the early Edge programs and I almost called it the old program but I mean early Edge I mean we're cutting back on tons of programming one we know what successful like there's studies that show was successful but it's so expensive and there's lack of providers that we can no longer we can no longer serve them there there's also a uh kind of a dnut hole with early add funding for five-year-old kids now on the one hand mde will say well five five-year-old kids can go to kindergarten and that's that's fine but a you know fiveyear one month year old kid is different than a fiveyear eight Monon old kid and essentially what what we're seeing in our communities is because of VPK there's a payer for a four-year-old so the parent has a payer option they have preschool for this four-year-old then their kid turns five there's no payer so they're if they're dependent on that they need to enroll that kid in K whether the kid is ready or not and Readiness isn't based on a calendar a number a birthday um but that's what our system is based on right now and so it's forcing parents into making decisions about their kids in some cases that they may not believe is the best because there's a donnut hole there for 5-year-old kids where they go from no cost in four-year-old cost as a 5-year-old no cost to as a kindergartner what an easy choice if you're parent trying to sweep by I I think the other one that we have to talk about is energy transition I mean we lost money when three went down and we were somewhat reimbursed for the loss of those dollars as we're um transitioning from a c but the other piece around that is not just losing funding but how are we going to replace right the amount of electricity as we look at more manufacturing companies coming in which means more jobs which means more kids you know all of it's kind of interconnected and as a region we're all struggling with that um and I think I'm on the commission I think got email yesterday but confirm that um but that is the public utilities is a is a big is a big deal as we start to deal with that transition that's coming faster than I think our infrastructure is able to handle at this point so that's a big that's a big dollar amount um and we sit right next to the community that's one of our elementary schools sit right in the heart of it so well if I could jump in a little bit you know our our last funding cycle from the legislature um we picked up about 70 mandates and most of them are unfunded and when you when you're all of a sudden mandated to spend money on things that you weren't before I mean that comes right out of Staff jobs and that comes right out of the classroom and it it was a definite impact for us and one of the other things that you saw come out of the legislature this year is the uh mascot issu and if if you look at how unfairly and unequally that was imposed across the state you know Grand Rapids is really taking an unfair hit and for for us to adjust that situation you know you're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars you know you know straight out of the budget and there's got to be some sort of um uh solution to this you know and I I don't know that a tribe in southern Minnesota should be making a determination of whether or not our mascots okay I mean we've always worked well with our local rival units you know and we're we're happy to do that um but when you start to look at the cost of uniforms and logos and and you know our Aster you know our artificial turf on the football field all these things add up and um it really feels unfair but the unfunded mandates um you know I I I I would love to see the legislature go through that list and price out what what the cost is to districts I was at a I was at a volleyball tournament uh two weekends ago and I took a picture this was in St Paul um at a school and I sent it to Melissa if I kept yeah I did I kept the picture there were two banners right next to each other uh from Simley were the Spartans um and two rivers who are the Warriors both of them have a helmet kind of an armored helmet uh the Spartans this Spartan almost exact same image simly was not identified as a district or a school that needed to address their mascot but SAA is the Spartans with the same logo they weren't even sent a letter but then now have to change um Warriors and I've I'll send you my kind of one pager the Warriors logos across the state um those logos have been handled any number of probably five different ways and two rivers didn't receive notification but they have the exact same kind of again armored logo as a number of districts that bold being one that has to change um no transparency no continuity no fairness no funding just a terrible Bill implemented terribly and you know that we were the Indians I do and DEP on when you graduated the students picked the name and if it was Thunder Hawks it'd be okay but now they're put together and this wrong right because on that one page here there is a who is it is the mon videoo is the thunderhawks but they didn't they did receive notification they need to change but they didn't do anything so everybody's sitting here wondering well what what's going to happen now because they also weren't then notified like they didn't get any denials but they didn't do anything with it so it's and so there's kind of there's there's a little bit of two bold is one you have you have an legislation that's applied inequitably right and non-transparent and then the second is you have high cost with no funding and I think you had talked to someone who said we didn't even realize that the schools pay for uniforms because in the Twin Cities they don't legislator told that they don't pay for them their booster clothes pay for them so now let's add one more thing to the booster clubs who do not have the same level of income household income LEL tax phase it just is it's just kind of more stuff um that's kind of put on folks when I mean it was that long ago in the mid 90s when you had your uniforms you got all your stuff um if you wanted an extra t-shirt or sweatshirt you paid for it yourself but everything else was provided and that wasn't that a theme like that a long ago but we've gotten away from that so then it just becomes more inequitable right I mean that the inequities just continue to grow just like everything else the the the middle is shrinking and everything else we see that compounding effect in lots of sectors across life in our region for sure yeah yeah talk a little bit about school trust land so School trust lands are a benefit to every school district across the state of Minnesota whether it's a a rented income from lands owned in the school trust to um a land that's mined on the school trust and revenue generated there from or Forest stre the same deal um in Minnesota there are Parcels dedicated to school trust held in trust by a trustee and that trustee is the state of Minnesota and there's a board of school trust and that office of school trust lands um overseas for the maximum benefit of that school trust those lens whether it's cashing out and selling or renting it out or leasing it or beneficiating it somehow and the school trust land issue that's been in the news is 880,000 acres in the bwca within the federal Wilderness Area not just the spe National Forest but inside the protected vwca Zone and what's going to happen to that is it going to get sold is it going to be swapped there's been a plan for years years at least 25 years of trying to get to a resolution on a swap and sale some kind of combination recently the DNR withdrew their intent to go through the Eis process which is the environmental impact statement um which triggered the sale only provision that the forest service was left with and the department of a is what oversees the the forest service at the federal level and so they're left with two options either Swap and write a check or hey write a check and they're exercising their option to do that because of the Minnesota state of Minnesota's disposition that they do not want to engage in that Eis component of the Swap this would have swapped land out of the Wilderness Area and into other parts of the Superior National Forest that could then have been beneficiated in some way shape or form and benefited um the public in that way so a large portion of northern Minnesota land is held in public in public hands and so growing the federal footprint is something that's interesting um certainly cashing out the school trust lands and then uh putting that money which becomes at that moment inviolet you can't stab and steal it at the minute it's it's bought it goes right into the trust you can't unall lot it you can't V and switch it if it's sold it then goes directly into that um if this sale does go through and there are many members of the range delegation that oppose this um that that if it does go through um one of the things that would be worth considering is those lands need to be immediately eligible for TI blotnik payments which is a form of pilt from the federal government because right now they're not because they're owned by the state of Minnesota school trust and they're eligible for that and so that's again that according to my knowledge is is what will happen we just want to make sure that that does happen there's two other components there's some St Louis County Land 3200 acres and privately held the conservation fund or TCF lands uh 177,000 Acres I believe that are also part of this deal um and so it's it's an issue we're examining um want to make sure that we understand it fully and make sure that if this does proceed and I think it's got probably a two-year window on it by 2026 they want to have this issue um Consolidated and buttoned up that um that our region sees the benefit but from a Rams perspective one of the concerns that we've had is is is a bird in the hand worth two in the bush like if you can get some money for it and put it in a school trust it's 30 million 40 million 50 million a rounding error on a $2.1 billion do trust land Corpus it is kind of we won't see our like it's roughly 57 bucks a student in benefit that this district and all others receive is4 million on a $2.1 billion doll corpor is going to jack that up a lot no it's not but the power of money over time is compelling yes I understand that argument um some Rams members are are advocating for well you know this is this is a deal that we can get done and it might not get done otherwise so we should do it Rams members are indicating that you know we have a right to want self-determined and benefiting our local communities by building management zones where we can execute the will of the supernational forest plan and beneficiate those those lands or build buffer zones around communities and say you know what you've got an industrial park here let's build that land out so then you can attract more business to that if you did a targeted switch of some kind um so the right to economic development is also a factor that's at play in terms of of the conversation here like is that helping or hindering that ability to do Economic Development because we don't just do that we do these things too and we don't do it alone we do it in concert with a lot of others so it's a very it's a I hate it when people say something's complicated because then it means you're gonna OB Escape but it is truly a many layered moment where we have to understand what's at stake and what's not happening versus what could happen um that's a little bit about school trust lines Melissa does that kind of get to the just yeah for folks to get I know it's a complex unfortunately if if they're the same thing is happening with uh County money tax or County abortional that's taken off the top of what we get from the state endowment doesn't matter if it's $100 or two million if General edate is reduced so we don't get anything more or anything less and you're talking about well you know it's it's um it's help me yeah our our apportionment last year was nearly a million dollars that's how much less in general education Aid we got last year um because of that because of what the county of okay so whatever we get in that but that's true with endowment too yes endowment also is taking on our general education so we don't gain let's say this money went to the endowment yeah we're going to get a little bit more but it's deducted from the General Ed well um my best understanding is that none of the lands in this package reside within the boundaries of this district is that impactful in that regard Okay no Okay endowment every every penny that's raised if they let's say um they made $100 on an acre and it went to 200 sure that's great except we don't gain anything it's deducted from General Ed so unless you change the formula and say I was going to ask you what what formulaic uh you say magic would you recommend then then it would be let's cap it that right now it it the X amount of dollars and then we get anything on both s okay set a floor yeah okay thank you Paul how do you see the Min mineral article impacting any of the legislative priorities you have around DJJ around the DJ Jing well I think the U mineral article will have to be executed how it's prescribed in legislation and then um I know that the I RB agency will have to do their bonding on their timeline yeah yep and I think they're still sorting through what that effect will be for folks that don't know the mineral article appropriated um funding to East Range but not the West range the furthest over was Hibbing the furthest south was a they can get something or he'll somebody got something maybe it's um West it went was Hing public utilities and hitting Public Schools I got $300,000 for historical Building Maintenance which they have a building that I'm glad we don't have and we don't have to maintain uh but they're Public Utilities got 4.7 million for a water infrastructure project which is not going to cover that but it's a I mean right I mean a few million doesn't seem to go that far anymore is the is the district in tune with the Tyler V hennipin case of tax forfeiture I am but I've done a lot of work on it sure I know it doesn't directly impact the school district but it does impact the County's role um and municipalities tend to Bear the brunt of it so you may hear uh the resolution to Tyler be hennipin it was um a homeowner in in the Twin Cities that uh didn't pay her taxes and her home as many of them can do uh goes tax Warford after a certain amount of time and the US Supreme Court the United States Supreme Court had a rare unanimous decision and Minnesota was the again rare beneficiary of unanimity at a extremely divided Supreme Court um that said you know what the state taking the entirety of that home was an unconstitutional taking and so what resulted is a decision that said you are entitled to the fair market value as a homeowner and then the state can take the rest as assessed so it functionally works as a free reverse mortgage for that type of property and now the language I chose is a little loaded because there's an opinion associated with it I don't think that was very right I don't think that just seems weird that people who pay their taxes it's fine it's great and those who don't there was a there was a penalty associated with that but now there's a federal mandate that says you cannot do that and that's applied equally across the state and applied equally across other states as well there were something like 32 other states that were found to be in violation of this and so what that is doing is creating a situation where counties can no longer sell those properties and then immediately claim them than the proceeds they're in for the management of other properties so you have some Timberland that goes tax forfeit County can't come in and just take it sell it beneficiate it and then use that to fund other parts of their operations as they have done in the past now St Louis and itasa County are uniquely situated and St Louis County being a much larger land mass with a much more Diversified mineral and Timber estate they've got a very strong interest in this but I know it also affects the the tasy County area I've been in contact with Corey c at the county and we've got a meeting coming up on this about how to to kind of some of the unintended effects of this and one of the unintended effects is what does a city do if a a property becomes tax forfeit and it's owned by the County and it turns into a blighted hole what do you do I mean what's that do to your neighbors what's that do to your school what happens if it's right across the school across the street from the school okay who who gets involved who has a right to get involved who can make that needle move so does there need to be some type of compensatory bucket of aid for counties and cities who choose to manage those properties to keep them up like MOA lawn even we're we're talking that level of basic care so even though there were some resolutions as you pointed to on the the the bucket of mandates um for the school money um sometimes there's unintended consequences and so we're trying to monitor those as well and propose helpful fixes to things like that so again operating all in the same ecosystem of of legislation and policy what else would you like me to know how can we be helpful to the to the work that you're doing as a school district just get get us some money money money money was the special ed cross subsidy helpful yeah that was do we scale that do we keep going with that what do you do like I I'm a former teacher which still is weird to say it sticks in my mouth a little bit um but like I saw the effect of money in on the sped program yeah it's like seems like it's worth a shot it be nice to find out 100% said original guarantee that's the goal and is there a okay so let's talk about that for a second that just like EMS I think there's a reasonable argument to be made that the state can do as much as the state can do but then the federal government's obligation under Essa says they're falling short of their obligations so do we need to talk about the federal response do we need to open that up the impact on the state is significant because essentially the state is spending its money making up for the Federal right obligation that they Haven met so I mean those are funds that our state taxpayers are paying to make up for a federal obligation now you know everybody that lived in Minnesota lives in the United States so it might be semantics but still um it's decision making yeah I mean the federal government does have an obligation to fund special education which they have by all accounting measures fallen short of the glory of God on yeah seriously so that is that is not a humility that's a humiliation is what that is and it's unacceptable that our schools you talk about the most regressive tax possible it's forcing the local school district to pay for something that the feds should be providing that's that's an area of concern it has been for Forever Mr chair I think you have a question from Zach the feds fund approximately 8% of our special costs they are costs are about 13 million and they cover of it so that's really sad and their promise was 40 right yeah right and one of the funding things if I me that concerns me is the um uncertainty of the unemployment Aid there's nothing promised Beyond this year we probably will in between four and $500,000 in expenses and that's really scary if there's nothing that's going to C cover that in the upcoming year there's also side effects of that block um we've had several people that resign as soon as school starts because they want to collect that unemployment which is horrible for the people that have to manage the jobs um so that has been really difficult there's also a lot of man powers that go into that you mean on the compliance side of it right yeah um so like Mark talked about you know 55 70 mandates implemented and very little Funda to come along with so can you tell me a little bit about how you're processing safe and sick time well save and six time that is not as big of an issue for us because all of our groups um met the re time um we are managing the um for the area for the is area so when people meet um the limit overall with the different schools as far as subbing um we're accumulating that and collecting that data in one area so that can be managed but overall that hasn't been a big hasn't had a big impact for us okay paid leave is coming yep yes and they've delayed meeting with folks for really long time but yet January 1 is still the date and there's costs coming there's huge costs coming to that with a Max of being gone 20 weeks um and then replacing with Subs which were already short on teachers and isps and just bust up I mean it's like every we everywhere and that's a huge it's a huge expense I me it's a huge expense and I'm not saying they don't deserve it I'm just saying like how again how are we going to fund it and there seems to be Band-Aids but no long-term Solutions like we're not going to change it we're just going to Band-Aid it until you guys just stop crying well and there's an employee contribution component of that too my memory's correct right so what is the what is going to be the reasonable employee expectation then or ask that so they don't go backwards so that that right so not only is the employer component of that but there's there's going to be an ask or an expectation or a desire for the employees that they're part of it they're not going backwards as part of that too so again I think I think it was a bad law I it it was written poorly it was shortsighted um it's like the unemployment one no thought no intent given to long-term planning at all how we going to pay for this can I ask you about the readed act for a second um redact training covers a it's a bucket of money that covers two years worth of training for districts one of the things that I'm hearing from districts I want to know if this is something that's on your radar is what happens after that two-year window for for mandated training and if you get someone from another District who's partially trained or you send someone out what where does their training lie like is there's a standards checklist that says according to letters they're trained on X Y and Z and we can import them and do we have to buy our seat again for example do we have to subscribe to a new program you know or do we have to bring them over to create continuity in their system in even though ours might be different what are your thoughts on implementation of the react and how to make that better I I think you hit on the the the concern I mean getting through this first two years I think districts are figuring that out superintendent and curriculum and all business but we're figuring that out but that is a question that I've heard you know superintendents share lots of concerns about is what happens after the two years yeah when when we get new people that didn't go through the program knowing that there's three programs that could have been through and I you know I think part of what we're all still wrestling with is um understanding and and and and recognizing that we're not talking about about one group that knows German and one group that knows Spanish and one group that knows Russian it's not that it's three different it's three aligned approaches to teaching something um so it's not like we're talking about you know different vernaculars but but but still um it will right now we can all feel really good about at the end of these two years our people having a Common Language a common approach um and after that two years that will just slowly kind of get chipped away at uh unless we're able to leverage or you know Regional centers I know the service cop is working on some things but are they going to be supported and expected to train run three different camps uh camp for letters a camp for car all you know what are they going to be expected to do what's realistic or or like you said is there going to be this checklist that you get these 20 20 standards or 20 benchmarks you will have hit the qualifications for any of them um and you're okay and the question also is what happens in teaser prep will this drill down to our providers and through unit approval will they be able to matriculate that kind of training within their so they add that to their bucket right well and we know how we know how rapidly higher ed moves and changes to adapt things like this um sarcasm sarcasm sarcasm right um so at what point can we count on graduates having the Knowledge and Skills that they need to merge right into the system or and you know so are those kids at a huge disadvantage then you know if you're if you're if you are a uh a senior right now in a teacher prep program and you haven't learned anything about letters or carry all and you graduate what's the likelihood you're going to be able to get hired you won't have the requirements that the state is is laid out for you is there some type of waiver process or out of field permission type of deal um and then I also think of as as Minnesota seeks to be an attractive place for teachers from out of state to draw people in that don't have that standard that don't have that training example it's process for the out State she's a junior at NDSU or Valley City State their partner they she's not going to come out with letter certification they have reciprocity per license technically might or there might be some but practically or it might go into relationist maybe that's how it goes and has that become a benefit of the district does that become then you're running like three different streams of prep at the same time throughout your SD cycle right I'm hiring this new person knowing that we have to get her certified or why can't keep her I think when you look at a major educational reform like the react is and there's just so many good things in that yeah and you're funded for two years what happens after that two years you know what Matt's talking about is that that educational form starts the slow steady progress downhill you no longer have everybody trained to the same level you no longer have that continuity in the classroom um your staff in effect you know is coming into the classrooms with different levels of ability to do it and like Matt says higher ed is not going to do that and even even if somebody's fully trained in letters well you have a one out of three chance to go into a district that has letters you know they may have carry all or they may have something that requires total new traning and I I would hate to see all the effort that's been put into the read act go down the drain in the year four it'll be oh see that didn't work let's go on to the next thing when we haven't even given it time to bait yeah onto the new hotness yeah yeah or the new Fire that's burning y there need to be discussions now down the road funding as well as keeping that consistency and continuity going forward and if that doesn't happen in this coming legislative session it's just G to get further and further away from starting from I was I was speaking to one of the chairs of an education committee last year and they said well part of my target is going to the fix it from last year I wonder how much of this next year will be a conversation around okay took the temperature how much fix it do we have to do you know that is certainly part of that conversation I think the various associations whether it's msba whether it's Rams whether it's superintendent Association principal's Association Ed Minnesota they need to come together and start talking to those issues going forward collectively land on a spot where they're all talking the same language to the legislators yeah so we're not we're over here talking about this and they're over there talking about that there's got to be a conceeded effort bringing the organization together and having that same conversation forward to be effective or I mean I think you're right and I think potentially a a proposal that's yes baked rather than let the legislator TR to figure it out right I agree is there anything else that you'd want me to bring to table and and chew on and put into our the whole pain student teachers which I'm not against but one of the things that I I would like to see is rural teachers you know we spend a lot of time with rural Physicians r i mean they get paid so it seems to me like one of the misses in that bill you know there's there's teachers of color there's special education scholarships but what's missing is rural teachers and if you look at the um the data on poverty there's rural poverty there's inner city poverty they're often a vend diagram of one so that that's that Importance of Being open to cross county lines Cross City lines cross geographical boundaries making that common cause with someone who doesn't occupy the same space as you you know you can find a lot of commonality if you just look yeah can make some common cause together I mean it's hard enough for us to recruit a teacher when there young I mean it's hard right we have a understanding on obviously this is a budget here right and yeah with a cap of 3% inflation we have an understanding of that's actually going work going forward boy I'm not sure I know the answer to that I don't I haven't heard anybody talk about it right well that's what's concerning about it right we're coming into this budget year and all we it's capped off is it capped off or are we negotiating what they're going to give us the legislature and then there's going to be the inflation act on top of that or is it just capped off into 3% period um I didn't get a good understanding on the legislation coming out so again that's just another concern funing aspect of it just for General well because it goes back to was it inflation over time or was it annual inflation right which you could get caught in the middle of when inflation starts going down right and you could get caught in the middle of that if it's not full scale again I think it's another point we should be asking questions now and that you're pointing out having somewhat of a an agreement if you will going forward on what it is that we want to see happen out of that just general how anation piece so I think just probably a different views by legislators themselves I agree if you get those things taken care of uh come back after I do that right yeah I've taken some good notes and you all I want to make sure that I leave you with a couple of things one of them is a the map of our service area which you see a lot of familiar places on there um even a girl for eth can find her old Hometown on that you know really nice paper you can even spill your soup on it and wash right off it's like an old place mat there that is I call it the place mat it's great um but I've also given you um kind of our 24 last year's legislative priorities and the what happened document of a legislative summary from the all sectors of government not just the stuff that Rams is involved with in doing but just a kind of an accounting of everything that happened to the best of our lobbyist ability and I've also given you my card so you've got my cell phone number you can feel free to call text or email me anytime feel free to share that willy-nilly with whever you want to use your judgment but uh it's out there uh I'm happy to take a call anytime on any of these things and um I want to say thank you for letting me come back home to my whole home district and and share with you a little bit about one of your former graduates has been up to these last so many years so um very grateful down those open en those open enrollment every time I call Matt he's like you open and enrolling your kids yet it sounds sounds like an old Mafia Grandpa you're gonna do that or you're gonna not do that What's it gonna be um and took first I know I'm you know I'm following like I'm following that on Facebook it is fun when the bus goes down and all they do is win it sure is fun um man on the inside you know little proud Alum here so um I know you've got other business to attend to but I'll stay and listen and offer myself for questions and conversation afterwards and as a kind of a thing that I do when I go out to places I like to get a picture of everybody at the board level so if you wouldn't mind sticking around for a picture at the end I'd love to to get one with all of you together so thank you appreciate the time tonight thanks this is great this is a good discussion thanks everybody I don't know if it'll be in a picture s like you needed a referee here tonight anybody with vertical Sportsman like that I'm gonna move the chains back here thank you so the other item on our agenda tonight is um safe R and schools um superintendent gross you want to kind I'll try to keep the energy level up uh to match that uh but I don't think I'll be able to uh this is something that I've been sharing I think CaRu and Campbell the district was a recipient of a safe rout a school Grant and uh that the the purpose of that Grant was to pay for renovations to or construction um at our gems drop off pickup parking lot area to make it more safe for people to get into that building um and we've been working with width who in case you didn't know merged or through some conglomeration came together with a r i of Hibbing so we've uh we've been meeting regularly with them um and the drawings that you're seeing here are part of a pretty comprehensive set that's I'd say near to bid documents we're kind of getting to that point so this will be coming to you again at some point for approval before it goes out um so this is more or less just an update the top page represents what we are looking at now and stepping back to how schools are designed now traffic is designed now it's no secret probably if you go to West and you go to East um the bus traffic or any new new school bus traffic and parent traffic are separate that's just how uh those patterns are designed now and that's not what we have at our gyms in case it's been a long time since you've been a part of this uh we have a great deal of parent traffic that comes in from the I guess on your on your plan here like 10 o'clock um which is South and West coming down the hill uh then in front of the school and they either come near the school to the uh I guess PL south or to the bottom or the island and then they try to either go out towards Ridgewood which is on the far right of the plan or they do a U-turn and go back out or they might whip through the parking lot and try to work their way out and maybe try to mess with bus traffic coming down we have to have six uh probably six or eight Paras Manning this uh area to keep traffic moving and safe multiple cross boxs and um it's just really I mean they do a great job with what they have to work with but it's definitely challenging um so this has been studied probably double double digit times um I know that Dr Thomas back in the day uh had it studied I know it's been studied since and prior to that uh the second page represents the best thinking at this point and really a number of the uh ideas um that have been drawn up that seem to have some traction or made some sense were a version of this this here um Julie I don't know if it's possible to kind of pull can you pull this up because I want to talk about the kind of the main differences between what we're looking at here and what uh what we're dealing with now share my screen up there mat I know there's Grand dollars here um obviously not knowing what the cost of this is going to be is will the grand dollars cover this well we're kind of in that getting down to that final stretch of trying to match up that Grant dollar amount to this I don't think we're I think we're a little bit over right now with this isn't that true Carol yeah our grant is $469,000 um right now everything's around $585,000 however we're not allowed to spend the grant money on the engineers so we're gonna have to cover that that's about 50 to 60,000 but to get this project done we can so we we have had some other things in this plan that we thought were important but we did some have them so um we're working with the city on this Matt W has been um app for this we're hoping we can apply for another grant to get some of it taken care of but that's for another all right so Julie will zoom up that bottom one all right so the the the main I guess the the significant difference for a uh I think if you just hit that guy right there that might do what you need to do that's that's like the conceptual difference that really exists here um you'll see if you come out come in from the south you have to leave to the South if you come in from the north you have to leave to the north so if you're a parent that comes down the the design is this that if you're a parent now that comes down um here you would come in through here again bus traffic is all separate now there's no interaction between you and bus you come in here this is all becomes all sidewalk now around this Ridge around the edge you would drop off anywhere around here kids would jump off on this sidewalk and walk to this crosswalk which would all which would become significantly busy but we would currently we have a crosswalk here which would go away and we have a crosswalk here which would nearly have the traffic of kids flowing this way so if you come in from the south you would come in here you would exit the sou no interaction between you and the bus pass this spot right here if you came in on Ridgewood over here you would come in here and do this now this is what most parents well what what parents do now that come in no that's not true so we have do have parents come in from Ridgewood and come through here you came in from the north you got to go here but on to 11 um so this would really be un and'll be be traveling here at all during that morning except for bus traffic they'd be the only ones coming through here um one of the other design features right now we have handicap parking here we do hear from our um handy some of our handicap people that it's really far away we now all of a sudden have um whatever that is two four six maybe eight handicap stalls right up real close to the apron of the middle school which would be way nicer for them this would all be um open and available for bus traffic if at some point we wanted to drive drop here so this would be available here for drop um the barrier kind of coming through here would be kind of Boulders and shrubs so you know there was a design about a fence coming through here and it just kind of felt like you'd be coming down that hill and looking at this fence kind of thing and it's kind of felt not very welcoming so this would be more landscap of a barrier to keep people from maybe trying to sneak across and more really pedestrian keeping the kids from wanting to jump across because if people are coming up here kids coming down the hill this is going to be one of the greatest behavioral things to make an adjustment to they're coming in down here they need to come walk this and down and it we'll have to have some you know a lot of training and reminders and stuff that they don't try to cut across all this business yeah um this would be closed off during the day on the weekends that this gate might be open because it wouldn't matter if people are coming in and out of here we don't this parking lot's not full during the day now so there's really not a huge concern about this traffic flow being a problem um the north parking lot that was a I mean if we didn't have that North Park parking lot this wouldn't be an option right now so that north parking lot was a really good move back when the other thing that's a part of this is putting some handicap stalls up here we don't have those for the tennis courts um and then one of the things that we didn't realize I think at going into this there's a significant grade that goes from here to here up yeah and so um in order to make this work from a Ada perspective this has to get um leveled out which means that these tennis courts all of a sudden go from being just this high above maybe the parking lot to this high above the parking lot so there's some there's a retaining wall that has to be put in here and then this this sidewalk essentially becomes a ramp so that from this end um someone in a chair could get into that tennis court and again the way our tennis courts are designed it's court on the south court on the North alley in the middle and so having access on the south doesn't really work because you'd have somebody coming right into the court during so um that took a lot of thought and consideration there too what about our special ed buses that kind of pull up into the they continue to drop right right there okay yeah because they go into the building right there yeah is there any concern for sorry um so this drop off the pickup is it on mess um yeah and parking so how's that gonna work so the pickup the parents would come in so like if you go to uh if you go to west or east right now in the morning those are the two in you know I'm using those as an example now right on the first day of school people would have said why' you use that as an example because it's a mess uh we cut 30 minutes off of The Pick of the pickup time off East and West within three days of the first day of school and what people forgot about is in 2020 when we opened those schools we had just as much that first day of school it was a 50-minute pocket pickup it was a long pickup why brand new schools 650 new people new routines all new processes and the same thing within three or four days we had that down to a science same thing here I was at the I was at East today at 3:20 there wasn't a parent car in sight that's 20 minutes after school's over so all that all that upset you know hyper activity that we saw that first day of school it's unfortunate that my teachers got yell that um but back to here if you're there what you'll see after school is parents lined up waiting right and then same thing would happen here parents would line up right along here I me this is a pretty good stretch okay um that they could line up all around this and continue actually to line up in here to pick up their kids and then exit out yeah because what what they usually will do is they come early yep Y and they Park and then you get blocked in yeah right and that can't really happen anymore here right because if you if these people are parked here this is all one way now so they there'll be a Park Lane and a traffic lane we don't have that now so they can get out of here anybody that's in here out so there's really nowhere to get blocked in um there shouldn't really be any place for people to get blocked where people get blocked in it's usually in the middle yeah in this kind of in this yeah if somebody Parks here knows burst that could be yeah yeah because people start backing up and you just can't get out what is the the control at the point up left hand corner we have a PA up there right now that's directing traffic and we'll continue to need that because you're going to want either the buses to go or the cars but not mix them the well the buses will always come in this way and go down here yeah the cars will always come in and go this way and on the way out the cars will be going this way and there shouldn't ever be any buses that go this direction soth never whereas for now they come around they loop around right um at the last meeting we talked about um the cars coming down where the are to drop kids for handicap kids to drop them up right by that would be the only that would be only only cars that would go in there but where do the buses leap from they go here yeah or they go here okay because there's another arrow it's pointed up yeah I don't think any buses would go that way but maybe I'm wrong either way we'd have to have control up there and usually the buses have it right away Ben if those cars they'll stop the cars and let the buses leave yeah yeah because usually well it used to be just a shootout like they' block and then all of them would leave at one time and so it would really kind of bottleneck some drop offs until I mean they went really fast don't get me wrong yeah they hold up mus they hold up current traffic here while buses come through and we won't have any of that so this will be able to be kind of constant flow now with this design yeah yeah because buses won't have to turn around and then come back through yeah but you I mean you you're I you're right Ben there's there is arrows here so that must be the plan for them to be able to get out of here so that person will have to stop traffic y coming out you're right give him a big sign yeah so we should we should you know we'll still need somebody here yes we'll still need somebody here yes we'll still need somebody here yes we'll probably need somebody here temporarily to change Behavior but right now we have here here here here here I mean yeah we should be able to eliminate probably two two morning positions I the you know the the there's a part of me inside that's like I really hope this works you know um the part of me that feels better about it is like I said independently Matt wegworth from the city as an engineer like this was sort of the concept that he had in his mind at one point when I had independently looked at it this was sort of the only idea I could come up with I think when Dr Thomas whoever had had whoever look at it it was some form of this like it so I think the ideas were all real similar um I think there's a little bit of Cl Clarity we need to create about how R this this intersection is going to work part of it is curve uh shaving off these this curve here to make that traffic that corner a little bit easier whether Ridgewood coming in um is a one way or not whether this road this road here actually right now is a oneway but it's not like people aren't used to it being a oneway necessarily one of the things to Caris point we're going to need to cut out of it um is a sidewalk that goes from if you can imagine uh about right here is a turn into the middle school loading dock uh east of that is is only Road no sidewalk towards what is that 11th 11th 11th um and I think in an Ideal World we'd have a wide enough Road we'd have sidewalk going along this whole way the the tricky thing is if you if we were to invite people to walk that way there's no place for them to go down here that's safe because there's no traffic control there so there's no sidewalk there there's no pedestrian Crossing there there's no sidewalk coming north and south on 11th they have to cross and there's really nowhere no way for them to cross in a way that's safe right now so all of a sudden you're looking at some sort of an automatic pedestrian control and you're adding 60 70 80,000 to it by the time you so that if if nothing else it's a not now um something we could do later if there was another Grant or something but the mement M on city property could no I mean the if you need money yeah in here yeah we could do that oh for sure what's timeline for if we can approve this um this would get bid uh probably sometime this winter and it would be a summer 2025 project so it would be in place by next fall that's correct excellent' be immediately like soon as school was out they'd start getting theyd have Machinery in here and the plan is to shut that whole parking lot off so everyone would have to enter from the north if they go to the middle school for inur so that would be un inconvenient but necessary to keep go out of the way of construction so do we have any data back when the middle school was built you traffic count in any given day back then to traffic count today I don't it has the only traffic I know the only traffic numbers I'm aware of are are recently from West and I know that typically we have 230 cars I mean what's shocking is the consistency from dayto day of the system that we have there tracks so many numbers get uh moved and we're uh typically dealing with about 230 pickups every day at West and if you think about 230 vehicles in 25 minutes it's like a car every six seconds that is getting through there it's shocking how quickly we can make that happen um so I I just gave you data you didn't ask for but no but I think the the notion that there's way more people picking up and dropping off now I think that's kind of the when it was built it was three grades now it's three again y that's right well it it part of the reason I asked the question that whether we have the information or not is that there's this perception of people that like this Middle School was just built terrible design terrible design how did they design it it's been how many years 20 25 30 20 years mean back to the point how many parents dropped their kids off 20 years ago in comparison to how many they're dropping off today and picking up significantly so more to come have any thoughts as you look at it or questions let me know um like Sarah said we're we've got a little bit of a funding Gap to close um but Ben's right we could look at abatement funding that could help with you know the theum minutus on there and that could push us you know get us close even the sidewalk question you I heard District I heard City have we had any community in committee people sit on this committee look at this plan from their perspective is it something we should do maybe a parent group from the Middle School give us a look at it what do you think we haven't yet we could run it by they have a parent uh parent teacher committee now do that we have our insurance our insurance company provides um review of a process that we request and they want to do something every year so this year they're coming they raise our premiums people are narrowly missing each other yeah ra the liability premium that would be a place we could go with that I asked the question because we always about transparency nobody told us nobody asked us I think it's Department given for the public to weigh in on it whether they chose to or not at least we can say we did five people showed up or nobody showed up the 10 people showed up give their input they might see something that we're not seeing the only other folks I can think I where the folks at the top of the hill there's like a few houses up there that's where I park I made my kid walk the top of the hill um but they I mean that is packed in the afternoon and drop off even like I'm not even going into that M and I don't know that that will change with the redesign maybe it will because some of the parents now are used to the new style which we didn't have that but just there are a few families that are up here that kind of get boxed in and so just a thought that okay there's parking on the yeah there is right on the side on on the side there also in front of Murphy that's right yeah and they and it is both ways comes I appreciate the depth of consideration that's gone into this looks good I mean you won't know until you try but you can't keep complaining and not do anything different we know we know about what we have that's for sure the school was built deal we had 90% of the kids bust any other discussion any other business come before the board Nan turn thank you thank you [Music]