##VIDEO ID:oJmnc9h27Lk## Area Schools Board of Education this meeting is officially called to order please rise and join in the pledge of allegiance aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all board members in attendance tonight include director kellerer director David Anderson chair Baker director Carly Anderson director Lind and director Thompson the board is Bor is joined by superintendent Michael Balman and members of the executive cabinet Bill holgren Brenda albrech Michelle Humphrey and Dr Emily McDonald so we'll go ahead and start with good news thank you chair Baker good news students of the month Lakeville area schools has a students of the month recognition program that highlights three students each month students can be nominated by anyone in the Lakeville area schools Community students staff families and community members we're excited to announce that November's students are Julian dhy from Small Wonders preschool Aubrey Clemens fourth grade at Lake View Elementary School and Kyra Brockman 8th grade Century Middle School way to go and congratulations there you go you can cheer that's that's definitely allowed uh staff of the month uh Lakeville Area Schools is excited to have a monthly recognition program that highlights staff members as well nominated by anyone in the Lakeville area schools Community we're excited to announce that November's staff are sulea Omar she's a districtwide school Success liaison and so Paul El who is Chief custodian at Orchard Lake Elementary School so thank you for all you do as uh staff of the month for us uh here in Lakeville 20 yeah let's go 2024 Ed Minnesota Lakeville educators of Excellence congratulations to Christina huddon Elementary first grade teacher Allison tone and Lakeville South High School science teacher John Gilmer they are uh being announced as this year's Education Minnesota Lakeville educators of Excellence Allison and John are now eligible candidates for the 2025 Minnesota teacher of the year award among candidates from across the state who were nominated by their colleagues and named by Education Minnesota we are very proud to have outstanding Educators like John and Allison serving our students we all should understand and know that their dedication and commitment to their students sets a standard of Excellence that INSP inspires all of us the Minnesota teacher of the year will be announced this spring another uh well let's give a loud proud for those two uh another big one Lakeville South cougars net the 4A State Volleyball championship title the Lakeville South High School girls volleyball team claimed the 2024 class 4A state championship title after an exciting final match against the champ l park Rebels on Saturday November 9th at the Excel Energy Center the Cougars pulled off a 3-2 Victory showcasing their skill resilience and teamwork so hearty congratulations to our girls from Lakeville South cougars on an outstanding season and their championship title yay go cus uh national Signing Day we had students athletes at Lakeville North and South uh have signed letters of intent to continue their academic and athletic careers in colleges 10 Lakeville North students and 13 Lakeville South students were offered either Collegiate athletic scholarships preferred walk-on status or the opportunity to continue to play at a division one or division 2 level school they signed their letters of intent at the national Signing Day ceremonies held at their high schools on Wednesday November 13th and you can see a full list of names on our district website at isd194.org newws so congratulations to all those student athletes and then uh blazing cats blazing cats soccer took second place at State they had a strong finish for their season and uh this was in the 2024 adapted soccer tournament the Blazing cats made it to the state championship game on November 16th and came in second against Dakota United Hawks the team includes student athletes from Lakeville area schools Farmington and Burnsville congratulations to our amazing blazing cats on an outstanding season and um Madam chair that concludes good news awesome thank you I really appreciate hearing all of that uh so for board communication tonight we're going to shake things up just a little bit um I have a special guest that I've invited call Barker you want to come up front here um I met Callen at pan aprag this year um during the uh young entrepreneurs section that was hosted by the property Geeks um had a great conversation with him and he kind of shared some of the learning that he's had so I invited him to come to the board and and share what he's learned and what he's doing I think it's pretty awesome so Callen go ahead hello I'm Callen Barker an eighth grader at centry middle school I thank Miss Baker for inviting me and the rest of the school board for allowing me to present my experience in 3D printing I was first introduced to it during win time which is uh it's just a session that allows us to catch up on any work that we might have or just have a fun time in the morning um I decided to try it out and after that I was hooked on it I just didn't want to stop and my parents started to notice So eventually by my my uh sixth grade year at the end I received my first printer a soille svo6 plus um it was an amazing printer to start off with not super expensive but not super cheap um I eventually learned how to upgrade my components on it and just took off building my own designs I started creating fidgets and keychains for my friends at school which turned into a small commission I like custom keychains for other schools at some point during my seventh grade year I really wanted to upgrade to a faster printer that allowed me to print multiple colors at once so I now have a bamboo Labs PS which has allowed me to print multiple colors in half the time for everything for half the time that I've print so awesome after printing a ton of stuff for fun I realized that I needed to get some of the money back so I signed up to be a part of the entrepreneurs alley hosted by property Geeks during pan Prague this last summer to sell some of my Creations I came up with a business name and business cards and did really well selling my items that's where I met Miss Baker and sold a ton of fidgets and Dragons I now have my own Facebook page selling items I have in stock or the custom orders that have been requested so tonight I have brought some gifts for all of you you can choose either a Lakeville North or Lakeville South keychain of your preference to take home with you tonight okay do you have any questions first of all I was just totally impressed with the learning that um that you had shared with me I love how you were introduced to an idea and you took it and you completely made it your own and made your own business and you just keep continue to grow this I mean this is like the dream that we have for all of our students at Lakeville schools is be able to introduce them to something and you just take the learning and and take off on your own so thank you for coming and sharing that and um I'm sure other board members if you have questions I won't I won't not dominate the time here anybody else have anything to I got a quick yeah I got a quick question this is so cool keep hitting that button I guess I better because did you get it there it goes I know they need it to record on the thing there um so what is this so I have my phone on me actually okay I got mine let me let me just explanation demonstration practical application iPad you can put your iPad or a Kindle works perfectly on that um or even a book like a regular book excellent so and it has different sizes so are you marketing these are you like selling these yeah uh no not right now but I mean if you would like to purchase one of the examples that'd be amazing um but not it was not a planned I'm loving the fidgets too this is something that a lot of a lot of kids need and use and um these These are really awesome you said you have like a website and a Facebook page right I do have a Facebook page I do not have a website yet okay okay so I have oh go ahead I have some business cards oh cool email I can fidget with us for a while thank you sir thank you you go that's a good one perfect so I just have a question um you said you kind of started this with the wind time at Sentry and then you kind of expanded this on your own um have you had any more involvement with teacher I just want to also acknowledge any teachers that have supported you or uh so actually I did it again in my seventh grade year as a club um that was offered for fall and winter sports so when I did that year that one or this past Club I guess I was given more of like the leader I guess to where Miss Anderson the librarian at centry middle school she's the sponsor for the club she basically handed me over the Reigns to that club awesome it's awesome very impr thank you all right thank you for coming and can you come through so we can shake your hand to you so [Laughter] preference red white red black I I'm going to have to ask for one of each can't divide I can't I can't even at the state championship I had to say I wanted Lakeville to win red white or red black red black ored you choose sir whatever you choose I will accept thank you thank you so much for coming in Lakeville South thank you I had a both schools I need to thank you I was going to buy that I already did beat me to it you've got the card so yeah you're set all right thank you all right do any board members have any um information they'd like to share from committees they've attended or if they've had any of those meetings this week or this month special advisory Council meet yes no yes okay anybody else okay director Thompson yeah um I don't have a um a comment from a stakeholder but I did uh get feedback from a stakeholder who was trying to do public comment today uh he was uh there isn't anything on the website that says you have to register for Republic comment ahead of time and so he did show up today at 5:45 uh trying to get in and so uh if we can make some corrections on that that would be ideal uh and then also uh that is what I see on the website oh I'm on the website right now it doesn't say where you're supposed to register but I could be mistaken Kim does yeah it does I will make it more clear okay yeah director Keller heard did you have something from special we did have special ed advisory and we went through some updates just on the current status of programs and and the student counts that we have in those programs and um where we have some staffing challenges what else did we cover Michelle was that it I think it was just kind of it was the first time this year that this group was meeting and it was just going around doing introductions and kind of giving everybody a lay of land for where we're at and some of the challenges they're going to be facing okay director Anderson did you have something from 917 no okay I can share I was at I've been to two um ADV well I went to the gifted advisory Council that was a good there were some new members and so part of it was introduction and part of it was just thinking about um or some of the different topic areas and um kind of how to best support gifted students and we read a couple different articles that were helpful um so that was good and then I was also at the district shared leadership um meeting and I thought it was really ni we had we were all in different groups and kind of talking about um just different Visions people have for the district in terms of how they can um start I would guess kind of advocating for uh development staff development and how they can um kind of rein I'm I don't know if I'm capturing everything Dr McDonald but um it was a lovely meeting where I think there was we evaluated some of the test score data and um lots of discussion around themes for that too and what might be changing and so it's I thought very good discussion okay any other updates okay so hearing none we'll move on if uh we could have a motion to approve the agenda for tonight so moved a motion by director Lind do we have a second I'll second second by director David Anderson any discussion okay hearing none ask for a vote all in favor to approve the agenda tonight say I I I all opposed motion carries all right are there any items that board members would like to remove from the consent agenda for further discussion okay hearing none is can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll motion have a motion by director Carly Anderson do we have a second I'll second second by director David Anderson any discussion on the consent agenda director Thompson yeah I saw on the consent agenda there was a role for a data analyst or analytics person for about uh and so just curious what that role was and and what that role will be doing we had a vacancy uh with the with that particular position and it's taken us a while to fill it um that's what I can tell you about it it's not a new position okay okay and and what exactly is that role just toci to car they are are uh I guess my best way of articulating it is a data they are data Guru for academic data okay I know Guru is not an official yeah I know Guru is not an official term but I'll say subject matter expert when I before I was on the board I know I had some questions about things and when I had some questions I was sent to that person to get more information about so it is someone someone who's Fielding those kinds of questions not from just District leadership but also from community members I imagine right director Thompson yeah and and does this role also have in the scope of their responsibilities for enrollment projections and a bunch of other things so this is our data analytics SME no that's that's different that gentleman sitting right over there is the guy uh who and I'll introduce him a little later but for what you're just asking about is Mr Nino okay and this Ro is specifically about data analytics for the academics of our 12,000 students yes focused focused in that area okay thank you any further questions okay hearing none we'll put it to a vote all in favor of approving the consent agenda say I I I all opposed motion carries all right so for reports tonight we'll move on to the enrollment update and that is Mr Douglas Nino chair Baker directors Board of Education uh this evening we're going to uh provide a report that um is prepared doing several different things and I'll I'll I'll dive into that but before we get into that I want to introduce uh Douglas you know who somebody you probably have not seen uh or may not be aware of well Douglas has been uh in the district handling he is currently an information systems supervisor works with our uh District it department and he's been here 20 years um and my first introduction to Douglas was about 2006 is um he worked for Lakeville schools I was in St Paul schools we were at a campus user group meeting do you remember that yeah so a long long time uh and I I credit Douglas with uh being a mentor to me um for I had been transitioning into public education and was a student Information System Manager for uh St Paul schools that's where I started in public education and uh I didn't know whole lot but he did and still does and uh he was a good coach teach and Mentor that I could reach out to so I just want to uh establish a little bit of that Douglas has been doing uh enrollment uh he's been he's instrumental in transportation information student any kind of student information that we would possibly need um he is in the in the vernacular he is a subject matter expert and probably uh the most knowledgeable individual I think we have within our our school system so I have asked Douglas who has not in the past uh done these kinds of things to um share with you uh about enrollment and enrollment projections and I don't know somebody coach me here do I just like okay no that way okay perfect um I'm not sure where the where is the computer that this is actually activating okay okay so I got to go like this so Matt or Brett um if I zap you I apologize uh will if I get you I didn't mean to um what we want to do tonight is uh give you a long range look and by long range 60 months what are we looking like um as a organization so we want to Pro provide you that overview and we want to look at what the trends are telling us over a 60-month period I have I have method to my madness uh is that Shakespeare I think maybe um but I do have method to my madness and and the method is I want to talk macro um where we are today I've been back on the job so to speak for about two months now and I've been spending a lot of time in this area and on the budget and trying to look uh a little deep with that um as the current board retires and the new board comes on I I think it's a good break point to say here's a benchmark that we can maybe uh uh continue conversations you deserve and our community deserves a far deeper dive and I like to go macro to micro as I try to set conditions for conversations and information to the board so that as we do refinement process here that we do as partners Administration with the board that we can understand kind of a baseline where we start at and I also think it's important to look 60 months out now it's really difficult in public education because we get funded through legislation the legislation cycle defines a lot of what our business and Staffing Cycles are and so we want to be in that Rhythm and to be in that Rhythm we know that what we say today 5 years from now there's a lot of refinement and adjustment that has to happen but if you're working off of that Baseline I think you're going to be far more effective at being able to understand where the adjustments are and more importantly why those adjustments are necessary and then you have the ability uh and the information I think to help us shape and Define that and for our community to understand that so that's uh that's our purpose and um why is enrollment where I start enr moment is very defining for any school system so here's some really good news that Lakeville ought to be very proud about as an as a school system we have been growing and growth is where any I think Community would prefer to be as opposed to shrinking shrinking is uh as I like to say no bueno usually for most school districts um it defines our Revenue uh through a very intricate process um but the basic knowledge starts with enrollment how many kids are we getting you can get into weighted pupil units and you can get into Mars reporting and we'll get into all that but it defines our budget it tells us what our staffing is going to be because our students Define what that is we have class izes and and all those different parameters that we work with that give us that definition and help us with Staffing and making decisions around Staffing program delivery and what programs can we offer and what is the priority because we will not have all the resources to do everything so priorities have to be established and what programs are we going to nurture and what programs do we maybe have to Sunset and then facility planning and maintenance which is an ongoing thing if you're a growing District uh we opened High View Elementary uh most recently there's been a lot of conversation uh as I've have returned to the district and learned there's a lot of conversation around middle school and um what do we look like with regard to uh our growth pattern in in Lakeville so as we start the conversation and I'm going to hand this off to to uh to Douglas here what I I want to do is make sure that everybody understands the guidance I've provided to staff and and this is really it I've directed the staff to use cohort survival method historical data and the reason I've done that is historically in Lakeville area schools and I know Judy and Terry probably know this and remember Hazel and our Hazel demographic studies right and we were on a cyclic process with that um you also may remember uh Mr Sheen and Mino so Mino does cohort survival methodology and historical data there's birth rates there's growth rates and um I I do want to say that uh we haven't used Hazel I think Hazel retired um and we did commission Teamworks I've read a report from Teamworks I think from 2023 a very comprehensive and really good report a de a demographic study report um and we got an update about two weeks ago I think it was does that sound about right okay uh that I looked at as well but they they did a great job with their charge and I think their charge had to do with looking at housing starts and making some predictive analysis with regard to that what I do know and I'm again bringing back my time in this district from 2013 until uh 2022 and then now again and I know uh what Douglas has produced for us has has been accurate to within 1% year-over-year for over 20 years and so I said we're going with that method and because it's absolutely proven reliability so I want to just say that out loud that that was my staff guidance we did do a checkin with Min proo who also does cohort survival method and historical data always because you should essentially proof like I call it a sanity check to make sure that what we're coming out with somebody else independently can back that up so that's kind of where uh where we start we're looking at 5 years so 6-0 months and uh this does not depict the Teamworks model or that data and I and it's nothing uh not nothing against Teamworks at all it's I wanted to do cohort survival and I made that call so if the board disagrees with that or has issue with that please it's my fault it's my is what I directed so I just want to set that condition as as we go and um we can certainly modify and adjust but this is where I think we should Benchmark so I'm going to hand this uh lightsaber over to uh Douglas here and he'll walk you through um what the numbers are are saying and then uh we'll kind of go from there sir it's all yours thank you superintendent Balman and thank you members of the board um appreciate the opportunity uh to present this information to you uh I also want to if if you'll grant me the grace to uh take a little bit of extra time to extend special thanks to director kellerer and director Lynn for your many years of dedicated and Supportive Service to the district uh I believe director kellerer you were on the board when I started here already and uh director Lind was principal of Lake View Elementary at the time and later became a board member um you may in passing hear me call director Lind chief that is an appropriate form of address for a chief Master Sergeant of the United States Air Force which director Lind retired from the Minnesota Air International Guard where I had the privilege of serving with him for a few years y thank you for your service and thank you to all the board members for your service and support um it's critical uh to educate our youth which is what we're here to do so you'll see a quote on the bottom of this slide it says all models are wrong but some are useful okay and so that ties into what director Balman was talking about with which model do we choose and he chose the cohor model which we've used for years it has been accurate to as he said within plus or minus 1% in the time that we have used it uh the caveat to that being another slogan which is past performance is no guarantee of future success you've probably heard that in financial circles well that's in statistical circles as well none of this I created all of this is stuff that I have just built upon that was already built by previous Tech directors and business directors and our former data analytics director uh Andrew Baron and uh as much as we would love to just tally up the cost of providing a quality education to our students and hand that to the state where the majority of our funding comes from and say this is it give us the money for what that costs that's just not the way it works the state says no give us the number of students you served what kinds of students you serve under what statuses and we will provide you funding based on that so in order for us to plan for the future we have to plan off of the numbers hence the chart that we have before us uh this evening the charts plural so this first one is is just a line chart that shows where we've been where we are and where we think we're going and so you can see that we did not go as high as we were predicting last year we are roughly level with last year year that is primarily tied to economic conditions the growth in this district is highly dependent on new housing and when new housing slows so does our en our enrollment growth and that's what we're seeing here and so the models are not quite as optimistic as you may have seen previously because we're under different economic conditions than we were previously previously we were seeing lots more uh new permits being issued lots more housing being sold the next chart is basically the same chart it's just an AB bar graph form and so you'll see the same numbers listed there uh you'll see a summary there that our total student enrollment projected to grow by about 558 students or about 5% again that's reading the tea leaves that's a prediction we'd like it to go higher than that but not too much because we don't want to be overzealous in our predictions and so we try to balance that to make sure we're planning correctly the next chart breaks those numbers down by elementary middle and high school levels I added into that chart the maximum total capacity of our brick and mortar schools so uh for the elementary our nine Elementary buildings combined would produce a maximum capacity now that's not considering programming uh like special ed and whatever it's just how many people can you fit into that building how many students can we just cram into that building that'd be 6,779 students you can see that we're not even projected to be close to that anytime soon okay you'll see in the middle school that we're a little bit closer and what that chart does not reveal that we'll be getting into is uh superintendent bomman mentioned before we'll be digging into those details and getting into those details at a later time but our centy Middle School is a lot tighter than this chart reflects and we will need to pay attention to that as as we get into those future discussions and then the high school you'll see the maximum capacity there and that we're we're not as close to that keeping in mind that as the Middle School passes on to the high school those numbers are going to continue to grow looking at the housing market uh I threw a line onto this chart uh we've got the permits chart on the left and the closing sale closings on the right with the enrollment numbers uh imposed over that so you can see there's not a direct correlation there is a rough correlation uh backing up what I was saying earlier about our growth is really tied to that growth in housing uh construction and sales uh we do also have uh from 22 on our uh quarter counts so you can see that you know we have fewer permits earlier or I'm sorry later because we're still in the fourth quarter they haven't produced those numbers yet so we don't have that for this year but you can you can see in the different colors there how that breaks down by quarter hey Douglas can ask um so this is just Lakeville this is just Lakeville because you're not able to get the El New Market and um I did not put together the lake the ALCO New Market it was a lot easier to get the Lakeville numbers than it was to get the ALCO New Market want to make sure that this is just part of the district superintendent Balman has talked to both City directors about that I don't know if you want to address that at this point yeah I I'm trying to get uh with Tom Terry down in Elco New Market uh to see if we can get the same or similar reports that we get from uh Justin um and so we're working on that I am by the way going down to Elco New Market city council to uh give them an update on state of the schools I want to say on on December 5th so I am very engaged with them uh and I would love to have been able to show both um we're working on it oh I I know you are I just wanted to make sure that it's we know we represent more than just the city of Lakeville correct absolutely MH all right another thing to note on the uh home permit side if you look at the 2010 and 11 the reason I included that was that was that that was the last new housing downturn that we had and one of the trends that we saw there was that the enrollment continued to grow even though the housing had slowed or even ceased to a certain degree we're seeing the same thing here if you look at the other end of the chart into the 2024 it still looks like we're growing well that's because we lag those sales and those uh buildings so now we're seeing this year with the 12,000 uh with the leveling into 25 that we're we're starting to see the impact of that we're hoping the economy turns around and that we'll start seeing that go back up again and that is what our models are are projecting off of not that we continue to go down but that we actually do go go up in summary uh we continue to see areas of concentrated growth in our community primarily the new development areas which has included at times the Elco new market area when they've had kind of areas up for development they just don't come up as frequently as the Lakeville area does enrollment growth primarily driven by new single family home sales that's repeating myself there but uh Housing Development sales slow due to inflation uh enrollment is projected to increase by about 5% in the next 5 years uh and the next facility space pressure point as I alluded to earlier will be at the middle schools uh primarily Century Middle School any further questions have a question um so I'm just thinking about kind of that chart where you had you showed the elementary middle and high school and so I think we've been talking about this kind of cohort of kids going through Elementary right now and the push is going to be when they get to middle school and then like you're saying it's going to impact high school when they get to high school right yes and so one of one of the questions I have I guess is um how do we think about this as like potentially a wave of students going through our district versus what's coming behind them and do we really need do you know what I'm saying is it is it we just have a wave of students coming or we really do need to think about a new middle because we're going to need that for the let me take that absolutely coming years yeah I I appreciate that question and this is as I shared earlier as I came into the school system back into school system there was a lot of conversation around well we'll just say the rumor mill was we're building a new Middle School I'm like oh okay um and I want to look at that and and that's why I'm starting here and saying we're flat we lag on the economy on what the economy does but we have to be monitoring it literally on a quarterly basis housing starts what are we're doing with closing for the reason that you are articulate right there uh Dr Anderson it's really important that we see it and we plan for it because if you're doing an addition you need 24 months plus any kind of funding that you would need to do you won't have to do land acquisition so you have to backwards plan all that if you're going to build another school that's a bigger piece of pizza to eat and um there are other options like lease Levy if you're doing addition where you don't have to go to the community there's all kinds of different options and I really want to zero in on what exactly is it that our need is and how are we going to fund that and have that conversation internally with the staff and the leaders in our buildings and with the Board of Education and Argo the entire public so that we're clear on what that is so we're going to drill down to and we are we already have the preliminary look but again macro to micro so the micros start to become grade levels right so we can see that wave and by school so that all of this fits hand and glove and um that's the goal and in my mind that's a February time frame that we need to be coming back and sharing that level of detail again we're kind of in a board transition just candidly and um we want to set a condition as the new new board comes on to to lay that out in in my words painful detail but see I dig that stuff so it's not painful to me but it is to some other people because sometimes it's watching paint dry but it is important I I'm trying to do my best to answer that question without just saying this is the answer because we really don't quite know the answer I got a good idea about what it is from these macros I think we're actually in pretty good shape that's what I think we have a concentration problem or a distribution problem we don't I don't think we have a too many kids problem yet so I'm gonna go director Lind and then director kellerer Doug or should I say for sergeant you may good or shirt for short for shirt um my question is on one of the slides it shows the next 5 years that the uh Elementary student population will be decreasing by 1% is there any can you guess why that's happening is it the homes are too expensive younger families can't afford or what is it I could speculate I don't have hard data on that I know one of the differences between the cohort model that we use and what uh say teamwork and and npro have used is uh the kindergarten projections so uh Teamworks and I uh use the same same model of we use past numbers to predict future numbers whereas the M Pro uses a different formula I haven't dug into exactly what that uses so that really the elementary numbers really tie into to where we where we come in on the kindergarten thus far we have been fortunate that the models have been fairly well predictive uh that's no guarantee we could see a few more we could see a few less and that's where predictions really start to fall apart is when we get into the granularity of kindergarten or this particular school or that particular school and that's where Teamworks really specializes in in getting into that granularity we're looking at the district level for our budget predictions and that's that's the numbers where where we have decent accuracy and that we can rely upon so um we'd like to see more kindergarteners that's for sure it would take a lot more time and effort to try to survey the community see how many kindergartens we actually have out there and with so many different options between home school and private school and charter schools and whatever else it's hard to say how much that will actually capture yeah kindergarten is always a wild card yes there just too many variables including daycare they want to go to school here for that reason there's a lot of things going on okay thank you you're welcome so um you know I I've talked about this before the city of Lakeville is what 36 square miles and our district is like 86 or 87 square miles so we are still continuing to grow maybe not growing as fast or but there's a short-term plan for that next middle school or possibly Elementary whatever that might look like but there's also the long-term planning for where growth will continue you to come to this land because I think if I'm not mistaken when we look at the entire 86 square miles of our school district we're maybe about a third developed right now right so we've got 2third of the district to develop at some point long term so the planning may be looking at the next five years or the next 10 years and keep in mind it takes three to four years to build a school and to plan it and so when you're looking at enrollment numbers you really got to look like four years out here to see what that looks like so um I just think that it's going to be really important to keep the longterm plan in place for where this District's going to go with being two-thirds developed um before I got on the board 20 some years ago we were predicted at some point just because of our land mass and the ability to grow to be I think I think it was the fourth or fifth largest District in the state so you know I guess I'm just saying that we are going to be looking at five-year enrollment projections and trying to plan for that but there's also a longer plan because um like uh interim superintendent Balman mentioned is there's lots of options to consider and some are maybe better suited for short-term Solutions versus the long long term solution and those long-term Solutions are probably more cost effective in the long term so I think there's a lot to be considering and weighing here when you're looking at these factors one of the advantages that we've had uh though we don't always see it that way is say over our uh mirror District on the North side uh Elco uh not Elco sorry Elk River MH where they exploded from 10,000 up to 13,000 within a couple 3 years y that is much more difficult to to manage than what we've had we've been able to gradually look into and do that kind of long-term planning you're exactly talking about yeah well when I first got on the board we were building a school every other year because we were gaining 700 students a year which is a school so there was some huge challenges with that and did so yeah the other thing I'll just say is everything you said is exactly correct that's why we have to be in an iterative cycle Y and when leadership changes at least within Administration that iterative stuff has to stay alive so that's an important aspect too y so one of the things that I've been concerned about is is our early childhood numbers and how we're at capacity on on what we can provide for services within our Early Childhood Center um given that we share close boundaries with with other cities um you know when I think about those incoming kind Garten numbers how many of our kindergarten students are leaving us during early childhood and not coming back because then they're already you know in that District um because they have the capacity to serve that need do you happen to have like or is it something that you would look into to see what percentage of our preschool population that we're actually able to serve within our district so one of the challenges with uh the community ed is they don't have to serve students of this District only they get the opport to serve whatever students come from whatever District that they may be in and so we would have to track that a lot more carefully uh so if that is something that the board as a whole believes is worth the time in investment and doing we can certainly look into that or see if that's something that Teamworks would be able to look into for us well I think it's a concern as as I was looking at district 196 um they're actually doing some studies right now looking at um changing some of their District boundaries for their elementary school so that they can accommodate more of that early childhood population and they're very close to us so considering that we're full and we can't serve anybody else and they're making some changes so that they can serve more I worry about what that does to um to our enrollment in those classes the um long-term uh theory has been and and continues to be that um if they're if we're the ones serving them they tend to like to be with us and stay uh so there's definitely validity to that uh the the challenge that we've had is where the growth is for the Early Childhood is also where the growth is for our elementary students and to be able to do the kind of model that uh your Ros Mon's 196s and whatnot are doing you have to have space available for them to do that right right you're correct director Thompson uh just a couple a couple questions uh direct Anderson I think you are right because uh while we see these metrics we're seeing them at the at the macro view uh but we don't know if there's an uptick in fourth and fifth grade that are coming up that would really skew what what we might be looking at so looking at the middle school I do see that with 2700 kids obviously the 3200 capacity uh we're at about 82% and I think at our last boundary meetings we' we've been told we want to be 90% is is is tight and so that doesn't give us a lot of room I would assume at the middle school level uh and and first of all welcome back I didn't know you EX existed so this is fantastic um that's great uh but with that being said with the different data elements does that mean that we may want to recalibrate or refine the boundaries that we've put in place and obviously that's going to be a separate conversation but there might be avenues for consideration the answer to the question is everything's on the table uh if you have a concentration problem versus a distribution problem you you have to consider that or look at that or um I'll use a term that's a internal St term we call it a fruit salad um that that uh are have been st stop Gap measures to deal with uh boundaries as they are constructed so uh obviously the district went through a major boundary shift and we probably have to look at that uh methodology again uh I can tell you right now I already know with High View that's an issue um but the the detail that both uh you and director Anderson are asking we we will bring that forward and we do want to partner with your thinking and ideas around any any of that because any typically those kinds of things are what I call significant emotional events that are often referred to as political hot potatoes um but we we have to be in a change management process and we have to be in a high communication process so that people understand what's going on and we need to answer the question why director Thompson and my last question is that I think when we approved the fiscal 24 budget we were projecting 12,200 students and that's a 200 like 175 student shy times that by 10 grand like that's a 1.7 million expected reduction in our in our in our revenues so we should be talking about that next we will be uh we recognize that um we also know we have to do an adjustment um and we'll start with the macro and we'll talk about that but right on sir thank you so one last question sorry um so when I was doing some uh my training for administration uh I met with like a finance director and one of the things that that she kind of drilled into me when I interviewed her was that um a district has to know whether where their students are going and why um so are you going to include on on some of this enrollment data uh students that are enrolling out of the district and are we going to look into um why that's occurring intra open all yeah all that has to has to be discussed um we as a staff owe you recommendations with regard to that um but the that's the long answer for Roger yes thanks on the numbers front we have looked preliminarily at those numbers this is going off probably four weeks ago that we were looking at this anticipating that this was coming and we are still taking let's see taking in more than we are sending out okay uh when it comes to open enrollment uh the one that we're scrambling with with some of the staff changeovers between student services and Information Services is um the non-public private homeschool numbers those are still being entered into the system so that we can provide those numbers as well uh in regards to the fruit fruit salad and the the numbers that you pointed out one of the reasons that we we decided to go with the cohort model was because of our internal numbers being slightly less than the 12200 but not significantly less it was about 80 students Less on our internal numbers that was one of the reasons we considered returning to the cohort model the uh fruit salad is the preliminary area model that uh was instituted when Dr Snider was the superintendent of the schools uh she had brought that over from her previous District in Wisconsin and it allows us to adjust the boundaries for new areas as long as we are not moving any students M and that way we were able to manage for over a decade not moving any students which was remarkable for this District where we have been moving students every two to three years prior to that so it brought a lot of stability which also made the pain a lot higher when we had to go and make that adjustment director Thompson oh so just to clarify in that situation um if let's say I'm just thinking proximity of East viiew and high View and East viw not being remotely close to capacity at this point and so let's say a new neighborhood emerges as you look across the street from High View um that that neighborhood would go to East View that's what you're saying you adopt that the concept I'm not saying that that's what we would do at this point but that is the concept yes director Thompson and and with the East VI noted capacity or even High View I I believe that with the ballary changes we put a lock down on open enrollment or intradistrict for the next year and so hoping that maybe those are things that we can red discuss on other other yeah I I I just let's be careful about the terminology lockdown or close because we we don't do that um in fact I think statutorily we're prohibited from doing that so um what we have to do is evaluate each one now where you get and and I would just say century is a classic uh case maybe even High View but let Century I know for sure um what we do intake those intradistrict requests but we may not be able to fulfill them in the current situation but what I've told the staff is we want to be able to set conditions to fulfill those but that's driven by where our boundaries are how many students we have what that concentration issue is whether we can get to a Ms as uh Dr Anderson talked about um and all those things have to come together uh I I do like the stability Model A lot but as uh Douglas pointed out when you do have to do boundary changes and typically I mean for this school district it was predicated on we had to open another Elementary School and as much as we would think that that would be easily understood it's still very difficult to assimilate especially if if you're in a you're a family that's you know grossly affected by that and and we totally empathize and try not trying to be as stable as we can be I think that's what we owe our families and our students because in an education model the more stability that you can introduce into it the better it is for our students I think that's what the research proves so I think that's that's a good philosophical position to adopt so so let me gain some clarity because I I think I'm confused here because I think during the boundary changes the board made a decision that parents were not allowed to intradistrict their kid to another school building this year for the entire school year and so is that still intact or are we or am I hearing that people can can make requests I don't know I don't know I don't know what the answer is so there were exceptions to that those exceptions are posted on the website and there were people who still applied and as superintendent Balman said we considered those in terms of priority and space available uh so when there were special uh needs I don't remember off the top of my head what the priorities were uh one of them being if you're a staff member of the building uh being a consideration if you want your student to also be in that building Transportation whatnot so those were things that we did take into consideration but it was far more limited than we usually are going forward that is a point of decision that we need to come to of whether we're going to open that back up in this coming school year yeah and just for a point of um clarification when you're saying open enrollment by Statute that's something we do have to abide by so when you're talking within our school district it's intra enrollment and so I think just for sake of understanding we have to make sure you're using the right terminology when having this conversation it's good to highlight the distinction between in District requests and open enrollment open enrollment being between districts intra being within our district yeah the Open Enrollment you're absolutely right it is stat statutorily dictated as to what we need to do whatever so we never say applications are closed we always accept applications for open enrollment Y and then we consider what space we have available and we can say well space is not available in your chosen school but we do have space over available in this school if you would like and then intra is open to our parameters great okay we'll put that on the agenda topic request so I don't think we have any more questions thank you so much we appreciate you sharing the information app thank you all right so our next uh report would be the budget update from Bill home I'll let you have the lightsaber um so I bill and I have been working on this uh for I don't know how many days but a lot and uh again just like with enrollment so enrollment as as we said earlier that sets the condition for where we are director Thompson very astutely pointed out that oh well the numbers and and uh and I appreci appreciate that so we're going to talk uh I I wanted uh I wanted Bill to come here today and take a a little longer range look now what you're going to hear and see are based on planning assumptions so I gave I give the staff the guidance on what those planning assumptions need to be and I'm not a novice to this um did it before so uh we bill and I worked out what that is and you may agree or you may disagree with what those planning assumptions are but I I think they're pretty solid um and that's what drives our uh our projection here so you know I I always say this about garbage in garbage out so if your planning assumptions are really bad and off you're the rest of your Daya is going to be off so we're trying to be really careful and and um wise about how we're using those planning assumptions so uh of course we invite critical review of of what we have here um but I just want you to understand that I gave him some some guidance and so if it's wrong it's me okay all right Madam chair members of the school board superintendent Bowman so tonight we're going to talk about two two different pieces of the budget first of all we are going to do a true update where are we at right now in this year um even though it's we're only a couple years a couple years coup couple um months into the school year um so we don't have a lot to use to really get you know perfect uh projection to the end of the year but we will talk about that first then we are going to take some time and talk about a budget projection of up to five years out so let's see if I can do this right here we go so what what you're looking at here these bars of course the the red bar is a budget and the blue bar is where we expect us to finish June 30th here the this next spring so as we talked earlier with the uh enrollment change you'll see that that blue bar under state is not quite making the budget because we have less students than we had um than what we thought we had okay now in the same time look at the local side there we have some um Revenue coming in that we did not anticipate so it's almost balancing each other out we're going to be a little bit short when get end of the year and we'll talk about that when we bring back a revised budget to you in February uh for the current year um but at this point we're we're projecting to be short about a half million dollar overall um in our revenues so it could have been worse of course but uh we take it in consideration for the change in enrollment and uh budget budget's okay now let's look at the expenditure side um here we're seeing some um under budget numbers so again your salaries you see that were under budget benefits were under budget purchase Services though you're seeing a little little bit of a pushup um that we didn't see last year but the reason is because we are having very difficult time finding employees in our special ed areas okay so we are hiring contracted services and that's why you're seeing it here as a little bit of a bump up that's also why you're seeing a savings on the salary side because we don't have those employees but so the cost is being shifted over to purchase Services okay um when we look at our supplies we're under there actually this ran kind of close to this last year too we did not spend what we thought we would in the supply area um the capital expenditures of course in includes all of our maintenance of our buildings and as you know about 2third of the dollars we spend on maintenance comes out of our comes out of our fund six or building fund which we borrow the funds for and take care of but the other third comes out of the general fund and we have some projects that we've had a do a little earlier this year with some maintenance items so that's why you're seeing a a little bit of a bump up there in the capital expenditure um that's not something that's going to be way over at the end of the year because that will slow considerably so I want to point out a couple numbers we talked about earlier back in June you see that middle column that's the budget we brought to you and we predicted that we would increase the fund balance by $1.8 million um and then now we look at the variance that we see right now in our in our expenditure budget you see that we have a variance to the dep positive there have another $1.8 million so that's is very good news so at this point in time when we look at at next June 30th looking at the actual fund balance increasing a little over $3 million to the 11 11.5 million and that pushes us up over the 5% that we need in according to policy by the school board not way huge but it is 5 5.4% um so it's very good news from where we were just a couple years ago okay any questions on any of that does your forecast for the remainder of this year uh anticipate uh filling those remaining FTE roles that we have vacant currently or is that is it uh leveraging teachers for the rest of the because we don't know the Assumption at this point is that the the purchase services that we've already hired will stay in those positions for the rest of this year when we bring the revised budget to you you'll see that shift where some the expenditures will be pushed over to purchase services and we taken out of the salary area y all right okay director David Anderson so so how many uh open special ed positions do we still have I couldn't tell you that do do you on the thing it said 12 that's about we're updating okay I'm I'm I'm getting new contracts on a regular basis for purchase services to bring people in so we have people here I got another one today good news Thompson and then director L is it an even cost when we use substitute teachers when we bring FTE or is it more expensive just curious I don't know it's it's relatively flat you'll see of course when you see those contracts come through you'll see the rates higher than we pay but we're not paying any benefits so it's pretty much a wash we don't have any area where we're way overpaying for a service but you also have the stability I think right if you contract compared to having a different sub every few days well you you can like you can't just put a sub in a position unless you post for like a long-term sub and then like if a shortterm sub can only sub for 20 days in that role so yeah there's that too director ly I guess great mind s alike at the same question Brian had was answered thank you y okay okay I just want to uh dig a Little Deeper you can take you know when we talk about our budget okay really how good are we doing how's it look so this is actually looking at the last three years okay so the first bar of course is two years ago the red bar is last year and so forth so again you're seeing that same uh Savings in the salaries as we just talked about so we're spending less to date these these numbers are as of October 31st so we spent 18.8% of our salary budget where last year we had spent 9 19.5 at the same time period And by doing this it really normalizes the expenditure so you can see a true picture and truly be able to compare one year against the other so again you'll see in the benefit area we're spending more to date than we did the prior two years and again you're seeing the purchase Services where we're paying a little bit more but it really isn't that far off when we were two years ago our supplies of material um most of this is allocated to the buildings they they spend those dollars where they see fit um we don't have any buildings that are coming to us going over budget they do a very good job managing their budgets um so what you're seeing here is just the way they spend sometimes they'll spend a little more earlier and a little bit less sometimes they'll save something for something going to do in the spring and so forth so that's why you're seeing some variances here and of course capital capital expenditures are again the maintenance items in our buildings mainly ltfm um funds is why you're seeing a little bit more spent to date um than we have in previous years in other expenditures mainly is our our insurance and I mean not not any of our health insurance but our just our liability insurance and it's also our work comp insurance and this is a place where we're seeing some savings our mod Factor was pretty high we had a lot of injuries a few years back and those numbers are coming down we're spending a lot less dollars on that type of insurance so this is very good news for a budget not only now but going forward that was by objects and now we look more more on the uh break it down by program area and I just wanted to take a few minutes and and talk about this so why are some of these numbers maybe a little higher than we anticipated or were there at now the administration piece of course you know the the reason that we have a little bit um more expenditure there is because of the superintendent's office and the changes and the extra expenditures that have been have come through the district for there um our our district support is some of our expenditures that we had for the election that just came up came in a little earlier we usually see a lot of those expenditures in November that's why you're seeing that a little bit higher is really the the election it's also we are up on the attorney fees that we've been paying on a regular basis we are up quite a bit actually on attorney fees and that sits in this category and that's why you're seeing that higher um when we look at our regular um education Elementary and secondary that that they're behaving just like the budget should um we're sitting very good um vocational you see that bounce a little bounce around a little bit in there that's because the actual classes that we that we um present to our our students on a yearly basis some are eligible for vocational and some are not and that changes from year to year so that's why you're seeing that bounce around a little bit uh special education again you see um less spending to date right there and that is because we have open and open positions that is exactly why that is there you're seeing that Community Ed there with the zeros this is a this is new as of last year remember that there's summer unemployment that we've got to cover and we we cannot Community ad can't pay for it and Food Service can't pay for it so it runs through the general fund and you're seeing zeros right now because we don't pay for it in October we pay for it usually and that bill goes out in November so our next time we look at this you'll see some numbers there um but that number was pretty close to the year before so we're not going to see a big a big difference there okay uh student support if you don't know what that is is really our media centers it's all our curriculum that we buy it's our technology department our staff development so again these are pretty close to what we've done on a yearly basis but again we're running a little less than than prior year so that's a savings at this point um pupil support um this is our guidance counselors it's our security our our our SRO officers nursing Transportation you'll see that that budget's behaving just like it should just as in the in the previous years and again buildings and grounds that is our uh little bit of an increase in maintenance this fall than we've seen in Prior years so there's no huge red flags the budget's moving along through this year just like it should okay okay now I want to take we're going to shift gears and we're going to talk about a five-year budget projection so we're going to talk about variables that we put into our model when it comes to our Levy our state legislation and of course our expenditures and then of course we'll see a projection um at the end of course we had to take in consideration the changes that we saw in our in our enrollment so these numbers have all been adjusted to what was just presented by uh Douglas and superintendent Bowman come on can't do it there we go okay so we look at our our school levy variables you know that we have an inflation Factor built into our operating Levy um at this point what we built into the model is at 2% that's really what we've seen over the last few years except for that one year where we did get a bump up during that really high inflation portion but to be conservative we're using 2% here I think in the next year in 26 we're going to see a little bit higher than 2% but in the most part that's about what we run inflation across you know the United States is about 2% % when things are running as they should okay so right now we get 21 a little over $2,100 per pupil in our operating um Levy a local optional Revenue if you remember we talked about this when we talked about Levy but this is dollars that we're able to Levy uh and what it is is many school districts across the state of Minnesota are not able to get operating levies ped the state of Minnesota understands that they their they're underfunding schools so they allow school districts to Levy up to $724 per pupil unit to get them some help and get some more funding so some schools use it some don't but in our case where we had an operating Levy they take our operating Levy and put it into the L so the the negative part about that is well we have the 724 forever but there's no inflation factor it's just 724 every single year um so that's why you have see a zero there on that variable Equity is another small piece that ties to that especially for for for uh districts um that choose not to use their L then there's an equity Factor where they actually get some more funding we get a very small amount um but we're not to the max when we look at our operating Levy so we get a small small amount there of $88 per pup unit um again no increase you'll stay flat safe schools it's a levy portion we get money to to pay for those safe School pieces which is really our Sr officers um but still no change it's going to be the same amount per pupil the only place we get any increase in these areas that we get more students because these are the numbers per student lease Levy as you know we have several properties that we lease uh for educational purposes but there is a Max on that it's $212 uh per student so and we're we're at the max we tiny bit over the max so there's we don't have any opportunity to use um any more funding in this area for any type of uh building until 2028 just so you know we've looked long range on that too yeah yeah that's where some of our levies start to fall off so it give us some space operating Capital that's based on a formula U but right now we're getting 221 in our Levy our capital projects Levy as you know those dollars are used for mainly our technology devices um a lot of stem um programming that's a constant tax rate this is the one area in our Lev where as our net tax capacity grows our dollars grow this is the only place that that happens so this is great this helps us in that area Okay um achievement integration um that is based on our the actually the enrollment of our minority population so if our minority grows then we're going to get a little more little more funds about 35% of that um is Levy and the rest of it comes from the state of Minnesota so we get 500 $60,000 um right now through the levy for that program we get another you know $1.1 million from the state of Minnesota which is great news um vocational it just it's set up as whatever we spend on vocational that are that are that qualify um we get 35% of those dollars back and the other thing I just want to point we we're assuming that the board would go and renew any levies that we have that are expiring and as you know we have two coming up very shortly that we got to take care of in this next next year we have an operating Levy um that's generating about $1.6 million at this point and the capital projects Levy which is generating over $4 million at this point so there's some serious dollars there that we need to talk about when it talks about renewing levies uh going forward okay shift over to the state side so these are these are the the variables that we've punched into the model we do know that in 26 we're going to get 22% increase in the formula allowance after that uh what we put in to be conservative is a 2% again we don't want to we don't want to put anything too high and plan any Revenue that we might not get but it could be more um the legislation legislation for the first time this last uh session is we they did build in a kind of a sliding scale that we would get a minimum of 2% and but if the inflation was higher we would get a higher rate with a Max of three so I mean it's not a huge change but it's better than only gain two forever um our staffing when when we look at uh uh going forward it's we're going to assume that um we're going to have one more one more percent in Staffing because that's what our enrollment is doing okay because as we get more and more students we got to have Staffing to support them so that's where that 1% is coming from as you know a pension the state of Minnesota have us all paying more for for our for TR and so forth but that that difference that increase they're giving back to us and that's where that $84 is coming from as kind of a reimbursement uh for the school district gift untalented um this has been $13 per people unit for a long time it doesn't generate very many dollars uh for that program we actually you know do more than what we get we get about $170,000 that's all it is our extended time you so that's any of our targeted Services After School summer programming this is what we get per pup unit quite a bit less than the formula allowance but it is $5,100 operting capital again on the state side here we get at 35% and then uh the L there is a equalizing Factor so when we look at our L we do get $754 cents from the state of Minnesota that we don't have to Levy so it's a it's a small help when we talk to our talk about our um taxpayers and then our ALT teacher uh comp or Q comp that's again it's a split piece again um but right now we're getting $260 and two-thirds of it comes from the state of Minnesota about a onethird comes through our Levy so those are the factors that we put in on the revenue side uh in our model and we look at the expenditure side we look at Staffing we really look at what what kind of information are we getting from the state of Minnesota on new dollars and that formula allowance because we really need to match that to our staffing otherwise we're going to be out of balance when we look at our budget so that's that's matched up with the State funding um benefits are running about 3% on a yearly basis uh mainly our health insurance is driving most of that that's a little bit more than 3% that we actually uh pay out purchase services are running about 3% on a yearly basis of anything that we use on a regular basis um supplies equipment our other piece we have the model at 2% and that's been running very close over the last few years and actually an area we can control some we don't have to go more than that so when we get done the the pro I'm going to show you now is a 5year projection and it's a what we really feel will happen the uh we just talked about that in 2025 the end of 2025 being at five 5.4 I said 5.36% so it gets us back above that board pal that um the board policy number which is that red line so you see over the next you know three years we'll continue to grow that fund balance not not huge but it'll it'll continue to go up but as you know the way that our um contracts are um put together or framed um lots of lots of our employees get an automatic about 2% increase when we're stepping through the steps and we look at that so we're running me three three and a half% is really what happens on new Staffing on a regular basis so that's why eventually we're going to fall off without any type of change in our programming now this gives us time I mean we certainly aren't going to wait till the fifth year and all oh oh we got got to do something I mean we look at that every year try to balance that budget on a yearly basis so that we don't see that fall off when we get out four or five years but it's really hard to give you some really hard numbers when we get those kind of years out we don't know what legislation is going to do and we don't know what enrollment is going to do all those things but using the the parameters what I just uh we talked about this is what we're seeing um in our budget over the next five years so with that said is there any questions I me are there any questions yes just to clarify when you talk about 2030 and the salary steps does that mean we're having more and more staff get to the higher end of the scale and so that would be like part of this is um I know we've talked about um retirement incentives and things like that um is that I mean I I don't know I guess I'm wondering if those well those are all pieces that we can talk about um in in near future for ways that we can try to to lower our salary cost uh but this is looking at our programming we have in place right today each of our programming the staff we have in place with that with the increase in staff matched to the enrollment increase so that's is what we're seeing so yes as people move through the the you know salary become more and more and more and that why eventually the 2% from the state isn't going to be enough to keep up with our with our costs and you're going to see this with any with any type type of pro projection from any school district you're going to see this this curve like this when you get out when you get out a few years thank you may I also say that um if I could I apologize uh chair Baker we we're doing one uh five-year projection today and we're not going to wait a year to give you a refine so as we do the budget adjustments we're going to be refin our long range look at the same time so we want to make sure we do that the other thing I I want to be it it's it's my intention and I think the board could agree with this maybe you don't but teacher retention to me is as important a function of our organization as you can have and I really want to be clear that we should be doing everything that we can to retain the talent that we have and bring in more talent I mean that's that's got to be how we're approaching this so to your point uh Dr Anderson again is the um as we move further to the right and we retain we're going to age and that's going to cause those increases but we need to see those coming and share that with this board director Lind I just have a comment regarding the 5% on the the board policy at 5% um I would I would think it it' be a good thing for the new board to look at that and see if they want to raise that a little bit uh 5% is not a lot if you you see other districts I think we had a it was either a board meeting or work session where we saw um the fund balance of other districts and quite a bit higher so just throwing that out there for the new board director Keller so there was a policy committee addressed that policy and that the recommendation was 8% and taking action at 10% you know monitor it and if it hits 10% to start taking action so it doesn't fall below 8% so that was a policy and I believe that's in for review right now MH but that that came before the board in a work session to raise that okay I I hadn't heard that but now I have oh yeah sorry yep that was policy but tonight though like when you met well I'm just saying Terry said that the board should look at raising that and we've got the policy that's being reviewed that has to the board like working session Brian did that come to them already no we discussed it but it didn't we didn't re we didn't revise that policy like we discussed it but it wasn't changed okay then yeah then it should because we did talk about that I don't know where that's sitting Brian I thought we had finish that to bring to the board I'll yeah no because I know we talked about 8% and the 10% Like I remember that but I don't think it I don't have that it went through yet so I mean it hasn't been approved but I thought it came to a work session for a discussion no I think we discussed it but the policy committee was still I'll find out where it's at thank you I appreciate that I would encourage you to go forward with it yeah yeah I just want to clarify what that would mean um or whether we want to be more mindful of a gradual shift in that what would that mean for if we put a policy into place in terms of when that when we would expect those parameters to be met well I could say based on this uh we're not at 10% and um the projection is that we're not going to get there uh without cuts director Thompson yeah so and that policy was a recommendation uh for the board to potentially review so when we bring that forward we'll share that now how fast that gets implemented is a separate conversation obviously there's a gradual take that we can we can approach it with versus you know a a significant cut to get there but like you know interim superintendent Bowman shared we're not going to get there in the current rate that we have today with the current staff with the current um uh funding mechanism that we have through the state of Minnesota and property taxes and so we will have to as a board and as a district and as a community think through uh is having 10% 15% in your savings savings account what we want obviously we wouldn't be where we are today without what we had because of the the situation that that we went through over the past 2 three years uh but those are conversations we'll have to have talk through so um just one additional question do we know I mean I guess and this would be for future conversation but um in terms of the 10% 8% decision-making um is that based on evaluation of what peer districts are doing or is that just what we think we feel comfortable with so at the at the at the last audit report I believe the the the company Shar that we most districts around our size are about 20% of their exp of their expenditure and so if we're sitting at about $200 million in expenditures ideally we want to be about $40 million in savings I think Apple Valley Rosemont Egan they've got about like 70 $60 million in savings now that doesn't mean we need to get to 40 million right away or 20 right away we'll have to think through uh the the appropriate path and and and how fast we want to get there per personally I'd like to be in the 20 like in the $3 million range just in case um yeah might be helpful to know I mean I'm just thinking about growing districts like Woodburry or um when we talked about Elk River earlier like some of these kind I don't know if that I don't know that we Face special circumstances because of that or not or um I don't know it would just be good to get actual numbers from some of those districts yeah I agree okay so have we ever been at like 15% not not the time I in here there was I thought there was a period where it was at 12% you were here I was are we talking fund balance or are we talking unassigned fund balance because that distinction is incredibly important different on the side okay any further questions from board members okay thank you so much Bill thank you all right so our next item tonight we have some reports with recommended actions so I'll have Brenda alre come forward um the first item that we'll be discussing is the non-licensed Educators Union contract settlement good evening Madam chair superintendent Bowman and members of the school board you have before you this evening the approval of the non-licensed Educators uh tentative agreement the non-licensed Educators have voted to ratify the 2325 contract settlement highlights of the settlement include a $110 per hour increase to wages year 1 and an additional $110 per hour year two of the contract uh increased additional longevity pay and an addition of the juneth holiday the total package cost of the settlement is within board established parameters at 9.72% and and it is recommended for approval any questions from board members on this contract thanks for getting it done you're welcome thank you all right so hearing that we don't have any questions do I have a motion to approve the non-licensed Educators Union contract settlement I'll make a motion we have a motion by director David Anderson do I have a second I'll second second by director Lind any further discussion okay hearing none we'll put it to a vote all in favor say I I I all opposed motion carries our next item up for discussion is the leaf Union contract settlement yes the leaf Union um they have also voted to ratify their contract this is again for the 2325 school years um the highlights of the settlement include a 2% increase to wages for each year of the contract uh retroactive back to July 1st of 2023 uh for active and retired employees longevity was added uh for years 5 10 15 20 and 25 of employment an increase to the 403b contributions and one additional holiday um there was also streamlined language regarding school closings due to inclement weather and flex learning days to reflect new statute um that went through in legislation um the total p package cost of the settlement is within board established parameters at 9.56% any questions from board members on this contract okay hearing known we'll put it to a vote or not put it to vote sorry ask for a motion do I have a motion to approve the leaf Union contract settlement some Lov we have a motion by director Carly Anderson is there a second a second second by director David Anderson any further discussion director Thompson hey I want to want to clarify again uh the these contracts have been reviewed by the union representatives and those that are part of it they've already voted yes and they're wait they're asking for the school board to vote Yes to have it executed correct okay any other questions okay hearing none we'll put it to a votee all in favor say I I all opposed motion carries than thank you Brenda all right and we have no additions to the agenda tonight so that brings us to the superintendent's report thank you chair Baker thank you chair Baker jeez so I want to start off by uh sharing and saying thank you to our community uh you know everyone went out and voted we appreciate that uh and this month we were obviously pursuing a levy uh we uh titled that succeeding together uh for a referendum and while uh our succeeding together referendum did not pass we do remain committed as a Administration and as a school district to supporting our students and our staff and we will continue working with our school board and with our community to figure out what the priority adjustments need to be and uh plan accordingly the other thing I'd like to just say publicly to all um you know as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday I just want to take a minute and just say thank you to our Lakeville area schools our staff uh for the hard work and dedication um I I did make a point of getting into many buildings today and the atmosphere was amazing the kids were having fun the staff was having fun and if you can come to school and have fun uh and learn at the same time I think that's just wonderful um the staff here in our Lakeville area schools are definitely making a difference in the lives of our young people and I just want to extend a heartfelt gratitude to all of you for for what you do uh everybody's I think working hard and doing a great job and I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart and thank you board members and I hope that your Thanksgiving is as wonderful as a Kindergarten class in our elementary schools that is my report chair Baker thank you so much we are very thankful for our school district so thank you um having completed all the items on our agenda I would entertain a motion for adjournment for the night I'll make a motion we have a motion by director Anderson do we have a second second second by director Lind any further discussion okay hearing none all in favor of adjourning the meeting say I I I all opposed motion carries thank you and have a wonderful evening we did talk about some e