##VIDEO ID:Khqw_9iT1Pw## hello everyone I'm David law superintendent of minona public schools and I'm Dan Olsson minetonka Schoolboard Treasurer we're glad you're able to join us for our Schoolboard recognitions program it's important to take time to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of our students staff and community members this month we're in our Skipper gear to celebrate all of the amazing fall activity that's happened in minnona We Begin most of our regular board meetings with recognitions to highlight the positive impact that so many different people make in our district today we're recognizing District service center honored artists from our elementary schools fall Sports state qualifiers newly named AP Scholars With Honor from the 20232 24 school year an international student award for the Chinese Bridge cont contest and the leaders and site coordinators for our annual employee charitable giving campaign we will now recognize a group of Elementary School artists each year our art teachers select pieces to display at the dianka School's district service center this is one way we celebrate the work of our students and our commitment to Fine Arts education the works on display are from students at Minot tanka's six elementary schools these pieces will be on display through December student artists thank you for your sharing your work with with us your artistic talent and creativity brightens the district service center we would also like to thank and recognize our Elementary art teachers for their work to encourage and Inspire our community manat tonka's Elementary art teachers will be introducing the honored artist this evening they include chrisy nent from Clear Springs Reed Anderson from Deep Haven Katie friends from exceler Jane Meyer from Groveland Melanie mazingo from minta Jennifer Ben from from Scenic Heights and Matt Carlson from minowa and Scenic Heights our art teachers will now read the names of each student Artist as their works are displayed hello to the minona school board School community and especially to our student artists and their families who are watching this evening we're so incredibly proud of you and we're excited to celebrate you tonight along with a beautiful artwork that you've created from painting and mixed media collage to drawing and sculpture you've used a wide variety of techniques and mediums to add Beauty to each of our schools thank you for all of your effort Joy persistence collaboration and creativity you show every single day we will celebrate Now by showing images of your artwork as we read your names your names will be read by your art teachers Miss nent from Clear Springs Elementary will get us started hi my name is Christine nent and I teach art at Clear Springs Elementary our honored artists are Josie Conway Elijah Holman Zara Lim Camila Sanchez zavaleta Gracie banoa Estelle ikan Ena Jadwin Ivan Waller Shannon wesper Clara Anderson Pi Sanchez zavaleta I'm Reed Anderson art teacher at Deep Haven element deep Haven's honored artists this fall include Henry Gardner utto siula Henry gianforte elen wari Alden Graham Sonia kotki Isaac lunberg Oliver Tobin Emmy low Evelyn witcom svea echelman Victoria Halverson Katie friends is the art teacher at exceler elementary our honored artists include Quinn malberg Maya Morad Keith Cunningham Thiago lindborg Lael Ortiz Benavides Griffin sorota and Molly Farney hi I'm Jane Meyer art teacher at Groveland our honored artists include Phillip 'im ofic Dawson Foster short Loretta Moren Lorenzo oampo Luna Scalzo Nova upgren Carson stab Cass wormer skiren Lena wah huski I Matt Carlson art teacher at minow wasta and Cena kites elementary schools I'm Melanie mosingo art teacher at minowa elementary we're honored to share the work of these amazing artists anola Lon Russell Lions Brielle sheerwood Violet CT Hannah bman Tessa Gardino Madison Guston Annabel Hermanson Harrison Morgan summer Owen Sydney Peterson Elsie wasam Lacy Bolinger McKenna Callahan Cambria Caro Mira Clark Edie espand Isabelle thinkink Daphne hook Lucy callhoff Maya Lang Pierre lorange Alysa Luma Lauren Luma Ivor Pento Marisol sersa Isa scanland Lauren Schultz K Smith Juliana Stark and Christopher URI I'm Jennifer Bend art teacher at Scenic Heights Elementary our honored artists are Alexander boic Freya Feldman Zia Mo Christopher mus Nora fun Lydia gromberg schnos Kathleen TBE Elias Wong Roman dangers sine Louisiana Nora Horman and bod wigam artists congratulations one more time on being selected for this art show you are amazing keep creating being curious and sharing your hard work through the visual arts what you do makes a huge difference thank you again to all of our student artists for sharing your talent hard work and inspir a with us this fall next we will recognize State qualifiers from our fall sports teams it has been a strong season for the Skippers with many teams qualifying to compete in state competition and several athletes earning top level awards at state tournaments The Varsity Boys cross country team took third in the Minnesota State High School league state meet this year individually sha freeze finished second overall the team was also section and Conference champions the team is led by head coach Jeff renland and assistant coach is Jacob Peterson Titus wers Pete Miller and Jerry mcneel before we recognize each athlete by name let's hear more about the team's season hi everyone I am the head boys cross country coach at minetonka high school Jeff renland and I want to congratulate this year's team for their great efforts this season based off the previous year's results this was the most successful season in school history so far they were first at the St Olaf invite first at the Steve hog Anoka invite first at the Nike preview in South Dakota they ranked 11th nationally in the Hoka postal two- mile race they were the late Conference champions they were the section two triaa Champions they were third in the state triaa meet only a mere 13 points from winning with two All State individuals Sean F in second and will chose in 21st and they were the first Minnesota team overall in any class at the national qualifying Regional featuring all of the best cross country Runners from the seven state region of Wisconsin Iowa Kansas North and South Dakota Nebraska and Minnesota I am so proud of this year's team's many successes and as always it has been a privilege coaching you all hi I'm Casey Nordstrom I'm a sophomore and I ran for cost country I went to the I was on the State team and stuff and we we ran our race I gave him my best stuff and our teamwork really showed out there we came very close and we came in third place and being on the State team was a really cool experience and it was a super fun time and yeah I think it was a cool cool to be on there like first year of first year on there as a sophomore and that was really cool experience to have and yeah congratulations to the following State team members and alternates Simon AR aalo Chavez William Willam ches Charles Cummings Shan freeze Turf horvick Benjamin Krauss Lloyd laninga Casey Nordstrom James Thomas and Zachary anger the varsity girls cross country team also had a standout season the team took fifth place at the Minnesota State High School league state meet individually two athletes placed in the top 10 Avery Mar Osco Johnson finished eighth overall and Evelyn mik finished ninth overall the team is led by head coach Rebecca Wesley and assistant coaches Shan Kern Cassie kleene Heidi Leighton and Amanda moner let's hear more about the season hello everyone I'm Rebecca Wesley the girls head cross country coach at minetonka I just wanted to congratulate all of the girls for their hard work and their efforts this season starting with the JV I think there were a lot of standout performance es a lot of personal bests a lot of season bests um and they helped to set a new bar and a a new standard for all of the incoming girls as well as push um everyone on the team I also wanted to give a special shout out to the sixth and seventh Runners at the section meet they were able to literally push the team to be able to compete at the state meet which was um a fantastic time a great accomplishment for a lot of these girls we were able to finish fifth in the class AAA meet um our third mile The Last Mile was the strongest of all participating teams we passed three teams in the last mile which is just a testament to everyone's grit determination tenacity um there's a lot of strength in these girls and I am it's been a privilege to be able to coach it really um thank you all for such a great season um congratulations Girls It's been a pleasure you guys are the best congratulations to the following State team members and alternates Alex dragith Meredith Gillis Mara kleene Evelyn mollik Avery morasco Johnson Olivia mestad christena neelson Margaret neelson and Khloe Stein Krauss the varsity boys soccer team qualified for the state tournament for the second year in a row and made it to the quarterfinal round they were also section Champions the team is led by head coach mik Rogers and assistant coaches Alex Johnson Nick szol and Tyler squara let's hear about their season hey Varsity soccer 2024 winners of our third Lake Conference title in four years our second section title in a row we did great we uh played to the quarterfinals in the state tournament and I'm so proud to be a part of this team love you guys one of the best teams I've had in all of my 17 years reach for the peak congratulations to the following team members Alexander Albright John Albright Owen barau Hudson bonitz Eric dein Tyler Friday Daniel Gonzalez via Noah isero Connor Johnson Alexander Keeley Brady Kramer Liam krangle saurin Lee iser lipnik Christian Longo Schumer Colin Mcall Marcos Mido Henry Olen Lucas quakenbush Matteo revman Samantha Rogers team manager Elijah Ryan Santiago Samco and El VES team manager the varsity girls swim and dive team had an outstanding season they earned first place at both the True Team state meet and the Minnesota State High School league state meet this year individually Lydia Cameron won the 200 yard freestyle and was second in the 500 y freyle Annabelle wsel was second in the 100 yard butterfly the team also earned two relay state titles for the 200 yard medley and the 200 yard freestyle relays the team is coached by minetonka Aquatics director John Bradley let's hear more about their season hi everyone uh my name is John Bradley and I am the head coach for the minetonka girls high school swimm dive team we had a pretty amazing season this year um we had a number of great meets and we started our season off with a great doal meet schedule we won all of our doal meets this year the exception of one meet against to we would run into AA any number of times during the season but during the season we also won the True Team state meet uh it's the fourth meet in the four years I've been coaching here that we won um and I believe we've won that meet a number of times beforehand we also won the high school section meet I believe for the 10th year in a row and we also won the mshsl high school girls state championship for the 2A division this season it was absolutely fantastic year we had incredible support from our fans from our parents from the school but most importantly we had incredible buyin from our athletes who functioned as a great team all season long so thank you hello my name is Vivian Shaw and I'm a part of the class of 2029 the most impactful part of my swimming is the friends I've made and the love I found for the water I am so proud of all the hard work we've put in throughout the season to become state champions We have worked so hard every day and all our work has definitely paid off congratulations to the following athletes Gracie Bartholomew liia Cameron anakah Graham Henley hatzung Annie hippen Sarah Hurley Michaela Kangas Lauren Kile Rebecca Moss Brooke also Morgan rther Kendall Schindler Vivian shot Stella Sushi reys ulette Annabelle welzel and Claire wilky the next team will recognize as varsity girls tennis two members of the varsity girls tennis team qualified for state in the doubles division at the tournament Tessa tretti and Ella Roberts won the constellation Championship the team is led by head coach Jessa Richards and assistant coach coaches Dan Richards and Greg van heast let's hear more about their season hi it's Jess Bo head coach of the girls tennis team a huge congratulations to the entire team on another fun and successful season and to their two state qualifiers in the individuals D doubles tournament Ella Roberts and Tessa trabetti you both had such success playing at the top of our lineup all season and it was so much fun getting to watch you come together uh to compete and uh win the doubles section tournament and to win consolation bracket at the state tournament as well uh congrats again to the entire team it was a really great year I'm so excited for next year and you should all be super proud of yourselves congratulations again to the following athletes Ella Roberts and Tessa travetti the varsity girls volleyball team qualified for State for the second year in a row where the team won the consolation bracket at the tournament the Skippers were also section Champions the team is is led by head coach Carl katzenberger and assistant coaches Rachel Dill James stefen and bayy zri let's hear more about their season hi my name is Carl kenberg and I'd like to uh congratulate the 2024 Bakka scoopers volleyball team on another tremendous season um this year advancing to the state tournament um via the section tournament with wins over the number one seed Prior Lake and the number two seed wonan Wildcats to um get out of the section and qualify for state and then wins against Anoka and um St Michael Albertville at State allowed us to win the constellation Championship um super end of the season um lots of fun uh and the the parents and kids in in our program have been super supportive and you know that's a resulted in another tremendous year um thanks everybody involved and go Skippers congratulations to the following team members Katherine Anderson Jordan Courtney Ree Fanning team manager Gracie Foss Riley frandrup Lauren Granger Emory Hedrick theia Highland Hannah Jackson Aubrey Johnson zil cucko Olivia L Penelope Moore Rory shonne Jamie Smith team manager Maisy Smith team manager Mary Sparrow wilker and Ava wolf great work Skippers we will recognize our remaining fall sport State qualifiers in our January Schoolboard recognitions program our next recognition group is the new AP Scholars With Honor from the 20232 24 school year the AP Scholars With Honor designation is granted by the College Board to students who receive an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken and who receive scores of three or higher on four or more of those exams the students will recognize tonight achieve the AP scholar With Honor recognition for the first time based on their AP exam scores from the 2023 24 school year earning this award requires an incredible amount of hard work and dedication and we are proud of each student for this achievement we asked our AP Scholars with honor to share about a class at MHS that has inspired them and has had an impact on their academic Journey here's what they shared with us hi I'm Bend devolve I'm really honored to be receiving this recognition I would really like to thank all of my amazing teachers over the past four years but I would really like to thank my Health Sciences teachers Miss Nelson Miss Thomas and Mr Wilson for allowing me to grow in my interests in the Health Sciences field thank you our student honores from the class of 24 include Katherine Alquist Ethan binder Joseph Brett Lauser Henry Brink Juliet Carlson Katherine Chapman Ellie Collins Claire danses Campbell Luca Maria Dean Lila Ellingson Ryan faran Lucy fazendin Elias Grant Grace hamdorf Byron hustad Ava click Parker Lang Savannah Langan Monica low Sophia Ley James McDougall Alexa mland Holden Miller Leonard Miller Amelia munz Paige Olsson Olivia penti anley Phillips cydney paninski Carolyn schwantes Ken Smith Leah stellmacher William Swenson signey Van Wick Claudia Walker Marissa witty and Nicholas young AP Scholars With Honor from the class of 2025 include Natalia abova Matthew adamic Abigail affalter Mato alosa Elanor allerding Lucy butcher reys Carlson Olivia Carney Claire Chapman Evelyn Christopher Parker Christensen Gustaf Davidson Tully desmat Benjamin devolve Isabella Dirks Alex drth Logan U Evan frell C cine Foster Zoe Garcia Lauren GES tesp fines Goodall aana Griswald Leah grund archal Headley Morris Lincoln height Camp Elliot Hill Dylan hudgin Quinn Hughes Khloe Johnson Breen coland Bridget caller Ze cucko Olivia lure Grayson Lewis Jude lanir Jack Malik Lucille Matthew Anthony moli Katherine mroy Gwyneth noler silver Oakman Carly POF Lucas poen Fiero Ruby Rock Ethan Robinson Anna Rosen Natasha rells Mia Rush Elijah Ryan Owen saly Maya Sandy Khloe sandom Sasha shukalovich Benjamin Sipple Maisy Smith Allison sha Kiara Squires Grace stall Charlotte Timba Britney uten Bogard Jacob Weiss Elena Winters and Ava wolf our student honores from the class of 2026 include Jacob Adams Laura axen John Albright Carmen Alexander Benjamin barcus Luke Britton lar Cassidy Logan Cole Cooper Dobbins Caitlyn fski Nathan fine William finin tuio Ty Gaffney Isabella Gillis Brady Ginsburg ciona Harris Joseph Heights Garrett hren Daxton hurt Ellen Ingam Hora Islam Benjamin Jabs Joseph Kim Carter Krebs toaya Lang Brock Larson Juliana Lewandowski Johannes Lindon Isabelle luthra Daria Maxwell maias murdick Alexandra Nelson Rachel Newton Naomi new Patton Matilda Olen Colin aorf Claire penningroth Skyler Percy Lucy poninski Jaden Rael Edith rebello Shan Rook Anusha Sly Isaac schmidtz danne sersi Tes sh Anna seagull Aiden Smith River Stein reys ulette Sophia Wallace Lauren wiin Aiden zabula and Asher Zipkin AP Scholars With Honor from the class of 2027 include riic Amna Ana Aurora Owen Kai Lara colonne Ortiz Cooper Kelch Aiden dang kellerer Adam clobe Van Lee Allison lay Vivian win Ananda Nani song Nolan Sullivan and peille wlof congratulations again to each of our AP Scholars with honor our final academic honor this evening is for sixth grader Luke King Schultz this October Luke traveled to China to compete in the international Chinese Bridge contest where he placed fifth in the world world for the elementary division since it's began in the early 2000s the Chinese Bridge contest has been a way for students to demonstrate their Mastery of Chinese language the competition included language competency knowledge of China Chinese Cultural skills and comprehens of aptitude let's learn more about the opportunity dear look congratulations I'm so proud of you it's been a great pleasure teaching you Chinese and getting to know you your dedication to language learning learning and your interest in culture is truly inspiring I hope you can continue to learn Chinese and enjoy every moment of it congratulations again hi my name is Li King Schultz I a sixth grader at mme in October I competed in the fourth annual Chinese Bridge speaking show for foreign language students as a representative of the United States after winning first place at the Chicago Regional final I was awarded an all expenses paid trip to China for an international competition I was selected for the around and was thrilled to place fifth in the world I share this award with Don ler who nominated me Shan ler and my CIT Chinese Teachers because their dedication has let me get anchors up all around the world congratulations on your outstanding accomplishment Luke we also congratulate minona teacher W yandong from Scenic Heights Elementary and jwe Shen from mme for helping Luke finalize his competition speech thank you for your support of this achievement our last group for recognitions this evening is a set of Staff members who gave extra time and effort during the month of October to facilitate the minaka Schools employee charitable giving campaign for the past 24 years minona staff have participated in an annual charitable giving campaign altogether raising more than $1 million throughout the years to support nonprofit organizations that assist those in great need this year our staff pledged together to raise an incredible $71,000 the donations will go to support one of three n nonprofit federations creating healthier communities open your heart to the hungry and homeless and Greater Twin Cities United Way or they will fund programs at designated Charities that were selected by our employees at each of our buildings in the district we had campaign site coordinators who arranged activities and Outreach efforts for their staff in their buildings to promote engagement for the giving campaign I'm grateful to each of them the donations our staff raised are desperately needed by many people who are struggling this year tonight we'll honor each site coordinator for their amazing contributions in bringing staff together to accomplish this wonderful fundraising effort the following staff members led the annual employee giving campaign for their buildings from clar Springs Elementary Courtney Davis from Deep Haven Elementary mallerie brockamp and Jessica THU from exceler elementary Matt Breen from Groveland Elementary Sarah klitz from minow wasta elementary Becky Ash Lisa mugh and Ivy berghard from Scenic Heights Elementary Joe Walker and Nicole snedden from minona Middle School East Charlie Dorne from minetonka Middle School West Jacob Westman from minetonka high school Jennifer brighten Bach Sarah Martinson and Emily Rosen Gren from the minetonka Community Education Center Anna Burna Michelle Burns Chris fno Christina friedricks dorotha mccab Zack mink Lauren ryell and Kate Van Horn from the DSC and tech center Angie flowers Amy hilstrom Robin clinker Taylor denell sucheta mahankali and Sandy sha and finally I'd like to give a huge thank you to our district-wide campaign share executive director of communications Dr Jackie Getty coordinators we are grateful for each of you and for each staff member who contributed to the giving campaign by giving so generously you've all truly made an impact on our community that concludes our recognition program for this evening thank you again for celebrating with us the school board meeting will begin shortly e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e welcome good evening uh I'd like to welcome you to the December 5th 2024 uh school board meeting of minona schools uh going to go ahead and call it to order it's all rise and plus day of the pledge for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for can I have a motion to adopt the agenda so move Chris is there a second second Dan uh all in favor please say I I I any opposed motion carries we have an agenda uh first first up tonight we have a school report from Excel your Elementary superintendent law Madam chair members of the board each month our school leadership comes to the board sometimes with student friends and staff members to discuss what's happening at their school tonight we have the privilege of hearing from exceler elementary principal Jennifer smle was supposed to be here presenting but she had an emergency that called her away so tonight assistant principal Matt Breen will be here to share the school report bre thank you thank you madam chair superintendent law members of the board thank you for the time this evening again here on behalf of principal Jen smle I'm assistant principal Matt Breen with fantastic kindergarten teachers here Kim Olsen and Schwan cudel and a great fifth grade student Milo mackinon uh our goal tonight is to share with you collectively our efforts around cultivating a sense of of connectedness and belonging as well as the implementation of strategies to support excellence in student learning and support specifically around literacy over 800 people walk into our building daily and whether you are a kindergartener that just joined the district three months ago or a 1 30-year veteran staff member we want every person to feel that this is the space that they belong and they are set up to thrive one way that we are fostering this sense of belonging is having common lessons in morning meetings and all School Google meets around healthy well-being topics like what and how do we show empathy what does it mean to be kind and what does it mean to be part of a community one such example is for generai to host monthly meetings where the whole school logs into a Google meet and we will read a book about one of these topics like empathy or kindness and the buzz it creates in the building is fantastic students talk about it for days in the hallways and want to share with us the ways that they have helped a friend or been kind for me the Highlight was my first day reading the story was officially when I trained transformed from another face in the hallway to boy principal I want to now transition over to uh Kim and Swang to talk about our kindergarten common space that is new this school year all right so we at uh Excel I'm Kim Wilson kindergarten teacher English at excelia thanks for having us we um originated the the idea um to build more connections across all kindergarten um as a team so we discussed the lack of connections that we had seen in the upper grades between the Chinese students and the English students and we wanted to find a way to build those connections at an early age so as they grow they interact more especially when they get to the middle school and the high school so in order to do this we took the area that is outside the three English rooms currently and we cre created a space for lots of stem activities and fun things for the kids to do uh we all understand that U greeting someone in a larger group can be challenging for young kids especially when they're unfamiliar with each other um to support this important social skill we practice grading in the classroom during morning meeting time to build their confidence as they enter the common area students um our par will support them uh initiating the gring first and then um uh following the gring they're intentionally paired up to explore this area um so um to Foster deeper connection teachers um started to notice and observe um students independently using this skill in other part of the school such as hallways and criteria as a result they are building um meaningful connections and uh getting to know each other on a deeper level so our future hope is to use the space throughout the day currently we are using it in the afternoon during our play time Choice time which all kindergarten has at the same time so from about 2: to 2:15 every afternoon two students from every single classroom a PA from one of our English classrooms and a PA from one of the immersing classrooms brings the kids down and they all do the responsive classroom and then they play together and they explore together currently we have four sensory bins in each bin there are different items for the kids to explore we also have a whiteboard as you see on the screen with letters and there are markers that the kids can write on where they're practicing math or literacy we also have tables set up for the Hub activities and materials the kids can use to build and explore and then we also have some science exploration uh currently we have a very fun wrapping station so all T types of wrapping paper the kids are learning their fine motor skills cutting taping wrapping all the things um and I'll turn it over to Matt now thank you uh going through other areas where we're promoting this uh well-being belonging and connectedness uh we have a focus with the Sabers data in our building uh this fall we had 7.6% of our students identify at risk in either social emotional or academic uh these students are invited to participate in small groups to build skills in the area of co-regulation executive functioning Andor social skills parents are also emailed of the group's objectives and the skills taught by our counselor Angie Johnson and supplemental activities are also offered to families just a list of some other items here as well Angie really works to meet the needs of so many of the students in our building and she also pushes into classrooms to teach about social thinking and social connections uh she does tier one lunch bunches where she hosts lunch bunches weekly these are small groups of students who get to bring their lunch into her room uh have an opportunity to build friendships in in a small environment these students are often times new to excels here or they just need to help making connections or building social skills she also works with our fourth and fifth grade classroom hosting a 10-minute Google meet each week where she facilitates a guided relaxation to help give their busy brains a break another neat area of support I'm actually going to pass it over to Milo who's going to talk about his experience with Angie and and a group hello my name is MIL mckinin and I'm a fifth grade Chinese immersion student at EXO Elementary Nial I'm here tonight to share my part of my school day experience each week I participate in a s skills group with me and three other students meet with Miss Jay our school our school counselor and the main office conference room we love meeting in this fancy room with big chairs during our time together we we learned study skills such as time management prioritizing organization and be practice focus and concentration activities for example one activity played was I spy we had we had to think with our eyes and find objects super quick for example um this skill helped me realize how important it is to use my eyes to help me concentrate this um teach when a teacher is talking or important information is on the Smartboard is it helps me learn better to keep my eyes pointed in that direction rather than being distracted by other things going on around around me like how I see your handsome s um suit and how I see your beautiful pendant the support I have received in this group has encouraged me to be a stronger student it has taught me strategies like goal setting to get homework done and stay motivated in school thank you for your time tonight and support for these extra programs and thank thank you Miss Maza and Mr Breen and I think they'll I think this this um s skills group will help a lot of other students too thank you thank you Milo we also continue to help with navigating student interaction through bully pre prevention efforts a jollypop singer and exceler parent Billy hardung engaged our younger students in lessons are on what it means to be a team accepting differences listen and love and how to keep it cool when there is friction and helpful ways to manage conflict students also work together on creating collaborative posters where they all decorated a brick to create large bully prevention posters when there is conflict we work together on restorative conversation activities to better understand the harm that it has caused and how to make it right pictured here is a students working through a playground conflict at our at our school we also want to give students a a greater and bigger voice in our building so to help do so we're offering a space to gain leadership experience and to start the student leadership team we are holding classroom elections in third through fifth grade classrooms this month to establish this group and is led by fourth grade teacher Mr Andrew Bower and again it's an opportunity to gain leadership experience and when feeling when the voice is feeling heard Greater Community is built we we have fifth graders on morning announcements every Friday we have a buddy program where fourth uh grade students work with our first grade students fifth grade students work with our kindergarten students and we also are proud of the bump in our 2022 23 to 2324 share power results in our developmental relationship survey share power is defined by search Institute as treating someone with respect by giving them a voice and involving them in decisions that affect them so wrapping up on the connections part with the monthly themes the kindergarten Commons counselor supports Unity day restorative conversations and student leadership want to transition now into another goal around highlighting the important actions being taken around building support and excellence in student learning and our and support goal Mario and Luigi here from the fall parade uh travel this road map through our uh uh through our literacy road map react and core are really where it started moving in the district leadership team framed the year for our building leadership teams this included uh data meetings around screening intervention and four boox sort with Miss Alyssa Rutherford and Dr matri we expanded these for Chinese imers immersion which I'll get into shortly and we utilized our building leadership team learning team which I'll also talk about momentarily and SST for feedback loops this helped us to build a playr a play book for our literacy focus groups so this leadership team structure is how we are carrying out this work utilizing an additional group of Staff members as I mentioned in our buildings support this but working really through that District leadership team to our building leadership team and student support team and to our professional learning communities where teachers then take that into action in their in their classrooms one new team this year is a learning team this is led by fifth grade teacher Mr Mike Savage and this team is really about developing the how in our building so they gather feedback from staff regarding professional development talk about intervention and extension support that we can offer in our building um and provide resources for plc's or grade level meetings and to this point uh the big probably the most significant contribution is this group really started to outline two-hour literacy meetings that we held with each of our grades where teachers worked with reading uh interventionists and developed a plan that was specific to their classroom for focused flexible grouping around literacy in these data meetings and in these uh meetings with the reading Specialists there was the collection that started originally with the map fast and Chinese oral reading fluency assessments continued with with missa Rutherford and Dr Ria and was connected to the classroom in those meetings our Chinese reading specialist also developed additional assessments to be used for our immersion students that helped to inform the groupings in our immersion classrooms where we had a a missing spot in our standardized testing in the fall uh this data was used to create these focus groups what you're seeing on the screen here on the left is an extension group working with one of our Advanced learning teachers on the right a classroom teacher working with another group of students during this time there are students all around the room doing different uh activities might be reading a book independently reciprocal teaching uh working through ANL uh litery assignment to get that immediate feedback uh so there's activity all throughout the room want to provide one student so some people work independent when and other people work with Mrs R and when you work with Mrs R you get to like play some games sometimes like reading games and then whenever it's a whole class on your sheet everybody does the whole class and then when some people meet with Mrs R other people do like read works or they do learning or some people have the login for Learning Ally and some people do like snip which is where you just read a book to yourself or you could do ras kids and some people DOL and then you have like the Monday part and the Tuesday part so these are these are the laps that we'll be taking to as we continually work to refine our literacy instruction throughout our building and we think it is important to point out that we also like to have some fun thank you very much for your time appreciate [Applause] it any questions thank you exceler Elementary any questions comments Sally so I particularly appreciated one the early comments that you made about teaching the children how to gain confidence in greeting one another and it reminded me of a recent conversation with a Community member about what are we doing to help students learn to reach out to other people how to make connections and even advocate for themselves I wonder if you might kind of elaborate on what you're seeing as a result of students learning that skill so um after after a couple a few weeks of you know working with them in the classroom to talk about eye contact when you uh you know introduce yourself and what language you use we teach in Chinese but you translate English easily and we practice you know handshake and then one day one of my students went out to have a drink in the drinking fountain right across my room I saw him reaching his hand out to a neighbor's class student and said hello my name is you know um what is your name yeah so it's just really formal super cute with of five years old thank you and thank you Milo as well Kary thank you I was just going to say that was a great presentation that you gave Milo so thank you for being here I know that's not an easy thing to do so you did a great job yeah we always appreciate having students here but I think you might have a future in public speaking any other question questions comments well thank you for being here it's always great to see the work that's going on in our schools uh next we've reached the portion of our evening where we have Community comments uh did we have anybody here that was wishing to speak okay uh next up we have an approval of new course proposals changes and deletions superintendent law Madam chair members of the board at our work session study session in November all of you had the chance to review each of these new course proposals there there's a very small amount I I want to make it uh clear to the public that as we are adding courses we're also deleting courses so this doesn't create an additional expense it's really a shift in what students enroll in we were we are constantly adjusting our courses to meet the future needs of our students and input that we get from our community members and uh you know uh employers and col postsecondary groups so you have in front of you the a request for approval if you would need to have questions for Mr oransky or uh principle or assistant principal we could otherwise I recommend the board approve the new course proposals changes and deletions can I have a motion to approve the new course proposals changes and deletions so moved Mike is there a second Camary um any comments questions discussion uh just for the Public's awareness we did discuss all of these and see the course proposals at the last study session so um there was some conversation at that point um also wanted to highlight that uh every year when we do course enrollments it's based on the uh enrollment in the courses so these are not necessarily added teachers or sections um it'll reflect the actual enrollment of the um students at the buildings so all right we have a motion uh let's see yep we have a uh can I have a motion to approve the new course proposals changes and dations did I do that already oh my gosh I'm totally lost okay so we have a motion in a second all approved please say I I any opposed okay motion carries thrown off here okay uh next up we have a an approval of MCE fees Madam chair members of the board earlier tonight Mr bis in our truth and Taxation hearing uh give a very brief presentation of Our Community Education funds and you may have noticed during those funds that the expenditures were a little bit higher this year than the revenue generated it's situations like that that take take the executive director of Community Education and her team to review uh course proposal or course fees and make adjustments to make sure that the fees that we collect cover the cost of courses because this is a separate fund than our general fund tonight executive director of Community Education Kimberly Carlson and her team will be presenting on the fee proposals for your approval all right Madam chair board members thanks this my first time in front of you so it's exciting for me so I get but I guess I'm gonna be brief no that's good Jenny and and Molly are here tonight as well who you probably already know um Jenny's going to be talking about our explorers program but first Molly's going to go through ECFE and and our preschool program they'll pause in between to get that approval from you once they share that um this is a family I don't know if you recognize them um I'm gonna hopefully say their name rights the Brandon Brandon thank you um very active in Community Education in volunteering uh participating in the classes so that's a a group and shout out to Louise Weir who not only helped us uh put together a nice looking um presentation for you but she does our marketing and Outreach for Community Education so she develops the catalog and so they've been doing this um choosing a community or Community member family on the front of the catalog and so um the registration for that opened up in November and we re got I think it was 3,144 to be exact I just happen to remember that number but they um in1 in the first day so we've got a very active uh community um participation and then the exciting part too is that Louise is going to work uh she connected with the Vantage program and we've got a student that's going to be working side by side with her to take a look at the um kind of a redesign of Our Community Education catalog and what side so we're excited about that she's very eager and uh excited to do the work and um so her and Louise are working together on that and then one one of the things uh holiday giving we have um the Anna up there um asheim is I um been busy getting together the holiday family giving and as you can see over the last six years we've had over hundred uh 800 F around 800 families um so huge impact this year we have about 150 and who knows by the time it comes but that's next week that they're doing this so we're excited about that now now I'm going to pass it over to Molly and she can tell you a little bit more about what's happening with ECF and Madam chair superintendent law members of the board um so ECFE is doing amazing right now we are really looking at ways in which we can be more active in our community uh without any fees attached to it so we have a couple new initiatives this year the first is called better together we're partnering with a local licensed psychologist and offering a parent Ed plus kind of 10-week closed group um we're doing a pilot with families who um have children who are identified as having a special need so are in our ecse program sometimes you just need a little bit more than what we can do in parent education and ECFE and the woman we're partnering with often comes in and speaks to our groups about mental health and how you can take care of yourself as a parent and so we're starting this in January we're working closely with the ecse Department to identify amilies who might be interested um and so there'll be a parent educator and a licensed psychologist both retaining their scope of practice but really being able to give more to families as they decide what more they need so it's a really safe place for people to talk about what it means to have a different trajectory for your child um for outreach we are partnering with a local church they actually have an IC Food Shelf in the building and so we have a parent educator going to the days that the food shelf is open so that we can make different connections um that's really fun it's fun to see the kids and the parents in that way and then be able to talk to them about how we they can come back to the church on a different day to do free Outreach and we're at the library we've been trying to be at the library for years so we're very very excited about being back at story time um and hopeful that that will help to bring more people to the building and then we offer free Fridays uh we started this last year um what we saw is we opened all the enrollment at once and so all the same families registered for the whole year so now we have a rolling enrollment so opens every two weeks um one is based on science one is based on literacy and one is based on just making friends and so every three Fridays those are going on and being offered free in the building so our Census Data this year is looking to be about 2,75 and this is how we get our funding for ECFE so it's going down a little bit from last year but because of that and we do have a fund balance in ECF we're going to ask for a 0% increase for our classes um want to show you a little bit about who's in our ECFE program so this is a breakdown we do not ask people to provide proof of their income we let them self-report and so they can select where they want to pay this is how our families are selecting to pay in our program so I'm going to pause here and for a 0% increase thank you uh any questions uh can I a motion to approve the ECFE 0% increase for the sliding fee scale so move Chris is there a second second Mike all in favor please say I I any opposed motion carries thank you on to minaka preschool uh you'll see the kiddo in the middle there's in our rain suits I walked down the hall the other day and they were outside for Outdoor Learning they came in and as I walked down the steps just mud from head to toe and they were like look I'm all muddy and one little girl she's like I'm all mudy it was just awesome so we have our open house it'll be Saturday January 25th from 9:30 to 11:30 at the community ad Center um it's a come as you want event there's no need to register we encourage All Families to come even if you know you're coming to our program there'll be two presentations one at 9:45 and one at 10:45 or 11 kind of depends on how long long it goes um we offer child care for families that need it during the presentation there's face painting activities for kids they can play in the gym um it's a great way to see our building I do offer tours I'm touring around the clock right now so if you can't make it to that date please um go to our website and sign up for a tour make sure you sign up in the morning so that you can see all the kids while you're there uh this year we have 22 sections of preschool our enrollment as of right now is at 3 15 and we're about 85% full um our 2425 includes 38 um ecsc slots we have about 30 um School Readiness slots that are reserved and we're it kind of es and flows a lot we find people as they register that we're like oh you qualify for school raing so we can move them in we also actively engage in the community to try to bring people in um our open enrollment is very similar to the district's open enrollment in terms of percentages you can see year-over-year where we're having uh families come oftentimes when I give a tour people are um intending to come here and so they want to start in preschool um other times they're just like we're not sure so we're going to start here and they usually end up coming here then for kindergarten as well so what makes us unique and what we compare ourselves to is that we have licensed teachers we are forced star parent aware that is a two-year rating we're up again for this year um and that's both our preschool program and our Junior explorers program our fourstar parent array uh we do an average hourly rates so we charge one fee um a month for 10 months on average so you're always paying the same amount each month whereas in our Child Care Program it's pay as you go so each month it might be a little bit different then we look at what other places are charging at an average hourly rate um and then we try to find some apple to Apple but everybody does it differently so we do a lot of funny math to figure out the hours here and there and what they're doing what they call preschool versus Child Care kind of trying to figure out what's the same so um last year as you know I came and asked to extend our calendar and that was a big hit with parents so now we're matching the school calendar and we asked for a 12 and a half% increase in order to kind of get ourselves above water um I'm looking for a five % increase for next year just knowing that we're going to have increases in Staffing and want to be able to ensure that we can balance the book A lot of people ask me when they tour do you get funding for preschool and I explain that no this is what tuition you pay is what we operate on and we're very um fiscally responsible and make sure that anything that we're purchasing we are purchasing at the best price and trying to keep ourselves just even so this is what I'm guessing will keep us even for the next year thank you questions comments discussion um I would just ask I know when I was sitting on the EC ECFE preschool board that usually there was some discussion around the fees and um so was there General support from the parents in that group yeah I always start there and say okay here's what I'm looking at and I think they might have their eyes go back in their head because I show them all the details and I but I want to make sure they understand what I'm asking for and how the money is spent so yes they were in agreement thank you m um can I have a motion to approve the minetonka preschool fee increase of 5% so moved Sally is there a second second Dan all in favor please say I I any opposed motion carries thank you thank you I'm hand it over to Jenny good evening Madam chair superintendent law members of the board I'm gonna speak about our explorers Child Care Program um which is both for juniors explorers for our preschool students and then also in all of our elementary schools K through 5 um we survey families regularly um in the program often in the fall in the spring and then at the end of the summer and so we're always reviewing those comments learning about ways we can make our program better and just a few statistics of from those surveys we wanted to share um from LA from the fall were 88% of families rated our overall program is good or excellent um and I was really excited to see that 97% responded that they would rate staff good or excellent so those relationships are so important in Explorers so it was great to see that um just a few comments um to feature from the surveys but some big themes that came out were certainly convenience of that care right after school um but the connections with staff and other students um and I think I always find one of the best indicators is when kids don't want to go home when their parents arrive to pick them up they're having too much fun so um really nice comment from families um as I've talked about with you in past years we continue to um have a goal to serve all families that would like to attend explorers but we have had a weight list um that we've been working hard to um manage and make smaller and so um just a little bit of an update right now we have 289 students on our weight list between our our six elementary schools um we are continually uh connecting with families kind of letting them know where things stand with the weight list and providing them updates um and we have been working hard at hiring which I'll talk about in a little bit but we've been able to move 55 students into the program from the weight list since the start of the school year we've also had a lot of people adding themselves to the weight list since the school year has begun so a little bit about hiring um I shared last year probably that we had started working with a recruiting company to help us generate more leads for um staff in our our program so it's been about a year that we've worked with radar um and that has been successful in in attracting additional candidates to apply for our roles um we have also done a lot of Outreach to Paras to see if they want to add time to their schedule at the end of the day um and principles have been a great support in reaching out to um folks as well and done a lot of promotion on social media um just trying in every way we can to get the word out that we have opportunities available so we have hired 2 for staff to um since the start of the school year which is great um and we continue to have a few new staff starting every week so um it's awesome we had um I would like to give a big shout out to our program managers a lot of them have been spending a lot of time in explorers after school to make sure that we're in ratio with the students we have registered um and so we're getting to a point where we don't need them there we're getting fully staffed and we're able to bring some new students in so it's a a good sign and we're going to keep moving forward with that uh we also look at um our open enrollment percentage it's usually around 35 to 40 this year 37% of Explorer students are open enrolled um largest group coming from Hopkins in eastern Carver County um but we certainly know that um a child care component is important for those families who are traveling a little bit further to come to school so certainly wanting to provide that for families we also track enrollment um the darker blue is before and after school junior explorers is the teal color and then the summer is the gray so we don't know yet the um enrollment we'll have for this summer but we will open registration in mid-February for our summer programming and we're looking to make some changes to the the format of Summer having families come or students come a consistent either two to five days a week throughout the summer we think that'll make for a more consistent quality program um in explorers throughout the summer so families can look for a lot more information coming in the next few weeks um about opening dates and times and information um and then in March we will open registration for um next school year so we're here tonight to talk about our fees for those programs and we're recommending a 4 and a half% increase uh to our fees we are also um looking to add an additional option for our non-school days in the summer our hours are typically 6:30 in the morning till 6: in the evening um we're going to add an option where families can choose to pick up a little bit earlier at 4:30 um and for a discounted amount so that's the only change um to the options of care just a little bit of an earlier pickup but recommending a 4 and a half% increase to support cost of staffing and supply increases that we see each year thank you uh can I have a motion to approve the 4.5% increase to Explorer fees so moved Camary is there a second second mikee any questions or comments Dan um I take it the just from from the presentation that the the main driver of the weit list is the hiring and be able be it's not like space or anything like that right no I would say um we would need more space if we brought those students in but the principles at the schools are very welcoming and accommodating and I they would certainly find a space um if we had it we are a certified Childcare Center so we're required to maintain a one adult to 15 student ratio um and so yes that is the reason uh we need more staff to be able to have more students come in all right well I'm glad you're finding some at least yes I am as well thank you thank you any other questions or comments all in favor please say I I I any opposed motion carries thank you thank you uh next up tonight we have approval of the 2024 payable 2025 property tax levy superintendent law Madam chair members of the board you'll remember just about an hour ago we had a public hearing on our truth and Taxation that included our uh budgets across all of our system and our proposed tax increase to the community this is the chance for the board to approve that proposed property tax increase Executive Director of Finance and operations will present that again tonight briefly for your approval Mr RIS thank you super superintendent law Madam chair members of the board um in past years I would be um when we did not publicize our our broadcast our uh study sessions I would probably do a a a pretty significant presentation during this time uh but we've gone through line by line our uh our Levy our proposed Levy back in September uh and we just had a public hearing on it so I'm going to cover four slides uh that are Rel related to the biggest uh biggest items of the property tax so um I'm just going to excuse me little too far our current property tax levy uh is being proposed uh to be levied at 7,163 615 uh that is a 4,285 n16 75 increase over the prior year amount of 65 m877 698 it's a 6.51% increase uh the um there are several major components to the to the uh increase that account for basically all of it uh $1 million is related to our our water appr approved operating referendum which was approved by the voters uh in November of 2015 it was renewed actually for the third time in November of 2015 and that was renew with an inflation increase so uh there's a million dooll inflation increase of about $636 to% cents per pupil on that particular item and that actually is about 1.5% of the 6.51% uh we have our voter approved technology referendum is 6.56 n% of net tax capacity that was actually in uh actually last fall uh and so the value of property in the district has gone up 8.7 5% so there's a direct correlation with that uh $888,000 that $888,000 is uh a little bit under one uh 1% of the in um increase of the total Levy um then uh we have a prior adjustment of about $1.5 million uh in our general fund uh for our debt service Levy um I'm sorry um not for our debt service Lobby for our operating referend and prior adjustment that prior adjustment uh last year we had a uh negative amount of or it's it's actually gone down so that's a a reduction in um in what we're leving this year so that kind of goes to offset some of the increases we had a large ref increase a year ago uh but our debt service long-term facilities maintenance fund we uh uh payments on the bonds we actually issued about one $14 million worth of bonds uh for next Summer's projects and so the payment is being added onto that that dollar amount is a is a little over just about 2.2% of uh the reason for the 6.5% increase and then uh last year we did a reduction for Debt Service excess we had additional uh property tax collections that had built up over time in The Debt Service fund and we used one uh basically about 1.4 million of that to uh reduce last year's Levy so since we're not doing that again this year because we use that money which is a onetime chunk of money it makes it look like the Lev is going up but it's really just going to the level that it would be had we not done that uh but still it's that is about another 2.3% of the uh of the uh um of the increase of 6.51% uh there's a numerous other uh ins and outs and those make up about 4% so together those items are uh total of 6.5 uh% uh we'd like to um request that you would consider this Levy and uh approve it for adoption so we can file with henpen County and uh in Carver County and the Department of Education thank you thank you Mr bah can I have a motion to approve the 2024 payable 2025 property tax levy so moved Chris is there a second second kry any comments or questions or discussion okay we have a motion and a second all in favor please say I any opposed motion carries thank you thank you uh next up we have acceptance of the fiscal year 24 audit superintendent law Madam chair members of the board at a recent work session all of you had the chance to hear in detail an audit that we conduct annually to make by we use an outside provider to really evaluate all of our funding streams to make sure that we're compliant with the expectations assigned to those funding streams you heard a presentation of that tonight we'll do a Public Presentation of the audit and then the board will be recommended to accept that audit kicking this off is Executive Director of Finance and operations Mr Paul bis thank you superintendent law Madam chair members of the board uh the audit that um you're about to uh have presented to you is actually done for you uh the uh the Auditors report to you uh they don't report to myself they don't report to the superintendent they report to you and the community so um I'm just going to make a couple of brief comments and um thank a few people and then turn it over to Craig is it popping hanging and Grace trinsky from uh CLA um so I'd like to recognize Jess hulet who's our coordinator of accounting and audit uh and her staff they did a great job putting things together again this year uh making sure all the all the decimal points and commas on the numbers are in the right place and that the numbers are in the right place uh and I'd also like to thank Ash Mooney who helped uh Elise um wble weel who uh helped with uh fixed assets uh there's other staff um in involved I just want to thank them all for doing a great job I with that I will step aside and turn it over to our our representatives from CLA thank you madam chair members of the board it's very nice to be with you this evening I'm Craig popenhagen um the principal on your audit um let's see do we want to pull up documents or just you have the documents okay very appropriate Grace this is how the audit gets done too so just so you know so in the physical copies um this just fli to page one it's numbered one at the bottom so C page or two in but um just kind of at a high level we issued an quote unquote unmodified opinion on the financial statements uh which is to say it's a clean audit report um basically the you know accounting wise all the presentation the measurement um everything that goes with the numbers um presented uh correctly in accordance with accounting principles um in all material respects uh with um in addition to auditing the numbers we also look at uh kind of the processes and controls around the around the numbers um how transactions flow through your system the different checks and balances um division of authority and and responsibilities and things like that um so process-wise um clean report on uh on internal control RS um we also even though the the federal component or funding of your uh operations is very small like 2% um still it's enough that we have to perform some additional compliance testing specific to um the Federal grant programs and it was kind of nice this year because we're you know we're we're turning the page on Co so you know the co funding that had come through you know let's run its course um is kind of just you know back to normal um as far as the the audit process and and what we're looking at so this year um we're back to uh testing the Child Nutrition program um for the federal component and the special education um just the federal component of that so um kind of back to business as usual and and we're moving forward so um pleased to report there is no findings there um on those um similarly to the fin finial audit we also look at processes and controls so in addition to just auditing the specific compliance uh processes around um all of that as well so um final report that we issue is on what we call Minnesota legal compliance uh which is some specific statutory testing um that we have to do um kind of at the behest of the state auditor office um again uh no findings there so really overall very good audit process um your people are doing a fantastic job you know kind of keeping track of uh and being good stewards of of your resources so um another kind of item of note um in the 200 pages of of fund that we uh issue in in the financial statement booklet um there's a certificate in the front um from the association of school business officials um a certificate of achievement for excellent in financial reporting um and that is something that is applied for every every year and uh this year um the certificate this year was I believe 28 consecutive years and going for 29 so um kind of another uh illustration of you know not just the Auditors looking at numbers but completely separate organization looking at your financial report and is it a u a report that's usable um and valuable and understandable by the public and that's a good just another um note of of achievement there so very good um as well um on page two just a couple things to point out can't talk about um an audit without talking about some numbers and percentages right so um on page two top of the page just looking at fund balances kind of tracking those um in the general fund as a percentage of expenditures uh fund balance has been um as a percentage has been uh kind of on a downward uh slope um the main item would be um the unassigned fund balance ended the uh fiscal 2024 10.27% um of expenditures um still in a in a healthy um at a healthy level what's kind of recommended is uh for unassigned uh fund balance to be um say a range of 8% to 16% or in terms of time wise 1 month or two months mons of operations so um you're kind of leaning toward the one month um kind of would prefer not to see that percentage go down more and maybe we level it off or or kind of turn the corner on that but um I know that's something that for example like rating agencies look at and your financial advisors are going to look at and they're going to talk about um that percentage as well so um other things um as a fund balance as a percent of um enrollment uh kind of leveled out at um $1,700 per student um for the unassigned and then on page three just an enrollment Trend so um 10 years ago uh just over 9,800 students um positive almost every year except for um the First full year of of covid in 2021 a little bit of a dip in enrollment but otherwise positive over the last 10 years um almost 11,300 at the end of 2024 so with that um each additional student that comes in kind of uh when your budget and your funding is 80% controlled by the state um each additional body um in the classroom is about an additional $10,000 of State funding so easy math um but enrollment Trends going up uh is a good thing it's a lot easier to keep track of your finances when when that type of a curve is happening so I'm going to step aside here for um just a moment and uh let Grace have a moment in the Sun and talk about some results as well all right uh continuing with financial results on page four the statement of net position shows what the district owns and owes at the end of the fiscal year it divides net position into three parts net investment in capital assets restricted net position and unrestricted net position a point to mention here is that the district's net position is significantly reduced due to its share of the unfunded pension liabilities of Pera and TI Ray a way to see this is if you were to take the net pension liability and add that with the differred inflows and outflows for pensions you'd have about a roughly $100 million liability if that liability were to not be on the district's books The District would have a positive net position of roughly 65 million so while in that position is a good measure and an indicator to watch it's also important to know why it's negative and that it's very common with other school districts in the state of Minnesota as well because of those pension liabilities continuing on on the next page the statement of activities tracks the district's yearly revenues and expenses and provides a comprehension uh comprehensive measure of the cost of Education including supplies depreciation and ACR based expenses it also includes that change net pension liability and those deferred inflows and outflows as this page highlights you can see the governmental activities net position increased 11.7 million in fiscal year 24 and 28.4 in fiscal year 23 so a strong trend of positive Financial results the past two fiscal years on the next page we have this graph that summarizes the average daily membership over the past 10 years from the prior year there were 27 more students and looking all the way back to 2015 the district has se seen an increase in enrollment of 14.48% one thing to highlight here is that even at such a large district minanga has been successful in growing its student body each year which is commendable and certainly helps the financial stability and health of the district and a lot of that is due to the additional capacity created through building expansions and upgrades that have happened over the past 10 years moving on we have a summary of the general fund revenues by Source those sources being State AIDS taxes federal and other each of those Source revenues increase from the prior year which can be attributed to legislative activity and you can see that while overall Revenue has steadily increased each year the proportion actually coming from taxes and state AIDS has remained relatively stable over the years on the next page we have a summary of expenditures per student and a summary of total general fund expenditures by object code general fund expenditures per student was $16,747.54 districts that that is a much larger variance when you compare budgeted versus actual expenditures so that points to a well produced and managed Budget on the district side on the next page we have a summary of the operating results of the general fund it shows the trends of revenues and expenditures over the past five fiscal years the thing that this summary shows nicely is the budgeted spend down of fund balance over the past four fiscal years and we've already kind of showed some of those summaries of the general fund revenues and expenditures by source and object code so I'm going to move on to the next page in discussing the Food Service fund again we have another summary of the operating results the free meals bill was in effect for fiscal year 24 which made all breakfast and lunches free for all students and historically minona has not operated a breakfast program so as a result of this bill we saw an increase in revenues and expenditures um the Food Service fund is operating very well given how inline expenditures are with revenues and the district also doesn't have any transfers from other funds to cover any deficits many school districts in Minnesota will have a transfer from the general fund to cover deficits and as minona doesn't have any deficit uh spending within this fund there's no need for a transfer and again shows how well operated and manage the Food Service fund is below that we have a graph showing the total number of meal Serv to students over the past five fiscal years as mentioned with the free meals Bill there were no full price meals in fiscal year 24 and the only sales revenue that you'll see in the Food Service fund relate to allart sales and adult meals so going forward there won't be anything presented in that full priced meals category similar to what we saw during the covid-19 pandemic when all meals were also free moving on we have another summary of the operating results for the community service fund the community service fund has consistently seen an increase in participation in its programming number of classes and programs offered in just Community interest as a result we see an increase in revenues each year and an increase in expenditures in line with that increase in participation a thing we wanted to just highlight here is that specifically in the past three fiscal years the community service fund has seen a strong increase in fund balance which is again related to that increase in participation and interest from the community on to the the next page page 12 this has a table of the comparative data available from the Minnesota Department of Education for all expenditures incurred for the benefit of pre-elementary through secondary education the 2024 data is not available yet however looking at 23 the district spent less than the average of all Statewide categories in total which are the all districts 7 County Metro area and enrollment greater than 4,000 students looking a little closer at the graph you can see that minona does spend more than the Statewide average with regular instruction however spends Less in categories such as Administration costs transportation and maintenance this has historically been the trend with minetonka in total spending less than the Statewide average and once the 2024 data is available we'll do more comparisons as well I'm going to pass it back to Craig to close us off with some noral required communication you get the book end with me um so appendix c um it's on page 13 uh basically um some required Communications for um boards um Finance committees what have you who who accept the audit results um the main couple main things just to point out here um there were no no uh changes in um accounting policies um for 24 compared to the previous year 23 so if you to lay the um both uh two years worth of financial statements side by side it's Apples to Apples comparison so no changes um in that regard um couple estimates so um within the self-insurance fund um there's an estimate of kind of the lag on uh the claims as they come in so that's an estimated liability um the other one is your uh other post-employment benefits related to your um kind of tied in with your benefits trust um that's an Actuarial estimate so um significant to the district but um that likewise um has all kinds of assumptions uh built into it uh so it's not you know you can't pin that number uh back to a specific invoice so um otherwise um adjusting entries wise it we no past adjustments um so I just wanted to point that out so kind of you know kind of going back to the stewardship that we were talking about at the beginning is that um you know basically your your Finance and Accounting uh group if they see an adjustment that needs to be made they make it you know um rather than saying well you know let's just pass on that we'll do it next year so uh just wanted to point that out um I think I'm just going to stop talking there uh Madam chair I'm going to pass back to you um if there's questions certainly we can uh entertain questions but um I think motion and acceptance time thank you any uh questions discussions comments Dan oh we need a motion yeah uh can I have a motion to approve to accept the fifth skill year 24 audit so moved Dan is there a second Chris okay now are there any questions concerns discussion comments Dan I question and and comments if I may um on on 12 appendix B when we're looking at comparisons between or the the per pupil spend between minona and other districts around the state is it typical to look at enrollment greater than 4,000 or is where we draw that line sort of uh flexible up to us yeah so um basically the enrollment greater than 4,000 um is a kind of a benchmark pulled off of the Department of Education okay so each year when all the audits get submitted um they'll publish back um some statistics on cost per uh per student and as far as like enrollment size they cap at 4,000 so they'll break it down into smaller um zones like 0 to 500 students 500 to 1,000 1,000 to two two to four and then everything else is 4,000 and above so so that's where that comes from um yeah well that's that's great that's great to know uh I think my only comments just to to wrap a few things together here if we look at that appendix B I mean minona is routinely delivering the education and experience that we deliver at like $1,000 less per pupil than districts around the metro and around the state and the fact that we've got a clean unmodified audit also speaks to the fact that Paul and our finance team are really great really responsible and really thorough stewards of our taxpayers dollars and we're using those Investments wisely we're throwing them in the classroom to the tune of what 88 cents on the dollar for the most part um and the the just one point going back going back to the overall budget in our fund balance and and our our deficit in the general fund for the coming fiscal year you know I think Grace alluded the fact that a lot of a lot of school districts will have to move money from their operating fund to cover overages in in things like food service or community service and we're fortunate that we don't have to do that here those two fund balances are really really healthy but just for the sake of clarity for the public we can't do that in the reverse even if we have really healthy fund balances in something like community service or food service that's not a a a pot that we can dip into to resolve any shortfalls in operating thank you any other comments or questions um I I would just Echo what stood out to me was that we're putting a higher amount per pupil directly into the classroom than the districts around us and we have less going into the administration and the maintenance and all that stuff so I think I mean that's what we want to be doing so it's great to see it reflected in the numbers and we appreciate all of your work on this and like we talked about at the study session when we saw the preview of this a boring audit is good and um so it it you know things like unremarkable and you know words like clear uh that's what we want to see and so it's it's really great to have this nice audit again uh we have a motion and a second all in favor please say I any opposed motion carries we've accepted the audit thank you very good I think just a quick shout out to the taxpayers too right for the operating referendums that's where the 88 cents on the dollar comes from thank you folks thank you uh next up we have the uh acceptance of four different construction bids superintendent law Madam chair members of the board throughout this fall you've had the privilege of approving bids that were under our estimates which allows us to accelerate long-term facility maintenance and what we're doing is we are us using some of those overages to go deeper into the list of things that need to be updated tonight you're going to see some windows and some HVAC replacement and some updated special education spaces Mr brall will present them one at a time and you can pause between each one to uh approve them Mr bwan thank you superintendent law chair members of the board our first bid and we're actually getting to the end of getting next summer set up so we're really close and we're actually at to superintendent laws Point we've actually been able to do uh several other additional projects that don't reach the bid limit level where we can do quotes and just do quotes and then issue purchase orders so we've been working on again we've been you know updating our our Fleet of buildings to be good for the long term uh the first one we have here is the approval of bid for window replacement roof replacement and resurfacing the walls put adding wall tile at the sail building uh our estimated budget for that was 618,000 we received a low bid from uh daring Pearson group of 4 $7 1,422 uh back on Tuesday November 12th and we'd request that you to approve that thank you Mr Bria can I have a motion to approve the low bid of Daring Pearson group in the amount of 471 mill, 422 for the window replacement roof replacement and wall tile at the sale building so moved Sally is there a second second Mike um any questions or comments All In favor please say I I any opposed motion carries thank you okay our our next one is approval of a bid for a cafeteria Heating and ventilation replacement at Clear Springs uh this is a project that we've been able to add uh we are have been working on replacing our HVAC systems around the district and with things that we've accepted already for the next summer we will have we will have completed uh providing HVAC in all classrooms around the district uh but since we were able to to come in under budget now we're starting also we have a few cafeterias that don't have um HVAC and they have some original ventilation equipment so uh we're uh we're attacking those so to speak uh uh uh right now with at Clear Springs and then Groveland for this this summer uh because we have some other work going on in those areas that's going to close off those areas so it makes sense to do those and over the next uh summer or two we'll actually finish the rest of them uh but uh this is um uh a project that was as Es at at $58 $80,000 uh we did get four bids uh the low bid is CM construction at 51,8 78 thank you Mr brois can I have a motion to approve the low bid of CM Construction in the amount of$ 5,878 for replacement of the heating and ventilation system in the cafeteria at Clear Springs sub moved Dan is there a second second Chris any questions or comments Dan uh I I just want to again give the district uh a shout out for being so diligent about making sure we've got HVAC AC and everything in all of our classrooms we've seen how September and Junes can get a lot warmer and more uncomfortable so it's been great that we've been on top of that and making those classrooms more comfortable for our teachers and kids I agree uh we have a motion and a second all in favor please say I I I any opposed motion carries uh thank you madam chair and the next one is U actually cafeteria heating ventilation replacement at grovin Elementary School uh the uh project is was estimated at 500,000 the low bit is lower but there was some components that we did not need to replace because they had been replaced previously so we ended up with a lower dollar amount although we're delivering pretty much the same thing as we are at Clear Springs but the low bid on this one was [Music] thank you can I have a motion to approve the low bid for from construction for the cafeteria heating ventilation replacement at Groveland so moved Kary is there a second second Mike any comments questions all in favor please say I I any opposed motion carries thank you and then our final one is actually not long-term facility maintenance but we're using some operating Capital funds primarily although a little bit of long-term facility maintenance for some of the components to uh reorient and reconfigure special education rooms 104 a b and c and 106b at minona Middle School uh they each have small programs operating with them but they don't all have doors and so students are passing in and out and uh uh the area actually is the original 1964 Media Center back office which was superseded by the 1968 media center and uh it's been this operated this way since and we've we've done you know $102 Million worth of additional of additions internal modifications and site improvements to in increase the capacity and enhance our buildings over the last 17 years but this was one that was kind of always lower on the on the priority list because of the other needs but we're finally able to get to this and so uh we had 250,000 budget for the room reconfiguration in terms of of adjusting the walls and then there's still the original 1964 lights and ceiling tile and some other things that were and piping and things like that that we going to remove and replace with updated uh things that you'd expect to see in a modern classroom and so we're using doing that with long-term facility M and so we had $500,000 budgeted but we got an incredibly uh good price from construction results Corporation as a low bidder we open these bids today at 2 p.m and the uh low bid is construction results at 139,140 you Mr bis can I have a motion to approve the low bid of construction results Corporation in the amount of 139,140 4 through 106 at mka Middle School West so move Chris is there a second second Sally uh any questions or comments I would just um point out to make sure that everybody knew that was a carry in item so you do have the paper in front of you um and I would just comment again that I'm so glad we're getting out ahead of these things early because we keep on consistently seeing the the bids come in under what they're budgeted and like you alluded to it's allowing us to do more of the projects that we had kind of planned for long term sooner and it's kind of um snowballing in a little bit of a way in that we're getting out so early and getting them done that we can get the next ones out early and get the low bids so really appreciate your work on that I I have a there's a rule of thumb that I've learned from experience it's like every project that you open after December the price goes up about 10% per month the closer you get to the summer when you have to do it so you know we're getting definitely getting much lower prices by just being out in front of the pack thank you for your work on that uh we have a motion and a second all in favor please say I I any opposed motion carries thank you um can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda so move Chris is there a second second Mike all in favor please say I I I any opposed we have a consent agenda uh any reports from the board board reports kry I have a few um from MCE The Advisory Council they now have a new student rep um as part of the advisory Council which they're Proby pretty excited about um and they're going to have two per year I believe um and add it to the May application for the high school so that's one the second thing um is safety improvements they have new cameras they have the Raptor system emergency walki Takis and new parking lights as well for overall safety for the community um for the foundation the minaka public schools Foundation Dream Makers is coming on um February the 7th and that is a Friday instead of a Saturday so please make sure you note that there are tickets available now for an early purchase uh teacher grants applications is open right now as of November 1st and then finally the minaka family collaborative their resource night was a huge success they had over 250 people that were coming out um from our community so those are my updates thank you any other board reports Dan we had a finance committee meeting in mid November um at which we discussed the audit which we saw tonight and the levy which we saw tonight thank you Sally so I was able to attend adapted family night put on by Community Education on November 15th and that was well attended by families and part of the reason for that was not only activities for families that were there but also to collect one-on-one with participants what might be some good um opportunities to grow the programming there and so uh they will be launching project friendship in the coming months um that'll develop programming dedicated to inclusive and adapted opportunities for youth ages 3 through 17 so another real point of Pride for our community thank you uh superintendent report superintendent law two updates one uh I started this fall visiting every teacher of the year nominated and celebrated last spring and we just wrapped up the last one which was at the high school uh board member F joined me and that was a teacher Who had who teaches a unified physical education class where General eded students take it as an elective for PE credit and support students with disabilities taking physical education and that hour was one full of fun and joy and two just a proud moment for every adult in the room to see kids with with the potential take any class they want choosing to work with students who have struggled physically um kudos to all those teachers year and certainly at the high school uh that the other is uh board members have taken a new approach to visiting with students this is a teaser for the next board meeting they have paired up and visited they've adopted a group of students per se for student listening sessions uh sophomores juniors seniors freshmen and then getting conversations in the next uh study session you get a chance to hear an update on that those have been some amazing conversations with our students not holding anything back about their High School experience and and talking about what it's like to be a freshman in min talk high school so that's been great our board members will visit with those students again in the spring but you'll hear a little bit of an update on what they heard at our next board meeting thank you thank you um any announcements uh can I have a motion to adjourn so moved Dan is there a second second kry all in favor please say I I I any opposed motion carries we are adjourned