##VIDEO ID:eI-VRd6Fdxg## um follow the business meeting or excuse me the work session to order at 6:39 all members are present student repres our president present it's been a day start out with communication items okay uh so we'll uh start off with our administrative update so I'm going to invite uh Cassie on up to hear what's been happening at the elementary it feels like we haven't heard from you guys for a while so it'll be nice to nice to see this happening at least that say last year right whole year well first of all um thank you for um your commitment to the work that lies ahead of you and for all of the Committees and um being a part of all those I know it is a time commitment um but we appreciate your Insight and commitment to all of those um looking at the last couple of months December I don't know where it went it flew by but it was filled um with a lot of great things at the elementary school uh we held our annual gingerbread house making um which our second grade uh team and students invite families and friends in to make gingerbread houses our third graders also had their holiday program on December 12th um they did a great job performing here at the auditorium and again for all of the elementary school school as well um so they get perform twice um it was very exciting because they got to use our brand new risers uh which were purchased from our fundraiser effort um so it was really neat to see that in action um I want to give a shout out to Barry as he assembled those in time um for them to use on December 13th at the elementary so that was pretty exciting um they fold up with like one push of a button and roll and then you drop them down um it's very minimal um does not require heavy lifting like the old one but we are very thankful again for all of the fundraising efforts that our students do so it's very exciting um our fifth grade students participated in the annual live United essay contest and so that prompt was how do you live United what do you do to help others at home at school and in your community and so fifth graders wrote to that prompt and um live United staff read through those and we had a student um Zoe Sagi receive the uh certification of achievement for her essay and so congratulations to Zoe and you can see her pictured there uh we are gearing up for our winter fast Bridge benchmarking if you recall our um data dive previously we looked at fall data and so now we are looking at our winter data and administering those assessments um starting next week so uh we'll have more data to adjust our instruction and meet the needs of our students based on their most current data um I provided a picture of our December Bulldog Spotlight recipients again uh students who are mindful connected and respectful um so we have lots of smiles even some holiday um attire in that photo to really represent December so that was fun as well looking ahead to January we have a busy month um our third graders had to reschedule uh their visit to Corona's Place uh to perform some of their SS um I think we have a snow day on that Thursday so I'm happy that they are able to reschedule they're happy to my daughter is us too um and then of course end of the second quarter is coming up um so we are wrapping up um the first half of the Year officially we've got a presentation to our fourth graders uh from Sterns electric uh they come each year and and do a fun presentation uh for our fourth graders and then just reminding um our community and families of the quarter break Day January 17th no school for students and then on January 20th no school for students as that as our teacher in service day so we're um planning for those few days um par professional week uh more details to come on that that is a Minnesota recognition week that the governor um puts on and then we also have our DARE graduation um for our fifth graders coming up um at the end of the month as well so lots of things happening um this month any questions or things for me thank you for all you do thank you all right uh then we'll scale up to the secondary building here what's happening Mr rason evening everybody thanks again I I just want to Echo what Cassie said and thanks for all you do um your passion for making painsville a better place has Ripple effects throughout this community that you probably won't ever notice but I want to thank you for the work that you do so I was thinking about our our update here and I really realized that it was last at the beginning of November that I talked to you and so there's lots of things that have gone on since then but a couple of cool things that I just wanted to share with you um one is our Aerospace flight so on November 20 uh 26 eight Paynesville students who are involved in the Aerospace class got a chance to fly with local pilots who donated their time and their airplanes in order to take our students they actually woke up that morning sat behind the cockpit of the plane they actually got to take off the plane fly into either sock Center belgrader back here and then they actually got to lamb the plane with the with the Pilot's guidance so just uh I I got the opportunity to shuttle them out there and they were terrified going out there and they were so excited coming back so it just uh I was in all of the unique experience that our students got to experience the only thought that was going through my head was I'm glad it's not me and how many other students around the country get to experience this like they're just such a neat thing so up thanks to Tim wher who works really hard to put that together and just go the extra mile for our students just cool and if you want a chance they they try to convince me to take one of the empty seats and that wasn't happening so you ever want to get a chance there's probably an empty seat sometimes so there is and it's worth it I did it last year that's cool I'll take your word for it um we had our band inquir in Memphis Nashville trip uh from uh November 28th to December 2nd uh they got to do some really cool things they got to go to a sun record Studio Tour barbecue in Downtown Memphis they had to visit graceand they got to go to the grand old opery show uh a Nashville city tour joh Cash Museum and they got to actually record songs that they had been practicing at the RCA recording studio so again I just like highlighting cool experiences you know you never know what what these experiences might do you know this may be some of these might be the ignition points for careers for students you know they may they may experience that one flight and they think this is it this is what I want to do for the rest of their life and so I really appreciate the teachers going above and beyond to create uh unique learning experiences for students uh looking forward to some things we have Minnesota prer professional week I just want to take a moment to say uh thank you to our parent professionals they are essential to the success of our schools their dedication hard work and ability to create meaningful connections uh make a lasting impact on our school Community thank you for all that you do to help our students reach our full potential we are truly grateful for you as a former teacher in this District um I can't express enough how integral PA of professionals are to the success of our students so I appreciate everything that they do every day um right now that we kind of switch gears when we come back we we kind of in two big Seasons now and one big season is student registration so some of the things that we're doing at the secondary right now is we're going to our course catalog to kind of review the classes that we offer and kind of to take a look at and and see what classes we should be offering for instance this Pro this process brought about a digital citizenship class this year that teaches middle school students how to better engage with the internet safely um and so we're taking a look at what classes we offer and what classes we should be offering to um help with the success of for future students and then the other big season is Statewide testing goes on from February 24th to April 24th and we're we're taking steps to plan and prepare for Statewide testing so those two big seasons are happening right now on the in the secondary all right any questions from Mr rinson all right thank you Jess thank you all right and Community Education let's here what's happening in our Littles to our olders and everyone in between yeah thank you all right so our winter catalog has been out since December and um I just want to talk a little bit about our adult leagues we have quite a a turnout in our adult league program our adult volleyball with 12 teams this year I think it went up two or four teams I think is what Melody said basketball has 10 and we have a soccer league that just started on Sunday and we have six teams so we're running two gyms so and the soccer league is some high school kids as well but it's mixed with adults and so we're starting to see you know the the winter season and fall I'm sorry early winter and into the into the season um to be busy with adult Recreation as well as youth um I just attached a course uh tally sheet for um uh and that that is just the classes a two date that we've you know in our winter pet log um just how many have signed up um what what we're looking at how many more we need in some our classes the pink uh reflex cancelled and we had 20 I think that a 68 yep 220 are unique so not you know so that's interesting a lot of um just single users in that in that time frame so little be more to come there's baseball season and stuff is still is listed in there in some of our summer programs but that's for you guys to take a look at the just where we're at when we get enrollment um um popular adult classes are of course our 55 Al we have quite a few people that are signing up for those and we're just trying to expand some more opportunity for adult classes sometimes we get quite a few people to sign up sometimes we don't get any so just uh we have a we have a bread making class I'm taking that bread and fudge I'm like wow I do food groups anyway we we got some fun stuff going on with classes um adult basic education is happening right next door actually I think she has eight participants we added some Child Care uh starting tonight uh we had some families that are individuals that um their barrier was child care they were unable to take class and so um it worked out that one of my pause staff their kids are wrestling and they're here anyway so we might as well come on down and make a little extra money so that started today oh um Early Childhood we have uh our second round of ECFE classes starting on January 14th they right now we only have three students signed up for our zero to ones um I'll be emailing those families and seeing if they can find a friend or two um we'll probably still run the class we'll just run with one staff until it gets bigger and then our preschool prep is the two and three year olds we have nine children signed up for that so those are the family egg classes parents and children attend um another thing that's going on is our playground um so updates on the playground project we are ordering equipment starting next week um we've been uh we're still waiting for a grant and we've been getting a few businesses um and organizations that have made some donations so we're sitting in a in a good spot and um we're able to we did we got to the must havs in our in our um uh equipment and the must havs and what we need for for the playground um and we're able to get that like I said order next week and just depending on like I said we're waiting for the grants if that we goes through then that will depend on what kind of what goes underneath the playground will it be wood chips will it be all poured in place or will it be a combination of wood chips and trails you know so that's we're exciting um in December the uh painsville American Legion held a raffle we sold over 200 tickets and um thanks to Gerald it was a very uh good event and uh we had a a nice time during that that event and that it was uh a decent Jal so we were we were very grateful for uh darl and the Painesville Legion for supporting the program we also which is not on here and I can add it for later but um the NS is also helping uh with some fundraising and they're um they're going to the local organizations and talking about our playground so um so I we just talked about what the deadline would be and um more to come on that when maybe next time we'll have present so how about that um preschool so we'll leave it now we're talking about next year's preschool we have information night on March 6 so these are things that are on the horizon I'll be sending packets out soon to in February to to uh Target our three-year-old families and and some of our four-year-old families as well and then registration will open on our um our fitness center pack of fitness center this is the time of year where we had a lot of members so we're busy uh onboarding new members um it's a busy place we have Athletics uh and activities uh taking a lot of that business with their with their games double headers and practices but it's busy with other stuff so we've got some community events that are going on which I'm kind of excited about Winter Market um approach or harbers Market approached me and we we are set up a Winter Market so on the third Saturdays of January through April um there are four to seven or eight vendors so the first only had four vendors and it sounds like six to eight vendors will be at this next one on January 18th so they're set up in the lobby of our community center and um they're open the same time as our staff is there um and so yeah so that's kind of a different way to use our space and um they had a good turn up uh there's a big wrestling tournament this weekend this weekend on Saturday the there's the high school wrestling but then the next day is youth wrestling so there'll be lots of people here and not a lot of parking spots so um and then the next day is J for kick dance recital so it's a the building's going to get a workout today so or this weekend um what's next um well we're summer programming I've got concerts all set we're working on uh summer camp themes for pause trying to get speakers field trips classes we'll be pushing the summer baseball and softball programs to get their registrations in by April 1st because many of these programs need to know how many teams you have so they can set up the leagues and get their fields and get get that all set up so we're putting a a big push out to those parents to get that done earlier rather than waiting and then um our spring catalog comes out the first week of April and it will be a spring summer edition so we dropped a we dropped a um catalog and and our combin and our spring summer programming and that will come out April 1 and then finally the on January 14th we um there are two other chair people that are helping but um we're taking some training for the rural Child Care Initiative Program right all the letters stand for but that is the upcoming um initiative strategic planning that we'll be working on that's coming to pass so we're taking our first set of training and then we'll be connecting with our Core group and be a lot more to report on as we get going on that sounds good questions any other questions or comments for Community Education all right and finally for today let's find out uh what's happening in our buildings and grounds good evening S I suppose most of you didn't notice but this room has actually got the speakers in that already oh so update on audio enhancement they are pulling a lot of wire they're actually moving I thought really well we had a meeting they walk around today so we had audio enhancement here with EPS just going through some concerns we had and working them out and it uh looks like it's going to work out really well some uh speakers not as many in certain spots but we're going to use a few of them in other spaces so it's just kind of mixing and matching and it's going really well uh they're actually going to bring a big crew in the rest of this week um and they're actually thinking they could actually make it over to the elementary school even this week couple guys here couple guys over there so can be running back and forth more so busy these y these four and they'll be a big box they don't have that in this room yet they're putting them by the doors mostly there'll be a white control box for the think that's got them in one yep they look nice couldn't even tell um over the break it was kind of nice uh I did have a few days off but I did get in here and couple waterline leaks from the heating system we got them all repaired up so we didn't have to have garbage cans and pales and the ceiling tiles and stuff anymore that's always a I enjoy taking them out especially when they've been up there before I started oh look at the new pail um that fire marshall list is getting smaller um we had place a Few alarms that weren't working Beacon alarms from the old school yet that just wor out to quit working so that got happen and we had to put a couple in the courtyards because we are using them as classrooms so they had to have uh fire alarms outside so that's all completed and then do seven and eight are pretty much complete they got the new Post in on eight um they're little tougher shape than what they looked before they got the work started so it had crushed that aluminum a little farther um we are going to probably just leave it we're thinking the guys from the uh awning place or the construction they thought that it might stretch back out a little somewhat and then go in and the bottoms and tops and make a look at professional as can if you guys have any concerns or anything you always call or ask whatever so but it uh the doors work nice now they come in and so everything's working great and windows are most people would not even noce you know I would but I see any questions thank you welcome aboard move on to legislative priority uh so this is the time a year that if you haven't been hearing about the um the uh impending legislative session is going to be one to watch I think we're going to have some interesting Dynamics um and whether we get going on time don't get going it'll be really interesting um what I have included here and just want to spend a couple of minutes taking a look at are um just uh five of well we're going to just look at four but there are five um legislative platforms that I will share with you over the course of time so masasa is the Minnesota Association for of school administrators so that's the superintendent organization that is really my resource um and that's my network that I I work pretty consistently with around um around uh legislative issues um so let's start with that one and then we'll go into um each of the other ones so uh the um Masa legislative platform is really and you're going to notice some commonalities and some themes across these platforms and that has been intentional um one of the things I think um we all noticed over the course of years is is that if we approach the legislature with um very very different priorities um they don't necessarily know what to focus on as the greatest priority okay so you're going to notice that there are some common themes um so the the three big bullets are local control and flexibility adequate funding and expand educator Workforce so in short you kind of see these bullets of like these are the the main things we're going to look at um and then the next page is going to be in a little bit more detail what each of those mean so just kind of in in short local control and flexibility is really about giving you a school board the authority to make more decisions there's something that should be done instead of having it dictated at the legislature that's fine we have to dictate it but decided at the school board level or just allow School boards to make the decisions that you've been elected to make so really about um uh kind of looking at your Capital levies is one one area um you might be a we haven't talked a lot about it at the board level because it hasn't been applicable to us but um last legislative session um um operating levies uh School boards were given the authority to renew an operating Levy for the period of whatever was authorized the previous vote so there's a request to have that same um Authority designated to Capital project levies so that would be in addition to um an operating um an operating referendum talking about effective discipline policies we've had a lot of conversation around um at the policy um committee and the policy level we've had conversation around how that has changed and what we can do can't do on the components of um discipline that are um mandated so the request is just to bring that back to local control okay um and then allow for flexible learning environments this has to do with uh seat time requirements versus um credit like credit hours and seat hours or is it allowing more of a um a demonstrated learning so there's different capacities to um hold your learning environments adequate funding um you're going to see consistently across across the board that there's going to be a request for um money in addition to um the inflationary uh increase okay so you'll see that pretty consistently you're also going to see a lot of reference about funding un unemployment insurance so again the um that is the um the summer unemployment that we can't put onto our unemployment ly um and the state funding um was set for and I'm sorry I'm not going to remember the dollar amount but it's only per dollar amount and when that's gone it's gone so we will be nearing the end of that funding Revenue so there's conversation about funding the unemployment um eliminating cross subsidies this is an area we you probably remember hearing um year over year we have made some progress in regards to um the cross subsidy for special education um there's an advocacy to increase that to a greater level and also to take into account um the cross subsidy for uh students that receive English language learner Services um and compensatory funding is again the funding that has been received from the free and reduced lunch forms okay that's one of the one of the key substantive um processes to generate compensatory revenue and we've been talking as organizations about how problematic that is that our funding is based on completion of a form okay so those are conversations expanding educator Workforce we know that there's teacher shortages we also know that um sometimes the uh the ler process can be um burdensome and it can be um itive and so talking about how to broaden those Pathways and and expand um maybe I'll use science as an example um to um make science a little bit more inclusive to teaching multiple areas versus one area of science with a license as a for instance okay um and then we've also talked a lot about um um the so we' we've talked a lot about letters as a school district but we've also um within organizations talked a lot about how our teacher preparation programs really need to be preparing our Educators that come into our school districts with the requirements of of Statute versus having us having to um train them with letters or whichever process so we're asking for them to really prepare the workforce to meet legislative requirements okay so those are some of the big areas I'm not going to walk through each of these because these are kind of the um the breakdown of some of those areas but this one again was for masasa the Minnesota Association of school administrators um and as I click into if I can get over to the next slide as I click into msba which is the Minnesota Schoolboard Association so you're going to see some very similar um conversations and dialogue okay their platform looks a little bit different okay that comes up um but you'll see that they are focused that really um it's students and families school boards and school districts and the state legislature of how that's how we build up education and then you're going to see what they're talking about for funding priorities they're asking to increase the general formula just like Masa um they're asking to um they're asking for 3% so um again just as a reminder in the last legislative session um there was an in in um there was indexing to inflation with a minimum of 2% a maximum of 3% so wherever the um wherever the uh index Falls is what the formula will automatically increase to all of the organizations are recognizing that you can't make up a deficit in spending or a deficit in funding of school districts in one session so they're asking to add on to that indexed infl that in inflation indexed formula okay you're going to see long-term facility maintenance Revenue um as a facilities committee we've talked about long-term facility maintenance and really that is about our roofs our pavement security um it's increasing um some of the um or it's removing a cap I guess is their advocacy to remove the cap on um long-term facility maintenance um funding for new benefits so you're going to see two different leaves that are identified here earn safe and sick time we've talked about um around um uh in negotiations around contract language but coming up in 2025 we um have to start reporting and then in 2026 paid leave becomes um an eligible um benefit for all Minnesota workers and there's there's a request to um fund that benefit and and increase revenues to help offset those costs um so I I'm not going to walk through every single one of these but you're going to see some of those um those similarities in policy you're going to see again local Schoolboard Authority so there's a a concerted as decisions at the local Schoolboard um you're going to see um so the capital projects Levy is another similar example where you're going to see again the request to allow school boards to renew a levy should they want to do that instead of going to the voters now as a board there's going to be pros and cons that at the point in time where you would be considering that you would talk through those options but what they're asking for is for school boards to be able to have that determin that ability okay um so this one is the School Board Association um again I'm it's here for all of you to take a look at and dig into a little bit more um the next one we're going to just briefly take a look at is mraa so m is the Minnesota rural Education Association so they're also taking a look at um that uh teacher compensation funding what has been mandated and closing uh closing funding gaps and they're also asking for policy flexibility not mandates okay so those are conversations that you're going to see pretty consistently again um letting school boards have the author use the authority that you've been elected to have is a very um it's a conversation in multiple platforms and then the final one that I'm going to just share with you is um sap which is the schools advocating for fair funding so you you'll notice this one really is um two pretty basic planks the first one is make education related levies fairer and more consistent so schools advocating for fair funding is really about maximizing equitable distribution of funds across the state of Minnesota so that our taxpayers um don't have to have an unfair burden um when you like your residential taxpayers don't have an unfair burden in comparison to districts that have lots of Industries to help share the cost of a levy or a referendum and what they're recognizing is that back in the day there used to be um a much higher rate of Equalization so that our taxpayers when we voted when when our taxpayers voted to approve a levy um there was funding to help offset that burden for taxpayers that has eroded over the course of time St is really saying that's not okay they're really advocating to bring that Equalization to a more comparable level okay this is um I would say this portion of the dialogue has been in existence probably as long as um uh funding special education at 100% right like I mean we hear those things and I so it's it's it's not a new conversation but it's so critically important that you'll see that this is just one of the two dialogue components of this organization okay and then the second one is improve the stability of school funding to promote greater fairness so you'll see the kind of four bullet points there um to um to really stabilize um education funding so again you're going to see some common themes here within the legislative um platforms but I guess I just wanted to kind of pause and and open it up to you to see are there questions that you have are there things that you would like me to be researching or focusing on with our legislators um in the upcoming months um I will be at the capital a number of times um Thomas I presume would will be there as well um what would you like me to be have on my radar that maybe I don't already have nothing specific I just look at it from the simple side that if you get enough committees together with a base cost for a pile of different committees and they don't they're all saying the same thing working from different committees I wonder sometimes if they would all work together how much simple it would be we talked about all the time we're supposed to work with our our stakeholders in the community we're supposed to be working together and here you have an Echelon of a whole bunch of organizations out there with fees and costs for every single one trying to accomplish the same thing it doesn't always make a lot of sense to me that's just the logic from my side says you should be working together for one simple presentation and instead you have a pile of organizations going in now take the legislators they're down there now with four different people coming in well maybe maybe that's how it should work I'm not positive because I've watched that what used to be the equity in schools for Education which you called now it's sayfe we have this name changes that go on and all that they just can kind of go onone forever so I know it sounds terrible but are we making jobs for a whole bunch of people running these committees no or are we really working on the solution to have a single presentation to the the states so the legislators can get a grip on some of this so I think I think that's exactly why you see so many common themes across all of these platforms because the each organization does have a niche right of things that might be unique ique to them as for instance M has a couple of things that are a little bit more specific to rural school districts but every one of them is really talking about um money on top of the formula in years past we've there's been consistent conversation around um indexing indexing the formula for inflation last legislative session that happened right so there's I I hear what you're saying Bruce that it when you give five different visuals and five different they all look different what is the same that's part of our job when we're there visiting with legislators to say here are the common themes that we all talk through and that's one of the things that I think our organizations do do is they do come together to talk about what those things are that are the same would it be nice to have just okay here's the education platform sure but I don't know which one who gets it right yeah but we look at it 10 years down the road do then we have seven of them that's all I'm saying you these organizations need to be working together if your if your goal is common yep you might have your own special Parts why doesn't that work into one so your presentation to the state government is there I I sometimes look at this and I see all the fees that we pay and it's like man I think you guys should be kind of working together a little bit here and and I and I I would say they are and they have done better but they do all maintain their own platforms and I I hear that but they do all work together because of that reason because they need to focus efforts and and make some have some conversational change y i I think the big thing uh stay focused on I believe you're doing it you help uh you and Thomas are getting allowing the school board to to be a school board and take care of business that we see within our district that uh uh that we see fit because we are elected officials we we trust the elected official that we have to speak for us out here uh we should be afforded that same uh privilege here as elected official within the community to ensure that our school district uh can operate smoothly without having what we would consider those uh Representatives down there dictating to a school board another elected official how to operate their business or operate within commun so just a big push for that got thank you otherwise if there aren't any other questions I'll turn to back to you okay uh request for information around uh West Central Ed District uh we have a meeting coming up next Monday so that'll be the the first for uh for this year uh 2025 uh looking forward to that kind of going through the same process that we did here tonight as far as looking for chairperson and uh Vice chair so but uh very excited uh with uh where there uh where we ended last year with the West Cal District especially with the sale program here and we we're going to continue this year so look forward to that that's next Melrose next Monday anything else I got a question now I've got a hotel confirmation but is there going to be a uh agenda coming out as far as for the morning of the 16th from the MSB MSB for the msba conference um I haven't looked at my email this afternoon to see if an agenda came out the catalog that wondering one would come out if somebody could forward that so kind of know what time that starts has the catalog come out with the yeah yeah I got that last I think I got I'm just for agenda yeah yeah generally on um on Thursday morning I believe this and I'll I'll confirm on but it's it's start about 7:30 8 o' registration and stuff I think the opening is like 9 o'clock or something like that than with that we return