##VIDEO ID:96D9YS2fZ9Y## okay welcome everyone to the Schoolboard study session of November 26 2024 all board members are present first on the agenda is the public forum and we have one speaker Jessica Mason on the calendar and early release [Applause] thank you good evening I look forward to every working with everyone soon um I'm here to express my concern regarding our school calendar and the number of early release datas that are included which I believe will be up for discussion tonight with the calendar I speak on behalf of many parents and teachers when I say there are several concerns with the excessive number of early release days but my primary concern is for a special education students as a parent of the child with disabilities and two on IEPs um IEPs are the center point piece of the idea for disabled children and the basis for the child's entitlement to free appropriate public education they specify the services and the number of hours to be provided to the student for example child's IEP might state that they are entitled to 53 minutes of each math language arts and academic skills five days per week with the introduction of several additional early release days these students are not getting their specified hours um for each of the subjects and there are instances where the services are skipped Al together even though the days are considered full instruction dates and we receive funding from the state plsas is also responsible for providing sped services to students who attend private schools in the district these students aren't getting services on on these early release days at all um due to the shortened schedule I believe the early release days are a clear and direct VI violation of the idea act and they expose our district to Legal challenges and are not in the best interest of these students um early release days also disproportionately affect children with unstable housing situations lower income families and families uh Working Families I think we're putting some of our children in dangerous situations many are unsupervised for these hours and a lot of them th thrown in front of screens to pass the time the cost of child care for early release days is High um and it leads a lot of families to risk leaving children home alone for Budget reasons also a kids go option for a younger and disabled middle and high school students doesn't exist I encourage you to revisit why these additional early release days were added to the calendar in 2022 they were proposed as a result of covid when we had a substitute shortage that didn't allow teachers professional development time for the purpose of data collection and data Dives to help personalize The Learning Experience um Dr Thomas you encourage these to as a strategy to try based on our low scores to help give teachers more time to find ways to improve improve proficiency rates while I don't think specific goals were set from implementing at that time we can clearly see by the decreased proficiency rates that this strategy has not been successful I fully respect and I appreciate the need for um teacher prep and professional development time my ask for you all is to consider just different options um I I think shortened classroom time and direct instruction time does not align with our strategic plan to prioritize academic Excellence nor is it inclusive Co is over the substitutes are back parents are back in the office and I would love to see children getting their full classroom days thank you okay next on the agenda is the purpose and agenda I'm going to hand this over to Dr Thomas thank you chair Friends board directors um tonight uh as all study sessions is our opportunity to uh dig deeper into key topics and uh we'll be going over our truth and Taxation and uh Levy discussion uh with the board we will um have our initial conversation around budget reduction um as a result of the uh Levy vote uh discussing our calendar drafts uh this will be coming back to you um after we hear more from from um the board tonight and then we have one Proclamation that will close out on uh this evening so that is our topical book for tonight okay so the first item on the agenda of the uh um of the what was just discussed is truth and Taxation and Levy discussion and for that I'm handing the conversation over to um director Frederickson thank you chair FRS our next board meeting um is the meeting that will'll be asking the board to approve our property tax Lobby you um pre-certified the property tax levy in September we have to have the precertification done by in September um the information came out from mde on September 7th I believe it was um and it has been pre-certified by this board um we have nothing changing in that time um as you're all aware we did not pass a levy a referendum past month so our property tax levy is going to be the exact same as it was in September and the bottom line I um provided you with a uh sheet that gives you the explanations of all of the what the property taxes are the um statute that applies to it and then the formula that's used so as you can see from the property tax levy report in your board packet um our general fund Levy is going to be 10.51% less than it was last year um and the community service Levy will be 11.44% more than it was last year our debt service Levy will be 0.54% more than it was last year for a total of a reduction of 5.37% so our taxpayers will see um a decrease in the amount of total property taxes that our district will be sending to your county assessor uh next board meeting on December 9th um we have to reserve time for truth and Taxation which means any member of our community can come up and ask questions or um have their say about the property tax levy we have to reserve time for that and we will on December 9th so other than that if there's no questions we've talked about the property tax lby in September again it doesn't change so if there's any other questions I'd be happy to answer those does the board have any questions for director Frederickson on the um fre taxation property tax levy that is non voter it's nothing has changed from the numbers um and the totals um there's no questions move on to the next topic okay so the next topic is the budget discussion uh thank you chair of France um board directors so tonight just want to have some initial conversation with the board uh post our operating uh Levy that went to the community and I'll first start by saying um a huge thank you to our community for going to HS this is the Democratic process as you've heard me talk about um quite a bit and um our community at this time is not going to support an operating Levy and um you know with that uh we now need to start making some DEC decisions as to where we will start to um make reductions in our budget and we are not alone in this situation U I think we've shared many times many districts are facing the same situation quite frankly on the way over here on the radio they were talking about inoka public schools announcing a $21 million reduction minaka is announcing 6 million we're probably in the neighborhood of 5 million um and you know what we're hearing over and over is um our enrollment across the state um is very flat at best because we are an aging State that's where we get a significant amount of our resources and with that being the case in funding formulas being fixed where they're at um many districts are struggling in trying to find ways to um go to their respective communities to um add additional Revenue um and similar to what we just did this past fall um so what we intend to do going forward is engage um a variety of stakeholder groups to determine where and how we'll make the reductions that we need to make um and I'll speak very openly uh here tonight as I have been internally with many of our employee groups that this is not going to be a fund or or uh a fun task nor is it going to be one where we're um going to be able to easily make this happen without any kind of pain points I think where we are forecasting to make a budget reduction we are planning for a conservative approach and we are uh building out a reduction of about $5 million we anticipate we're likely going to be making more of a realistic reduction in the neighborhood of $4 million but given um the roller coaster ride that we can engaging around the legislative process we don't know what's going to come in the future we don't know what the forecast will be we've got changes in federal Administration things happening locally so we're building an a buffer so that if we have to we are prepared to make some uh Cuts we don't want to be at the 11th hour then realize oh we need to find an additional million dollars at at the last minute so um we are going to error on that um and um what we've shared with our community um throughout the campaign was that if this Levy doesn't pass there are key areas that as a senior leadership team we kind of put together um some uh real preliminary scenarios of where we think we may be able to find the types of reductions that we would need to make because as many of you know who have also been on the board for quite some time no this is not the first time we've found ourselves at at this situation and and so we've done a lot of uh rounds of budget reductions prior to um this season that we're in right now and uh we are going to find ways to reduce our budget and it's not going to be um it's not going to be one where we're not going to feel the impacts and we will do everything we can to mitigate the impacts on our students but in a budget of our size and as lean as we are um those impacts will be felt even if it's uh central office reductions they're going to be felt in terms of supports to schools um there will be functions that will just simply have to stop or we'll have to roll those functions on other um positions that are already overloaded and so the efficiency will go down significantly so there's going to be trade-offs along along the way um and I'll just bring your attention to just a couple of source documents and and I know you all have seen these documents um uh quite a few times but also for our community we've uh again for uh the broader Community we've attached our fiveyear forecast um and that's something that we've shared with you on multiple occasions that's um that's one document that we have uploaded today that walks through various scenarios that we had discussed um we've also put together our um 10-year fund balance uh expenditure history and then you ALS also see the line graph that shows the various proposals we've given multiple context as to um why we landed on the 45 versus other um uh aspects and then the last slide or the last document in there is the impact um to the levy um if the levy is not approved by the voters so so if we are going to cut um build a budget to reduce $5 million um from our budget uh they are going to be big ticket items there's no way that we're going to nickel and dime our way out of the situation um so I I'll just share with you all as a board um and our community the slide about the impact everything on that slide is feasible to um be enacted by fall of 25 the one aspect on that slide or that sheet I'm sorry um that is likely for the fall of 26 because of um mde regulations is the closing of an elementary campus and I'll just talk through a couple of things of that first um we are u in the process right now of evaluating several of our um elementary school campuses um to address the facilities in index rating which means how much does it cost to operate the building um everything from the actual um turning on the Lights opening up the doors running of utilities to some of the peripheral um expenses of running a building such as bus routes um things of that nature um and yes we are looking at Staffing and then we're also looking at the forecast of any kind of capital Improvement so all of that is um right now being analyzed through Dan powers and his team to best understand financially which building based upon its age its condition Etc would net the most cost savings and balance that against um uh impacts to school communities as well and again there's we're not going to close a school campus without having an impact and we we know that but um that's something that we're already in the process C of doing um so you will begin to hear and I'll apologize up front a lot of it depends because we're going through some of these scenarios right now um kind of like if a happens then b and c and d and then if D doesn't happen then we might you know those kind of scenarios so it's a little bit preliminary right now but we are looking at that I know there's a lot of conversation um happening throughout our school Community as well as the broader community um you know I can't walk into a school to do school visits without somebody saying please don't close our school like I'm just here to visit classrooms but that's the tenor that's the mood right now um and and that's a natural human response um so I want our staff and our community to know that when we make these decisions and the staff have heard this in the Fridays 5 that we need to uphold respect we need to uphold how we remain unified um around our kids and our community and uphold the Integrity of everybody uh involved in in many of these decisions um when it comes to the actual closure um MD's rules um don't allow us to close a school for the fall of 25 um if we want to close a school that for the fall of 25 that information um needed to be uploaded and shared to mde by October 31 of 2014 for so right now even if we wanted to we would be out of compliance with MD's rules so we are planning to um uh have a campus um closed for the fall of 26 and um we'll present a variety of scenarios to the board as to how we'll land on a specific school and obviously there will have to be a good study done around bounding where kids would go our capacity studies for receiving schools Etc so this is not something we rush into on a good day and we are going to do this with due diligence to ensure that this type of impactful move is done so uh with the utmost respect and integrity of all impacted um because it will be felt um and very similar to what I think was it 2017 we went and we did boundaries or thereabouts you know that that was a very critical impact to our community and and this is going to have that same sizable impact um the other aspect is um whether the building itself will actually be closed or will we be in the process of repurposing that and one of the things that we are exploring is um how um this building may also come into play in addition to an elementary campus and so the likelihood of a school program closure but a repurpose of other building usage uh for that same space is something that is tied to that equation so this begins to unfold the layers of the it depends but we are doing an analysis here on the central office building uh to better understand the retail market value of this building and if said Elementary closure would also have a connection for us to be possibly look to the sale and the proceeds of this building to help offset future debt and then relocate um central office services in a different building as well so that's also some of the kind of bigger impactful kind of uh building closure conversations that we're engaging in but just letting the board and our community know um we have moved out on this um as we have shared with the community throughout the campaign and and we will be bringing a additional information to the board here in the very near near future and I'll talk a little bit about a timeline on that um every other bullet that you see on the impact Slide the impact sheet from um class sizes to reduction in Staffing uh minc caps um moving to uh a district facility to relinquish the lease um reduction in programs all all of these uh bullets that you see below um are feasible to be completed and ready for the fall of 2025 um now again will we take action on all these bullets we will bring that as proposals to the board for your consideration and review ultimately you all will make some decisions um based upon those recommendations but just when you think about the types of reductions that we're going to be making we are going to be making kind of a phase one of of reductions that will take place uh uh immediately for the fall of 25 and then we would potentially see a phase two possibly a phase three depending on how things go financially um over the short term here um but the building closure would be more the phase two um so with that said all the other items we are also right now developing the reduction proposals for your consideration that will present to you with more firm numbers um I don't want our team to bring forth anything to you until we have kind of uh done a little bit of a 360 to see will this be worth the reduction or will we net what we anticipate that we would net to offset the deficit that we see before us um there are some things that might have secondary or third order effects and those are some of the other things that we want to try to make sure that we are aware of um and if possible build some type of mitigation um so we might make reductions in one area and we would from a simple budgeting exercise yep that netted us the dollars but there might be a second order effect that would cost us in the long run that we might not anticipate so we kind of have to chase these Tails down a little bit to make sure that the the dollars we're truly saving are the dollars that we're going to save versus some unanticipated costs that will come by way of not having a certain type of programming support so for example um we might make we might make some decisions to uh reduce um some of the uh Staffing models that we're discussing uh in our schools well with a reduction in Staffing um we know that potential High class sizes comes management challenges um management challenges if we've impacted some of that tier one support um whether it's Deans counselors Etc and that tier one support is no longer there we are stretched more thinly to be able to mitigate some of those behaviors that are showing up in the classrooms and so we might find teacher burnout going up we might find disregulation and classrooms and in in student safety going up so those are some of the things that we want to make sure that we don't kind going to throw the baby out with the bath water so that we can kind of understand the holistic effect um and so uh if we don't have those supports in place let's say we're still talking around Behavior Uh and we have reduced the amount of tier one supports for example um or tier 2 supports the only remedy if you will of support becomes more along the lines of increased bed referrals and then when we have increased spe special education referrals we increase our cross subsidy and our cross subsidy goes up we've just further hindered this deficit issue that we've got going so you can kind of see some of the cascading effects that we need to work through so that we're not rushing into failure we want to make sure that we're successful and we're going to be stewards of the resources and making the types of reductions that we that we need to make to to balance that budget um we also want to be mindful not to gut the entire support structure for Student Success and with dwindling resources and the expectations of academic Excellence it becomes a bit competing if you will so we want to make sure we don't um overcut ourselves and then wind up falling short because we don't have the right supports in place to deliver on the outcomes that we are Desiring for our students um so but but then some of these for example um when you take a look at uh mcaps which has been a very real conversation that we're exploring is uh you know are we able to uh save on some of the lease Aid um that we could then bring that program back in housee and uh and that's something that we're exploring to see what does our space look like at the high school that we would be able to bring back U mcaps into the high school space we do have a little bit of room that we think we could um renegotiate we do have some areas of the building that are um not as heavily used as others and so we're looking at ways that we might be able to um reformat some of that space there to accommodate that program now with that said we know that we'll likely lose some enrollment um bringing that program back to the high school that comes there comes that secondary impact so our partnership that's currently in existence um is also something that we're going to have to discuss we know that Farmington has you know unfortunately their Levy has failed twice so their financial situation is no different than ours and so whether we passed ours or not that might have been a conversation that Jason and I were going to have to have as superintendent anyways but needless to say we're both in the situation and through some mutual conversations and I know their campaign has mentioned this as well the likelihood of that partnership being able to continue is probably not that great um so not only for their financial bottom line but from our standpoint we have have to look at relocating that potentially into one of our own sites to alleviate that lease um um expense that we're paying each month so so those are just some examples I wanted to share with the board of the types of discussions that we're engaged in um we have recently um pulled all uh uh representations from our uh various employee groups um to have a deeper conversation and engagement around this particular list of things um asking them to think outside the box are there things on here that uh we're kind of in left field about are there some other aspects that you all are considering or that are thinking of that we might have missed here and um we're analyzing we just had this meeting last Thursday and about 40 plus people came together to start looking at this and um and they heard this very similar conversation about there are no sacred cows everything is being considered so um what we have on this sheet in addition to any conversations that you know we hear from our staff we're generating those themes that came from that we'll be sharing that with you on December 9th um but all of that information is going to help us determine how we make the best of um this challenging situation before us because as you've heard me say this is not a time that we run away this is a time that we need to be leaning in with one another to make some of these critical conversations the shore of our budget um but also Main maintain High qualities of service and support for our students so that they can be successful in the long run um and so tonight we wanted to walk you through that process that we've been engaging with so thus far give you some examples of the conversations that we're having um with with um many staff internally as well as the senior leadership team uh we are beginning to run some cost analysis on this and I just wanted to also check with the board you've heard this um for for months now um is there anything on here that you're absolutely saying that is not something that we should be running down because we are also spread extremely thin and I do not have the human resources to continue to cost out you know um tons of scenarios unnecessarily if we know that this is something that the board is saying no cut but not in this space and thus our request for these value proposition conversations with the board over the past two years to understand the rules of the sandbox so that we are able to make critical decisions because again it will take weeks um months you know obviously to to close a school if that's something that this board is saying no we're not going to uh look at that there's no way we're going to spend 5 months 6 months costing out and going through all this engagement unnecessarily if that's something that's just completely off the board and I just arbitrarily chose that um as something that would obviously take a lot of time but a lot of these two if we're going to do this and do this well and and do this with Integrity so um we are moving out with everything on this list in then some um and when I say in then some it's as we learn from engaging um with various stakeholder groups and we'll begin a process that will be more public basing as well we may learn of other aspects that uh we'll have to take under consideration and as you heard a month or more ago the 5e forecast if nothing changes it's a big if we're baking in all these assumptions we're going to be in this space for the foreseeable future and we don't have the capacity you know if if we had to cut $4 million for the next five years that's $20 million that mean folks I I don't know where 20 is going to come obviously we have time to have different conversations we have time to watch you know what happens with some of these assumptions not all of them will hold true but again we're erroring on forecasting in a conservative way so that we're prepared to to engage in this kind of work um so um so I I think that's where I wanted to just pause and open it up for just discussion more so around around value propositions tonight um our plan timeline is to come back to the board on December 9th for a non-action presentation that's going to have more of the numbers of some of these scenarios costed out to say we anticipate if we make these Cuts here we forecast to reduce the budget um uh by x amount of millions of dollars um our reason for bringing it to you non-action is we wanted to have you all kind of see that for the first time and then we I am requesting that the board consider a December 16th uh Monday meeting special meeting it's not on the calendar but it is one that I would like to uh request the board so that we could come back for just a simple convening around the action that you heard the week prior to say yes this is the direction we want you to continue to go and again for for those of you here and you know a couple of our um newer board members our budget doesn't get approved until June but we have these checkpoints along the way that kind of gives us that directional support to say continue and go forth and that's what we'll be seeking on December 16th because there are some things uh team that we need to know well in advance of the winter break we've got registration that begins in January where our secondary students middle and high school are picking course coures if we're reducing courses and or we begin to reduce class sizes we've got kindergarten enrollment starting in a few weeks we've got our general open enrollment that be not open enrollment our general kind of window of enrollment where people start to naturally make some decisions also starts to pick up more so after the holiday um so some of this we need to know by December so that when we go to print before January that we're printing the accurate reductions of elective offerings for example Etc so there is some of that need to know of direction again you're not voting on the budget but you're giving us yep go ahead and make these Cuts so that you can get that going and and and manage the registration that will begin in January so Dr Thomas just confirm we're not voting on the budget but we do have to vote on some of the decisions because of the impact of curriculum um okay yeah so if we're so again Staffing and and things of that nature as we build out so again for the newer folks on the board or coming to the board um our Target date um for giving buildings and departments they're Staffing is mid-February we kind of jok say it's like February 14th is our little love gift here's their budget right and and so we've as you know we've expedited that process um an En entire month we were always behind the AIL um so after my second year here we shifted that so that we were uh competing for the number one draft picks of staff that are out there as well as if we have to make tough decisions that impact our own staff that they have ample time to go out there and compete as well and look for other opportunities so um so if we're going to do that we need to know a lot of this information um well in advance um because our staffing is going to start our forecasting models Etc all that will start and so so chair to your question and to the broader board and some of our newer members coming um we have used some of these sessions as directional support it's the best word I can think of right now um you're not voting per se but you are approving the direction that we are taking um because the budget development is iterative so every month there will be additional information coming to the board building up to our PR preliminary budget that you would be presented to in May and then you would take your official vote on the holistic budget um uh by Statute no l in June 30th but it's that last business meeting in June that we typically adopt it which I think is the second week or so of June what I'm getting it is if we give you directional support you need that obviously we've been through this every year with class registration and stuff like that December 16th is when we're asking right so with directional support what a thumbs up do to do that and and that would be your direction going forward officially corre okay so you could take action on that and adjust the calendar and the class schedules accordingly cor what about class sizes so because that's part of the planning that that is and so we are we have already begun kind of scoping the uh class size ratios to see where we have ability to make those adjustments all of that would also be baked into some of that initial planning um because as we build out our staffing we need to know is this direction of the proposed reductions of Staffing for example something that the board would support and so if the board says yes then we're going to go out with Staffing Model A if you all are saying no then we're going to go out with Staffing model B um with our current reality so so that's what the importance for us as an administrative team to have this iterative dance with you all as board directors to keep you a breast of how we're evolving um and if anything changes obviously we bring that back to the board um but barring nothing changing we continue with those checkpoints of thumb support if you will to say yep keep moving in this direction or you may say this is becoming too impactful as a board we feel that you should kind of hold that back and maybe you know not make that reduction or make that adjustment here so then we would pause or not go forth in that direction um what I want to caution the board and we've shared this over the years and I'll stop with this and and open it back up chair is that um I I am requesting do not find yourselves in a cherry-picking contest um we will be presenting the board budget scenarios that are all encompassing but the moment that the board begins to say we will take this from you know scenario a and that from B and this from C you start pitting staff and program and people against one another and your value proposition as a board and that blows up I've lived it it's not a fun experience at all so my recommendation to you as your superintendent as we've done so in the past will bring forth comprehensive scenarios that are all encompassing of all the factors that we've been discussing to get us to that bottom line um so I'll I'll close with that and um open it to the team here and any questions that you have and I do want to talk a little bit about some other real quick Snippets too of some categorical funding um um tonight if possible okay so opening it up for questions and conversation or discussion so I just want to be clear is what we're saying on the 16 is that we proposing that be an action item that chisel this thing in stone or does it tie your hands or our hands move forward at all um uh uh director white yes it so when we give directional thumbs as a board that's giv Administration the green light to move forward with these types of planning so when we go to if we go to green light on the 16th to say yeah we're going to reduce these electives or this amount of classes or this amount of FTE as of right now um we go to print and it's done um so so yes it is it's not a vote because you're not voting on the budget but it is that directional support so that you're not in the dark we're not in the dark um and our community understands this is the direction that things are going so people can begin to plan as well okay want to I want to add on to that a little bit because if we vote let's say do the men caps that requires reconfiguration of a part of the high school it requires that data to also be ready to go for Staffing into the cour catalog in January so again our thumbs up means that some of this is not reversible cuz we can't just if I wasn't if I wasn't clear chair and director white when the board gives directional support we're we're we've moved out we don't we don't go back okay that's I just wanted to make so when when if this is a direction that the board will support understand there is no going back um you you now live with that to the June 30th final vote you can't undo that and and again I just want to be clear with the board and and the community and I can't express this enough we've shared what we were planning to do as an administrative team for months and we are we've we've already begun this process so unless the board says otherwise what you see at least on this impact sheet we are going to be moving forward to completely cost out to bring forth a comprehensive recommendation to the board and just one more clarification just to make sure we're all on the same page these aren't onetime Cuts because we have cuts for the 20425 school year I mean sorry the 2526 school year which starts in June 30th correct and then we have another $45 million in cuts for the following year uh that we have to plan for pending nothing changes with financial scenarios and and again the school closure is one that we just simply cannot by mde rule do until the fall what I mean so it's not like we do this and we're free and clear for a long time it's we have to do we are building out for multiple years of reductions thank you so it's a a minimum of a twoyear plan right now depending anything changes okay well can I ask then so let's be really clear what could change what could change because Sammy put out the proposal that shows if we do nothing and we new only right that doesn't move us out it right to look at your chart it's 3.7 million 2526 and 6.6 million 2627 that's 10.3 million in two years when we keep saying what could change I mean a voter approved Levy but one would never gamble on that right I'm just saying but that's the if if we were Rochester Minnesota I think Mayo donated a bunch of money to them I mean we could just be br honest with ourselves and say what will change yeah um and that's what I'm looking increases I mean we the only way we're going to get revenue is um the legislative changes um given the new legislature makeup they there's a possibility they could undo what's already been done um which again depending on what they would undo may or may not save us money um there could be an influx of enrollment again we're not going to anticipate that but it could happen um there could be um other districts that are in the same boat as we are and so our programs are going to be more attractive to some of the those families who might open enroll I mean so there's a lot of I know things that could happen I mean the economy could change people may have more readily accessible money and there um there's just so many different things that we just have to kind of play each one out and again we we look at we do budget financial statements every month so we know you know what's going on we follow the legislature um we all have professional organizations that um give us monthly updates actually probably daily once the legislature meets um we're going to know what's on the slates for votes and follow those very closely so we're just going to have to monitor [Music] everything um I just like to add just um looking at the list and kind of talking to voters throughout the levy process um you know obviously one of the biggest concerns is increas in class sizes and I think I mean I know from my own personal that would be at the very bottom of the list list in fact I think any reductions we make should be as far away from the teachers and the students in the classroom as we possibly can the one thing that's not on this list that I did hear loud and clear and you've heard it from our district you've heard it from other districts and it's administrative costs and I know you said Dr Thomas we operate lean and um I've looked at this and thank you for putting this together that shows the historical information I know we do not classify Administration all administrative positions under Administration um there's many different titles here for them and so I guess what I look at back at 2018 and 19 and what it cost to educate students which is in the round of like $96 million and now we're at $123 million I mean I think the question has to be asked is why and what's driving that cost and I understand we have inflation I understand we have you know more um special education um students or needs um but we also get additional funding and so I mean I think like I said when I look at this the the thing that's not on this list is to really take a look at efficiencies within our district and I think until we look at taking efficient look at efficiencies and looking at the possibility of reducing administrative costs I think we're going to continue to go down this path um and and continue to drive ourself in a hole because we can't operate like we we can't operate the way we're currently operating sure and we can't can I just I I mean to be I don't think it's fair to make an assumption that that isn't on the table and hasn't been on the table I don't think it's fair so while I respect what you're saying about efficiencies because they're super important I think to state that in this scenario I think it's very unfair yeah and and I would just want to clarify director ainson in the third bullet the reduction of Staffing is across the entire District so and I gave a scenario just a few minutes ago about you know cutting Central Administration and that being far away from the classroom but it's going to be felt because of lack of support or we're going to have to stop doing a service so I don't know how much more I can say there's no sacred cows we're looking at every aspect so from school Staffing to District level Staffing and everything in between Staffing is Staffing so and to your point I would concur this community has not really experienced what $632 per student gets you because we've been borrowing against our fund balance to remain competitive because everybody around us is at a significantly higher rate many I should say not everybody many are and so to live within our means is going to be a drastic change for many folks when you realize what $600 32 Whatever Gets you in an education experience and my fear if I can just speak my truth with you all is we're going to make reductions and people are going to feel the 632 and say I don't want that I'm going to go to this District because they passed their Levy and and then we're going to lose enrollment and then we have this compounded effect be very honest with you those are the things that we're going to have to content with um the very thing that we might cut might be the one thing that's drawing people to stay or to come here um and if we can't do it all because we've tried for years folks to be all to all and it's been very costly so uh I'm not saying that there isn't value here and that we need to be stewards and find greater efficiencies I don't disagree with that there's stuff that we should should be doing even if we passed the ly quite frankly let's be honest um and we're committed to doing that but it compounds our our unknown reality when we make the types of cuts that we're making and granted as I started there are many districts in this very same situation proportionally people might say oh least we're on to cut 21 million it's almost the same percentage as a NOA proportionately to feel the same thing so it's not about the dollar um but we also want to make sure that we don't lose the very thing that makes us competitive and not being able to deliver the best for our kids and you know I always kind of jokingly said we might not be able to afford a Cadillac but you know a yukon's not bad right we're going to have to find ways to down size and right size but protect the core experience that's not going to force families to say we don't want this experience or we're not getting what we need um the the question about special ed came up and is Michelle yeah Michelle so one so we've been having some conversation so last Michelle would you mind coming forward um last week I believe it was we um updated the funding 101 was that last week that we did the categorical and all so one of the things that we're trying to help our community understand because one of the things that I heard over and over um throughout this campaign cycle and in various circles was about our fund too and there was a lot of animosity about the universal meals um Bill uh and had we had the universal meals I would have supported the levy like I actually got an email about that um and and so so that's our community doesn't understand our problem of a general fund deficit um projected deficit is a fund one problem and by state law we cannot co-mingle other funding sources to mitigate that loss and so we could have subscribed to the universal meals program and then some a very healthy fund balance we'll always take care of our kids who are free and reduce lunch I want to be clear about that too because people think that we're not but we can't legally use that money to offset the deficit even though we have it in the fund balance of Our Food Services account we cannot use it and quite frankly we are being squeezed federally with even some of the title funding of of of our fund two for example where we had greater latitude and it's now going to start impacting our fund one balance at greater levels so case in point and then I'll switch it over to special light if we need to buy a new oven in one of our kitchens by law we can use our fund to um Revenue to buy a new oven but let's say this new oven because of code changes our HVAC venting is out of code we have to completely gut everything and redo all of our HVAC we can no longer use fun two for that that now becomes a fund one expense or if we have to upgrade or move power panels Etc none of that fund two money can no longer be used so we're getting squeezed in other areas too and I know our community doesn't get into the nooks and crannies of school funding I it's very complicated I understand that but we're trying to break down the the the belief systems that our community is holding around well you've got all this money over in this pot why can't you just bring it over to this pot and as simple as I can say it is by law by Statute we can't do that with various funding sources and another comes out around special education and I want to be very careful how we discuss this because we are hearing a lot of sped cost or through the roof and there's truth to that we're experiencing that with our transportation this year um it's it's extremely over budget in terms of where we were last year with sped Transportation cost um and people sometimes will make the Assumption well that's all federally reimbursed anyways okay so why can't we just you know find ways to rob Peter to pay pa a little bit there with the sped and and because that's all federally guaranteed right no right I our community needs to understand we're already upside down federally with special ed and just this year our state put a little bit on top of that to the tune of about 45% give or take right um and the big question that I was getting mainly from some of our staff presentations was well where's the cross subsidy money that we got out of the legislation and that is eaten up by the surgeon identification okay so our community needs to know that we are doing everything that we can to find ways to mitigate the the the financial challenge before us but it's not as simple as take it from where you're above in another funding source and put it to where you're below okay there's a lot of parameters on that and I've asked Michelle to talk a little bit about that because we've started to outline that on our our funding 101 page to try to make it as simple as possible for our community to understand this but special ed it's got Tales all over the place um in terms of the funding structure and if you could just kind of walk through a little bit about um the conversations we're having around budget reductions um where you can and quite frankly where you can't and talk about um you know just some of the factors that we've been engaging in around that well so the first thing I think um well there's two things right away to know is specializ is funded on a reimbursement model so we are reimbursed here in Prior Lake about 75 cents for every dollar that we spend so our cross subsidy is about 25% of that which is to the tune of depending on the year anywhere from 7 to9 million is that about right Tammy um the state comes back and reimburses US 44% of that which brings us up to 75 cents on the dollar so if we considered cutting in special education dollars is not a dollar for dooll cut it would be the first year but after that you're cutting 75 cents in revenue for every dollar that you cut so that's just so when we think about those things we just have to think about what's that longer term impact of saving you know if I save a dollar next year I'm only saving 25 cents the year after and every year beyond that um special also is ruled by maintenance of effort which means that we have to maintain our effort and right now that means we have to spend the same amount next year as we spent this year and the year after that at the same amount so we can't we can't decrease our financial effort that doesn't mean there isn't FTE potentially to cut because with contract increases and different things there's always a little bit of wiggle room in there um but one thing I need everyone to understand a special ed will never be whole until the federal government actually fully funds it itself so fully funded federally would mean 40% um that's an additional 40% no 40% of cost basically um right now they they fund about 8% um and the rest is on State and local districts to fund yeah that that's what but that was brand new because before the state just made that change and that without a budget surplus of the state that could get actually reverse reversed right yeah you mean the cross subsidy Aid yeah yes so but that's not federal that's State no no I know but when you're saying what the it's a federal mandate and the state for the first time a long time actually increased it and brought up a share and the argument from the state is the federal should be doing it since it was their mandate so there's been a fight back and forth for what 20 years now yeah there there are definitely legislators at the state level and it's hard to argue right that the feds aren't doing there they're do so why should we be be doing that and picking that up so um right now it's very helpful to get the 44% back from the state on our cross subsidy um but ultimately um that that if we're only getting 25 75% on the dollar we are always no matter how much we spend on special ed the cross subsidy is going to be 25% of that cost so there's no way to eliminate the cross subsidy does that make sense because we're never going to be reimbursed on it and then the other tricky part is it's reimbursed lagging so um it's it's a year or two behind um when they figure out like what are we going to spend and what we know about costs is costs go up every year so if we're getting funded on what we spend two years ago that's also increases our our cross that City a little bit um does that cover what yeah I I think so thank you for making that point a question I actually thought of this as I was driving over here so let's say I have an i AP student who receives speech services um for every IP that's where you get the special education funding correct no um we don't so there's three separate funding formulas for special education costs that they run us through we get the amount that Nets us the least um and ours is always on a reimbursement of what we spend so it's not about how many students we have it's about how much money did we spend so I get back 75% of a teacher salary 75% of a contracted service 75% of instructional supplies there is a model out there that's per student but very I don't even know any District that actually gets funded on that model so like I've heard for and this I'm just going to State this because this is what I've heard and I need to get clarification in my own brain for this if a student is um diagnosed with autism we get $22,000 for that student that's not correct no that's one of the funding models that's one of the funding models but we've never been funded that way and I again I can't think of a district or know of a district that is funded that way because it does it is so much more money and we get they run all of our costs our numbers and everything through these three different scenarios at the state level we get the one that's the least amount and that's always the reimbursement so why is that it's a great question Le we're not capable of answering that that would be a good legislative agenda question yeah because my mind would be like okay my kid has autistic you get the $22,000 but then you're also getting my $99,000 from my state you don't get and this is this is and and I'm glad you brought that up uh because that's the Crux of the misnomer now that's that example you gave if that's the universal belief out there then the the perception is we're sandbagging all this special ed money right and it's just simply not the case and I think that's the biggest challenge that many districts are facing because on top of that we've also had um the ticker tape parade of the largest investment in education since 1972 and I'm telling you folks um and our community if that held true why is there over $400 million in budget reductions in the seven count Metro alone right something is not clicking and and so I wish it were true that we had all this sped resource that we had all this influx of cash that we're just rolling around and that we don't know what to do with that is just not the case and so when we make these types of reductions the complications that Michelle and her team are going through to make sure that dollars make sense is a critical part of this process because we we we could easily find ourselves in bigger trouble making sped reductions that seemingly we should just be getting reimbursement for and it's going to come back and it's going to bite Us in the tail really really hard I would say the same holds true for some of our other categorical or our grant funding you know we receive title 3 funding for our ELO we re receive achievement and integration Aid to the tune of 900 some thousand that are tied to the world's best Workforce or the cacr or whatever that is 2.0 um all the expectations of the statute that governs those policies at the state we're still expected to do all the work that are tied to that but if we walk away from Grants and things of that nature we're now looking at an additional million that we're cutting because of other factors that we you know we don't want that funding okay that's fine but we're still held liable for the expectations of the statute of world's best Workforce 2.0 and that is to disaggregate all the data find ways that you're demonstrating and Reporting back to MD the closure of any kind of unforeseen um achievement gaps in a variety of student demographic groups like like it or not that is the law so we are finding ourselves needing to use resources to do that work we can't walk away from not serving El students right that's a that's a that's a federal law we can say we don't want federal dollars okay that's fine we're still liable to deliver the letter of the law which comes with cost of el teachers right so we're going to find that general fund like this is where our community will say well I don't want that because of X Y and Z factors tied to the politic of the federal legislation that that is that could be the right of this board and you could walk away from that but we're on the hook folks Community for delivering 100% of our efforts to every one of our students irregardless of who they are and how they show up and the needs that they have some of our obligations come with funding to walk away from grant funding is our own self-imposed unfunded mandate quite frankly which this is part of our problem we have a read act that is killing districts right now financially right if you don't have a broker agreement to get this done properly but the money that they gave us in our district we we literally couldn't pay our teachers their salary to complete the training with the amount of money that we have in the state so this underfunded or unfunded business that we talk about this is also something that we have to contribute to our ongoing debt conversations that we're going to have to mitigate which kind of ties back to some of the calendar stuff too um I mean we we're a little lucky right now because we for saw this training coming um part of that was built around that but some of our our colleagues that don't have agreements in uh schedules like ours they're kind of Up the Creek right now figuring out how they're going to afford to make this training work so so we can have those conversations about timing and schedules and calendars totally open to having that I just want to make sure that we're understanding those second and third order effects when we make certain decisions on the surface they seem easy but but there's a lot below the surface that's all I'm saying a few questions um when it comes to you know one of the things on our proposed list you know was closing one or more elementary schools um what does closing and and I know the answer right now is as you said we're not quite sure yet we've got to do all the cost analysis and I get that what does closing mean does closing mean we close it to everything and it sits empty or is it closing it as a school but we still own it the community can still use it for different things and money comes in that way so just kind of want it could be one or the other or a combination thereof so um we could completely close a building and sell it gone off of our Ledger we could close a building and mothball it and pay the bare minimum utility cost to keep the water pipes from bursting in the winter and it melting in the summer um for future use or we could find ways to lease that space um if we wanted to use portions of it um for our purposes and then perhaps um some of the ideas that I'm having with our team is around collocations of services could we partner with Scott County Children's Mental Health and bring in you know mental health supports and and shared use spaces Etc with some of our county or city providers um so there's a multitude of things that we could do um around closing a campus but typically it's you're you're closing it and it's locked up and it's just sitting for future use so you don't ever let that go or um it's repurposed so we might close the academic program kids get rebounded to other schools and we're using that for a different purpose as a district so a scenario that we are reviewing is uh would it make sense to um sell the building that we own here and repurpose that site not mothball um and net the proceeds of this sale to offset future debt and become more efficient with utilizing space in a co-located model for example and generate lease revenue and then that was my next question okay so can you further explain so say in scenario a where we potentially lease a building or another scenario where we just outright sell it where does that money go does that just go into our general fund does that get repurposed elsewhere like where does that M so it depends on whether you have an outstanding bond that pays for how you however you originally purchased it so if there's a balance due in this building that we have to that's on a bond we have to immediately pay off The Debt Service before you can do any other things with the dollars we have to look at how much money we on this building from the bonds that we've sold to finance it and then whatever we sell it for we pay off those bonds so that would be an input into what you referenced as the facilities index rating understand right what's the true cost what's the true cost of operating a facility you know and again as I stated earlier it's not just about our schools like every piece of real estate that we have we're looking at to best understand you know some obviously are a no- brainer we know we have one high school we're not going to close the high school okay um but there are some other things that we can take a look at this building is one of them and and so we do have to um leave no stone unturned um to see how we can make the changes that we need to make but there's another cost too if we were to repurpose a building we'd have to reconfigure the building there's construction there be there'd be some cost of doing that and does that does that net still savings after we have to do some partitions or B wall whatever yeah and if we were to use it for something else like you mentioned like Community that's community at that's fund for that money would not go back into the general fund then yeah I meant Community like right but I think it's really important you said there's there's basically walls between each one of these funds you can't co-mingle them so that needs to be considered too about what could be and if you try to do this for a short term you're going to spend the money again to to and and then by the way closing an elementary school means we are going to then have to make a decision correct if I'm wrong about enlarging class sizes across all elementary well that's that would be these are all on the table um and so as we're looking at class sizes um we would have some immediate conver ations but then yes j a year from now if we are going to uproot you know hundreds of kids then they got to go somewhere right and so we would see yet another surge in class sizes you know by a couple in each on average in each grade at the elementary level so as they get distributed um into different boundary zones or School attendance boundaries and then we've got busing costs additional potential because any elementary school closing will mean longer bus times higher bus costs we also have to hire uh logistic reconfiguration also for them and and uh and then the cost of the last time we redid boundaries was quite extensive to add an elementary school I remember that thank you Michelle um f uh one more question for me um uh also so again realizing this might be premature um but the elimination of middle school activities I'm assuming that's extracurricular correct and that is something that uh we are exploring of uh does that uh get moved to a fee based structure under Community Education for example so they could be there but it's not a cost that we're going to take on it would be something now build to families if you want to play you pay so um unfortunately many districts have gone that route you know I was a middle school principal I lost all my Athletics um due to budget restraints in the district so um it it it has happened many times that that becomes a reality so that's how that's what we mean by that it would get absorbed lightly through Community ad can you expand a little bit sorry um can you oh sorry can you just expand a little bit because I I'm not a expand a little bit on many districts having to go through um losing middle school so a way to uh contain costs and reduce your budget that is the is to stop ping for Middle School athletics and activities so all the coaches that we're paying to to lead Middle School sports we no longer have that cost because we are stopping that program the likelihood is that Community Education usually then picks that up and still offers it but now comes for a fee um to the community just like any other so I yep I understand that I think um I think a challenge in uh going through all of this at least a challenge for me is when I think about okay I understand what it means to eliminate the middle school activities but it's hard to give my value proposition when there's not a value attached to it because um you know if I can't really see what what that might look like for our district to you know if it everything stays the same but it's just now a fee base that that families will have to pay for that you know there's a lot of considerations that go in with that um you know for some families it might not be an issue for some families it might be a huge issue and we know all of the things that extracurriculars give to our students as a whole person so um when I'm you know going through uh this list um without you know it's it's really hard to when you're when you're not seeing the the dollars that might look like to say you know this amount of money isn't worth what it could possibly do and for me I guess in some of these things uh and I don't want to hijack the conversation but um when when giving my value statement or my value proposition as going through this list um you know I learned learned today that um an increase in in I learned today that um we could look at this list and this list could give us the 5 million and cuts that we need I also okay am I correct there is actually two bullets alone that could give us the five minute right and so that's what standing on that's what I'm on I learned that today I learned today that um in increase in class size alone could get a get us to the cuts but I can't it's hard for me to understand what that actually looks like yeah we're talking class sizes of 38 in intermediate Elementary right like that is unattainable right and and so again could we do that yep it's a simple math problem but it's these impacts folks that again we're as an admin team we are working through some of these and why we're not well one we're in the process of just costing these out still but part of why we're not bringing this forward is because um somebody might say well it's it's only saving you know $20,000 I'll just randomly choose that number and folks I'm telling you every penny is going to count to find a reduction at this magnitude and it's going to be in some of the darkest places that we're going to have to go to find it um but 20,000 is still 20,000 even if things look the same the experiences and the inequities that we create are going to be significant because we will definitely create a have and a Have Nots um by some of those decisions so yeah we could say well nothing changed well a lot changed actually right and and those are the things when we start talking about Equity um and giving our students and staff what they uniquely need to be successful we have now just compromised that and created a greater inequity in our in our community for folks that can easily afford to continue to pay for activities at the middle school level and probably pay for five other kids and then some who are going to say my kids's never going to play you know this sport again because because I can't afford the the fees can I just add something about the middle excuse me we've been director white has asked to speak a couple times now um i' just like to zero back to your original question when you when you finished up is what's what's off what could possibly be off the table as far as the seven us are concerned it seems to me that unless we have actual at least estimated values tied to these it would be irresponsible of us to say that anything's off the table mhm and so um I assumed that but I wasn't going to go with an assumption part of why this conversation has been you know selfishly for me a bunch of my brain that I turned off 8 years ago was starting to click back on and um um until we have something to go on with all these this conversation there's chest pieces everywhere m going four directions at once mhm and so so um again everything's on the table for you guys I think would be irresponsible not to a it you given us kind of a a you know blueprint y now you know put the wires in you know tell me where the outlets are going to be all that kind of stuff and at this point um this is what we're going off of this is this is just me and then you know when you come back again then we can say oh well you know from the St 20 bucks for Clos in the pool why we do it you know understand y good and and and that is our intent to for tonight which is why I share with you all we need to just have this kind of opening conversation so you understand this is the direction that we are committing to this is what we're initially going to explore and then we're going to come to you December 9th with a more finite um parameter of some costing models um and then seek further direction to say yep given the costing now Michael team go go forth in this direction or pause on this one but everything else keep keep going forward with Dr Thomas I want to just ask a question because what I heard you say when you started this conversation was asking the board if there's any Red Line you don't want to expend precious resources to go into so right and in response to director white maybe I misunderstood it but I understood what you just said and I think the direction that has been asked by by Administration is is there anything on this list that they should not consider so they don't spend the time because we're considering it all at this not for me personally okay I just have a question on the middle school activities as a parent we pay for middle school activities so what does there could be different rates it could go it would go up higher okay so you're basically okay so just again seeing the details on that like 10% increase in middle school costs if we want to keep them or whatever and talking about inequities there's a lot of inequities in our district I mean kids are paying 250 bucks to park at our high school or 400 or whatever the number is I haven't paid for it yet but so I mean I understand that's the goal obviously but that's not the reality so what's not the reality there's inequities everywhere in our district I don't want to get into to it but if that's but you brought it up so what is the parking fee 400 or 250 for kids to park at the high school if you can't pay and if you can't pay for it you have to park at the parking lot that's away 250 thank you so I mean there's a lot of inequities yeah but with that we also have busing um if they can't afford that we so we have I understand that no I I know but I'm just try ,000 grease trip I mean I could go on and on and on I mean it's you know I have one more question just specifically to incaps what percentage of the current enrollment over in Lakeville is prior to Lake students more than half have it off hand but it is more than half it definitely is more than half um I I I was going to put it at 60 6040 um the ballpark depending on the pathway the pathway yep yep and I have a general question I have two questions about the mcaps um it took us a long time I think to get the health pathway certified for those rooms and all that um that's one of my concerns and I'm not sure if you guys already know this which pathway would have to be eliminated um the other question would be will fridge because we just came back from a trip that's a cost that is heavily absorbed by our staff and our district um so I'm not sure if those things are already known or field trips in general is something it was a theme that came up when we met with our employee group reps um so wolfridge is an example of a field trip so we could mitigate costs by um scaling back our you know experiential learning opportunities for our kids I.E field trips mcaps Pathways um whether we eliminate or or if it's uh depending on um saving lease and and if that addresses what we need to address we might be fine but we also would look at you know what's do we have a pathway that's just significantly under enrolled and and so do we have to make some tough decisions and say based upon enrollment you know we're going to cap Pathway to say we need at least this amount of kids in the pathway that we can justify maintaining a pathway similar to what we do with electives at the secondary if we have X amount of students we can offer it but if it's below that we just can't one of the things that I know came up coming into this year was actually capping the number of students that could even participate because we had cut Administration Fe so much and actually shared our health yes we did and that was a capacity issue in our current space um similar conversations would need to happen uh in more detail as we at a potential different space um specifically not Leasing and coming back to our existing spaces um and what we would what capacity we could find um and again those are preliminary conversations we've had specifically at the high school uh where we are currently underutilizing some of the that facility our plan uh board is to come back to you on the 9th with tighter financials around um uh some of the key areas that we need immediate directional support on and continuing to update the board on some of the other medium and longer term scenarios as well um and then that gets presented to you to ask questions Etc and then coming back for just um I guess I guess this format could be just a a a quick on directional support um and uh move forward so um I do want to bring up December 16th so is that a that is that is a request right now you're asking for an extra study session on December 16th um asking well yeah we just felt presenting additional Financial scenarios to you on the 9th in that night hearing it For the First Time to Say Yeah continue to go without kind of being able to process that so yeah we would be be seeking uh an additional December 16th um I guess study session format just to get directional support based upon what you had heard a week prior gives gives the board some time to process this ask some questions can I get clarification on one thing though so these changes because we've already approved the 24 25 budget correct that's this current budget ccle that was approved last June it's approved so these changes would not impact 25 starting July 1 year the following year correct correct Y which would be the 25 26 budget correct okay um got it with phase two and then phase two would be potentially 26 27 and then within that uh director ainson we have some short-term decisions some medium-term decisions and then we have the phase two de that would be helpful to understand on the nth too what the one two three looks like as well so our plan and um and just appreciate you all kind of understanding where we're at and really level setting with the board and level setting with the community that um this is our reality and we'll find ways to uh make this this work financially as well as continue to support our students to be successful okay so we're going to add a December 16th study session um and uh if anyone can't make it we need to make sure we have a quorum so if anyone can't make it please email Martha um and and copy me and let us know so we can uh figure out where we stand with that thank you so next on the agenda are the school school calendar drafts so uh recall this is a pretty standard uh timeline uh that we take a look at at a study session in November and then bring for board action in December um our recommended school calendars for the upcoming school year um this year we wanted to uh bring to you for consideration um the possibility of adopting two uh consecutive year calendars and uh you see them uh in your board packet being uh slightly different um I'll I'll first speak to the 2526 uh calendar it looks uh very similar to the current year calendar and uh did and it does include um our early release days as um was shared earlier uh in public comment and then Dr Thomas uh spoke of that I I just want to remind us that we are currently um utilizing our early release days not necessarily for what we originally had uh intended when we uh adopted them just a couple of years ago and the primary reason for that is that after adopting that uh we had one year of uh utilizing it in that fashion and then the react uh was authored and uh we have adopted a new math curriculum at the elementary specifically last year so we've focused a lot of our energies around that this year all of our uh phase one training uh year one of phase one training uh for the redact is happening uh uh not all of it uh a large portion of it is happening uh as we utilize our early release days at the elementary level we have been able to uh do some of the work that we spoke of uh originally when we brought on the monthly early release days uh to do the the the work of looking at student data and uh making curricular decisions on a monthly basis more timely in nature um we continue that uh work moving into next year we will have uh year two of the react training for our phase one folks which includes as we've talked about here at the board table previously includes all of our K5 teachers all of our K12 special education teachers and a number of other identified uh specifically identified uh groups of teaching staff that are required to phase two training uh is set to uh be finalized and what that looks like sometime in January February uh by mde this upcoming January February so we'll know uh who's included in that phase two uh primarily for secondary teachers and we don't know specifically who uh will be engaged in that training and the extent to which the training will be but in theory we would be uh wanting uh this schedule as we have proposed to allow for that work to continue uh during our early release times in the 25 26 uh school year calendar um then again uh wanted to talk just a little bit about the 2627 uh school year calendar in that uh we we again we have not recently looked at two years uh in a row we've typically just adopted one school year calendar but it's a unique calendar as you look at it with uh regard to uh Labor Day and where Labor Day Falls I think it falls about as late as it possibly could fall so um in the 26 27 school year uh on September 7th that caused us to begin to look at uh because we've heard conversation in the past about the possibility of starting before Labor Day uh there are some requirements that we would need to do um to have authorization for that from mde uh currently that is the case um although I have heard inkling that this could be a legislative conversation as well given that particular calendar year um possibly changing uh requirements around that uh but that remains to be seen uh so we wanted to look at this and we started to begin looking at this with staff uh input when we thought about what a uh a after Labor Day School calendar would look like and how late that would go into June and um when we um it would take us into the second week of June um quite late uh June um 11th so we we began having that conversation and are wanting to bring that forward for your consideration and feedback and um get input on that uh before we proceed and what we bring to you in December either uh uh whether we bring forward two two school calendars or just one um and what versions you would like to see want to have that conversation here tonight let's open it up for discussion I'll start um just to clarify to make sure that I'm hearing hearing what you just shared um so the the bringing forth of two calendars um it's not just it is not not specifically for train redc training things like that I me the second calendar is more so because of the date Labor yeah we were thinking we ought to get this out in front of the community sooner if we were to make such a significant change so that would be the what I would say the primary rationale for considering that is uh more advanced notice of a significant shift um and then just a comment as I I was uh you know going through the um the calendars and I I'm just going to read my notes because sometimes that's easier than me trying to um so my questions about calendar are mainly stem from early release days um we we've um you know heard at the at here in the boardroom that they're uh considered a gift of time and I don't doubt that in in many aspects and I appreciate some of the context you gave regarding um when those early release days were adopted to you know how we've had to kind of move and for what reasons we've had to switch so I appreciate that context um I think that the challenge is is that I think my challenge comes from um not hearing from everyone whether it be staff members community members that that that is not necessarily A gift um and the challenges that go around it and we've heard we heard some of public comment and I think that um that isn't new to any of us um I guess you know I wrote this question because it's it's it's my question to myself it's my question uh to to leadership is how are we minimizing the disconnect from what we hear um that the challenges to what's necessary um that you know for the training time that we need and all that and I and with the react um those trainings are more um needed by Elementary uh phase one yep and soon to be in phase two some secondary okay and then like in our high school um those those early release days though we might be given some kind of training some whatever I'm wondering if there is room for opening these up to what that time could be used for when it's not a mandated training such as read act I'm offering our staff members some choice in how those are used I don't know I mean it's just some of the things that are rolling around up here um but I think you know here in the boardroom we've heard you know that you know they're a gift of time but we also do hear from whether it be staff members or families that these are not always a gift and so trying to just figure out how we we best come together to um have the time needed for the trainings that we are required to do and also in other spaces is there space that there might be Choice around those um and I I understand we can't say choice to families whether they come you know whether early releases but maybe um choice on what staff uses that time for I don't know that's it's kind of that's my what been rolling around so if I may speak to that just a little bit uh we've had greater flexibility at the secondary level this year with regard to that and uh I'll speak to the high school specifically um the administrative team has worked with their build they building instructional leadership team uh to craft uh some of that work provide that teacher training um actually a lot of it has been used this year as we're launching a new uh teacher evaluation framework and to give some time uh to preparing our teachers for that a new teacher evaluation fir we've actually done that at the middle and high school because they've not been participating had to participate in any form of uh Reda training so um they they've worked with their building instructional leadership teams to craft the time as well as to give time for um the some of the original intended work in terms of getting into those uh teams of Staff looking at student data on that monthly basis to make adjustments so I think that we've realized that a little bit more um but certainly is uh the point is well taken that we would need to continue to where possible where it isn't required uh engage in how to best navigate that time for for for staff um the impact on families is definitely uh a known impact and a challenge uh certainly hear hear that um and uh certainly understand um some of that uh again going back to the original intent having these on a monthly basis um certainly could look at uh taking that time and shifting it to um maybe additional staff development time during the school year not you know uh days off for students um to take that because we essentially get 16 hours um compressing that time into additional um staff development days is a possibility we could certainly if that was the will of the Lord for us to look at that we answer could you remind me the memory is not that great we approved early release days but we had some before we just had uh four four and we dou to eight did correct yeah so you could take two full days somewhere else correct certainly is an option that's I because now I'm looking at the calendars through more of a budget lens and I'm because we kind of really need to more than ever and that was where my mind was going to say Transportation costs on those days or what you know if that actually is in fact a reality so my my lens's looking at the budget right now or at the calendar right now is definitely from a budget standpoint and I think that's a great Point uh that you bring up up there that uh we need to look at all things through that L yeah back on that I mean um seems to me I I'm and I apologize if I'm kind of tunnel visioning this on disruption of the students and the families and if this time is required for train that maybe didn't exist 10 15 20 years ago whatever um I have no reason to believe that that this time is not required um I'm just wondering again if based on what I've heard if we could um if we're going to do this it's going to take the time make it a whole day um I think especially if it's on a Friday or something that would be less much less disruptive even for Working Families that's kind of where I'm kind of zeroing in U that that's my personal opinion uh and then for the this the 26 27 calendar um not necessarily in favor of approving two at once like next year's board to approve the following Year's calendar um is there anything preventing us from looking at the 26 27 calendar March we we we've we've done when we were building buildings non-stop we were starting school early we got the from the state to do it because we wanted to get out in May instead of June so construction start all that so it's not something we haven't done in the past I'm just wondering if Mak sense to appreciating what you mean with that weird Labor Day date uh potentially yeah coming back in the spring M and and um talking about that calendar that point yeah we certainly if that is the will of the board to only adopt one we just wanted to put it out there we actually to to to the point you just made we began this initial conversation at looking at two years of calendar because we had a referendum and we depending on the outcome of the referendum um that is one of the has been an impetus in the past for multiple years of calendars when we've done that that's what yeah looking at it in the first place yeah um my mind goes to a couple different things um when we look at our strategic plan which we have a new strategic plan um my mind goes to academic excellence and also optimizing resources and I love what you said about the budget because um like you said the busing costs if we could change that day to you know cut them back change it to a Friday where it's a full day where we're not busing kids back and forth um I also think it would be a lot less disruptive to the students and the teachers um the early release days are incredibly challenging and I know that there's another school district that does have a lawsuit out against them because their students are not getting their IEP time I IE I can't even see you know what I'm talking about special education services and so legally I would like to get some I wanted to make want to make sure that we're following the legal guidelines to make sure our students are getting their Services um because that's you know it's eight full days and so um I would like to see um um Administration come back with a revised version of this of How Does It Better fit with our strategic plan to really you know focus on academic Excellence which is putting those kids in the classrooms when it's not disruptive to their learning and optimizing resources of the busing situation like you mentioned so and I have concerns about the legal issues regarding sped Services as well and I also would would re reiterate what um director white said about the second-year calendar I I remember last year we kept making changes to the calendar because I looked at Christmas and thankfully we're not in school on Christmas Eve but I also remember we did make changes to the calendar throughout the year so I think it's only right for that seconde calendar to wait to approve that um until next year as well um I assume we're meeting the statutory requirement for hours and yes okay we definitely are okay that's because I know that that is one of the pre-planning I have no problem planning two years at once I think it helps families um we've heard that that's another yeah M I think it also helps like you said with scheduling but approving two years at once um I think is is premature but I don't think that's what was on the plan anyways the only difference we made between the last couple years if I remember correctly and correct me if I'm wrong is to approve the calendar earlier um um so and and actually we adjusted the policy so that we didn't just you know we actually approved it earlier not only for families but also for planning for budgetary purposes all that kind of stuff uh so we had something to go against instead of waiting um and I don't I don't have any problem with that I do want to correct something because I think director Acton you just said eight full days I think it's eight half days isn't that correct right now there's two hour we have eight 2our early release days two hour realize two hours of additional full days so that would give us two additional days potentially if we right but they're counted as full days though because the kids are here till lunch so they're actually counted as full days correct me not from an instructional minutes instructional hours perspective they are not we cannot count the when they're not present so so they're not counted as full days no they're only counted as portions of then I misunderstood that because I thought because they were here till lunch it was counted as they were counted as full days we do have to instructional hours yep so so we have to calculate so the the U Mars office and the business associated with the business office each time we look at a calendar they give back the instructional minutes and it takes into account um those days and they A reduced number of hours or minutes on that given day I would ask that the impact on families for a full day an extra full day off to do it all at once be considered uh simply because that does change even more of the Dynamics and I every family is going to be different so I have no idea um but I do think feedback from the community um is something that would be warranted before that much of a change went in place especially after now they're whether they like it or not we're used to the current type of arrangement um I I wouldn't I'm not going to sit myself in every single of our 8,000 kids families to figure out the difference of not getting them on a bus in the morning versus a full day off well pending Gathering that data point and what I'm hearing from the board is to consider the consolidation Factor um for a variety of different reasons to make that um the full day the two full days um coming back then with a revised draft and some data that might suggest um how we would have the impact plus minus family input okay right and with that need to gather that input all likelihood we would not bring it back to the December mhm uh board me be like January we normally approve it onor before the first the board meeting in March for the following year uh we have typically done it in December in December um I'm going to defer to um director Frederickson on this from uh we've got to get the um um start and end date right for setting up the new school calendar for registration we're starting in registration we need to when are they going to start I know that we moved that out one time or another and we moved it back again but the question though so are we going to at least bring one year calendar back for voting for December 9th and is that required for your planning now particularly with the budget well if we want to get the registration up and running which we to doing in December then we need next year we need the start and end date for for sure so we can still as well we we can make changes anyways I just want to I just want to get clarification on what you need the board yeah I think I think um what we need uh you know our we're we're hearing we'll go through the one we'll present to you the one calendar and again that's that's neither here nor there for us we just we were in that space um and then we can for sure get our start and end date so that we can get the registration going and we'll finagle the input as to what type of release what day of release um and I understand the logic of what we are talking about here but to your point chair like can't seat ourselves in every single family's household s of gather a little bit of what that would look like um I think we would have time to bring that back by January but for sure in December we'd want to come forward with the one year we're starting this date ending this date and then we'll come back the following month to work the meet and between y of that um release okay sounds good and with that being said start mandate as proposed um looking will of the board on 25 26 school year after Labor Day as proposed on this calendar okay so that's Aion we'll bring back all right yeah perfect thank you thank you um next we have a proclamation on inclusive schools week and I am going to ask director Ola to read that inclusive schools Appreciation Week December 2nd through the 6th 2024 prior League Savage area schools recognizes December goodness December 2 through the 6 2024 as inclusive schools Appreciation Week whereas the inclus schools Network and schools around the world have designated the week of December 2 through 6 as inclusive schools week whereas Prior Lake Savage Area Schools is committed to providing an education in schools and classrooms that are welcoming and capable of educating all children whereas the Educators in Prior Lake Savage area schools recognize that each child is unique learns differently and therefore learns better if instruction and experiences are tailored to their abilities and interests whereas the Educators and families of Prior Lake Savage area schools have been working hard to ensure that classrooms and schools are characterized as being high performing and inclusive whereas by their efforts to make schools and classrooms High performing and inclusive the Educators and families of Prior Lake Savage area schools have contributed significantly to building a stronger and more inclusive community whereas the Educators and families of Prior Lake Savage area schools deserve to celebrate their successes and wish to reflect on how they might even further improve therefore let it be resolved that the Prior Lake Savage area schools join with inclusive schools Network EDC and schools districts and communities around the world in declaring the week of December 2 through 6 2024 as inclusive schools week and Michelle and I have decided to be inclusive with each other and speak to this together here based on the the programs that we um I I really just want to start and um you know to speak to that last couple paragraphs there I think there is a lot for us to be able to celebrate I'm super proud of our staff and our team here we really strive to make every learning environment inclusive of all our students regardless of um their backgrounds or lived experience from the Unified Schools to the English learning program to the mentoring and tutoring uh pieces that we do in the celebrations that we have where students take part in the culture Fair and all that um our students speak highly of it they're a big part as well along with our staff to make it in an inclusive environment um and it's something you know we're super proud of as super proud that all students can feel welcome um fun fact December 2nd is the uh kind of a celebration National special education day in uh commemoration of Ida being signed into La wasn't called that it was like p142 but um that's when students were uh given the right if they had a disability to be educ educated in their in their schools um instead of being told they can't so and for many of us that's in our lifetime so I think you know we need to um celebrate that and I think that's a lot of the reason why inclusive schools week is the week of December 2nd and if you are around we have a lot of fun activities planned for our unified um all of our unified work she'll be able to see in any of the schools here coming that week okay uh with that I'm going to hand it over to Dr Thomas for any type of uh superintendent uh yeah thank you chair France um just real quickly um I want to thank Martha for tapping me um the 16th we we will find a date I might have to revise that because um I am actually unavailable I'll be out supporting our kids um so uh we will find another a date on that week that works um for the board um so so stay tuned to that so I apologize I got a little too excited to uh get this on the same Monday um but we'll find one that week that works um second just letting you all know that um I am the uh chair-elect for the federal legislative committee with amsd and Masa and um you know we'll see what happens with the change over with Federal Administration if we'll have a department there anymore or whatever those kind of changes may or may not be um but this is going to be a consequential year um of lobbying it's not so much about um dollars we're not going to have dollars coming in but there are going to be I think some critical aspects of advocacy for support for um perhaps undoing some of the mandates I I'll just put it that way simp simply put um and obviously tracking to see what does happen federally um if there's any changes uh with the the Federal Department of Education what impacts will that have and so um I and several others will be going out to DC in the spring to meet with our electeds and folks in DC um but really bringing our voice here from the southwest Metro um forward to really ensure that you know we are getting our needs met and so that this is going to be a consequential year but um just want to let you all know um for the lobbying purposes that will start after the first of year and then in the spring as well and I'll keep the boarded breast of uh what happens at the federal level with regards to our work and education um informational items I don't have any except for waiting on the next uh study session and then of course for the new board members and existing ones I will be setting up appointments with each one of you to talk about uh scheduling for committees for next year and um getting the rest of that documentation out and emailed out to everyone uh please remember open meeting law and do not reply all to any of the uh emails that go out um and that's it anybody else have any informational items okay so next is future agenda topics does any anyone have any suggested future agenda topics be the two retiring board members chance to really just to reverse the informational December 9th will and speaking of the two will be the reception as well right so at 5:00 p.m. before the 600 p.m. board meeting we do have the reception that was sent out to honor our uh board members that are no longer going to be serving next year and thank them for their service okay so hearing no future agenda topics uh this meeting is adjourned thank you very much [Music]