##VIDEO ID:clsh-F9EjNg## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e this regular meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is called to order at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday November 12th 2024 in room 137 of the Edison building the board acknowledges this site and all RPS sites are situated on the ancestral land of the Dakota people and we honor the Dakota Nations and the sacred land of all indigenous peoples present at this meeting are Schoolboard members superintendent Kent pela non voting ex officio member and assistant Schoolboard clerk Miss Lorie Sam Miss Sam would you please call the role here here direct here here here here here at this time we offer the opportunity to say the Pledge of Allegiance i al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all item 2.1 is approval of the agenda are there any changes to the agenda move approval second it has been moved and seconded to approve the agenda all those in favor say I I any opposed the agenda has been approved the agenda and documents for this meeting are available online at Rochester schools.org assembly item three comments to the board there are no comments to the board this evening item four information and Outreach item one National School psychology week Dr Garcia just a second took a screenshot because I knew this was going to happen this week November 11th through 15th is school psychology a national school psychology week our RPS School psychologists support our students from birth to age 21 in the evaluation process for Disabilities that may impact their educational progress and performance at school their expertise and support help our students obtain the special education and Mental Health Services they need to succeed in every aspect of their educational journey to our school psychologists we are very thankful for your hard work and dedication to our students thank you item 4.2 are board member committee updates does any board member have updates from their committees or any other events they would like to share director Marvin yes uh last week a number of us um for of our board members and also our um M uh Peterson and um Mona Perkins visited Franklin Elementary and uh monor at Franklin Elementary School and it was wonderful to see the skip their school continu continuous Improvement program plan plan in action um the teachers were amazing uh we stopped in uh to a number of different classrooms and um uh resource rooms that they had for the kids and something I found particularly interesting and others who were there might wanted to share what they saw too uh when they were working with kids on reading and they were processing the story that they had read it was so important that the kids remembered what they read and understood it that they understood the emotion the characters what was happening and I'm thinking I can't tell you the number of times where I've read a document and 30 minutes later I'm thinking I read every word and I can't remember a thing I don't know if that's ever happened to anybody else but these kids were being taught not just to read but to read closely and to think while they're reading and they didn't do that when I was a kid but I was really impressed any other participants in the skip visit director Workman um yeah I think just to add on to what uh Dr Marvin just said is when they were going through a story it wasn't just once and done they would go through it any number of times like what else did you see here what what else was going on in a few cues and it was the kids were fully engaged in that activity um and it was just it was so wonderful to watch we also have the chance to um have them walk us through some of their alternatives to suspension approaches and um their um commitment to making sure sure that students um can participate in the classes um in a way that supports you know their peers in the classroom but also to help students regulate when they um are having behavior issues in a way that gets them to a place where they can continue to work on their school work um without um being sent home and and missing the school day we met some of the staff and they talked about some examples of of what they do with kids both um walking them around the building bringing them to some sensory rooms there's a dedicated space um where kids who um need to spend some time outside the classroom can work with an ESP um on their behavior issues but then also stay there to work on their homework Etc before they're ready to return to the classroom and it was that space the community room space um the way that those classrooms at Franklin also have common space where they can bring break students up into small groups and have their esps or even the reading Center come in and work with kids oneon-one really shows that um it our our class our our school spaces aren't just about classrooms with desks lined up in even rows um they're really customizing how we're using the spaces in our building around the curricular needs and the behavioral needs of the students and it was really great to be in the building and see them at work can ask a question sir what grade were you in when you were observing the reading well we were in I think we were in a fifth grade room we were in kindergarten um was there a first or second grade but it it it was mon Monas mon okay but and part of it was so cool because the kids were sort of situated um positioned the way kids are at home when they're learning they were on the floor and they were sitting at desks and they were sitting at load desks and they were sprawled out and it just made so much sense that you provide the kind of accommodations that kids feel better um learning in they were comfortable and it and they they said that the uh behavior problems at Franklin were almost non-existent and I think part of it is because kids have choices and they feel excited about uh learning so it was wonderful this idea that u schools haven't changed in the last 50 years not here things are changing and this is the second of the board's uh visits to schools to to have a an overview of their skip in action and we'll be doing one of these every month throughout the rest of the school year Dr Cook um well I was uh um so pleased to be able to attend the 2020 for NAACP Rochester branches um excuse me Freedom fund banquet um and it was uh there were other members of the board and superintendent I know you were there of course um and uh just a wonderful opportunity to experience the um richness of culture and celebration of Civic engagement and pursuit of justice that really is the the Hallmark of the uh NAACP and then particularly of note for uh the district here uh Rochester Public Schools was recognized uh with a new award uh from the Rochester branch of the NAACP called educating the minds award um which was granted to Rochester Public Schools to honor the the criteria for this award is to honor an instructor author trainer consultant or organization who shares an infectious love for learning is compassionate flexible and creative and delivering instructions to a diversified audience and makes a difference in the lives of their students um so I know superintendent you were there to accept the award but I think it really is and as you mentioned at the time a reflection of um the many passionate Educators throughout our district that are just doing great work to um Advance exactly those interests so it was a nice opportunity to be with our community um and also to uh celebrate that recognition anything else board members all right we'll move on to our consent agenda items 5.1 through 5.7 are our consent agenda items would any board member like any item removed for separate consideration move approval second it has been moved and seconded to approve the consent agenda all those in favor say I I any opposed the consent agenda has been approved yes please um uh thank you madam chair I board members will have noted that uh in our human resource Act action was an uh in memorium item and we have uh something of a unwelcome tradition but I think also a welcome one of noting when we've lost uh someone in the Rochester Public Schools Community or the broader community of Rochester Tracy Higley was a much loved educator in Rochester who died peacefully on Sunday October 27th surrounded by her family after a very long and courageous battle with cancer um Tracy began her work in Rochester public schools in 2013 she taught kindergarten for two years uh and second grade the past eight years at eight years at Gage uh Elementary and um Tracy uh from the conversations I had I was over at Gage the morning that after she passed and then I got some emails from staff she really exemplified I think a teacher leader there's there's a tension for those of us in education for many people who don't want to leave the classroom but they do want to shape their schools and often it's very demanding to do both of those things but Tracy did it she was she was passionate and clearly an extraordinary teacher but she also led the staff development committee at gauge she was a key member of the professional Learning Community she was a part of the site leadership team um I was a little surprised to learn she actually had spent seven years as a principal in West Virginia where she also was a reading teacher earlier in her career and staff at Gage uh told me that she was uh deeply well-loved for her selflessness in servitude to others even in the midst of all the things she did at Gage she volunteered with inheritance of Hope which supports young families where apparent as terminal illness she led with integrity and had a sheer love of learning she also was uh tough in a loving way she wanted her kids to achieve at a high level um and and and I heard from more than one person that she was gifted at forging genuine relationships with everyone that she met and so we want to say we are thinking of the Gage uh Community we're thinking of uh Tracy and her family at this moment of transition and we thank her for her service to Rochester students our next agenda item is our Focus topic 6.1 start times implementation update superintendent thank you chair Nathan I want to call three of uh my colleagues down uh John Carlson a chief administrative officer Jackie Peters and our chief of schools and Amy Ike our executive director of Community Education and Partnerships um as board members know even amidst the emphasis that was understandably on the referendum which we'll be talking about uh in a moment this was a big fall for a major change in our school start times and there has been a longstanding effort to get start times just right both educationally operationally and financially in Rochester Public Schools we think we made a huge step forward after uh this being an issue as board members know since I got to Rochester in the summer of 2021 we don't think we have it perfect but we think that a lot of things went pretty well and we're working on the issues that we've identified as continuing sources of uh either concern or areas for improvement and so I want to thank John and Amy and Jackie and their teams for really incredible work in making this happen and so this is an initial update for you and our broader community on how our new school start times uh are going I'll get started with the benefits and drawbacks at both Elementary and secondary with the new bell times um at Elementary uh the first thing you'll hear from principls and teachers is that students are very focused alert and ready to learn during those early morning hours of the school day um and we're really capitalizing on those um that learning time and and at the same time you'll hear them say that we're having fewer behavior problems in the afternoon because the afternoon is just shorter we're not seeing kids falling asleep in the afternoon um and interestingly enough we also see more kids eating breakfast um they're coming to school and having one breakfast instead of eating at home coming to school and having another a second breakfast I'm sure there's a ton of other uh benefits but the first and uh thing that comes to mind is that really great learning time first thing of the day um one thing that Elementary is experiencing as a drawback is finding that time to meet um they had that really nice long period in the morning to have staff meetings committee meetings IEPs um and now they're needing to flip their schedule a little bit um and do those meetings after school so it's just a um learning a different model after 30 some years of this uh having so much time in the morning before the kids arrive and I think to um we all have had that experience as building principles of not having a sub for a classroom we had the luxury of having maybe an hour to figure out who's going to cover in this classroom and now we just have a few minutes at the elementary um so we'll go on to secondary and they're actually finding the flip side and not surprisingly they are seeing um maybe the benefits are what we used to see at the elementary um and the drawbacks are um you know opposite it for them so when you go to the high school you're not seeing kids that have fallen asleep on their desks in the morning the way um they might have in the past the first week of school I was at Century and Paul Malone I asked him what are you noticing and he said well look and he pointed to the cafeteria and the kids were actually sitting up at the tables in the cafeteria they their heads down sleeping he said clearly they're way more alert in the morning and you'll hear that from teaching staff and um staff in general at the high school they are really enjoying having their meetings and time to collaborate in the morning before kids arrive um so that is a resounding um positive um the initial drawbacks you heard about um with busing and the lag time for students to leave campus after the end of the school day that was because we were having um some um buses late getting in to pick kids up but we did um do some problem solving on that and just last Wednesday we implemented some new changes where the alc sends buses a little bit quicker to our high schools and we are already hearing that those changes are making a huge difference most of our buses are now leaving campus within 10 or 15 minutes of students being dismissed which is really um making a big difference in the end of the school day at the high schools we are very confident that that solves the issue and we are basically done talking about the possibility of adding minutes to the high school day this year um Middle School um has talked a little bit like you remember in elementary school saying we have fewer behaviors in the afternoon Middle School is saying they're seeing more behaviors in the afternoon just the re uh the reverse of that schedule it's a longer afternoon for them so that makes sense all right and I'll talk a little bit about the after school environment we know learning doesn't stop at the Bell um and in the after school environment many of the things we're experiencing so far are those challenges as you change things and we know that eventually they'll work out um but we are uh working through who is using which spaces as you might imagine so we had a routine and as we've expanded the sac program which I'll talk about in just a minute we actually expanded into some of the spaces that we were using through Community Education for youth enrichment and so we've had to do just a little bit of that reorganization um we've also discovered a bit of a challenge which I think over time we'll be able to get over but uh our instructor pool that was typically available around that 3:30 4:00 time uh may not be available at this earlier dismissal at elementary so we have to find people a different set of people who are available um we do have um a set of classes occurring after school at several sites and what we found is that our normal length of those classes still has kids out a little bit early for parents so we are trying some things with uh backtack classes things like that and then as you um Implement these new Transportation things um we find that the window for offering transportation for field trips is narrower and so you can see an example of how that affects some of our activities so we're just working through some of these challenges and U finding different ways to support those on the positive side we have had thank you uh major growth in our Sac program and under the direction of Dr pel Who recognized the critical nature of Sac and my colleagues here that have helped in identifying some of those additional spaces where we have uh lots of waiting list kids uh we have been able to add uh over the 300 additional spots that we were hoping to add for this fall so we're currently at 388 additional families so some of those families have more than one child but minimum 388 additional children at this point in the year than we were at and that is credit to Nate Shri and uh his team who have been uh recruiting and interviewing and then our HR Partners who've been helping with that uh recruiting piece as well so we feel like we're in a a much better place this fall to to meet that need we do still have some waiting lists as you can see on the chart uh but we've been able to resolve most of them with the hiring one thing that happens every fall is when some of our college student workers find out what their schedule is they realize they can't uh work all of the days so Nate has been focused on replacing those that we lost to this fall and um we're back to addressing weight list now all right just some statistics on what's happened with self transport remember self transport is what we call uh formerly exception to attendance as well as the lottery into districtwide option schools so uh as we looking at our data there are 1485 elementary students uh self transporting to a dwo school um that includes Longfellow Washington Lincoln Franklin and Spanish Merion there are also 948 elementary students who are choosing self transport to a non-d districtwide option school and so um outside of U Pinewood which I'm going to talk about in just a second the the highest number there is uh Gibbs at 102 so 102 students at Gibbs are there on self transport the lowest number we have is 25 at Hoover so every school has some level of uh self transport at the elementary level um one interesting thing that we have noticed is that at Longfellow and Pinewood there are 134 students who should be going to Longfellow because that is their attendance area that's their boundary um but they have opted out of the 4515 calendar and into the Pinewood at the same building to be on the traditional calendar at our Middle School level there's 202 students using um self transport to our four comprehensive um uh middle schools and there's 51 additional students using self transport to Spanish Immersion at Willow Creek uh some other things going on in our districtwide uh we put a strong emphasis on implementing our school mint software this year that would provide an upgraded experience for doing self- transport applications in the lottery process and we've gotten that down to really there's uh a couple students waiting at Washington as noted there Lincoln is filled to the top at every grade level and that is really the only school now that has a waiting list uh of 41 students uh monor we've taken care of eliminating the waiting there by adding an additional kindergarten first grade section um Spanish Immersion at Riverside there's now no waiting list there and Long Fellow um even though the enrollment numbers are down at Long Fellow the building is now actually being used at the uh capacity that was intended with co-locating Pinewood in the same facility 89% to uh fill uh districtwide options another new uh Transportation Hub is another new option that we implemented this year that we're still trying to work some bugs out but it's for the most part it's going okay okay just describe what what it is in really nuts and bolts terms yes uh a districtwide Transportation Hub means that um whereas we used to provide uh transportation to our districtwide options across any of our 218 square miles of the district now we have constrained the transportation to basically the attendance area that touches the attendance area of where the districtwide option school is placed so for example Lincoln there's uh four or five options on to uh getting transportation to Lincoln it means either getting picked up at like fwell as an example or being within the fallwell busing Zone already and then just continuing on the bus to Lincoln and so these are the numbers that uh reflect uh the number of students who are using the districtwide transportation hubs uh so far this year again Lincoln um at the top at 149 down to longf fell there's uh about 12 students who are using it uh Jackie kind of mentioned this and I think this has already been uh adjusted we've uh implemented some small five minute changes at a couple of our elementary schools and then adjusted the alc schedule by 10 minutes to leave uh Transportation concerns at the high schools and then this is a list of things when we asked our transportation department what could be improved next year obviously we have uh significant discussions that would need to happen before and so we're just giving some um ideas and topics out there for discussion but no decisions have been made um on these uh but one suggestion was um ending our nonpublic or going to our non-public schools and saying um the end time if you want busing in the afternoon would have to be 3:15 or earlier um I think we've already addressed the alc end time um as Jackie said Point number three may not be needed now Point number four really deals with special add and newcomer uh placements and looking at can some of these programs be a central as possible one glaring example um of this is we have a great special ed program at Overland Elementary but we have some placements that students are attending from the um far Southeast corner of our district Overland in our far Northwest Quadrant of the district and so that's a 30 minute one-way drive so 30 minutes to pick up a special ed student 30 minutes to drive them back 30 minutes to drive them home 30 minutes to get back so we're spending a lot of uh costs there um in some of these Transportation situations and so by ating some of our programs or maybe looking at that in the future putting them more Central and actually um save on Transportation budget and improve the experience of the students that are arriving um and then uh I think as mentioned we still need to look at some of our dwo transportation hubs and um evaluate is it working as it's intended or are there other ways we could tweak that to make a better experience for our staff and our students I think that's uh what we had prepared for you Dr um do you have any information on how the change in the start time at the at the high school level in particular or really rather the change in the end time has affected um after school activities Athletics and other extracurriculars think we have collected data at this point it's a little early to have collected data but we can get that data for you in terms of participation or or just if there's um has it necessitated changing practice schedules or um changing the way that uh competitions and performances and things like that were scheduled relative to years past or um has that been a concern or not it's been problematic um at this point I think if I think if we adjusted anymore um uh we might have to consider whether we could do you know I think that that is one of the reasons why we tried to stay at the bell time that we have um this year so that we wouldn't disrupt um uh learning time because when we do have competitions kids do need to leave class sometimes I want to um change the bell time such that students would be missing more instruction than necessary okay yeah thanks we I thank you for that question we can take a look at it and we'll I know we haven't seen a drop in participation and uh arts or Athletics this fall so I've asked about that but I I don't know about your question about have we had to adjust practice times and things like that so we can find that out but I know I have asked all of our activities directors have we seen our numbers go down they said no it's been pretty stat pretty stable so that was one concern if kids had other commitments would they not be able to play a sport or like be in the play and so far it seems that our numbers are roughly the same at all three high schools excellent director W so I'm curious about the 134 students at Longfellow who are who have opted out in favor of pinewood for the same building how does that compare with students who opted out of Longfellow neighborhood last year and did they where else might they have gone we actually do think that's a very similar number and last year they would have been at Franklin and we would have been paying for their transportation over to Frank thank you m I have a question about the same Slide the first bullet point the 10485 elementary that are self transported to the dwo schools can you put that in a percentage of total students for us yeah so um I was just telling the cabinet yesterday that those two figures 1485 and 948 represents about 33% of our elementary population so one out of every three students is using a self transport option so 1,500 is going to be a lesser percent than 33 uh call it 20 something yeah yeah but thank you for that that that seems to fit together too thank you and I think by just direct M that that's a significant percentage and I think that we're going to have to really watch that when we said when I recommended and you approved moving away from the exception to attendance process which actually was substantively very different than this you had to find a reason uh which I found uh was it was not an effective process and now if there's space you can go but when we said this we know we need to carefully watch this what's the impact of this on our enrollments what's the impact potentially on the mix of kids that are going to school so we now have a third of our elementary families taking advantage of and that's notable that's that's significant and so we will certainly be watching that um both as we think about enrollments for next year and I think you know the last point on John's slide was I I personally don't think we have found the perfect Transportation structure for Rochester I think that would be part of a next strategic plan there are some ways we can both keep costs reasonable and uh potentially somewhat expand access to multiple schools um that would be a time to really take a look at this question of self- Transport which of course we also did not apply to the high school level um uh for reasons that you'll recall had uh a lot to do with Athletics but also some other uh issues but it's it's people are taking advantage of it at the elementary and middle school levels at a very significant rate I do have one followup if we're going to look at that more closely I would be curious to know how much of a change that was before the Hub schedule because of things like parent preference parent work schedule or going to school age child care there may have been self transports anyway I'd be interested in that mix yeah you're your question hits the complexities of that that we'll have to unpack if we simply compareed exception to attendance directly to self transport it's a pretty big expansion but there are some nuances in there in terms of uh daycare and where the kids were going that that's a good thing for us to look at is it how much higher is it than the historical Norm of parents driving their kids to school I guess the other piece of data I'd be interested in is if there were students that were at the districtwide schools that are now back at their neighborhood schools because they weren't able to do the self transport that I would be interested in that number as well we I don't have the number off top of my head we definitely know that that is that is absolutely happen Dr Marvin two questions one I think Dr pel for you do is the district gathering information about why parents who send their elementary kids to a different School other than their neighborhood school why they're doing it we haven't done it uh since this change uh I think that that could be a good line of inquiry right now we're also on the cusp as we Implement what we're calling our new enrollment strategy of reaching out to families in general to find out why they're choosing the schools they're choosing or avoiding certain Schools they're not choosing so taking a look at that issue could be an additional layer at that that we could do thank you and then just miss like a quick question for you do you know how many stud and this isn't about percentages how many high school students Rochester High School students are working in the sack program this year I mean like I don't know that off that top you can ask Mr Carlson because he knows everything know that I do not know that can't say I find that okay thank you yes we had quite an increase due to some of Jackies efforts with colleagues to arrange for that eighth hour to be a flexible hour so they could come and work with us I just don't have a a number at I didn't give you a heads up so I just sorry I still like you do believe a large number of the self transports at elementary are daycare and people are as passionate about daycare um and committed to daycare as they are about their schools and it's problematic when we can't support you know if there's not space people get very concerned because they've had the same daycare since maybe the child was born I do I doubt that's changed a lot under um under the new self transport there are probably as many people exercising that for daycare as there there was under the previous and I really do like we used to not allow that for middle school and who are we to say that a middle schooler doesn't need daycare so I like that parents are able to exercise that option at middle school if they feel their child does need to be you know provided some level of care after school Dr barl uh to one statement one question uh statement I like the idea of the self transport and how uh it's working uh whether it's program driven or for other reasons uh I do Wonder though if at some point will be able to if it is uh Spanish Immersion if you will or the montor it's been suggested that you know we may have the opportunity to um uh for placement in multiple I'm not saying those particular programs but I think with uh the awareness that parents are liking certain particular things students are benefiting from those things and might be well worth our looking into the possible expansion of and then the question deals with uh districtwide Transportation hubs are we still providing transportation for are we still required to provide transportation for the private schools and if so how does that affect our uh I didn't notice any reference to them and that this wasn't part of the presentation but can you speak briefly to that yep so by law yes we are required if they ask for it so we annually approach our non-public schools and ask them are you interested all of the nonpublic in Rochester opted out of morning Transportation um so no one is transported in the morning and there are a handful that are choosing it for the afternoon now we get to have a say then in what their start times and so and end time would be to accommodate you know fitting it into the system what we can't do is shorten their number of minutes compared to our schools but we can tell them what the start time what the stop time would need to be to get the transportation and so that was just one of our suggestions is that we could tweak that a little bit to make the system run better thank you Dr um do you have any concerns about the transportation hubs and also the self transport in terms of traffic we definitely had some concerns right away um but I think like anything that changes after uh people get used to it and then they learn the routine um a lot of those concerns have resolved themselves but I would not be truthful if I didn't say there are still some minor concerns out there that do need some tweaking anything to do with I mean safety at all some of them probably were at the beginning or just trying to understand the safest way to get AC you know like walk across the traffic or across the street and then uh we have a safe route uh to school coordinator on staff and uh her job is actually to go out and address those and work with the principes work with the families train students on the best path to their school help with traffic flow and it's been you know we've been dealing with those concerns as they come up thank you I know that one of the reasons that we moved our high school times back was to give our our kids more time um for sleep in the morning um and to have them learn at their optimal time are we seeing any shift in any of the extracurricular activities to morning practices is that something we're discouraging because it doesn't really flow with the idea of what we're doing and have we seen that in other districts that have had moved to these start times over time do you start seeing the teachers taking advantage of that morning time I could also see clubs and Athletics trying to take advantage that morning time too other because the practices and things go so long into the the night now we we're we're definitely not discouraging it that would be at the discretion of our coaches activities directors and high school principls um I have also not heard about a significant increase in the you know numbers I know swimmers are notorious for getting up early to do two a days and that's continuing and certain other SP yeah right so certain other sports um it it could happen I don't I don't think that we would discourage it in the same way we would start stting academic learning back at 720 like we all have learned we need to move away from kids who are in a sport or a club are coming there of their own uh choice and one would presume unlike what Miss Peterson was describing the heads on the cafeteria tables is not happening during swim practice or something like that so we would uh we' we'd let our our our sites uh you know manage that but just as we've hit a couple of other good issues today we can certainly take a look at that and let you know those things happening I think the adults are capitalizing on the morning time I've heard some principal say that the kids might almost in a taunting way say I'm just staying up later because I don't have to get up as early um we as adults probably do the same thing when our work schedule changes hopefully they're getting more sleep that's what we hope for anything else board members well great thank you for the update and for all the work that you've done in implementing this this year to make it go so smoothly our next item is 7.1 monitoring referendum results and next steps superintendent uh Madame chair at board members this uh update is going to be dramatically briefer than it otherwise might have been um had the referendum this this agenda item was on the uh agenda uh win or lose appropriate ly and so as board members know well uh with uh almost 80% of our community casting ballots 79.6% in particular 57 point 57% approved the ignite student learning referendum 43% did not approve it which means that it will go into Force if that had not happened tonight would be the point I would be laying out our plan to close three schools raise class sizes by three and make major Cuts in positions and programs because of the passage of the referendum none of those things will need to happen we are not uh greatly increasing uh funding and launching new programs either the resources will allow us to provide our Educators and especially our families with stability when we just had this discussion of the start times mixed up in that were the challenges that we all experienced last winter with the likelihood of closing schools and making major cuts and the uncertainty of that experience uh for everyone was certainly one that was on my mind throughout the referendum um discussion so looking forward as we will have many other opportunities to update the board in the community we will closely adhere to the plan that was at the heart of the ignite student learning referendum the investments in our four investment areas supports for kids who are struggling supports for kids who are accelerated and academic enrichment for all kids mental health and well-being and Career and Technical education we'll be front and center we'll be every year providing you with a budget recommendation for the referendum even though that is not required we think that'll enhance transparency and accountability and we will have a dashboard on our website that allows people to track how those additional dollars are being used for those four CR critical priorities um I think the last thing I'd say you know both I and board members who spoke about the referendum often was separate from the campaigns we didn't tell people we couldn't tell people how to vote but I really am sincere in saying we want to thank people for listening including those folks who voted no I had some of my most productive um and educational for me discussions with people who I'm positive did not in the end vote for the referendum but they were committed to kids they were concerned about education they often had uh significant concerns about taxes that didn't always have to do with the school district but they raised those concerns with without exception uh in a respectful positive even sometimes if a highly critical uh way uh that made me better as a superintendent helped me think about uh how the broad needs of our community matter to uh our school district um and I hope that there was a sense as people reflected on this referendum proposal from the one that narrowly failed by 318 votes last year that we really do listen that there is I think a an understandable skepticism in just American public life today that people in decision-making roles really listen and if you I think look look at the Hard lessons we learned when our community said no last year in terms of the focus the size the scope the nature of the communication I hope it shows that we listen um and that we will continue to listen as we go forward with other difficult decisions um in the end this board still has to make those difficult decisions but we're not doing it uh in a hermetically sealed bubble where we don't get the feedback um including sometimes uh some in feedback so thank you to people however they voted for voting and for expressing their opinion on it um and uh fortunately we will now be able to bring you a budget in June of 2025 that includes the ignite student learning referendum plan rather than the reductions that would have resulted from its failure well I I would like to thank the superintendent for being our um Chief uh message Giver AC acoss um um our community with the information presentations um that seem to be endless and to board members who also participated in that whether you gave a presentation or passed out stickers at the table and let kids spin wheels and go uh prizes while you had conversations with their parents um we also had a wonderful Communications team um here at um the district that managed our information campaign uh very very ay and I I think it's impossible to say that if you were looking for information for the referendum you couldn't find it because I really think our intent was to push as much information out as much information that could have gotten on people's nerves we wanted to make sure that that information was out there for an informed decision and we couldn't have done it without them um and in addition our cabinet and our building leadership um I think we asked our building leadership to help share that information more directly with their communities and be sort of key conduits uh for questions and answers and I think uh I heard from a lot of parents that they um it helped them develop a a a better relationship with their principles in some cases because they it generated conversations uh not just about the referendum topics but what it meant for their schools and their uh their child specific experiences um and then two all the community members um whether you were advocating for or against the referendum whe whether you had a conversation with your neighbors whether you helped your neighbor find information um our community partner that helped us with our AI chatbot tribi trebi I always want to mention that um what having having been through this referendum cycle multiple times in this community um the thing that impressed me the most was how many more people were paying attention and we curious and we're asking questions and we're engaging in the conversation and just like we tried harder uh I think this time to listen and even modify some of the presentations and some of the ways we shared information to meet the needs of the community I want to urge the community to continue to ask us questions to continue to look for the information to ask us for information if we're not giving it to you in the way that it works for you because I think it sets a foundation um to build trust and to build uh confidence in how we're going to apply these resources and I think in the end we will see those positive outcomes for all of our students so thank you to everybody involved and board members as will open it up if anybody else has anything to say it's been a road Dr M um I would just add in the conversations that I had with people that I think that in what I was sharing with people in response to mainly questions about the budget is how complicated School Finance is and I'm hoping that people um I think people learned through that process but probably not to the level that we would want them to be educated on that work so I'm looking forward to the not only the budget recommendations but the dashboard for the referendum that I think that that will go an extra step to um continuing that education in our community so that people can be well informed about U how we're using our money and that we're using it wisely and making good decisions at the board table um the other piece that I want to be sure about is I did have some comments about um that dashboard and providing information to the community so I want to say it tonight to hold us accountable that we need to do that for the life of the referendum and not let that fall off based on changes in personnel and whatnot different board members that kind of thing we this board whoever's On The Board needs to be accountable to follow through with what we told the community we were going to do all right thank you board members and superintendent our next monitoring item is 7.2 enrollment update this is an annual report that the board receives superintendent theel thank you as you all can see John Carlson our chief administrative officer is coming down um as the chair just mentioned this is a report we give um every year I will say um as I think about the future of RPS and really the fact that our strategic plan comes to an end at the end of 2025 I do think uh we need to do another uh uh research-based enrollment projection we've been working with one that was done at the height of the pandemic when every demographer demographer would tell you all of their long-standing assumptions were either thrown out the window or being highly questioned because the world was so unpredictable in terms of people enrolling kids in kindergarten or not so the projections we've been using came from the external experts we contracted with to do that last time um uh I think as John will describe we have we have been Smart in budg budgeting conservatively tied to that enrollment projection I think especially given the impending changes here in Rochester with May clinics bold forward Unbound initiative uh and the employment growth that they're predicting we need to do another projection it's so something John and I have started to talk about but in the meantime here's our report on how we're doing against our current projections that's good thank you as usual I usually give a look back for the last six October 1st so we can see how that compares to the current uh the current October 1st uh head count or student count on that day snapshot only of that one day was 177,000 323 students that was 258 students less than the same day a year ago uh which represented a decline of 1.5% we measure uh you've heard me say this we measure October 1st as a point in time basically for comparison it gives us a same day every year to take a look at who we have enroll and uh prepare a a trending against that our actual funding is based on actual enrollment of everyday in the school year um but I just want to point out that doesn't mean attendance of every day uh so a student can take a sick day or their parent can excuse them for a a family trip or something and that does not impact our funding however if a parent were to take their student on an international trip for like 16 18 20 days or whatever uh the student does get automatically dropped out after the 15th day or on the 15th day um and so the payments uh do stop at that point um in Minnesota the headcount um again doesn't determine what your funding is going to be but it is actually based on a couple other factors it's first the average daily membership um so an example uh that I put out there is with an enrollment of 17,32 3 that may convert to an average daily membership of 16,9 4.85 and you wonder how do you get a fraction well if a student enrolled uh today since we are basically at the start of the second quarter uh the most they could earn uh for their average daily membership is 75 or 34s of a 1.0 and then you take the average daily membership uh by law and you adjust to pupil units basically a kindergarten through sixth grade student who attends for a full year is a 1.0 pupil unit and a 7 through 12th grader is 1.2 pupil units so that's why pupil units is usually higher than average daily membership as uh superintendent said we had projected our enrollment a little bit less than where we were 17,1 163 but we're at 17,32 3 um and so we are anticipating that we'll have um more adjusted pupil units by the end of the year than what we budgeted it will be in that range of 160 and we are working currently on doing a revised budget to bring forward to your approval that will include additional Revenue uh that will come to you on the December 3rd um board meeting I think that's uh the end of that report board members Dr mman I just have one question because you said something a little bit different than I heard you say it before how often do we get payments oh yes from the it's from the state right yes we get paid it's like getting a payroll check we get 24 payments throughout the year on the 15th and the 30th of each month so they kind of meter that and prate it as you go I price something I should have said in my uh my Preamble before I introduce John but um I think it's an underappreciated uh factor in our lives today that the birth rate is declining dramatically it's gone down by 177% in the United States since the Great Recession of 2008 and that is dramatic social change in a relatively short period of time the big question is are those younger Americans going to have kids later in their lives or not at all um so Rochester is not at all unique uh this declining enrollment challenge is seen everywhere and our levels of decline are are actually much lower than in many other urban areas which is not to say that it's not something that has big implications and that we watch carefully but the the Pi is shrinking overall as we talked about often in the referendum Rochester Public School's market share of that Pi remains fairly constant it's slightly more than three qus of the kids who live in our jurisdiction so Mr Carlson you said that when we talked about the budget in June you set our expected revenues and expenditures on that 17,1 163 and the numbers came in higher for that extra I know you said what it was 10 160 kids has that dramatically changed our expenditures because we hired with the budget that we had at the beginning of the year which was a 17163 what does that increase in that amount of kids do I mean do we benefit on the revenue side are we getting hit on the expenditure side yeah it would be more beneficial on the revenue side because as you stated we've budgeted a little bit um yes it benefits on the revenue side there are a couple of instances where we had to add a teacher uh throughout the summer Jackie Carl and I work on that and take a look at numbers um and but we had budgeted that in our contingency account so it's not like we're going to come to you and ask you for the same amount of expenditure increase as we have Revenue increase we kind of had that already budgeted and planned for so beating our budgeted projections is good news it depends on how you look at it I would say yes in my opinion it is is uh better news Dr Marvin just I hope this is a quick question as Dr pel said birth rate Across the Nation is down everywhere and we you get numbers of children born in Rochester and Olstead County so that's one Baseline you can go from how do you figure with Mal's growth the numbers who are going to the number people who will move here and the number of children they'll bring with them that is the million dooll question that is a little bit challenging to predict although there have been more public statements recently by Mayo about anticipated growth in their Workforce so I um should we proceed with a demographic study I think that's something that we could maybe try to work into the proection OR projection based on um some of those statements we hearing good luck with that thank you it actually is a is a is a fairly common factor in school district demographics where you have a usually pretty standard inflow but then you get certain communities where for instance you have a very large group of people that might come because of some international incident or something um the the Mayo Clinic example of 2% projected annual growth and then the city of Rochester projects another another percent above that it is a known number the question as Dr Marvin you're saying is how many of those will be people with young children who will bring them here initially Mayo doesn't expect much of that because it's all construction it's going to be people who are doing that but they're building the buildings to hire Physicians and clinicians and things like that and so that was why I said so often in the referendum campaign that it's shortsighted to close schools here um and which is not what I would have said in every community at all um so that would be one of the factors if we do do um another demographic study um that we would really and I'm quite confident we would have male clinics uh really strong collaboration to help us begin to do some Workforce projections in terms of that uh families with young children question Dr would you anticipate collaborating with the city on that as well yeah absolutely absolutely and Dr gy yeah sorry and I I'm wondering if might we consider the option of like who whoever they're anti whoever Mayo is anticipating bringing in offering them the opportunity of like Min sync as a like maybe a transitionary option so that they are aware of our school district like kind of how we operate and if they choose to be in an in-person school then that could be an option as well yeah I mean I don't know if there would be if that would be worth the time but I feel like I think a lot of people are looking for some of that flexibility and even if they don't plan to stay here that may offer them the opportunity that if they do need to bring kids with them that there's either some level of consistency and or they already kind of know who we are rather than coming here and needing to use us like as a well now I have to versus a choice yeah thank you it's it's definitely going to be a time for lots of creativity as we navigate the next three to five years all right thank you and then we have uh monitoring 7.3 annual inventory of fixed assets report um uh thank you madam chair assume I can jump in there I I didn't wait for the magic wand um uh it's great to welcome Andy croad who's our Director of Finance here to give the board an uh update this just like the enrollment report you just heard is a standing item for the board every fall so Andy thanks for all the work you did to put this together thank you very much uh very exciting topic that we're about to Embark upon scintilating so hang hang tight please um as Dr pel said this is something that uh by board policy we are asked to come forward and review with all of you once per year uh this is this is not changed or this is unchanged from last year with the exception of the fourth bullet I do want to point out there is a new gby um guideline that requires us now to record record small ticket items that are in aggregate a much larger dollar value uh we now are to record those as a fixed asset an example would be a purchase of a th000 iPads the iPad alone might only be $300 and in the past that iPad would not be or that whole purchase would not be counted as a fixed asset but because as an aggregate those thousand iPads now total $3 million that now is a fixed asset so that really is the only change and you'll see some of those additions to the total fixed assets that we have on the books now as of June 30th again how do we do this uh between the finance and Technology teams we're keeping track of all those inventories the buildings uh technology devices and you'll see if you've gone through the list of um assets you'll see obviously a tremendous number of buildings and and building equipment but also a lot of Technology equipment that becomes now fixed assets we do this on an annual basis we report these numbers to our Auditors these numbers then are included in the final audit which you'll see next next week actually yes next week so how do we dispose of equipment there are prescribed processes for us to dispose of equipment but of course if it's something that a building no longer needs we ask if other buildings need it so let's keep try to keep it in the system if we can we also can auction these things off in a Public Surplus uh domain because it's Public Funding you do have to allow anyone in the public to bid on them if there's no value it then goes to the scrapyard or uh to uh waste energy if there's no value and then there's no interest in uh the public auction last year as you can see we we received a little over $60,000 in uh payments for selling of equipment and assets so no changes in our value um our asset value value in land this year so no disposals no additions uh land improvements just a small amount there uh primarily just to give you an example there's some playground and a tunnel at Dakota that moved from construction into the fixed asset category this year pardon me because I have a couple of notes there we go uh on the buildings obviously um a little bit of increase there uh we did some boiler work uh solar panels at Longfellow and Dakota uh belong in this C category uh distributed antenna system again that's the internal antennas that go throughout the facility to help with emergency communications those are the kinds of things mail pool upgrade some of those that have been completed now go into the fixed assets so that's what you're going to see in the $5.6 million um the disposal uh actually uh is one of the disposals was actually a boiler so uh I believe it was probably a replacement in and and out uh owned equipment uh this again is where you're going to find the addition of those group assets again that's what I talked about at the beginning as an aggregate those assets that now come together and have value and the district has chosen to use a $20,000 threshold so anything that comes into us that may be made up of one or multiple items if it's greater well if it's one item it's again 5,000 or 50,000 but if it's multiple items it needs to be greater than $20,000 to be included some examples of items that might be on this that would be on this list um the disposal side is nearly all technology equipment old servers UPS equipment things of that nature and the D things in the data center switches routers things of that nature that no longer have a useful life and have no value um we also have uh in terms of added equipment a van I think we we had a large truck at FSC um security camera projects and u a lot of other technology equipment that comes on the books at the same time so you're going to see uh of that 4.1 million a great uh percentage of it would be related to technology least equipment uh went up slightly about a million three um primarily related to software subscriptions so it's software subscri subscriptions that last longer than one year we now have to uh count as a fixed asset and um we uh we we now uh I should say appreciate that a couple of examples Google go WebEx we have these autonomous scrubbers at our facilities that you all think are great which are really cool to watch actually um those would be included in this uh particular category as well so as you'd like a take a look at at the bottom line um we um did uh increase I I actually didn't now that I realize I didn't put the actual value of what our increase was but our total assets as of the end of June 30th uh is 674 th000 or $674 million rather um I neglected to put what the actual increase amount was but that is on your uh cover sheet of the board item it's in there and then we did uh obviously have some depreciation costs for all of these assets which we actually then depreciate and expense out at the course of the fiscal year as well and that was 21.7 Million so that is the excite exciting life of a fixed asset board members any questions I don't I don't know if there's a a right answer to this but is there a right amount of fixed asset for a school district to have I mean how are we when we look at other districts somebody looks at that number and says wow $674 million that's more than others less than others there going to be a lot more than others obviously because of the number of buildings we have that's going to be the biggest asset we have on the books are the building and of course we increased that level of asset with all of our Construction in the recent years so it I would say it's it's really hard to judge what is the right amount but I would tell you that ours is going to be substantially higher than a lot of other obviously even some perhaps comparable districts of our size because of the new buildings we brought on online recently that would add to the value of our so it corresponds the size of the school district number of students buildings being the biggest part of that Dr Cook um am I right that the the assets are generally based on cost to acquire that's correct okay so it's not like we're assessing the the market value of an elementary school or something okay no so whatever cost of build we put that's what we bring on the books and then we depreciate that out over the cost or over the life of that actual asset then we recognize a percentage of that expense each year board members thank you for the report you're welcome the next section our agenda are two action items the first is the acceptance of canvas of votes cast in the November 5th 2024 general election this is an action item so I will read the resolution and ask for a motion and second and if received we can have discussion before uh we take you vote on the resolution be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District number 535 Rochester Public Schools Minnesota that the general election held in and for the school district on November 5th 2024 was in all respects duly and legally called and held the returns thereof have been duly canest and the votes cast at the general election were as follows candidate Don Barlo for uh seat one received 38,1 169 votes candidate Patrick Farmer for seat one received 17,1 188 votes and right in candidates for seat one were 338 votes candidate for seat three Karen mclin received 33,5 75 votes candidate John whan for seat 3 received 23,2 34 votes and rins for seat three were 254 votes candidates receipt seven Christina Lucille Barton received 2,953 votes candidate Stephanie whorn uh for seat seven received 31,8 votes and right in candidates for seat 7even worth 331 votes be it further resolved that Don Barlo School Board director number one car mclin School Board director number three and Stephanie M white horn School Board director number 7even having received the highest number of votes are elected to four-year terms beginning January 7th 2025 and ending January 1st 2029 and be it further resolved that the school district clerk is hereby authorized to certify the results of the general election to the county auditor of each County in which the school district is located in whole or in part move approval second there has been a motion and a second any discussion congrats y'all hearing none all those in favor say I I opposed the resolution has been approved congrats y'all uh item 8. two acceptance of canvas of votes cast in the November 5th 2024 special election again an action item be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District number 535 Rochester Public Schools Minnesota that the special election held in and for the school district on November 5th 2024 was in all respects duly and legally called and held the returns thereof have been duly canvased and the votes cast at the special election for and against the questions submitted to the electors were as follows question number one yes votes 39,821 no votes 30, 58 spoiled defective or blank ballots zero total vote 6989 be it further resolved that the ballot question having received the approval of the majority of the votes cast is hereby declared to have carried and be it further resolved that pursuant to Minnesota statute section 2 205 A7 subdivision 3A the clerk is hereby instructed to notify the commissioner of Education of the results of the special election and to provide the certified vote totals for each ballot question in written form within 15 days after the results have been certified by the board with approval second there's been a motion and a second any discussion director rman um in the first um be it resolved should it say that the majority of votes cast is hereby declared not to have carried because there's a notot in there is that supposed to be there or am I not understanding legal language but you read it correctly but I yeah you read it correctly but there's a not in there after the word declin in the resolution in the resolution in um right under right under The Ballot Box the first one be it further resolved that the ballot question having received the approval of a majority of the votes cast is hereby not to have carried but it carried so that correction needs to be made but the way right that has to be made in the written but as I read it you read it correctly I read it correctly yes you read it correctly so does everybody hear the resolution that is hereby declared to have carried yes okay um any other discussion all right all those in favor say I I I all those opposed the resolution has been approved uh other business item nine there were no questions submitted by board members before the meeting the current version of the ABCD is available in this agenda item for a reference are there any agenda items board members would like to raise for consideration for a future meeting agenda hearing none our upcoming board meeting dates November 19th at 5:30 there will be a special session public meeting on the comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness report immediately following the special session will be a regular meeting on December 3rd at 5:30 there will be a regular meeting on December 10th at 5:30 :30 there will be a special session public meeting on our achievement and integration plan report and immediately following that there will be a study session on December 17th at 6m there will be a special SE a special session public hearing Our Truth and Taxation and immediately following that special session will be our last regular meeting of the year and hearing no other business this meeting is adjourned at 6:42 p.m you're welcome