##VIDEO ID:iHszd31TbMg## Nevers how do you get on your I'm G do that you get on through RPS I use my but I don't know what no that's what I've been that's what I've always do yes I blame I've done everything I hav't I haven't used we need to fix that okay we ready yes okay now go ahead nope okay sorry SYM is being assmbly there we go okay now we're ready this special meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is called to order at 5:31 p.m. on Tuesday October 22nd 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 school board members superintendent Kent pel a non voting ex officio member and assistant school board clerk Miss Lorie Sam Miss Sam would you please call the role here here here here here here here at this time we offer the opportunity to say the Pledge of Allegiance flag of the United States of America the rep for it stands Nation 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 I the agenda has been approved the agenda and documents for this meeting are available online at Rochester schools.org back assmbly our Focus topic for the special session are curriculum related field trip fees in accordance with the pupil fee law founded Minnesota statutes section 123b 38 before the initiation of any fee not authorized or prohibited by sections 123b 36 and 123b 37 the school board must hold a public hearing tonight we will hold a public hearing about field trip requests for students of Rochester Public Schools where student fees will be charged the new field trip requests which we are bringing forward to the public hearing are described in the agenda item the attachments in the agenda item provide information about these field trips Jefferson grade three to the Houston owl Center John Marshall physics day field trip to the Mall of America Washington to the Eagle Bluff environmental Learning Center the attachment school board approved enrichment field trips lists all the field trips where Schoolboard approval for a fee has already been obtained if there are members of the public who wish to make public comments on any of the field trip requests on the agenda please raise your hand to be recognized once you are recognized by the chair please come to the table choose a microphone to speak into and be seated you have 3 minutes to speak and the timer will be displayed right in front of me please begin your remarks by stating your name your relationship to Rochester Public Schools and the field trip you will be commenting on are there any comments on field trip fees second call are there any comments on field trip fees and Final Call are there any comments on field trip fees seeing no requests for comments this public hearing is adjourned at 5:35 p.m. this regular meeting of the Independent School District 535 School Board is called to order at 5:35 p.m. on Tuesday October 22nd 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 school board members superintendent Kent pel a non- voting ex officio member and assistant Schoolboard clerk Miss Lorie Sam Miss Sam would you please call the role here here here here here here here at this time we offer the opportunity to say the Pledge of Allegiance pled to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands Na indivis 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 the meeting are available online at Rochester schools.org assmbly item three are comments to the board it is important for the school board to hear from our stakeholders regarding issues that impact our students staff families and schools we welcome communication via email phone call at our community engagement listening sessions and here during comments to the board the purpose of comments to the board is to give community members an opportunity to provide input directly to the school board about issues that follow with within our Authority the board and superintendent do not respond directly to speaker comments during the meeting but may follow up with the speaker if requested and appropriate persons who want to make comments to the board must fill out the online form by 5:00 pm on the Monday before the school board meeting the form is available on the RPS website and on the assembly main page a reminder that policy 206 and procedure 206a set the time place and manner procedures and restrictions on comments to the board by participating in the public comment period each speaker agrees to abide by this public comment procedure speakers when your name is called please come to this table if you have written materials for the board please provide them to the assistant school board clerk prior to your remarks she will distribute them to board members choose a microphone to speak into and be seated please direct your marks to to the school board you will have three minutes to speak and the timer will be displayed on the timer in front of me please begin your remarks by stating your name our first Speaker tonight is Marilyn fean e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e our next agenda item is information and Outreach the mystery AI chatbot superintendent P well I don't know uh guess it is a mystery in so far as we haven't said very much about uh what it's about this referendum that is on the ballot November 5th which we just heard about from some different perspectives is tremendously complex it uh is governed by a broad array of state laws and local regulations it involves $19.4 million and a complex strategy of investment uh to use those dollars to ignite student learning and so it's tough to understand it's tough to understand uh the details it can even be tough to understand the big picture and so of course I and many of uh you as board members have been out across the community for months and months and months talking about this referendum trying to provide information we've done that in person we've done that virtually we've done that via social media and uh on a couple of those uh occasions there was a Rochester parent who uh listened intently and who said you know part of my day job is trying to uh break through and provide information in clear transparent and accessible ways now he does that in a very different sector but uh Mani tavasi offered to utilize his skills and the skills of his amazing uh very fast growing rochester-based company uh triy to help us create a bot using artificial intelligence and so I've asked Monty to come and step up to the podium and give us a debut of that um and let people see the capability that will be linked to all of our social media and websites starting tonight that will allow people to pose a question to what we ultimately decided um uh was going to be a really valuable Resource as we are in the final two weeks before this referendum so Mania can't thank you enough first of all for you know entrusting us as a parent but also as a local Citizen and business leader for stepping up and entirely for free helping us create this uh really great resource it's been a lot of fun to over the past couple of weeks work with you to uh just as you say train the AI right to uh start to uh uh create a resource that I think a lot of our community is going to find very valuable so um we're just going to uh invite you to tell us a little bit first of all you know about yourself your company and then what uh is this resource that we are launching tonight oh sure thank thank you so much Kent and thank you team here um hello everyone so I'm manasi I think I've met majority of you but if not uh so I'm here as an RPS parent and also um I run a local technology company called triby so we are based out of here in the biobs center and we provide like um you know both cloud and AI based Solutions um for uh private sector including Healthcare telecommunication across the country and when as Kent alluded to it so I was intently listening to this referendum as a as a as a parent um I was trying to understand the bits and pieces of it but as a technologist I'm I was looking at all the pieces of information and it was uh bit overwhelming in terms of uh putting these pieces together and making an informed decision right for our community members and um my goal was when I spoke to Dr Kent that we we have a capability that we want to bring to the discussion and help our community members to help understand the referendum in a much easier simpler clear and transparent way and uh with that in mind um we created this the decision. a this is the uh the tool um and I can uh go back and refresh this and yep so this is the page and you can access this tool through your mobile phone or through your uh browser it's very simple if anybody has used a chat GPT or another form of uh AI tool it's it's very very similar um and it's nothing but a simple box where you can go in and type questions and get answers regarding this referendum just just before I start putting in the questions just a um a very high level overview of what this tool is about I'm sure and happy to take other questions as well um at the end of this meeting but um so we had actually use the content that was created for this referendum using um you know this was between the PDF documents the word documents YouTube videos uh the text on the browser so and then we use this to train the model so the the model behind this it's been custom trained specific for this referendum so we're excited to present this to the community uh members to go ahead and use it learn about it and um hopefully November 5th would be a very positive day for us so so that's the whole objective and here I'm I'm also open to take any questions from the public or the board or um anyone from the room here so I can I can type a question and see what kind of response it can put out and and uh as uh Dr Kent mentioned this link to this uh tool is available in the Rochester schools website as well and you should be able to access um from now well I I'll get us started and this is not a plant this is to we didn't plan this in advance totally live if the response is the superintendent is an idiot that's so so may be um uh in the referendum proposal which area would receive the most funding still thinking few minutes 28% of the funding will support services that strengthen student well-being and mental health that is correct actually pass good sign good sign so far all right board members anybody else any other questions you want to try you want to try public yes why don't we try that good question good question we should try we can't comment on that unless we have planted this in the to oh there you go is can you read it we cannot predict the outcome of the referendum every vote matters as evidenced by last year's narrow defeat by 318 votes so we encourage you to vote so yeah any other questions board members yeah to test it there's some on the bottom can you just click one click on one of the Bott so this is just to give some lead in terms of what happens if a referendum fails if the referendum fails some programs and positions in The Proposal would need to be eliminated or greatly diminished potentially leading to school closures and cuts to teachers and staff and the second one how will this affect my property taxes oh the what thinking if the referendum passes property taxes will increase beginning in 2025 for a property valued at $350,000 the estimated increase would be about $29 per month agricultural land beyond the homestead and seasonal recreation properties are exempt from this Levy for more details you can visit this tax impact calculator at and then it gives a the web address for the tax calculator great yeah would um any other questions we can keep chatting away and uh the objective is to make it as personalized as possible to your specific need um I know there is tons of information for you to digest but uh regarding property taxes regarding the cuts how is it going to impact um to your specific uh neighbors yourself that's the whole objective of this yeah can I ask you a question y yeah go ahead um on the topic of taxes yeah is there tax relief available for people whose taxes will be increasing oh there you go yes property tax relief options are available the Minnesota homestead credit re refund May apply if your household income is under approximately $135,400 Additionally the special property tax refund is available if your tax increase increases es by more than 12% and exceed $100 seniors may qualify for the senior citizen property tax deferral if they are 65 or older with a household income of $96,000 or less you can find out more information on these programs through the Minnesota Department of Revenue director Barlo and so my question is less about Ai and more about your role as a parent oh yes uh can you if you don't mind sharing what it was like for you to as a parent uh approach uh the superintendent or uh whoever your initial entry point was to the district to make yourself available to inquire about opportunity to to serve help and how uh can you perhaps suggest us how we might be able to encourage other parents oh it's a great question in fact uh there was one of the easiest uh conversation that I had with Dr Dr Kent so I was actually listening to the meeting one was through the Chamber of Commerce because uh um as a business owner here I had attended one of those meetings and then there was one prior to that while um I listened to this meeting and people were asking questions and immediately started to think in terms of okay there was a lot of questions information is available so things started to take but but at the end of the meeting I was able to connect with Dr Kent asking him what is some of the challenges with the referendum just general questions I took back um and then we worked on a on a model uh a shell that that sort of like okay this is what we are thinking could we have a time with you um on your calendar to come in and talk about what we are we have in mind and he was gracious enough to accept a meeting with us and be showed him and and more importantly even beyond that he was extremely supportive and uh every team member of his were helping us out to provide content as well as to test the tool to ensure that the the respon respons were relatable so I think it was a extremely collaborative effort and this is what we see as a as a as a parent and also as a business own in terms of a private public partnership how it works and such a transparent and such an easy way for us to collaborate and take this forward and in fact we were just chatting even before this meeting that uh the the tool B in itself has lot more capabilities behind the scenes and the application of this can go even further than what it's uh providing for this referendum so happy to chat and and also work in terms of how we can you know take it further to help the community yeah yeah thanks board members anything else Dr Cook um could could you elaborate just a little bit on the um validation I guess or the the testing that you went through in this rapid um prototyping cycle so that our community can have confidence that the information that they're getting might not be entirely accurate in everye that's the nature of these things but yeah just a little bit about yeah so the first we wanted to make sure it is it's very uh sort of bounded uh tool that is very specific to the referendum that's the initial thinking in terms of when we started developing this so the content we relied exclusively on the vetted content from the project public schools and not the um any other content that's in the uh you know social media or anywhere else right so we wanted to ensure that it's very reliable better cont to begin with so that helped us to set those guard rails in terms of how and the responses would be constructed but then we also have to allow the AI to think and do its own intelligence so that's the whole reasoning aspect of the AI where it comes in and helps you to frame um the responses in a more digestible format so behind the scenes the content is a validated content uh but the responses are the objective was to simplify it and in a digestible form so that's the approach we took the training set is all curated in advance corre not dynamically inting more you can so what we did was as we were building this and that was part of when we initially came in it we had like just two pieces of information and then when we worked with the with the school district they were able to provide like additional like videos and um q&as so that sort of enhanced our overall content because as Dr Ken was mentioning there were so many meetings that were happening and all these q&as were happening across the board and those were curated and be fed into this tool well thank you yeah right appreciate it we we're excited to bring this to not only for the school but to the community everyone and we want to take this forward Beyond November 5th as well yend um I will refrain myself from uh sharing all the wheels that are turning in my head but as you can imagine and man and I were talking about this if you are a new parent to Rochester and you're trying to decide what school to enroll your kid in we could provide uh you know on demand information that' be very targeted um I I think the final Point uh that I would end with is for anybody in a position of you know public responsibility let's just say the constant challenge is getting the information to the people who need it and if I had a dollar for every time somebody asked for something and we said well that's on the fact sheet that's on the website we said it in the school board meeting it's out there but if people can't get to it it hasn't served its purpose and so it's it's small consolation that we had it somewhere on the website but people couldn't find it and so I think what's really exciting about this you know you could look at this and be a little cynical and say well all of this information was there already well it wasn't all there on the website because Monty and the technology went deep through some of the technical notes that we used used in putting the referendum proposal together as director mcan's question about the tax exemptions demonstrated that's not like prom on the website but it was something we used in the planning so there is more but the real value added here is that it comes to you the information comes to you and I think that's not a small thing where you are a homeowner you are a business owner you're a parent and you don't have the time to search through uh pages and Pages or to be on the phone uh even though we try as I think even Mon's story about the fact that I met him after a referendum presentation and we got together right away to talk we try and be responsive but in the end there's only so many hours of the day and and so many people you can connect with and so I think this is not a small example of the kind of uh engagement that we seek to uh make true of all of our work but at this critical moment where citizens in our community do have a very big decision to make uh I think this is not a small contribution so really want to thank you again for that thank you appreciate it yeah thanks for the [Applause] opportunity and this will be available on our it's going live tonight referendum website yep you you'll find uh links to it and uh quite a few different places that uh you can find and um uh we look forward to continuing to feed more information into uh the chatbot between now and election day thank you item 4.2 is a recognition of national school bus safety week national school bus safety week is October 21st through 25th this is a great opportunity to review some key reminders when a school bus's red lights are flashing and the stop arm is extended drivers must slow down and come to a complete stop this is not a suggestion it's the law yellow flashing lights indicate the the bus is preparing to stop to load or unload children this is when motorists should begin to slow down and prepare to stop their vehicles motorists May begin moving only when the red flashing lights are turned off the stop armor is withdrawn and the bus begins to move drivers are also reminded to respect the school bus loading and unloading area called The Danger Zone specifically this is any side of the bus where the bus driver can't see the child and therefore the child is in the most danger these areas include 10 ft in front of the bus where the driver may be sitting too high to see a child 10 feet on either side of the bus where a child might be in the driver's blind spots or behind the school bus school bus riders and their parents and caregivers rely on the other drivers on the road to follow the law to keep everyone safe slow down and be aware of school buses and children gathering at bus stops as you travel the area's roads item 4.2 our board member committee updates does any board member have any updates from their committees or other uh information to share director Marvin very briefly today was the first meeting of our district student School Board we had representatives from our three uh high schools meet in this room they just ended a few hours ago they met with the superintendent um with Mr ruffen and um a number of other representatives from our District's Administration uh they were welcomed into the boardroom with music and Applause and school board members up the not school board members those adults here attempted to dance to the music it was an attempt um so kids started the day with a a good laugh um but we are really looking forward to this year uh the focus is going to be having these students advise the superintendent and the board on important issues real issues that we are going to be dealing with this year the student perspective the student voice is an important part of our strategic plan and this is a a very um specific determined and uh planful way that we really want students to know that what they say matters their experience matters and we're not going to just listen to them we're going to really include them in the decisionmaking beginning next month we will have a student at uh each at least once of our monthly meeting giving the report on what they do so we're looking forward to that and I'm glad to see some students are here that's the report Dr mik llin um I attended the annual education Summit for Cradle to Career um earlier this month um it was a great opportunity to collaborate with various groups in the in the um community that are have an interest in education and I was lots of great sessions all day long but I was particularly in intrigued by the keynote speaker who talked about cross- sector collaboration he is a professor from the University of Minnesota and he talked about the goal of his research being leveraging diversity for unified purposes and shared Solutions I just found that so intriguing and what he ultimately left the group with is to not be afraid to start small to learn from the group's experience when hopefully we will see some cross- sector collabor a here in Rochester and use those experiences whether you fail or need to Pivot or have successes that all of it is valuable information for our community Dr Marvin do you want to talk a little bit about the session that you presented at the um credal to career and the collaboration that kind of brought that together yes um sorry I know I'd be happy to um uh Sarah Louise Henry and I presented along with cradle to career personnel about a form that we had last uh spring with high school students uh students from all three high schools came together met with administrators from their buildings and each a group from each High School worked on a particular uh challenge that they found at their High School it was a half a day they had lots of time to plan to talk to problem solve with support from adults and at the end of the session they not only had had lunch and had an opportunity to talk with kids from other schools but they also had an action plan to address that particular Challenge and uh I think the best thing we did at the credle to Career uh Gathering uh that Miss mcclaflin was talking about is that the students did the presentation so they talked about the experience from their perspective and and they presented the challenge that they uh were working with and the solution that they came up with and um they did an amazing job great thank you any other reports board members all right we'll move on to our consent agenda items 5.1 through 510 um are our consent agenda items for tonight would any board member like any item removed from the consent agenda 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 our next agenda item is 6.1 a focus topic referendum 2024 straight answers to the tough questions superintendent pel thank you chair Nathan um we've already heard one example tonight uh in our uh new chatbot that is one resource for getting information on the referendum that's on the ballot November 5th and we want to debut another um if Miss Sam can jump up and bring uh to life uh a new page that's going live on our website uh this evening over the past really five months we have given up uh presentations and especially virtually received a ton of feedback from the community on the ignite student learning referendum and we have distilled the 20 questions that we think have been either the most frequent or uh of the greatest interest and concern to various stakeholders into a new document and website where we have given the shortest answer we could manage without sacrificing any of the detail to each of those 20 questions and this is going live tonight we'll be sending it out through our various channels and we really hope that as people approach making their final decisions about the referendum people will use this resource um uh in a way that um supplements the the reading that they may already have been doing so in the spirit of uh live YouTube um we're just going to actually take a look at the site and um you're going to see that uh not only does it consist of those 20 questions it consists of a short video in which I give the best answer that our team could come up with uh again while keeping the answer concise and then we're going to invite uh board members to choose one of those questions that they found uh of particular interest or importance to them and then following uh the brief video in which I give the uh answer that we arrived upon over many months of of feedback on the referendum for the board member to share their thoughts on why that's something that they think is important for our community to keep in mind as we approach this decision so you can see you'll go there to the top page and you'll see our straight answers to 20 big referendum questions and if we scroll down a bit you will see a little bit of explan mandatory text and in fact looks like it's not quite picking up now but if it if you refreshed the chatbot is now live on the page and uh if you go back up there you see our votesmart chatbot literally appearing while we are in this meeting so you can link to the new tool that Monty just gave us an overview of then if you are old school like me and you like to read stuff you can click on that link that says a document to download the question and answers in which you will get text but then when we look there you go at the the written document but then the heart of it are these videos and questions so you can see there's 20 there and I will turn it over to you to chair Nathan to give each board member a chance to pick one we'll uh take a look at the video and then uh I should say thank you to the Rochester students parents and staff who agreed to record each of these questions uh in their own voice even if it wasn't their own writing uh to try try and bring another voice into these videos so great Madam chair let's jump in all right board members we've each chosen a question who would like to identify their question first and we can move on with the video and your comments who wants to start I can go first because I think my question is the lowest number okay how about that and what is your question number mine is question number four all right all right here we go [Music] if the referendum passes does it mean there will be no changes in programming or positions that the referendum would fund if the ignite student learning referendum is approved RPS will allocate the funds to four critical investment areas 19% of the funding will support positions that assist students who need more support to thrive 25% of the funding will support programs that challenge Advanced students and enrich learning for all students 28% of the funding will support services that strengthen student well-being and mental health and another 28% of the funding will Support classes that prepare students for success in vocational and Technical careers within each of these four categories the school district has identified a set of positions and programs that will receive funding the precise levels of funding that the positions and programs will receive within each category may change over the 10year life of the operating Levy as students educational needs and interests shift parent priorities evolve and state and federal laws and regulations are adopted revised and repealed each year the school district will include a detailed update on how referendum funds were used during the previous year in its budget book and each year the RPS school board will review and approve the referendum spending plan for the following year a dashboard that summarizes how referendum funds have been spent will also be continually updated on the school district's [Music] website director M Walkin I chose this particular question because I like the way it is optimistically phrased and Forward Thinking recognizing what would happen if the referendum passes but also having questions about how that would play out if and when the referendum passes I very much appreciate the language in the response that talks about um changing students educational needs and interests I find this a very responsive type of answer in that it's recognizing that things do change and that our district very much has the capability of being responsive to the needs of our students our parents and our community also recognizing that things like state and federal law laws and regulations also change and we need to be responsive to those I also like the aspects of this answer that have the concept of continuous Improvement embedded into the answer and the fact that many of the topics in this answer reflect on the fact that the district will use data to provide information to the community both through Gathering financial information for the budget book and also presenting data from the successful referendum and how we use the funds on a dashboard and finally recognizing that the school board will also have the opportunity to take action to U approve a spending plan in the following years all right board members who's next director cook I think I have the next number so that's how we're doing this uh number six please [Music] RPS says that if the referendum passes it won't have to close schools raise class sizes or make major Cuts in programs or positions would that be true for the entire 10 years that the operating Levy would be in place if current state and federal funding levels and student enrollment levels in RPS are maintained or increased and if our community does not suffer another major crisis such as the covid-19 pandemic approval of the 2024 referendum will enable RPS to achieve the financial stability we need to avoid making major reductions for at least the first five years of the referendum period and potentially [Music] longer Dr cut so this question underscores for me our community's strong and understandable Collective desire for predictability for stability in its public education system the parents in our community want to know that the neighborhood they decided to settle in or uh have decided to remain in uh to raise their families will continue to be associated with whichever one of the wonderful neighborhood schools that ties together the community defined by that school they're wondering will my neighborhood school be closed will the boundaries be changed will the programs I thought my students were to would participate in maybe even in much later future grades even be available will the classes get larger I have four kids enrolled in RPS my oldest is a nth grader youngest is in second grade which means I've spent many moments thinking about how this referendum outcome will impact them over the next decade so the concerns about stability that are expressed in this question are not just theoretical to me I know for certain these concerns are not just theoretical to our students they care quite a bit and I know these concerns over the looming potential for disruption and instability that would accompany the significant budget reductions outlined are particularly acute for many in our community so I'm glad we're addressing IT director how about 11 it's like a game show it is take 11 or [Music] 1200 why did the school district asked for 10.1 million in the 2023 referendum and 19.4 million in the 2024 referendum last year the district proposed a $10.1 million capital projects Levy which is a kind of Levy that can be used for a limited range of spending on equipment and Technology this would have created substantial Savings in our general fund budget if it had passed and it would have allowed us to partly stabilize our finances the current referendum in 2024 proposes an operating Levy increase of $19.4 million annually that funding will fully address the deficit in our general fund which supports staff salaries curriculum programs Transportation student services and supplies the 2023 referendum was defeated by 318 votes out of more than 22,000 after that narrow defeat we reached out to many residents for feedback and we heard concerns and questions about approving funding for Technology based on that input we decided to seek approval of an operating Levy in 2024 that can provide funding for salaries and programs that directly impact student [Music] learning Dr Garcia yes thank you so I chose this question because I would have wanted this explanation if I were on the other side of the table so I thought it would be appropriate um in addition to the answer given I wanted to be able to highlight that after the capital projects Levy vote uh as they mentioned we surveyed the community um and we heard those results in March of 2024 and one of the questions in that survey was if Rochester Public Schools places an operating referendum on the ballot what types of educational programs or initiatives would make you want to vote for the referendum and it was an open response but the top three sort of categories were smaller class sizes support for students who struggle academically or with mental health mental health and social/emotional supports for all students so we could not have technology levied our way to those priorities because a capital projects Levy uh has a narrow Focus as we heard um we can get there with an operating Levy so what I mean by that is the capital projects Levy ask was a way for us to free up money that we were using out of the general fund uh for technology but now the ask of the $19.4 million is because that is what increasing our per pupil funding looks like so that we aren't dead last among our district peers this is a way that we can show up for our students for years to come and I think I'm next number 14 [Music] why is the school district asking the community to pass the referendum the same years as the city of Rochester and Omen County are raising their levies the the size and timing of the levy increases by the city of Rochester and Olstead County were not factors we could consider when deciding to put the referendum on the ballot Rochester Public School simply does not have any way to delay the major cuts that would be required to balance the district's budget for the 2025 2026 school year except to secure additional funding through the referendum that will be on the ballot on November 5th the school district's budget Reserve funds are insufficient to postpone those reductions for another year it is worth noting that in Minnesota only school districts are required to ask residents to approve levies that support core Services cities and counties are able to raise their levies without direct voter [Music] approval so I wanted to highlight the middle uh sentence in that answer which is Rochester Public Schools does not have any way to delay the major cuts except to secure additional funding through the referendum that will be on the ballot November 5th I think the importance of this question is to help us emphasize that we're facing an either or situation that the city or the county can't solve it can only be solved by the voters of Rochester there are two potential futures for RPS either the voters approve additional funding or there will be consequential budget cuts that will affect all students K12 with implications for the next decade I wanted to put these potential Futures in the context with the recent past and the work that the board and the superintendent have have been doing in February of 2022 after considering stakeholder feedback we told the community that our three-year Financial strategy to bring stability to the RPS budget would have two major components budget reductions in years one and two and in year three and I quote seek a voter approved operating referendum Revenue increase to generate $2.2 million going to repeat that we told the community in early 2022 that we would be seeking a property tax increase through a referendum in the third year of our strategy so where are we today we're in the third year of implementing that strategy and in the past two years we've cut $21.4 million from the budget and we've reduced our FTE by 154 and with the failure of the referendum in 2023 we put a $ 19.4 million referendum on the ballot now at the same time we're in the third year of implementing our strategic plan my favorite graphic at the back of the room it's also been discussed very publicly involved considerable Community input and we've tracked it through agenda items and presentations at almost every school board meeting in the past three years implementing the Strategic plan at the same time we were implementing our budget stability strategy was intentional we know that if RPS has any chance to improve student outcomes through our strategic plan we have to maintain the financial and people resources to do it we can't cut our way to success and we're the only government entity as the question and answer also provided that is required to go to the voters for increased Revenue through property taxes I'll repeat we told the community in 2022 that we would be seeking a property tax increase through a referendum in the next three years we cannot wait any long longer to make that ask until the city or the county is in a financial position where they have low or no tax increases we told our community about the problem and the strategy to address it we've not deviated from implementing that strategy and the time is now for the community to act on the final piece of that strategy the referendum with Revenue that will be applied to the benefit of education for Rochester students director bar uh question number [Music] 16 RPS said that this Levy would be enforced for 10 years but I've heard 20 years what's the answer in 2023 the state of Minnesota approved legislation that allows School boards to renew a voter approved operating Levy one time without holding another referendum as a result a future Rochester school board would be able to renew the levy that is on the ballot in 2024 between July 1st 2032 and June 14 2034 now the membership and priorities of the RPS school board will likely change between now and then so it's difficult to predict how the school board might act at that time in addition the state of Minnesota could also decide to repeal this recently approved law given those and other potential changes in the political landscape I think it's really impossible to predict whether the operating Levy that's on the ballot November 5th would be extended beyond the current 10-year period that would be put in place if the referendum is [Music] approved well I selected this because I like many of you have heard um the statement made that uh this will seemingly automatically be extended it's not really a 20 a 10 year it's a 20 year but um it is a 10 year and and I I appreciate the answer uh and one thing stuck out to me and I did the math to be sure uh but should this referendum passed there will be five School Board election Cycles uh which will occur during this 10-year period and it's impossible to know what uh the makeup of those of what the school board will look like I can speak for myself I don't envision myself being here 10 years from now uh but uh uh having said that uh those who may be concerned uh certainly are encouraged to uh to become involved engaged and uh um perhaps occupy these seats so when those decisions need to be made they're in a position to make them all right director Workman I chose question question number [Music] 18 how would an increase or decrease in student enrollment impact the amount of funding that the referendum generates for RPS the amount of funding that RPS receives through the referendum would be based upon the number of students that we serve as a result if enrollment declines the amount of funding the district receives will decrease and if enroll Rises the amount will [Music] increase so I was interested in this in this question because I think it's really important to remind people of the actual words of the ballot which were written by legal council submitted to mde Minnesota Department of Education Olstead County and Wabasha County and approved by the board this past May so the ballot question actually reads the aard of Independent School District number 535 Rochester Public Schools Minnesota has proposed to increase the school district's general education Revenue by $1,133 per pupil subject to an annual increase at the rate of inflation the proposed new referendum Revenue authorization would be first levied in 2024 for taxes payable in 2025 and applicable for 10 years unless otherwise revoked or reduced as provided by law then the question is shall the new referendum authorization proposed by the board of Independent School District number 535 Rochester Public Schools Minnesota be approved I'd also like to remind people that property taxes can go up if the property is reassessed at a greater value but the property taxes could also go down if the property tax is re reassessed at a lower value or can also go down if the tax base expands which has it has been doing just a reminder this is simply the school board School District uh part of the property tax the rest of your tax bill is from the city and the county and any special assessments you might have on your property director Marvin loric question number [Music] 19 why should someone who does not have kids in the school care about this referendum Rochester Public Schools currently serves over 17,300 students or more than 75% of the young people who live within the district's boundaries this means that the education students receive in RPS classrooms today will powerfully shape our community's Workforce tomorrow the Knowledge and Skills of our Workforce whether in health care business law enforcement or other fields will play a key role in determining whether Rochester thrives or declines studies show that people with better educations earn higher incomes have more stable families are healthier and live longer and are more likely to vote and volunteer they're also less likely to commit serious crimes and rely on welfare additionally homes near good schools tend to have higher property values for these and many other reasons residents without children in school are much more likely to enjoy a higher quality of life in a community with strong Public Schools well I think Dr pel just answered that better than I can so we could leave it like that however um the reason I chose this particular question is because I'm in that demographic I don't have children in school and and um the last week I was able to uh meet with a group of retired senior citizens and a group of high school students we it wasn't about the referendum we did talk about education but none of them have kids in schools and and they all talked about why education's important as Dr pel has said a a community with quality public education is good for economic growth of that um community for all the reasons he just mentioned and and many more um and and I'm thinking we pay taxes for things that we value I mean even if I didn't drive a car I would be happy to pay the city to keep the streets in front of my house plowed I want to know a fire engine can get through if there's fire I really want to know that the pizza delivery guy can get there and I want people from other communities to know that if they move to Rochester they will have streets that are as safe as they can be in Minnesota winters the other part of this question though is why should someone care about Rochester kids especially if they're other people's kids and to my way of thinking the part that's not about economy is that this country and our community has made a promise to kids that we will do everything we can to help you have a better life than we have had to help you get ahead to help you be safe to help you discover who you are and have opportunities that we didn't have to help you navigate a world with problems that didn't exist when we were younger um it's the promise we make and it's the promise I think that helps us become a better community that helps us become inviting to other people who want to come here whether whether they have children or not um it's a promise we make to our kids thank you board members board members does anybody have any cross comments or any general comments about questions or um I think director Marvin if I if I could take a shot at summing up the way that you uh just um added on to Dr pel's response to question 19 it might be that one reason comes from your head the other one's from your heart I thought you put that really well and I think we would be remiss um even though none of the top 20 Questions specifically deal with voting but um early voting is open in person and um it's available at the Olstead County elections office Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5: p.m. and there are some additional dates for early inperson voting on Saturday October 26th and Saturday November 2nd from 9:00 am. to 3 p.m. and on Sunday November 3rd from 9:00 am. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday October 29th the hours are extended from 8:00 am to 7 p.m. and then of course there's voting on Election Day on November 5th anything else board members I think I'd like I'd like to thank um the superintendent and our Communications team um for all the work that they've done in bringing um all of these resources together and putting the videos together and editing them and recording them I think it'll be a great resource for our community along with our new chatbot who are looking for information as they go to vote in the next two weeks so our next agenda item is other business 7.1 there were no questions submitted by board members before the meeting the current version of the ABCD is available in this agenda item 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 are November 12th at 5:30 pm. which is a regular meeting on November 19th at 5:30 p.m. we have a special session which is our public hearing on what we used to call the world's best Workforce and what we now call I know I can't remember Readiness C and good stuff okay rolls off the T doesn't it um it's the it's the worst name ever replacing the second worst name ever exactly um immediately following that public hearing um will be a regular meeting on December 1st or December 3rd at 5:30 pm we have a regular meeting and on December 10th at 5:30 p.m. we have a study session and hearing no other business this meeting is adjourned at 6:42 pm. e