##VIDEO ID:lQTH0K-0-VI## e so this year in Rochester Public Schools we have banned cell phones and we know that has not been the most popular thing with uh students so I am here at Mayo High School where I'm going to talk to some of the leaders of the student government about how they think it's gone this year what was the first thing you thought when you heard there was going to be ban on cell phones this year just what came to your mind at first I was like oh no e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e 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 exfo 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 I pledge alce to the FL of the United States of America to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy 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 second 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 assmbly there are no comments to the board this evening item 4.1 information and Outreach is souped Su soup soup in the halls and you have something to share with us uh yes thank you chair Nathan and members um as I know you know I periodically have the opportunity to go out and um chat with students about various uh subjects we've never shown one at a board meeting uh but in part because our agenda tonight is a little bit lighter but in part because it is about a subject that this board spent a lot of time on which was our new cell phone procedure um and so we're going to take just a few moments if the technology works I will just say earlier today I was meeting with our president of the Rochester Education Association Vince wag and we both agreed that for our generation our favorite moment is uh some of the students responses to how do you think parents used to get a hold of kids when they didn't have cell phones in school so you have to watch for the reactions because it's subtle of a few of the students but that's my favorite moment and I just have to say the students at Mayo High School were absolutely fantastic as they are in all of our schools so here's a little quick glimpse of our cell phone procedure after one month of school so this year in Rochester Public Schools we have banned cell phones and we know that has not been the most popular thing with uh students so I am here at Mayo High School where I'm going to talk to some of the leaders of the student government about how they think it's gone this year what was the first thing you thought when you heard there was going to be ban on cell phones this year just what came to your mind at first I was like oh no like we're not doing that I think that's stupid for me I think like right away I was like God this is so dumb because like so much is done online these days like on our phone I was like it's not going to work and it's not going to be any different from any other years because cell phones have always been a no no in schools but they're always here so to be honest I was like pretty freaked out because I'm like what's it going to look like cuz I know there's schools that have like the pouches you have to put them in I'm like are they just going to take it away for the whole day and it felt like kind of taking away a freedom that we already had and was kind of going back into the past War as well taking away your freedom that's a that's a that's a big way to big way to put it no I like it so how has it actually gone with about one month of the school year done I mean it's been I thought it's gone pretty well like honestly having my phone away in class has kind of helped me make more connections with kids in my class as well and I also just feel like I um have done better in my classes cuz I'm not distracted by my phone as much as well for me personally I think it's going very well like I think I've been able to like take a like put my phone away and just like fully um focus on school so far I think it's been good like I I feel like we're more connected with our peers like I feel like I've gotten to know people better this year just because like it doesn't mean that I just sit on my phone after class like I talk to people around me which can be really nice but also um sometimes when classes are done and like after like a math assignment and you have nothing to do it can be a little bit boring I kind of miss listening to music in class but overall it's been okay I think it's honestly like been pretty good I think it's definitely shown I mean at least me me like how much I actually rely on my phone and how much of like a screenager I am cuz like I just realized like how much like I like want to reach for my phone throughout the day but I think it's definitely like kept me more engaged in my classes um I think like having a policy like actually made it work um I thought it wasn't going to work but it did like I feel like I don't see any phones in classrooms and like I don't know it feels a lot more strict which I like well uh last year when I was talking to some uh students here in Rochester about cell phone band a girl said if you take my cell phone it will be like cutting off my arm has having your cell phone uh put away been like um losing any body part to you and if so which body part it's best definitely been time s where it's felt like it's been like it's been cutting off my arm a little bit cuz I'm like oh wait I can grab my phone I'm like oh I'm not supposed to have that right now I I guess it would be like cutting my hair like it's something that like I I kind of was annoying at first I wasn't really sure if I liked it or not but like it hasn't had that terrible of an impact so far I would say it feels like I've lost my hand like I just always go for my phone I feel like like the moment the teacher's done talking like the moment we're assigned something like oh I need to check my phone like what do I have going on in Google Classroom what do I have going on in this group chat for this club and like it's just a really bad habit and I think this is like good for us like honestly like my mouth like like I don't know it was like it didn't feel like I was really losing it but it was like oh like I think of this and I'm like oh I need to text my mom this but then I'm like wait I can't use my phone so I just have to like write it down and like remember it when how do you think when I was in high school a zillion years ago how do you think parents got information to their students during the school day if they needed to do that yeah I was thinking about that like how like I maybe they called the school yeah yeah Genius Like there still landmines and stuff then were they like called secretary that's it right there and you know what it worked I think they just did it through a teacher like cell phone or maybe they just didn't I don't know do you ever think of calling the office yeah maybe that final question how do you think parents got in touch with their students during the school day when they needed to talk to him before cell phones the office yeah I remember when I was in kindergarten I would like go to the office to call my mom when I needed a ride I miss a bus there you go and it's it worked fairly well right yeah it did we've gotten some emails from parents that are like how will I get in touch with my kid we're like we have friendly office staff who will get your kindergarten or your Junior if you were superintendent what would you have done about cell phones here in Rochester I mean probably a similar thing like just making sure teachers are being proactive about the cell phone problem because I know in the past there's been an issue where it's just like teachers feel like no matter what they do they can't make an impact within the cell phone policy but especially this year I know so many teachers who just are very open about no phone no phone like if they see it I know my chemistry teacher like screams out violation every single time and every time he does it people put their phones away so I think it's been helpful to put it the way now at least he screams out violation yes he screams out and points violation every time that's that's strong implementation right there I don't know that's hard cuz like I feel like you have so much power as a superintendent but like there's also a lot of like room for like judgment or like people not agreeing with your opinion so I don't know I would definitely be very conflicted but honestly like I don't really have anything negative to say about the policy like I don't know if I would changed it or kept it but yeah it's not a great thing to do if you want kids to really love you you know giving giving snow days is a better thing than than Banning cellones [Applause] yeah I I I will say to the reporters over here your jobs are safe from me I think but um I appreciate the chance and thanks to uh Mr priy and to the student government advisers and especially the kids who were there at May High scho school that was terrific thank you item 4.2 are board member committee updates does any board member have updates from any committees or any events to share director Marvin um a few of us were able to attend um a uh uh Overland uh Elementary School uh to watch uh their teachers in action as they were carrying out some of the items on their skip their school uh continuous Improvement plan and it was a a real gift for us to see teachers and Kids In Action in one classroom kids were learning reading and I we were so impressed that there was a a teacher at a table reading with a few kids others were uh working independently some of them were working in small groups uh they were on task they were engaged they were learning at different levels in different ways uh we went to another room where kids were learning about waiting for their time to talk I think it was a kindergarten class wasn't it where they were in a circle and they were was first grade first grade okay um and and learning how to be a good Community how to share um really how to listen to each other uh another classroom uh they were looking at a piece of art classic art and observing really looking at it really observing and making inferences about what was going on on in the painting but it was just the the best of education and Mr ruffen uh was with us and uh one thing I really enjoyed was the number of kids who asked Mr Ruffin if he was a grandfather because I guess you just look old I'm not sure or maybe just you have that kind of presence but it was it was a wonderful experience and we've always loved having people come to the board meetings and talk to us about what they're doing in their schools but it's a whole different level when you can go and see in action what it looks like what the teachers sound like what how the kids are reacting and it was it was inspirational director Workman well everything that she said but I'll add to it and one of the things that particularly struck me was that in the design of the building there are spaces for small groups to work so from a distance I had the opportunity to watch about maybe four five six kids with an educational support professional who has been trained and taught how to work with these kids to give them that more one onone um support that they need and um this is one of the things that I'm I'm hoping that the referendum will support the continuation of this and it is so valuable for our young people to have that and we'll be able to give a report on those skip visits once a month as we have one scheduled for every month for the rest of the school year so thank you board members any other committees or activities moving on to our consent agenda items 5.1 through 5.6 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 item 6.1 is a focus topic Energy savings update and initial discussion of RPS environmental impact superintendent P thank you chair Nathan I'm gonna have our chief administrative officer John Carlson is coming up and I'm going to give him a chance to introduce our colleagues from Center jistic um I will just say at a time when we are seeing this the second hurricane in a very brief period of time uh hit Florida having taken an incredible toll the previous uh St storm uh and human and physical uh human life and physical property I'm reminded of the fact that when I do get out and talk to our Rochester Public School students I'm regularly asked what is Rochester Public Schools doing about climate change um and one answer is academically we are rolling out a great new environmental science course that has a ton of great academic content in the High School curriculum but another is what we're here to talk about tonight how we are using our resources efficiently for the planet which also has benefits for our budget and so we wanted to devote a bit of time to that process here I'm sure all of our students are watching the Schoolboard meeting tonight to see but uh seriously it is a a top concern for our young people and so um I am glad that we have got uh some impressive results to share so John great thank you superintendent pel and chair Nathan members of the board it's my pleasure to be here tonight with um three members from CER jistic Lynn pace is sitting there in the front row I've got Dwayne Tomkins sitting next to me and Adam Hansen uh to the left of him uh this is the end of our sixth year of the program that we started in the 2018 2019 school year so we've completed six full years of the program and uh we wanted to give an update on what we're doing to avoid energy costs at Rochester Public School so I'm going to turn it over to Adam all right thank you uh Dr pel and the school board members um he already did the introduction so I'm just going to jump right into it um so our total program savings over the first six years like John mentioned is 5.31 million uh that the same as 18.4% in overall savings and I'll be mentioning the base year which is compared to um throughout these slides which will be the one year prior to our uh partnership with the district so our energy use avoidance um so you can see in the first performance Year we're at 33 million kbts KBT us is just the natural gas and electricity divided by the amount of square feet that's in the district so just a value that we can follow um you can see the increase in the performance year 2 then it plateaus a little bit and that would be with the first uh few months of the pandemic and then the following year we were running things a lot longer kind of showing that we're not just all about savings we want to make sure that we're running healthy buildings running our flushes make sure we're um following ashray and CDC standards getting extra flushes in there um along with you know in increased ventilation and uh increase or increased number of MV 13 filters so and then you can see the uh the in or the increase after that going back up to about 40 million and then where we are after uh the month of July of the summer at 45 million and then with all those added up that's equivalent to running the schools all the schools in the district for the next 1.23 years with what we've reduced in the first six so I'll show the uh the next couple of slides are the ones that I really wanted to uh focus on here the cost per unit impact with the rising prices and everything um especially utilities with electricity and natural gas we can see from the base year to the previous uh 12 months uh the electricity has gone up 26% and natural gas of 30% um and despite these rate incre increases and then a 12% increase in our square footage since the base year uh we have still cut our cost per square foot in the district um and reducing that by 30% so even just over the last 12 months um we've been able to avoid paying the utility companies an extra one one a little over1 millionar so even with those rate increases and everything it's um it's a huge savings to have not just us but have the the side of the facilities team and custodians and everybody teachers everyone that's involved to helping out and make these changes and uh not pay the utility companies more than we want to so then the next one so that was the the base year would be at 74.6 like I mentioned before the kbus uh per square feet started off close to 75 and it kind of follows the same Trend um as couple of our other graphs you can see where it is reducing the first few years kind of comes back up during Co when we're running things a little bit longer and back down to the the current state of 51.7 so that is a reduction of uses by 30.7% um so that's just in raw raw usage there I want to just interject there so when we were kicking the tires and um considering energy initiatives back in 2017 and early 2018 and we knew what our base your uh kbtu was at 74 and I had asked like how low could we get that and they're like well you can probably get it into the 50s and I'm like there's no way you could go from 74 down to 50 and here we are we got our energy use U down to 51.7 then as Dr pel said recently too about the environmental environmental impact obviously those other gr are shwing usage reduction and uh utility cost reduction but some of the environmental impact that it also has that 217 million kbtu reduction um it's also like the 25,000 metric tons of CO2 being avoided or the 416,000 tree seedings growing for 10 years and then avoiding 27 million pounds of coal being burned so there's a lot more that we can discuss too or when we look forward to introducing some of this into any of our classes that we we have a lot of things that we can do with uh um what would you say um what's that Power Rangers yeah so yeah different programs that we can that we can help out if if that's something that the district would like in the future so my name is Dwayne tamkins and I'm the Cent manager and I have the privilege of working with Adam uh he's definitely Rockstar so uh the things he's been able to do uh alongside John and and thanks to the school board members and uh it's just short of phenomenal so just imagine I've got one question what if every school district did exactly what you guys did here could you imagine the impact that could have on our world on our nation they could just do exactly what you guys did so we happen to believe it's synergistic that what you doing is so phenomenal uh that we consider you to be best in class right so um along with being best in class so uh we have a synergistic Community $2,000 scholarship we want to award to you guys the synergic community scholarship is funded by synergistic to recognize your organization's efforts for being best-in class current levels of above average energy reduction and savings uh can only be achieved through the superior support from staff and students to realize energy program goals so we do have a banner you bring that up John I'm going to give you hand you this check sir okay did I give it to the wrong person no he's he's the right person just ask it that's fantastic just display so yeah please know um and the weight of this award and your energy efficient measures just being got you yeah just holding up all right thanks just being responsible individuals you know um the school Community would like to know that we are being good stewards of the taxpayers dollars and that's the exactly what we're doing by being purposeful and intentional about how we operate our buildings on a day-to-day basis so we synergistic thank you we applaud you and uh we greatly appreciate your efforts and uh we value the relationship that we have and we hope that we can continue this relationship along into the future so thank you so much I appreciate it thank you thank you um just a quick add-on here is to address some of the other things we're doing that are not specifically with energistically program uh we have been aggressive at applying for solar for schools grants and getting solar panel projects installed on our buildings so I've put up the six schools where we've been working two of them um were done last summer in 2023 that's Dakota and Longfellow and then in summer of 2024 uh we put in panels at Bishop and Overland and then um in process right now are Elton Hills and Hoover I think over the mea break the Hoover panels will be craned up on top there so um those are the grants that we've received so far and there's a couple pictures of what uh looks like at the top of Bishop and Overland right now so that concludes our presentation we'd be open if there's any questions from anyone director cook um yeah I love this topic uh I I'm just I'm wondering if you could uh you could take us back a little bit because this is a six-year program and I appreciate that a lot of it and you you've called out the cooperation of staff and Facilities um professionals throughout the district in um being diligent with the the settings and so forth and and cooperating but how much of this is infrastructure and how much of it is like human behavior that we're uh trying to account for because I know there's been a a few new schools so the footprint of the District Physical footprint is not quite the same in now as it was in 2017 but could you speak to that a little bit um how yeah yeah so I mean I think with the staff contribution a lot of times it's during the summer months the Thanksgiving breaks winter breaks having everyone do their part and set back things but a lot of a lot of the savings do come from managing schedules and making sure everything's following a schedule shutting off at 5:00 p.m. let's say and that's what we do too I mean when I'm here I'm out on on Christmas Day morning I'll go out so before that I don't think there's a lot of people that from facilities or custodians that would be out in the building so this is something that maybe someone would have missed for six years if they was with no one in the building right so you could have something running we have a thing called holiday mode programming so it'll override everything in the school all lights all exhaust fans all Air Handlers boilers chillers whatever and it'll turn them off for the day like it's a weekend so without people being in the building like I am in the morning I can find things get them resolved as soon as possible um and also we we don't sell anything so we work with whatever we have for existing equipment so obviously the newer buildings it's a lot easier there's not a lot of opportunity they've already done a lot of that but we've also Incorporated some of our programming measures let's say we're we're coming up on the heating seasoning we've uh or Incorporated some programming for boiler offsets which pretty much reduces the heat Supply overnight when no one's in the building when no one's using it so before that it would still be running at 100% whether there's people in the building or not so there is things that we obviously just use with existing equipment and hopefully that answered your question W yeah I'd say a lot of it is behavioral but a lot of it is just being aware of when we're not here and not using our buildings and properly shutting everything down and then trusting but verifying so we find many instances I read Adam's reports where it says it's off and he's in there he can hear it running so then he tags he does a followup and we put a fix to uh make sure that that system actually does turn off when it says it's supposed to turn off yeah well I I just I love that the the savings are uh about the same as the purchase on the wit and wisdom curriculum that we got to see it over when um you know on an annual basis so um yeah this is this is just a great uh uh activity and thanks for what you're doing thank you Dr Barlo uh director cook actually asked one of the one of the three questions I have um so Adam thank you you've been with us uh from the beginning and um uh you've de you have delivered as you said uh your company could and thank you for that um I'm curious Dwayne you'd started to mention uh Power Ranger could you perhaps speak to that uh just so that uh we might know what is available and how we might be able to potentially incorporate that or make it available for handoff to our classroom teachers and or potentially and I know we have a privately owned uh utility rpu so I don't do you guys work with one another on any level or I'm not trying to get into the business op operation or plan but right let me speak to the Power Rangers first um in in as a client manager the loan game is changing the culture right one of the best ways to change the culture is getting the school community involved and uh in a previous program I happened to be a part of we were able to implement a Power Rangers program where we allowed the students to become part of that and the our students are the future decision makers right they're the ones going to be in uh coming up with policy implementing policy down the road for our country and uh so why not get them involved why not at an early age get them to think about conservation right and the impact it's going to have so Power Rangers program is just one program that you can utilize in order to get students involved at that level to start thinking about conservation early on and so thank you and and I uh C parents households can benefit from uh having more of a heighten awareness absolutely beyond the monthly shock of our utility bill statement absolutely uh but um I'm excited to to see what the future holds and and um thank you again um and you're the boss aren't you I represent Corp office besides being here tooto [Laughter] also Lally thousands of school systems over those years askem because you do have so much to but my encouragement to you would be you'll never relax the price of Liberty is internal vigilance so is price of well keep that up on of everyone at synergistic we are so proud to have allow to thank you thank you for your words any the comments board members well I have a question um I love these numbers and I love the savings I I won't go into the story of when I was maybe looking at my mom in the audience seven or eight and I wrote I wrote a letter to a uh office building that had gone up near an interstate because they had the lights on all night so this was sort of my first for into public policy many people have turn the lights off however um knowing that a lot of this is automated and knowing just the temperature fluctuations we have experienced in daily temperatures because of the weird climate we're having this year how are we making sure that our people in the buildings are comfortable at the same time that we are trying to be as efficient cost savings as possible so we aim to maybe or get most of our savings from unoccupied times from you know outside of the Bell schedules and on the weekends and holidays so it is automated in the in the in the schedules that we set up but when there is a comfort complaint I'm the main point of contact so in previous years maybe before we were here it might have got submitted to a work order system to have one of the HVAC techs come out and look at it well that could be you know three four five days so by having my email out there and cell phone and I'm available you know pretty much 6:00 a.m. to 10: p.m. for any scheduling adjustments um I also have direct contact with the controls company so when there is an issue that I can't resolve right away I can go right to Poppy and they can look into the programming or if it is something mechanical we can get someone sent out there right away so having them have my contact info directly it I think it takes a lot less time for things to get resolved and one of the best things through through this program is having Adam and being the person running down the Comfort complaints and actually taking them seriously not that we didn't take them seriously before but we have a dedicated resource that's taking care of them and following up on them and the tools and the sophistication he has he'll put loggers in a classroom he'll come back in a couple days and you can read you know what's actually happening versus maybe what somebody might be feeling and show the real data of what's happening in that room that's great well thank you thank you for coming and and uh letting us know how we're doing we appreciate it and we can we look forward to our continued progress on those [Applause] [Music] [Applause] graphs item 7.1 is an action item referendum defeat resolution I will read the resolution and ask for a motion and second and then we can continue with information and discussion we it resolved that the school board of Independent School District 535 does hereby direct the superintendent to develop a 2025 2026 general fund budget recommendation that includes the reductions outlined below if the ignite student learning referendum plan is not passed by voters on November 5th 2024 one close three elementary schools to save 2,343 192 closing three elementary schools would reduce the number of spaces available for students at the elementary level in RPS by approximately 10% the schools that the administration recommends be closed if the referendum fails must be identified before January 1st 2025 schools would be recommended for closure based on the following criteria the degree to which the school currently has excess capacity the geographic location of the school relative to student residences the impact that closing the school would have on students who attend other schools due to changes in attendance boundaries age and physical condition of the school and presence of special facilities in the school such as supports for special education students that would need to be replicated elsewhere if the school closed two increase class sizes at all grade levels s by three students to save 5,643 396 Financial savings from increases in class size result from the elimination of teaching positions as fewer teachers are assigned larger number of students the reduction would save funds through the elimination of approximately 50 FTE teaching positions three reduce central office positions and non-instructional positions at the school level to save 2,3 8 1,68 this reduction would save funds through the elimination of approximately 20 FTE positions including positions in the superintendent cabinet central office administrators principals clerical staff maintenance staff and operation staff four reduce programs and positions in the four investment areas included in the ignite student learning proposal to save 6,378 N5 $6 those reductions would be made in the following categories of the ignite student learning plan positions that assist students who need more support to thrive reading Specialists and curriculum media specialists at elementary schools Community Schools coordinator positions and programming the cape parent education and empowerment program the launching emerging adults program or leap project search at Mayo Clinic and driver's education for low inome inome students programs that challenge Advanced students and enrich learning for all students Advanced learning teachers and services curriculum enhancements to deepen learning project lead the way in Middle Schools music positions in Middle Schools staff and programs at Corey Hill Nature Center and planetarium at Mayo High School services that strengthen student well-being and mental health school counselor positions and mental health screening and classes that prepare students for success in vocational and Technical careers including High School courses in auto mechanics construction trades accounting and more ctech classes for computer science law enforcement agriculture Pharmacy and more ptech Pathways in Nur nursing and information technology and postsecondary education and career planning software and supports be it further resolved that the school board of Independent School District does hereby a automatically resend this resolution if the ignite student learning operating referendum is approved on November 5th 2023 2024 move move approval second it has been moved and seconded board members any discussion or questions I think sorry um one of the things uh in Dr pel's Town Hall earlier somebody had asked um a very appropriate question essentially which is why can't we be still more specific so we know precisely what it is that we're fighting for and I know I had made a comment in one of the uh study sessions that I just sort of wanted to qualify the comment yes I think we should be as specific as possible to offer people the opportunity to understand what it is we're asking of them and I think the idea that you know just tell us which three elementary schools it's going to be so we know who to mobilize I think I want to to respond to that and saying we are precisely fighting for the entirety of the district not just three individual schools because regardless of what three individual schools would be chosen it's going to have effects for everyone and so yes while I would like for there to be also more precise information I appreciate the need to do uh the homework as it was called um and identifying what that would be and I also recognize like please don't allow this to become let's pick and choose who's most important to us and then decide to fight for them um I think this referendum is so important because it's it'll support all of our students and all of our Educators um and so I I just wanted to to make that clear because I think some some of my words were being used to fuel the need to push for something that we just we don't have right now director cook uh yeah I would just uh uh Echo your observations there director Garcia that uh I I don't have a clear idea right now which schools I I don't think any of us does I know for sure none of us have been talking about specific schools um but in my mind if we did know certainly we would share it uh that would certainly be my um strong Instinct and you really wouldn't be able to stop me um it's not a tactical decision it's not about trying to mobilize or achieve a particular outcome this is the best information we have as it exists today that's what the public is getting that's certainly how I see it I did want to talk a little bit about class sizes um because I think um it's so important for the community for the community to understand the impact of class sizes on the fortunes of our Community broadly class sizes are so important for students in those classes because when you divide the teachers attention between more students in the same uh classroom it's kind of obvious that there's less attention for each individual student less ability to meet the differentiated needs of the students in that classroom it absolutely affects student outcomes it is it affects student learning but what I think is sometimes lost on people and that I might have a somewhat um unique perspective on this as someone who very intentionally selected Rochester as a place to live and a place to uh raise my family is that class size really matters for the desirability of people to choose to live in Rochester um it is one of the very top things that every single parent looks at when they're deciding which Community to uh decide to live in and it's it's kind of ingrained in you it's not like uh it's not like something that you're born with inherent in that way but from the very first moment that every single parent goes through the process of deciding on what kind of child care they're going to figure out for their their uh little infant it's immediately obvious that less um little toddlers per child care provider is a better equation for your child and that that just kind of becomes baked in and it is absolutely the perspective that every single family that is deciding whether they want to live in Rochester or some other community is coming with when they're looking at the number of students in kindergarten so as our community evaluates this proposal and thinks about what kind of future Rochester our community is interested in laying the foundation for it's important to recognize that the outcome of this proposal will have a dramatic effect on the desirability of Rochester to be a place to raise a family to be a place to uh be able to attract and retain employees um and so you know obviously there there's a a choice our community needs to weigh in on here but I just want to make sure that that perspective is available for folks and I support this resolution director Clin um so I wanted to touch on a couple things and I hadn't planned to talk about class size but um director Cook's um discussion led me to think of something um in terms of class size one of the things that I find important in addition to what he said is the fact that our strategic plan and the work we've been doing for the last couple years related to implementing the read act and providing the multi-tiered systems of support in my mind is tied to class size in the sense that if there's more students in those classrooms that's going to be less effective for our students because it's been in my mind designed for the class sizes we have now providing those extra supports to our students as those class sizes grow the less benefit I could see from those things that we're doing with the students that I find are not only important but I think are critical to our Student Success um I also wanted to focus um primarily on the items in Number Four um because I think that this is not only the largest um portion of the um dollars that we're looking at here in this ref in this resolution in that um each of these items I have a comment on the first one about the positions that assist students who need more supports I looked at this um both as a again we give um we provide things like reading Specialists and curriculum and media Specialists because we are providing quality education to our students in our district and I thought about this a little bit last night and you know our our neighboring schools just aren't big enough sometimes to provide that level of quality that we're able to provide to our students because of the resources that we do have that I think we can pride ourselves in providing that quality education because we're able to provide those extra supports I also look at the other things on this list the Community Schools the C parent education all these other things I view those as things that our district can do to make our district inclusive to all of our students and again in comparison we don't see those in our smaller neighboring districts because they just aren't equipped to provide that level of quality and inclusiveness to all of our students um the um things that challenge our Advanced students and enrich our students I look at those as things that also engage our students because those are the things that I see get the kids coming to school and enjoying their education I also did a little bit of a deep dive last night into our planetarium at Mayo High School um just because I was curious um I learned that there are only eight planet Arium in Minnesota and one of them is here at Mayo high school and I looked at that a little bit thinking about you know if that had to close you know what impact that would not only have for our RPS students but I also see the services we provide there as more of a regional service as well that I I saw things online about you know Cub Scout Troops from Iota going to the Planetarium those aren't things that they would obviously Iota doesn't have a planetarium but they have access here to ours in our region and we can provide uh services like that to students beyond the borders of our district and I think that that's something that we should be proud of that we can do um in terms of um supporting and strengthening the students well-being and mental health again I think that goes directly to student engagement that if students aren't uh healthy both in their well-being and their mental health they're not in their best place to be engaged in their educ ation and be successful um I also very much support the concepts of the last Point here about preparing students for success for I think it's not only vacational and Technical careers but really career preparation for all of our students I've um talked a lot in the community recently about the new zel software and people are really excited to hear that they're also I think that part of the and maybe it's one of the reasons that I ran for the board originally is that I didn't feel like this kind of information was out in the community and maybe it's because it's the type of things that has changed over time but I do get a lot of questions from people I talk to you know are we offering shop class or auto mechanics or computer science or nursing or information technology the answer is yes we are and that we need to continue um but I think that's where I think that communication maybe has been lost over the years and that we're providing a lot of great programs not only for those vacational and Technical careers but also preparing all of our students um for their post-secondary path whatever it is um I guess the only other thing I wanted to touch on here is um it was a difficult vote to put this referendum on the ballot and it's been a little bit while since we had that vote but I think it's important to recognize that I think it's also important to recognize that um in the communication about the referendum that the district has already cut $21 million in recent years from the budget if we hadn't done that I think we would have a different approach or a different equation here to look at but I've looked at the both um the motion to put the resolution on the ballot and this resolution that I think really clarifies for the community what will happen if this referendum is not passed I think both of them go to the point that um we wouldn't be doing this if we didn't need to so I I do plan to support this resolution Dr bar I um support the resolution that being said I think it's important to uh say that should the referendum fail we will still be ISD 535 and we will still offer to the best of our ability the highest quality of Educational Services uh given the reality of of the effect of that uh a potential failure the res referendum might represent it is my hope that of course it passes um that being said this past weekend um I had uh two wonderful experiences and actually I'll begin with the most recent one which occurred not on the weekend but last night uh first of all expressing thankfulness to the PTSA that held a candidate forum and that candidate Forum uh allowed members of uh PTSA and members of the community to come and query uh those of us who are either seeking reelection or election to uh the school board and one of the uh members of the community shared with me um the import of um services that strengthen student well-being and mental health um without divulging any personal information uh she shared regarding uh her child uh she just spoke to how it has been such a of Great Value and benefit uh to her her family and how uh it would be a real tragedy if that were no longer available or greatly reduced uh and uh I could sense her apprehension concern and at the same time appreciated her voic support and then the final thing comes from a h family gathering that was held at um granddad's house my house uh and um the father of one of my grandchildren like many dads likes to boast how well his children are doing and um so he said to my one of my grandsons you're still in the gate program aren't you and my grandson said oh I can't say that because I'll get in trouble so however the messaging has been carried out we no longer do gate but it's Advanced learning Services uh and it created an opportunity for me then to share that uh you know that's one of the the programs uh that are designed to challenge uh and enrich our learning for all students that is currently um on The Cutting block sh the referendum fail um while Dad appreciated the the fact that his son is able to fully participate um uh what he was unaware of was with the potential passage more students would be able to participate and have of the access and opportunities that he sees his uh son realizing and and so for me that just really spoke to an one of many reasons why the referendum is so important and necessary as has already been said we're not looking just to get some more money just to have more money but these are uh necessary uh requests that I really believe our community and the majority of conversations I've had I'm not going to say there have been hundreds of them but there's been more than one or two of them which have occurred uh where the the public seemingly is indeed supportive of there are those who have said quite honestly they're on a fixed income they they just don't have the capacity and it's not that they're against our what we want to do they just don't have the capacity to to afford it if you will and um uh and it's I I sense that concern and commitment the frustration they have because as seniors they also understand the importance of future generations and and they understand what we do now has a lot to do with what will uh occur next one of the presenters for synergistic alluded to that our children will be the leaders of tomorrow and we need to fully equip them to uh be a leader that can certainly rise to the challenges of tomorrow and so again I I believe this referendum and many of the the programs that uh we desire to continue and expand our well worth the and I use the word sacrifice it's not that I will enjoy seeing my um tax base increase but I accept that that's part of uh being a part of a community and that is dependent on uh tax bases to support services not only for education but for other governmental Services both city and county so again as I opened with I fully support this referendum Dr Marvin it's difficult for me to say I support this resolution just because I do support the resolution but because it is so difficult to look at the things that we we could lose if the referendum doesn't pass um there aren't other communities other organizations in in Rochester that provide these kind of Serv services that allow kids in high school to get college credit that saves their parents money that allows kids to get music education and art education that allows parents to get the kind of education they know so they can help their kids through the registration process and applying for colleges and writing resumés that allows cor Hill to operate without charging people to to attend all the amazing programs they have there because we're involved in that too we're involved in helping students who are challenged uh physically or or and now my vocabulary just evaporates um with other kind of challenges to have Rich fulfilling lives because we give them the opportunities through our school system to get jobs experience and learn how to make friends and learn how to to operate in the community we teach kids vocational schools that are Community leaders say they need for these kids to to become the work Workforce for them who's going to do that if we don't and I just think you know you pay for those things you value and I am hoping that this community will step up and say we value our children we value our families we know many families are saving money because their kids are in our schools but everybody's kid should deserve to have the kind of education that we're providing now the kind of choices that we offer now um they can't get it anywhere else so that's what I have to say director work um I'm not going to repeat everything everybody else has already said mostly because I can't remember it all um but I'm looking at the bigger picture of going into the future with this with a passage of this referendum it will provide a financial stability to this District that we have not known for a very very very long time I remember as a new teacher in The District in the middle 1970s every single year was a crisis mostly because I was near the bottom of the seniority list but how many many positions are we going to lose in music this year how much of this are we going to lose and then um chair Nathan alluded to this in a previous meeting what do my kids have to look forward to you know my kids are in second grade right now is this program that's in high school is that going to be there for them and I think with the passage of this re referendum that this should give parents and other community members sort of a a sigh of relief that they don't have to worry about this every single year it's it's emotionally draining it's exhausting um it was exhausting when I was a teacher it was exhausting when I was a parent and it has been exhausting for just about every single year I have been on this Sport and so I really hope that the community sees the value of what we provide for our students who are the future because if we don't that's really going to have an impact on what that future looks like so um along with my other colleagues in the board I will say yes I support this uh resolution for direction to the superintendent so I Echo um what Dr Marvin said about um I wish I didn't have to vote Yes for this resolution because like director Workman I have also been through the experience of budget cuts here in the district and um inevitably during this conversation that we've had with the community about the referendum um and also during a Schoolboard election year uh the topic of student outcomes uh bubbles to the surface people want to talk about our outcomes why they are what they are and it's both academic and in in our student mental health and wellness and I am um confident and pleased that we have a superintendent and a staff that is data driven and in all of the decisions we've made here at the table student outcomes is at um the priority of how we make our decisions and I go back to the development of the Strategic plan and my favorite graphic at the back of the room of our building blocks and that everything that's in that strategic plan is about improving student outcomes so if you're concerned about improving student outcomes then um you should be helping us do everything we can to continue implementing our strategic plan and it was based on what the data told us our students need to be academically successful and what what they need to support their mental health and their Wellness we spent the past two now we're in the third year of implementing it and to me a failed referendum is the largest obstacle to implementing our strategic plan and I look at the outcomes we have and I look at the outcomes we want to be and I cannot see us getting from A to B without the resources that we would have available to us if the referendum were to pass and if the referendum does not pass the cuts would be Monumental 19.4 million may just be an abstract number but it is the largest single year budget cut Rochester Public Schools has had since 1992 I don't have the data before 19 1992 somebody could probably get it the second highest reduction was the 14 million we did two years ago and I think about a kindergartener who entered RPS in 2022 who will graduate in 2035 and they will have experienced the results of over $30 million in budget cuts that we've had to do in our district and I think about what they won't have that my kids had who went through RPS from kindergarten through 12th grade and I think about what a lot of my colleagues have said about specific programs and initiatives that we know benefit all of our students so I would hope that our community would take advantage of the Myriad of information we have available on our website superintendent public presentations our virtual information sessions we have coming up um other information that other community groups are offering and really weigh um their vote on this referendum and its impact um both on an individual student they may know in their family or their F group but also for the future of Rochester and the support it can bring for um good outcom for our whole Community there any other comments before we take a vote superintendent all those in favor of the resolution say I I all those opposed the resolution passes item 8.1 other business there were no questions submitted by board members before the meeting item 8.2 are ABCD the current version is available in this agenda uh for reference during every school board meeting are there any agenda items board members would like to raise for consideration for a future agenda hearing none our upcoming board meeting dates are October 15th at 5:30 a study session October 22nd at 5:30 a special session on field trip fees followed immediately by a regular meeting November 12th at 5:30 a regular meeting November 19th at 5:30 a special session for a public hearing formerly called the world's best Workforce but now called comprehensive achievement and Civic Readiness immediately following that special session on the 19th of November will be a regular meeting and hearing no other business this meeting is adjourned at 6:33 [Music] p.m. e