##VIDEO ID:HOV-iZOOCxU## [Music] good evening and Welcome to our regularly scheduled board meeting for December 9th at this time please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right all right good evening board members and members of the public we are officially I will call this meeting to order um is there there are no additions or deletions to the agenda tonight is there a motion to approve the agenda as outlined second uh motion by Anna second by Jackie all those in favor of approving the agenda say I I those opposed motion carries on a 5 Z vote our first item um on our agenda tonight is usually and often fails to disappoint as our favorite portion of the agenda it is our recognition portion at this time I would like to welcome East View High School School principal Bruce Miller to the podium to introduce Mia bistone the 2025 Minnesota Association of family and consumer Sciences Teacher of the Year good good evening board members chairperson Johnson and superintendent Bon I'm Bruce Miller principal of Eastview High School I'm pleased to be here to celebrate Mia badone as the Minnesota Association of family consumer Sciences teacher of the year we were just here a few short months ago in July with Miss badone when she was recognized as one of five semifinalists for the national advisor of the year for family career and Community leaders of America or for her leadership in our FCCLA program this teacher of the year recognition is for her outstanding dedication to her students Innovative teaching methods and commitment to advancing family and consumer Science Education in Minnesota when you visit Mia's classroom you will see her teaching with creativity and compassion with practical life skills woven into our curriculum she has made a profound impact on her students with a focus on topics like financial literacy nutrition Child Development and teacher education she facilitates their learning to equip them with the essential skills for their personal and professional Futures Mia's ability to connect with students and Foster an inclusive engaging learning environment has made her a beloved educator and a role model for her peers she exemplifies the highest standards of excellence and her unwavering dedication to her students truly sets her apart she is not only preparing her students for success but also inspiring the next generation of family and consumer Sciences professionals specifically as a mentor to new teachers through the Career and Technical education teacher induction program where she provides support to nude family and consumer science teachers across Minnesota we are doubly proud of Mia as a district 196 graduate of Rosemont High School and an inaugural member of Eastview High School's faculty and before she came to Eastview she was a teacher at Dakota Hills Middle School she is a true 196 Mia this is a well-deserved honor congratulations for your remarkable achievements and thank you for what you do to support our students Mia bstone [Applause] we're gonna have to give you a permanent recognition I love it so great to see you excellent next I would like to welcome East viiew band director Matt FS into the podium to introduce the East View marching band good evening board members chairperson Johnson and superintendent bolony my name is Matthew gon and I'm one of the band directors at Eastview High School and I'm here presenting the Eastview marching band and our amazing student drum Majors this year the Eastview marching band competed in four events throughout the Midwest and were finalists at the Rosemont marching Festival the bands of America Iowa Regional the sou Falls festival of bands and the youth and music Championships held at US Banks Stadium at the youth and music championships Eastview placed sanant of 34 bands in the pr preliminary competition and second again at finals for their highest placement we've ever received in the 20-year history of the event and I bet the people in this room can guess who got first uh a big shout out to the Rosemount uh marching band they run an amazing program and um we're happy to share the stage with them um adding to the excitement of the day the evmb finished ahead of four incredible bands that had bested us earlier in the year or last season most importantly the 160 members of the band poured their heart into delivering a passionate performance of their show which could be seen in the tears of joy students were sharing after their final performance East VI show this year was entitled strength and musicing and it combined the art of musicianship with the world of exercise featuring going to fly now from the movie Rocky chicken fat a song commissioned by JFK's Council on physical fitness and even an appearance from Richard Simmons here representing the Eastview marching band tonight are three award-winning drum Majors Clover canot be here he's at lay Miz right now but uh May tang and sarvesh Ananda Gan thank you and thank you to the board for your continued support of Arts across the district [Music] [Applause] congratulations job congratulations thank you congratulations awesome job congratul thanks for coming all right next I'd like to welcome Rosemont High School assistant principal Calvin Keeling to the podium to roduce the rhs marching band good evening chairperson Johnson school board members and superintendent Bon as you said my name is Calvin keasling I'm an assistant principal at Rosemount High School in charge of the Fine Arts it's my pleasure tonight to present our Rosemount High School Marching Band for recognition before I share information about the achievements of our 2024 Rosemount marching band I would like to recognize four key components in the success of our Marching Band program first first our District's commitment to band for all this commitment has made it so that every elementary middle and high school student who attends our district has the opportunity regardless of means to participate in ban rhs has the largest number of students who have benefited from ban forall in district 196 second the support of parents Guardians and family members for our students learning to play instruments practice instruments attend rehearsal and participate in competitions our Rosemount High School March band of 230 students this year a little bit smaller at 195 is a success today because of the love support and vision of their parents and Guardians third is the leadership and direction of our instrumental music staff at rhs we have four amazing directors and all four are here tonight I'd like to recognize them at this time Taylor Eliason Calvin leety Scott Palmer and Leon seeve and fourth our students our 195 band students who have each put in over 200 hours of rehearsal time not counting sectional Time Performance time and individual practice since July these four components led to the band's performance of table for two at the 19th annual Luth Youth and music championships earning them the title of Minnesota state champions in 4A class 4A Champions as well as Grand champions of the event this recognition marks the 17th time out of the eight 18 years that rosement has been participating that they've been named State and Grand Champions after this competition which included 34 bands the band competed at bands of America St Louis Super Regional at the end of October where they placed third in class 3A and sixth overall out of 69 bands competing then on the second weekend of November the band competed at Grand Nationals in in Indianapolis and qualified for the semi-finals as a top 30 Ensemble out of 113 Nation bands at Rosemount we have four gifted student leaders who have guided and supported their Marching bandmates In achieving success this season they are our drum Majors they embody the Irish way and our core values and are here to represent the marching band this evening they are Paige Babcock Sophia Erikson Schultz Bella hus and naha chetti it is my pleasure to present them to you on behalf of the Rosemount High School Marching Band for your recognition of their achievement for being first in the state and having received the title of grand Champions at the youth and music Championship on October [Applause] 12th awesome job fantastic love watching Mar great jobaz great job here all right next I'd like to welcome Egan High School athletic director and assistant principal Jason Elias to the podium to make our next few introductions on the agenda good evening board members chairperson Johnson and superintendent balani I'm Jason Alias the athletic director at Eden high school and we are honored to be here tonight to celebrate an incredible fall Sports season and to honor our outstanding athletes especially our state champions this fall season has been nothing short of inspiring and we're excited to recognize the hard work dedication and achievements of all our students tonight some several people are gone because we have games tonight so I'm running out right after third place this year in tennis ganle one of the team's captains in tennis qualified for the state individuals and singles she breeed through her Section matches not dropping a single game in her four matches placing first in the section heading into the state she was seated fourth cassan had a tough round three set semi seminal match with the first seed the eventual state champion she was able to come back the next match placing third in the state which capped off a remarkable season for cass's junior year cass's humbleness grit and determination and success at such a high level of tennis was beyond inspiring and representing Egan in 196 she is not here tonight next up I have the girls soccer team this year's girls soccer team was a special group that stood out for their resilience t talent and commitment to the team they weren't just athletes they were a team in the truest sense supporting each other and pushing each other to be better every day their third place finish at the state tournament is a reflection of their hard work and determination they've represented the Egan community and 196 with pride and we couldn't be prouder of what they have achieved and with us tonight is Abigail Audrey Isabel Kate and igna so you guys can go through thanks [Applause] job congratulations aome welcome congratulations right next to me and next up this season is the boys soccer team made history by winning the First State title in school history their path to victory was nothing short of legendary there are three overtime wins to claim in the State title was amazing the boys finished with a record of 20 wins one loss and one tie um coach PK is going to have the kids do their names but before we do that anybody who is associated with Egan tonight can you please stand up so we can thank you for coming so if you're a parent we appreciate you coming tonight too thank you and before coach PK announces the kids I do want to thank the board doc Mr Hansen Dr rowski and superintendent uh balson for their continued support of athletic programs our student athletes our dedicated coaches and our facilities that make it all possible your commitment plays a vital role in our fostering a positive and enriching experience for Egan our community in 196 your efforts do not go unnoticed and we deeply appreciate the impact that you have on the lives of our students and staff thank you for all you do coach PK hello Coach PK here um just want to introduce some of the names uh this doesn't represent uh our whole team but some of the members are here we have first Jake sandag cion Tapo Graham Johnson Zan oth Zack roas Carson kopic and Blake proudy [Applause] congratulations awesome congratulations great job congratulations congratulations conratulations congratulations amazing congratulations congratulations coach awesome win thanks for coming tonight right and our last under recognition tonight is I would like to welcome Dakota United Hawks head head coach Brett kadelski to the podium to introduce the adapted soccer state champions in the CI division good evening chairperson Johnson Schoolboard members and superintendent balson we're excited to be here tonight uh coach Scott coony and I were joking that the only way that we now at Rosemont Middle School where we teach are going to see Eric Hansen is to come and do these so it's good to see you Eric in the back uh This Moment means so much more than just a win it's a culmination of years of hard work growth and belief to the Hawks that have experienced three runnerup championship games in a row to the same team at the state tournament this Victory is extra special and I'm so proud to stand here with each and every one of you on this team over the past few years we've been through it all three times in a row we've come so close but we fell short and those losses as painful as they were shaped us they tested us they made us stronger and I think what makes this Victory extra sweet was that we just didn't win a championship we earned this moment through every setback every heartbreak and every time that we got back up and kept fighting it wasn't easy three times in a row we came up short against the Lakeville Farmington Burnsville blazing cats in the championship game and every time people counted us out said we weren't good enough said that we didn't have what it took but we didn't listen to the doubters we took those losses those painful moments and we used them as fuel and today we stand here as Champions because we never gave up we learned from our failures we grew stronger and we found a way to overcome this Victory isn't just about the game it's about everything that we've taught and everything that we've learned to get here this isn't just the end though isn't just the end of a season it's the start of a new chapter we've proven that we can overcome anything we've proven that we can face adversity and come out stronger and while we're going to enjoy this Championship we know that next season we'll be back at it ready to defend our title to all the Hawks out there we're family let's celebrate this moment we've earned it we are finally adapted soccer Champions woo all right standing up here tonight we've got Josh We've Got Jake Colin Henry Maki Jacob aah Alex musy miles Molina Aiden coach Kyle and Coach Scott thank you for having us tonight we appreciate [Applause] it awesome job congratulations great job congratulations awesome job congratulations awesome job congratulations awesome job congratulations awesome job congratulations absolutely thanks for coming good to see you thanks for coming great story great oh oh yeah yeah yeah sure all right next the on the agenda is superintendent recognition and I would like to turn the meeting over to superintendent Bon for his recognition of student and staff thank you so much chair Johnson I'm Michael Balon superintendent of district 196 and tonight for recognitions I am privileged to invite Bianca Vernick to the podium to receive recognition for her board service I invite you to come up at this [Applause] time representative Vern was was elected to serve on the district 1996 School Board in 2021 taking office in January of 2022 and sered for two years before being elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in a special election on December 4th 2023 and then resigning from the school board prior to being elected to the school board representative Vern was an active member of the district 196 budget advisory Council serving more than three years as a citizen representative to the group as an advocate for school safety and repairing aging facilities she was instrumental in our community's approval of the May 2023 Bond referendum to address security and safety aging infrastructure and enrollment growth as one of the highlights of her service today representative Verdin continues to Advocate strongly for children families and public education in the legislature Bianca thank you for your dedicated public service and as a token of our appreciation please accept this Brass Bell as a symbol of your service to district 196 thank [Applause] you I'd also just like to say as Bianca comes through we always appreciated her inquis um asking a lot of good questions um and really making us consider um issues from a variety of viewpoints so thank you Bianca next I want to congratulate the St groups that we honored for arts and athletic achievements tonight there was so much talent in this room I think they're in the hallways right now uh just amazing it's just humbling to be here and have these student recognitions in this way last month I mentioned that our theater performances were happening we have some new ones that I'll mention a little bit later tonight but I want to congratulate the Apple Valley High School cast and crew of Sister Act the musical which earned the spotlight recognition from the hennipen theater trust I'm confident that more of our high school performances will join them in June when the hennipen theater Trust trust holds its special High School Spotlight event I also want to welcome coming up soon our four speakers tonight who have submitted requests for special communication to the school board we will hear from individuals who wish to support our cultural family advocates I want to thank you all in advance for sharing your perspectives with the board I want to also um have everyone know that we value the important work of our cultural family advocates our district is currently engaged in collective bargaining with this group and have not yet come to terms on wages and benefits but that is in no way a reflection on the positive impact that cfas have on our students and families and staff in district 196 cfas are appreciated and we are committed to reach a resolution soon that ends my comments for this evening thank you excellent thank you superintendent Balon next on the agenda is our special communication requests we have four people signed up for special communication requests this evening people who'd like to speak during special communication requests must submit a form at least five working days in advance of the meeting 10 speakers receive up to 4 minutes to share comments we do use a timer for public comment so for those speakers once I um call you up to the podium for a special communication request speakers in the audience when I call you up to the podium if you could come up and start by stating your name and connection to the district we then start the timer you'll see a little um some lights on the podium the green means your time is started when you have about 30 seconds remaining your ti the um light will change to Amber and when your time is up it'll change to red and you'll hear a little beating please conclude your comments at that time if you haven't wrapped up yet um additionally special communication request speakers um are reminded not to uh share personal complaints um with any members of the district or staff um by calling people up by name things like that there are other avenues for that um additionally um oh just a reminder that the board generally does not respond to special communication requests when they're made in um at the at the podium this is a time for board members to listen and hear from the community however if any questions are asked or follow-up is needed board member or a member of the administration will follow up with the individual speaking after the meeting um with that I would like to welcome our first special communication request speakers to the podium tonight um uella aluco and morisa Smoot and please kindly I do my best to pronounce names but I do make mistakes so please correct me if I screwed that up and my apologies in advance okay hello my name is and my name is Marissa Smo We Are The District 1 I6 class of 2024 alumni good evening superintendent Bon chairperson Johnson and board members thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak before you today today we are here to speak on behalf of the cultural family advocates the impact that they have on us through the years in this District were great and we are thankful to have them in our schools our Journeys with the cultural family advocates started around the same time at Blackhawk Middle School my story is coming from North Minneapolis where the school districts were really different from the school district here I struggled a lot in school as a child and as a kid into I got into a lot of trouble growing up I wasn't really the best kid in school but in my seventh grade year I met a culture family Advocate her name was Miss relle not only did Miss relle spoke up for me when times I couldn't spoke up for myself she also mentored me and guided me and Lead me she helped me through my hardest times in school not only in seventh grade but eighth grade in all my um years in high school she motivated me to do my best in school even when I wanted to give up not only that that she motivate me she helped me and mold me to the person I am today I remember this time where I wanted to give up in high school it was so hard for me but she gave me Faith she gave me power to keep on going and to stay on track my story started out at Blackhawk Middle School I was a slightly Troublesome kid that got into arguments with others and would always get sent to the counselor's office it had gotten to a point where I was one call away from being from getting a suspension when I was in seventh grade English class my teacher got a phone call that called me up to the counselor's office I thought to myself what did I do this time but it turned out to be the day I met met relle Redmond after that first call I would go to her office every week and talk to her about how school was going if anything was going on that I want to talk about and how I was doing as a person after meeting her all the anger that was suppressed in me had slowly went away and I become I became more and more calm I began to make more friends and started to enjoy coming to school more relle later started a black girls group that we went to once a week it gave us all a space to talk about what or who was troubling us at school a space space that we could come to whenever we need to the support that relle gave us followed me throughout all my years in high school and even after I graduated she she supported me with everything no matter what I was going through and she would always she and she was and still is someone I can confide in and for that I am grateful see this is why why having a um culture family Advocate is so important not only that they help us but they hear us thank you Miss relle for always being there for us thanks to all the other cultural family advocates we' met throughout the years and thank you superintendent Bon chairperson Johnson and board members for giving us this opportunity to speak here today thank [Applause] you um our next special communication request speaker I'd like to welcome to the podium is Nemo Getty hello good evening my name is Nemo Getty I'm a culture family Advocate and I've had the P Peg of serving the our district and families for the last 16 years today I would like to share why cultur of family advocates deserve a fair contract our role is not does not only vary and is demanding but very impactful we dedicate most of our professional and some of our personal time to Building Bridges of knowledge and understanding between students and teachers teachers and families and school district and wider Community some of the work we do is is things that most of us in this room take for granted for example we help families complete registration forms to enroll their children in school we set up their seesaw and schoy account and encourage parents to use use that accounts to track their CH uh children's academic uh progress we help families complete annual applications for educational benefits so those eligible for free and reduced prices such as school activities academic testing fees and athletic participation can do so we assist in completing child history questioners for IEP evaluations and assessment forms so they can get appropriate Services we even help complete fastest forms and Ensure that children are on track to graduate in addition we develop and offer cultural training for staff the aim is to give administrators and teachers the time to reflect on the prevailing issues affecting our communities and better understand how culture social economic factors impact students educational attainment our culturally and linguistically specific family nights have been a great success one of on those nights we discussed various topics so that families can better understand the school policies and services that we provide we collaborate and invite different experts to our meetings to explain their programs assessments and qualifying processes one of my favorite is that we offer authentic youth engagement programs through our cultural leadership groups we take students on field trips and we commonly do this on non-instructional days and weekends recently Cultural Family Advocates have partnered with Lebanon Hill bipo Ski Club so that we can recruit more students of color and reduce the barriers to CrossCountry skiing in Lebanon hill we also engage in Wilder stakeholders in the last decade our uh we collaborate with other cultural Liaisons in neighboring south of the River District we offer we we formed a partnership with Dakota County so that we can bring more resources to our families we work to address some of the broader determinance of Health and Social well-being impacting education while the scope of our work is limited to education a good and safe start at home sets children up very well the Dakota County Board of Commissioners presented our collaborative with a 2024 Public Health Achievement Award this is what they had to say during the award ceremony and I quote cultural liaison and family cultural family advocates are often the first and sometimes the only trusted contact for families new to our County and state they help them navigate the school systems and other services including affordable housing food Access Dental Care Mental Health Services and more our families choose district 196 for our highly rated schools but also how welcoming our school district is for all our families this Legacy and welcoming environment are Focus are fostered in no small part but by the presence of culture family Advocate with an increasing diverse student body and workload for cultural Advocate it is just as important for the district to support us with a fair contract this means true raise that scales with inflations and covers Health Care increases I cannot think of a more worthy cause to invest in thank you very much [Applause] our next speaker I'd like to welcome to the podium is Felix R Martinez Pas good evening uh good evening dear representative of district 196 school boards my name is Felix Martinez pass my pronouns are Heim L and I'm a proud Latino who was called Egan home for the past 23 years over these years my daughters have been have the privilege of being part of district 196 schools journeying from elementary school to high school graduation from uh sces and the other one from Egan High School their success is a testament not only through their hard work but also to the profound impact of the district cultural family advocates uh Advocates do more than guide families through education systems they create sense of belonging and the empowerment that once was absent when my family first entered the district there were no cultural rations while the community was welcoming there was little that reflected our Identity or told my daughters that their full selves Latina by culture or bilingual were seen and celebrated we felt the Gap I recall moments when my wife and I had to step in to assist other Spanish speaking families because no one else could do it today the Gap has been filled Cultural Family Advocate had made it possible for families like mine to feel visible value and engaged for Latino families this support can be transformative turning point in a student's life in my family's case The Advocate didn't just ensure my daughters have a positive School experience they connect us to resources and opportunities that elevated their future success these opportunities were critical to fostering their enthusiasm for Learning and their emotional and social well-being and their motivation to grow the result driving young women who were prepared not only to graduate but to excel in postsecondary education and Beyond district 196 mission to educate develop and Inspire our students for lifelong success come alied in the work of these cultural Advocates they build Bridges between families schools and communities and Bing the district values of empathy integrity and well-being their effort are the Conn Cornerstone of the district commitment to equity creating environment where students and their families can thrive in my professional role as expansa United in esperansa United I seen the impact of these Advocates firsthand under memorandum of understanding supported by the office of violence against women we partner with the district to create safe spaces to nearly 200 Latinos youth addressing topics from violence prevention and healthy relationship these collaborations open doors to two Egan high school students to serve on a national Advisory Board amplifying their voices connecting them to National networks and preparing them for leadership opportunities like this are possible because of the trust and relationship cultural Advocates buil with Community organizations uh relationship that align directly with the district mission of lifelong success for all students this collaborations is just one example of how cultural Advocates embody the district values their work remove barriers to education strength families trust in the systems and Foster a sense of belonging for many families The Advocates are the face of I D 1996 the people they turn to confide in and rely on this trust is invaluable what I have shared today underscores the extraordinary immeasurable values of cultural family advocates the dedication and compassion creates a ripple effect of success well-being and engagement that benefit not only individual families but their entire District their work directly support the district strategic priorities promoting well-being archievement Academy excellence and embracing Equity as a core value as a parent as a collaborator as a member of this community I urge you to continue investing in these programs and the individuals who made this trans uh transformative work possible supporting our cultural Advocate is an investment in the future and of and our students our families our district and our district as a whole the success of our children is the success of our community let us continue to nure it together thank you [Applause] I'd like to welcome our next speaker to the podium Beth Wakefield good evening superintendent Bon School Board Administration and attendees thank you for the opportunity to address you today my name is Beth Wakefield and I am the talent development specialist at echopark elementary and and a 31-year veteran of this District I am here to express my so strong support for the vital work of the cultural family advocates in our district these dedicated professionals are at the heart of ensuring Equity inclusion and success for all of our students particularly those from culturally diverse backgrounds district 196 has long been celebrated for its commitment to fostering a welcoming inclusive environment where all students can Thrive our cfas exemplify this commitment by bridging gaps between our families and our schools empowering students and parents alike and enriching our broader School Community the cfas are more than just Liaisons they are Advocates Educators and problem solvers often mirroring the work of social work through their tireless efforts they are more I'm sorry um for our through their tireless efforts they help students navigate the complexities of this school system to achieve academic success they support cultural adjustment and social emotional development ensuring that students feel a strong sense of belonging and safety indeed it is our cfas that students seek out as they enter our schools each morning to take a moment to connect to get a hug or simply check in they Empower our families to actively engage in their children's education through conferences workshops and personalized Communications and they strengthen cultural competen across the district providing our staff with the tools and insights to better serve our increasingly diverse student body we see their impact every day in the more stable engaged and thriving student body that they help cultivate their work also enhances family participation especially among groups that have historically felt excluded from school events or decision-making processes because of their dedication our students no matter their color language or country of origin are overcoming barriers and achieving their potential I believe we've seen witness been witness to that tonight the results speak for themselves higher engagement for our families of color a more inclusive Equitable environment across our schools and students of color breaking through the racial disparities often seen across this state of Minnesota doing academically well and graduating prepared for a bright future in short our cultural family advocates are indispensable to our distri Mission and success however the demands on their time and expertise are increasing as our district becomes more diverse their workload has grown yet their compensation has not kept pace that is why I'm urging this board to prioritize supporting cfas with a fair and Equitable contract these 20 experienced and dedicated professionals aren't asking for much just a raise that accounts for inflation and Rising health care costs this is not only a fair request but a wise investment for the future of this District by supporting the cfas we are directly supporting the academic success and well-being of our students we're fostering an inclusive respectful culture that sets our district apart as a leader in education thank you for considering this request and I hope you will commit to resolving this contract in continuing to strengthen our CFA program by valuing the incredible individuals who make it possible and ensuring that every student in our district has the support they need to succeed thank you excellent that concludes our special communication request portion of the agenda and that brings us to our consent agenda tonight board members we have 14 items on the consent agenda tonight they include the minutes of the November 4th 2024 regular Schoolboard meeting the minutes of the November 12th 2024 special Schoolboard meeting gifts quarterly gifts Trevor Treasures report for October 31st 2024 summary of claims for October 2024 schedule of Investments for October 31st 2024 revenues and expenditures report for October 2024 Personnel employment agreement building assets reducing risks agreement joint Powers agreement between Dakota County and school district 196 policy 601 education programs and the new Rosemont Middle School big package number two are there any items on the consent agenda that board members would like to remove tonight seeing none is there a motion to approve move second motion by sakaan seconded by Leah all those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I I I those opposed consent agenda passes on a 5- vote that brings us to our report section of our agenda tonight and I'd like to welcome Janet finman to the podium to go over our special education overview thank you good evening chairperson Johnson members of the school board and superintendent Bon I am here tonight to provide an overview of special education services including specific information about our District's level of levels of service the types of center-based programs we offer in district 196 and to highlight the alternative curriculum we've purchased for some of these programs special education services are designed to support students with disabilities ensuring they can access the general education curriculum in the least restrictive environment these Services address the needs of students with a wide range of physical cognitive emotional and developmental disabilities the term general population in this context refers to creating Equitable opportunities for all students and including those with disabilities to succeed in their educational environments special education services are available to any student who qualifies under the Ed eligibility criteria outlined in the individuals with disabilities Education Act idea these Services aim to power Empower students with disabilities to fully engage in their educational Journey fostering Equity inclusion and maximizing their learning potential in essence special special education services strive to ensure that students with disabilities receive the individualized support they need to thrive aligning with the principles that all students are entitled to a free appropriate public education district 196 offers a full Continuum of services from setting one to setting four a later slide will provide definitions around for each setting the district 196 special education department is dedicated to delivering high quality educational experiences that meet the diverse needs of all Learners the special education department plays a key role in advancing our strategic goals by ensuring that students with diverse needs receive the resources and support necessary for Success Central to our V mission is the strong partnership we have with our general education colleagues we recognize that meeting the complex needs of our students students requires collaboration across all areas in the of the district including general education staff administrators Equity teams instructional leaders and Par professionals we are committed to an inclusive mindset that values and supports all students by building and enhancing systems of support we aim to provide interventions that directly impact student achievement and ensure every student regardless of need receives the high highest quality education this handout you have it was provided to you provides some common definitions related to special education services and is by no means exhaustive there's lots of definitions and and um education speak when it comes to special education speci special education services are designed to support students with disability ensuring they can access the general education curriculum in the least restrictive environment these Services aim to provide equitable opport OPP unities for all students to succeed include individualized supports tailored to physical cognitive emotional or developmental needs our district provides a full Continuum of suit services from inclusive classroom support to specialized settings when we refer to the least restrictive environment this graphic illustrates that concept by law students receiving special education services must be included in the general education setting as much as possible this chart shows the legal definitions of the different levels of service setting one 2 3 and four each represents a different degree of support with setting one being the least restrictive and setting four being the most specialized the child's team including the parents determine what supports are most appropriate from birth to age 22 special education services are required to support students with disabilities at every stage of development services ber the three are provided in home they are family focused to support early Milestones like communication and motor skills Services Age 3 to 5 are preschool-based to build School Readiness and social emotional skills Services kindergarten through 12th grade are individualized academic and social emotional supports provided in the least restrictive environment and a just 18 to 22 are transition services that focus on life skills employment and Independence through vocational training and community- based learning these Services ensure continuous individualized support from infancy to adulthood this slide shows our our current numbers including numbers of sites students and staff according to the Minnesota Department of education's official report card district 196 is above the state average in servicing students in special education as as of October 1st 2023 State average was 17.4% and district 196 was 17.8% the state report for 2024 has not been released but as of November 1st 2024 the district's special ed average is 18.7% district 196 offers five types of center-based programs across K12 schools serving students re who receive setting three service minutes the slide that showed the federal setting I'm referring to Center based of students that receive setting three service minutes this slide shows the location of the programs and you have a handout with the names and definitions for reference in 2017 we shifted from using disability categories as program names for example emotional behavior disorder program to more strength based names example achieve program this change reflects our move from a deficit based to a strength based approach please refer to the handout for details on the five types of center-based programs we currently offer in K12 schools district 196 has seen an increase of over 750 students receiving special education services over the past six years this growth in special education enrollment is outpacing the district's overall student population growth now let's focus on two of our center-based programs where we are experiencing the most significant growth these programs require a high staff to student ratio our connect program we have seen a 43% increase in students needing this type of program over the past six years in our strategies program we have seen an increase of 21% of students needing this type of program both programs primarily serve students with autism and the this growth has created significant space challenges as well as the need for additional staff for context the additional 157 students in these programs require 21 additional classroom spaces now I will briefly discuss our special education specific site starting with Early Childhood special education as mentioned in previous meetings we continue to see significant growth in this area you will notice on this Slide the enrollment report that coordinator Danny duchan will be presenting later and the 671 you see those numbers are different and the reason for that is when we pulled the data for the 671 it was pulled on December 1 versus October 1st so we've had seen that number of increase from December 1st to October 1st and we currently have over 200 evaluations in progress in early childhood special education bright works is currently training our birth to three team on the primary service provider model with a focus on parent coaching in this model one team member serves as the primary contact for families addressing their priorities while drawing on the expertise of the entire team to support the child's development this slide shows the current location of our early childhood special education programs um currently uh we have Early Childhood special education programs housed in nine of our 19 elementary schools and the need for additional space continues to grow now let's highlight Dakota Ridge school this is our setting four site we are currently serving 107 students and continue to provide staff with additional tools to ensure students are well prepared for learning we are also exploring resources to support student regulation and enhance staff safety we are happy to report that Dakota Ridge we are fully staffed and we have not been fully staffed at Dakota Ridge since before the pandemic in our transition program we've added an additional year of service due to recent changes in state law extending the service from age 21 to 22 staff are adjusting to students exiting the program as they turn 22 throughout the course of the Year currently we have 159 students enrolled our team includes licens staff PA professionals job coaches and we are still working to fully staff the program to support students community experiences we continue to hire additional staff to meet these needs next you'll hear from Cammy Kramer a parent who will share her experience navigating the Journey of having a child that received services from Early Childhood through transition plus I think I mean I remember being um a parent of three kids in four buildings um almost five but four and and um that was a little crazy but it also allowed us to experience um so much of what the district has to offer which is that every building has its uniquness but they're all amazing and welcoming and um sometimes as a special education parent or family it can feel really isolating um like going through a diagnosis or um having a rough time in adolescence and needing more supports um and feeling like gosh what are what's going on what are am I feeling um and then you know having that support and um and moving on and then seeing things turn around it's so incredible and I just want to give people you know hope because as rough as it can be I've been in in this building in a conference room and and felt pretty bleak and um and gosh the day Ellie got his driver's license I mean I didn't know if that would ever happen um or be employed and I'm so proud of him and I'm really proud that of the partnership that we've had with 196 thank you to cam Cam and Elliot for sharing your story our staff often work with families in emotionally sensitive situations and it's essential that we partner with them throughout this journey I also want to highlight that Elliott is now as Cammy mentioned G gainfully employed which is our ultimate goal for each of our students finally I'm going to briefly highlight the alternative curriculum that district 196 purchased for some of our center-based programs this curriculum offers offers students with moderate to severe disabilities Equitable and inclusive access to general education curriculum and the individualized interventions that support their success it is designed to Target general education standards via socially and developmentally appropriate research-based instruction and here you just see um our alternate curriculum in action in a couple of our classrooms and some professional development that the teachers engaged in through Encore our alternative curriculum coaches came out and supported our teachers bottled some lessons but now if we can get this to work you will hear from a teacher um Jennifer AR arque a high school special education teacher who will share her experience using the alternative curriculum and how it's impacted her students I think the big thing that's happening with Encore with my students is that it's age appropriate and there's not a lot of age appropriate material for students with cognitive disabilities so when you have a kindergarten cognitive ability and you're looking for age appropriate content it's very limited and so for them to have access to a story like Robinson cruso is really amazing because For the First Time in their life they're seeing something that they can almost relate to in a different way that it's not kitty because they also understand that they're not kids that they're young ad adults and they want to be treated as young adults and so the content that's provided in the story The adapted version of Robinson cruso that we're studying it gives them access to something that they've never had access to before special education can be complicated for families to navigate our well-trained dedicated staff and administrators are here to walk alongside them back up once are here to walk alongside families in their Journey we continue to experience growth in our Center based programs which requires additional space and it is our priority to ensure staff have the tools and resources necessary to deliver high quality educational experiences to our students and now I will open it up to any questions are there any oh I knew that would happen I knew are there any questions or comments from the audience at this time seeing none questions or comments from board members Leah no no you your hand well thank you first of all I think this is um important information that I know a lot of families want um and need so thanks this was really helpful um two things one I'm wondering if you can provide an example just to paint the picture a little bit more more of a level one um support I know there it's a range but can you just provide an example or two of what that might look like and how that works in uh a typical day and then secondly if you could say for a family if they you know think they might need services in this way what's the first step yep yep so a level one student would be setting one and considered a resource student in our district um and the services could look a variety of ways but typically they might be pulled out for maybe a math lesson or math direct service outside of the classroom and then pushed back in the special education teacher could go into the classroom and support the general ed teacher alongside the student um but it is our least restrictive so it's typically minimal Services um and as far as first steps I would say contact your building administrator or the school psychologist in your building if you have questions about the process they are best equipped to answer those questions and walk you step by step through the process what to expect um throughout the process Anna um sorry first of all thank you Janet for um uh doing definitions that is really really helpful um I appreciate you listening to the feedback and and and doing that for us so thank you very much and I'm sure the public uh appreciates that as well so thank you um second um super informative um love it um have so many additional questions now which I really appreciate um could you also provide us the supplemental information that uh we didn't have on the uh presentation I can't see actually any of it I wear trifocal contacts I can't see anything so um if I can have in front of me if that ever happens in the future cuz I know sometimes you're adding stuff at the last minute just hand us out documents so we can take a look too no there were a few slides missing I think is probably what she's referring to refr cple to know yeah I think it depends on when it happens I don't know but thank you thank you for saying that Jackie then if it's already on there okay it needs to be refreshed be a board docs thing too which we're working on on a larger scale thank you thank you for all that um and I so this information is it on our website so that it's available to like even this kind of this overview do we put that on our website so that families who aren't necessarily here can get that kind of update we haven't but it's a good idea yeah okay yeah so for those who haven't they want to check it out even that presentation would be great thank you for that yep yep and just for clarification you're talking about the PowerPoint slides or the handouts that I gave you the handouts are great the slides I there was four slides five actually because it ended with a summary that some of us weren't able to see and it sounds like it just could be a refresh I did reopen it and they are there now magically so but I did have the same issue when I was following along so I do think it is probably a bardog thing but thank you so that's just for the record it wasn't your fault it's board dos yes thank you Jackie any other questions or comments from the board Jackie again Janet I would just like to thank you too because you kind of took us through a graduate level course in about 20 minutes about all the things you need to know about Special Ed I really thank you for the definitions um making sure that people understand the growth that we've got in this in in 196 and special ed there's no way I could ask you a question if you think that's going to stop but it's not going to stop we are just really good at special ed if I had special ed student I'd want him to be in this District too um I like the fact that you take the Strategic road mapap that we've worked on and the mission the vision the core values and the Strategic priorities and put them in so we can exactly see what is going on in special edit and how they work into those in that strategic road map the other thing and I know we've done this for a few years now but I love the the words Thrive connect skills achieve and strategies so they're not deficits they're positives what kids are building on and what why either in my classroom because I'm in a Thrive classroom or I in a connect classroom as a middle school teacher having lots of different kinds of students in my classroom these words are much more positive than the words years ago and what a what a godsend makes a whole whole big difference um maybe you can guess though about I mean we just do continue to see continued growth we do um the trends I would say 10 years ago we saw uptick in the profile autism um and needing setting three as a result of that and we continue to see our connect as you see in the data and strategies that Trend continuing so um we keep waiting for it to slow down in early childhood and it's just not I do have one other question question um uh I don't if it was in public radio Angela Davis did something or someone did something about the special education autism specifically and how it's impacting um different demographics and it was alarming to me how it's impacting the Somali Community um disproportionately uh to other communities and so I'm wondering where do the cultural family advocates play a role in that is there um integration that happens um and how that what that looks like because yeah that's alarming I think it was 1 and6 um versus 1 and 32 or something like that or 502 I haven't looked at that specifically but it would be I'll s it to you yeah it was an interesting around Minnesota in general so it was very alarming you it is and yes cultural family advocates do support the the Continuum of services and our families absolutely okay Janet I just wanted to Echo some of the other comments to great presentation love how it's um um laid out and just broken down into well special education is there's a lot of information that can go into it and it's very consumable from anyone even without a background in it so thank you I I did have one question and you might not have the answer and that's totally fine it was just more of an observation I saw but I know with the statistics you mentioned um I think we know Statewide the special education identification is growing we've seen that year after year for year but I did take note that we used our district used to be just under the state average and now we're just over the state average so I'm just wondering if you have any even you know anecdotal thoughts about how maybe we've moved where maybe we're um identifying faster than the state is identifying versus where we were even I think three years ago I think we were still below it's a big question what I will say is I do believe that our work around mtss and providing more systematic intervention prior to special education really focusing on our Core Curriculum um will have a direct cor result eventually it's going to take some time um for some of our students being serviced and potentially setting one classroom or setting one environments so I do think that potentially could have a uh positive impact on our district as for um the growth in Center based I I don't have an answer to that I think that's a Statewide phenomenon we're we're kind of grappling with so thank you appreciate the Insight oh and sorry something else I'll get you that statistic and the source it was 1 in 17 are diagnosed versus 1 in 53 of any other population okay okay that's I don't have a pen but yeah write that down excellent all right thank you very much thank you all right next I would like to welcome Danny dasen to the podium to go over our enrollment projections for 2025 26 good evening chair Johnson members of the school board superintendent Bon and our district 196 Community my name is Danny duain coordinator of Finance here in district 196 tonight District administration presents this report for the 2526 enrollment projections included in tonight's board packet are two documents an enrollment summary document which includes actuals for the past 5 years and overall enrollment projections for the next 5 years the second document is the school by School enrollment projections for the 2526 school year the enrollment projections committee leads the development of the data that is pres presented here tonight the committee which began in 2005 is comprised of a combination of principles at each level cabinet Lev Administration and members of The District's Finance team who are involved in our budgeting process the district's projection model software utilizes a variety of inputs and variables including different historical Trends reported births within the county and within the school district cohort survival data and knowledge of planned housing developments and new construction as a couple of examples the committee reviews multiple results and presents the final model to School principles as well as cabinet Administration each enrollment projection cycle has its own unique challenges and variables that the committee must consider the 2526 cycle comes with especially unique circumstances with the opening of Elementary number 20 slated for fall of 2025 the opening of the new Elementary School the subsequent boundary changes in the fact that we're still in the middle of the district intradistrict transfer process which is open until December 15th were all factors taken into account during the committee's discussions and and deliberations so this is purely just a call out there's some Nuance to this particular cycle with the opening of the new mry school that we wouldn't have every single year I presented this slide back in October when discussing the actual October first enrollment numbers it's important to highlight that our enrollment projections process in the model that we use has been quite close over the past few years when projecting the total number of students in our district um as a whole while there may be some variations school by School each year or fluctuations between projections and actuals we have not seen the DraStic fluctuations up or down districtwide um for the past few years post pandemic the projected enrollment for the 25 26 school year is 29,0 students with nearly 40% at the elementary level and 54% at the secondary level that total also includes projected center-based special education enrollment of 1,46 and early childhood special education enrollment of 600 with how the district projects enrollment essentially what we're doing is we're trying to project what is the October 1st enrollment headcount for the following year so the 2526 enrollment projection of 29,0 students aligns between the oo October 1st actuals for the past two years and really we look at this as a signal of consist stable enrollment moving forward as Janet mentioned the district does project that center-based special education and early childhood special education enrollment counts are will continue to rise the graph displayed here shows a visual representation of the 10year trend at each level for non-s special education enrollment data points to the left of the vertical Center Line represent October 1 actuals for that particular school year and data points to the right represent the projections provided in tonight's board packet what I really want you to focus on in this particular graph is that we're pretty consistent across the board we're not seeing sharp sharp mountains we're not seeing sharp valleys on any From Any Given year at any given level which supports our our um projection of stable enrollment across the district as I mentioned the district is projecting overall stable enrollment with enrollment starting to increase BAS on new housing and new new plan construction on especially on the east side of the district 2 3 4 years from now we do anticipate center-based special education and early childhood special education enrollments will continue to rise and that will have an impact in our district part of this particular enrollment projections um cycle is that we don't know the impact of Elementary 20 we don't know the impact of all the other subsequent boundary changes yet and so every year that we get you know every every year after Elementary 20 is open those will be actual data points that will then get put into the model for future years which will help us narrow down what those actual long-term impacts are of those particular boundary changes these projections will be utilized for the district's financial planning model as well as utilized for Budget allocations to the buildings for the 2526 preliminary budget which that budget cycle will start in the spring and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have thank you at this time are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members excellent thank you very much stable enrollment is very good and we are all looking forward to seeing what elementary school number 20 will do so thank you thank you very much all right that brings us to the old business portion of our agenda tonight and um first on the docket is I'd like to welcome Christopher anango Rob sh um to the podium to go over our truth and Taxation 2024 payable in 2025 good evening chair Johnson members of the board superintendent Bon and our public stakeholders I'm Christopher nraa Director of Finance and operations for the district and this today serves as our truth intercession hearing uh for the levy payables in 2025 I'll quickly review our timeline so I was back here in September September on 23rd of 2024 and the board at that time uh certified the proposed Levy since then we once that process was concluded uh initial documents were sent off to the county uh and then from there there's typically an election in November uh we did not have any questions on the ballot this year but in future should we have any items those would uh be taken into consideration as the impact of that election would affect our our taxes uh following the November election the county theak county sends uh notices to the taxpayers in the district uh after those notices go out we then have this hearing which is required in statute and it's a result of this hearing uh during which uh the board will allow public to comment on the impact of the taxes and then also satisfy uh what the district's uh Levy is going to be for next year when we go through this process uh when we review our strategic plan uh what we're trying to do is start setting the revenue piece one of the revenue components for FY 2526 and this aligns with our strategic road map in that it assures that there are enough resources available to satisfy the educational needs of our students as I mentioned earlier our proposed taxes make up a huge component of our overall tax base uh the chart on the left is the overall District budget and this includes all funds and so you can see across uh the the the system uh 56% of our Aid comes from state aid we have other local which includes donations interest and earnings of 177% federal uh contributions to the system are at 3% but almost a quarter of our Vue comes directly in the form of property taxes the graph on the on the right then breaks down what components of our property taxes go within each fund uh the biggest share of that going to a general fund otherwise called fund one at 77% our debt service fund fund s has 22% and Community Education fund 4 has 1% that it receives in form of property taxes when property taxes are collected from our taxpayers there are two components there is the voter approved which the scoreboards action allowing for referendums uh or elections directly impact that portion and then there are other portions of our level which the school board has no control over these are items that are established in State Statute or items that have a aid and Levy mix so for example qm we participate in the quality compens ation program for our teachers and when we receive those funds a portion of the investment that the state is making to the district they say this school district taxpayers need to partner in ensuring that the qom dollars are flowing so there's an aid and Levy component mix the same is true for long-term facilities projects and operating Capital um so n vote approved established in statute vote approved school board says have an election and as the voters uh approve the election result then we receive those um tax dollars a recap again on our debt on on our fund on our Revenue Pieces by fund so 22% of our Aid comes for Debt Service we receed These funds to settle debt obligations so principal and interest payments that the school district has general fund 76% and this comes for capital projects around the building so I mentioned long-term facilities maintenance operating Capital uh also to pay for tech devices so when we talk about our capital projects Levy otherwise called Tech Levy uh These funds are coming into the district through the general fund it also pays for our instruction materials and also staff the board and the public remember in 2019 as part of our referendum we we reduced class sizes that directly impacts teachers and there was also a mental health component that was included in that referendum those are all components of staff that are included within the general fund Community Education receives funding for staff and program needs uh for Early Childhood for um adults with disabilities among other areas this table makes a comparison between the last two years so current payable 2024 Levy and next year's payable 2025 levies and overall we're seeing a decline of 892 722 otherwise it's a 0.5% decline from prior year most of that is in the general fund to the tune of almost a million dollars and it is a component of part of what's driving that is or general fund there are different components but the main item that is declining in next for next year's Levy is due to our enrollment so a portion of our taxes are based on enrollment and referendum market value so since our enrollment has been flat we're projecting and again just conservative budgeting that we don't want to receive too much and then have it paid back so we're just holding back a little bit in terms of enrollment and that's uh what's driving that uh almost million dollar decline Community Education is held stady steady at with a change of just $26,000 and Debt Service is also holding steady with an increase of $ 129,000 this graph tries to compare different valued homes across the district um we assuming no change in the property values so if you added a bathroom that will change your home's taxable market value we are assuming in this instance that since 2020 through 2025 that has not happened and across um the the 5 years that we're showing on this graph you can see a that the last two years there's a decline but overall our tax our tax rate the school district's tax portion for property values has been relatively even and all slightly declining if you own an average value valed home so this chart now looks at the average valued home over the last 5 years so 2020 the average valued home in the district was 34,000 in 2025 uh the estimated market value for an average valued home is 419,000 and again we're seeing an increase in the district's portion of taxes however between last year 2024 and for 2025 there's a decrease and what we calculate here is about a 5% decrease um this will vary property to property because there are other taxing jurisdiction uh that they that are also contributing to the overall homeowners tax impact so what are we seeing in summary $892,000 decrease in overall District Le Levy overall property values increase by 1% however the district portion of property taxes is decreasing by 5% again as I mentioned this is as the truth sub as the truth in session hearing and at this point I would uh recommend that the Schoolboard allow for the public to make comments on the proposed Levy following which I would ask for a certification of the levy thank you excellent so this is an action item tonight but before I go to motion since this is our truth and Taxation are there any uh before we get the motion are there any questions or comments from the public for the truth in taxation seeing none is there a motion from the board to certify the maximum total Levy of 156 m0 41,5 4765 for taxes payable in 2025 so second motion by Jackie second by Anna are there any other questions or comments from the audience questions or comments from board members seeing none there's a motion to uh by Jackie second by Anna all those in favor of approval say I I I those opposed motion carries on a 5-0 vote thank you Christopher all right next up I would like to welcome Shelley mson to the podium to go over our 2025 26 school calendar good evening chairperson Johnson members of the board and superintendent Balon I'll be referring to the proposed School calendar for the 2025 26 school year this planning calendar was developed and recommended by district and building administrators and representatives from Dakota County United Educators which included teachers from each level Middle School elementary school and high school and shared with parent leaders for their feedback once a calendar is approved we will create a calendar very specifically that calls out school days for our families just to start with similar to our current school year middle school and high school students will have two school days prior to labor day this allows for calendar where all grades K12 finish school on the same date as our secondary students have two additional days of school over our elementary students we continue to have a student assessment day for elementary students prior to Labor Day this allows students and their families to meet the teacher as well prior to the first day of school which will be on September 2nd the last day of school again for all K12 would be on June 4th um as to give just a little more detail on certain aspects of the calendar as there are a variety of factors the committee must consider when putting together a calendar recommendation that includes where staff development and data analysis days are designated as well as conferences and breaks and we've had some questions on those that I wanted to delve into a little bit starting with staff development just going back to when the read Act was adopted in 2023 district 196 convened a large task force of staff students and parents to problem solve how to provide teachers with time to complete that new literacy training the task force recommended we convert three student days to professional development days because significant training still needed for the remainder of our staff the three staff development days are being continued for 2526 the placement of those additional days is made in consultation with our instruction and achievement Department in order to align with the training requirements the committee did modify the placement of one of these days after receiving feedback from our parent leader group The staff development um days that we continue to have every year are usually aligned at the end of trimesters so there is a staff development day on November 26th that aligns to the end of the trimester on the day prior similar to this year and teachers have indicated that having staff development at the end of a trimester is important as they're getting ready to fin close out one try and get ready for the next trimester March 6th is the other end of trimester Staff Development Day in the 2526 calendar data analysis and instructional alignment days provide time for staff to review and analyze student data to make instructional adjustments and better meet students learning needs with the implementation of grassbridge data is available sooner for teachers to analyze and adjust instruction the calendar aligns with when the data is available winter break aligns often with state holidays and you've probably seen that that um over the last 10 years most years we've had break somewhere between 6 days and this year 8 days but just a couple years where we've had a full two weeks of winter break the committee considered having school days on November or on December 22nd and on December 23rd as several other school districts uh have scheduled for the 2526 calendar those dates are not school days if they're not school days or staff work days uh it delays the end of the school year until the second week of June we found that instructional benefit for students as school days earlier in the year to be more beneficial the commit ultimately recommended a data analysis day on December 22nd and staff development on December 23rd to allow teachers to prepare for instructional adjustments Based on data and to be ready for when students return from winter break uh collecting inputs an important part of the process and as I mentioned when the calendar was presented last month the calendar committee would like to seek additional input from stakeholders and further explore more options for the 2026 27 calendar before bringing that calendar proposal to you at a future meeting on behalf of administration I recommend that you approve the 2025 26 school calendar and be happy to answer any questions you may have at this time excellent thank you very much this is an action item tonight so before we go into the questions is there a motion to approve I heard Leah speak first and then Jackie second so Leah made the motion second by Jackie thank you both very much are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members Jackie thank committee this is a committee no one wants to be on because nobody can agree and you're trying to fit in 160 eight or 165 student days and it's kind of like trying to get excuse me 10 PBS of flour in a 5B bag as my grandma used to say and everybody wants it between Labor Day and Memorial Day or the other way around and it this is really hard to figure out all the student days to figure out when it is best for Teacher Workshop days we have a commitment from the state to do so many days and they did a nice job and not everybody's still happy with it but they did a really nice job so thank them because it is this is this is rough work thank you they did a good job Anna I'm I do have a question question um so on those staff development days um my understanding or help help me understand are teachers um are they restricted on taking those as personal days what's our policy around that yes that's a good question in our teacher bargaining agreement our contract the staff development days and the data analysis days have been restricted from taking personal leave that was kind of that really strong commitment of the district that those days were important enough to be not be school days that um that we really thought it was important to have staff there as we've added these three days so this year um with that new Reda training we did uh enter into a memorandum of understanding with DQ with our teacher Union group to allow for personal leave on those days um so a little bit different than the contract as we knew that would be hard to have an additional 3 days identified we'd anticipate we'll do that again for the 252 six year but obviously the calendar would need to be approved first okay thank you yeah excellent all right thank you again oh oh go ahead Jackie after after the 26 27 school year then we will add those three days back to student contact days most likely yeah I think that's something that again we would take that direction from the school board and from from the cabinet and superintendent yeah thank you thank you excellent all right we have a motion to approve the calendar from Leah seconded by Jack all those in favor of approval say I I I those opposed motion carries on a 5 vote thank you very much next I'd like to welcome Rachel Hughes to the podium to go over 2025 26 Middle School and High School course revisions good evening chairperson Johnson members of the school board and superintendent boson at the November fourth board meeting I had an opportunity to present an overview of the annual course revision process for middle and high schools in addition to describing some of the proposed new courses for the 2425 school year course revisions are prepared annually and recommendations are made to add drop replicate or rename courses following board approval each year the course revisions become part of the materials for the registration process that begins in January a detailed listing of course revisions is also included in today's board packet for reference I am presenting the proposed 2526 course revisions this evening as old bus old business and I'm recommending approval I'm also happy to answer any questions you may have at this time thank you very much this is another action item tonight so there are a motion to approve the middle school and high school course revisions for 2025 26 so Move Motion by leas is there a second seconded by Jackie are there any questions or comments from the audience questions or comments from board members this is the second reading so I think you got all of our comments last month but I'll just reiterate these are always really exciting to read love seeing the direction we're going in thank you very much thank you um there's a motion to approve from Leah seconded by Jackie all those in favor of approval say I I I those opposed motion carries on a 40 vote thank you very much all right that brings us to our new business portion of our agenda I'd like to welcome Eric Hansen to the podium to go over a personal finance and required graduation credits okay good evening chair person Johnson members of the school board and superintendent bson tonight I'll be sharing information on our graduation requirements specifically regarding the addition of the personal finance required course last month personal financers presented to you during a new course proposal our our strategic priorities well-being achievement and Equity have served as our guiding framework throughout this process and will continue to inform our decision- making in May of 2023 Minnesota legislation establish a graduation requirement for a personal finance course in all school districts this initiative aims to help students make informed financial decisions understand the impact ER I think the slides aren't advancing thank you uh understand the impact of financial commitments build security and confidence for a productive future and reach their full potential uh or personal financial goals Minnesota is now the 20th state in the nation to guarantee personal finance education for our high school graduates as Minnesota Department of Education navigated the complexity of this requirement mde took extended time on lure and learning objectives and only recently released guidance for implementing this requirement the legislation States uh that students who entered nth grade this school year 2024 and 25 and thereafter are now required to successfully complete a course for credit in Personal Finance in grades 10 11 or 12 and a teacher of personal finance course must have a teaching license in agricultural education business family and consumer science social studies or math with this information we were charged with how we would implement this requirement in our high schools we reviewed several options with High School principles and assistant principles members of the instruction achievement department and members of cabinet to decide how this course would be offered in our district after conversations with neighboring districts and with guidance from mde we came to the conclusion that personal finance would be best offered as a standalone course and be taught by teachers with the qualified ler this option provides flexibility course Fidelity and consistency between our four Comprehensive High Schools our current graduation requirement policy states students must complete 66 credits of coursework at the high school level grades 9 through 12 inclusively to be eligible for high school graduation by adding the new required personal finance course district 196 graduation credit requirements increase from 66 to 67 credits which puts us 2.5 credits over the state minimum which is equal to two trimester course requirements in collaboration with District leaders building administrators and the school board we recommend moving a request district 196 credit to our elective choices and remain at 66 credits for graduation district 196 currently exceeds state requirements in general electives safety education social studies physical education and wellness this is the first reading and there is no board action required tonight we are presenting this recommendation and I'll be back in January for board approval district and building administrators engaged in multiple conversations to discuss the pros and cons of reducing a required Credit in each of the areas district 196 exceeds our State graduation requirements as mentioned when I began this presentation well-being achievement and Equity served as our guiding framework throughout this process to inform our decision- making through this process I would like to bring forward a recommendation to move our district required safety education course to an elective choice beginning in the 2025 26 school year safety education will continue to be offered but offered as an elective course and not a district graduation requirement as it is not a state required course while we value the opportunity for students to engage in the content of this course we feel that this course is best offered as an elective allowing flexibility in student Choice with this proposed adjust M district 196 remains over the State graduation required credits by 1.5 trimester credits which equates to one trimester course District leadership is interested in taking a comprehensive look at the required credits that district 196 currently exceeds the state by engaging our students our staff and families in examining strengths and challenges with our current graduation requirements we all know that our student that our future is changing and new stud student or I'm sorry new state course requirements will likely be added to best prepare our students for College and Career Readiness our plan would be to engage our students our staff and families through small group discussions and surveys to identify current perceptions of our District's graduation requirements as well as our current course offerings our goal would be to ensure We Gather a wide range of voices and perspectives and bring back our findings and recommendations to the school board in May I am happy to answer any questions or hear any comments thank you very much at this time are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members yeah Jackie I think it's really smart I like what you did with the qualified licensers because it could have been an agriculture teacher we don't have very many of those in the district but business family consumer science social studies or math and if you would have put it has to be a social studies teacher that might not work it might work in some schools in some years and it might not work in other schools family consumer science teachers there's not always a lot of them around and so I think by leaving that by saying it's qualified lure and it could be any one of those it has really LED for a lot of flex ibility in the building so I think that was a really good good way to use that and put that bill into or put that class into our schools thank you you excellent um I just wanted to add there's a couple things in here I really like and I just wanted to kind of call that out I I do appreciate and like the current um recommendation I also really really appreciate the comprehensive review that's added in here as well you know one thing I'm consistently thinking about is why are our graduation requirements the way that they are and why do we only change them when the state makes us um and I'd love this comprehensive review because those are questions that I I mean I don't know if anyone's ever been able to answer and I don't expect anyone to answer that because they're hard questions based in probably many many years of how we've operated but um I really like our district to be on the Forefront and be very proactive versus waiting for the state to force us to make changes I mean we're hearing about computer science possibly being can get ahead of that and just what how are we educating our students for the World of Tomorrow so I really appreciate that we're not just making one change because the state made made us but we're also having that comprehensive look to evaluate all of our graduation requirements and what that future looks like so thank you for doing that as well yeah thanks for saying that being new to my position allows me to dig into some of those questions as well so it's good timing absolutely thank you all right well we will see you back next month for the second reading thank you very much next I would like to welcome Kaa Bruce to the podium to go over our connection preschool fees for 2025 26 good evening chairperson Johnson members of the board and superintendent Bon I'm sharing with you tonight the first reading of the proposed connections preschool fee increases for the 2526 school year Community Education is proposing a tuition adjustment for the 22526 connections preschool program the proposed fee schedule is based on Federal poverty guidelines and follows the sliding fee structure outlined in regulation 507.00 the findings reveal that our current fees are significantly lower than the average rates in these comparisons even when excluding non-public preschool programs Additionally the connections preschool program experienced a budget deficit during the 2023 24 school year with Rising program expenses including increased staff costs a tuition adjustment is necessary to maintain the program's Financial sustainability the proposed fee increases for the 26 school year are designed to address these Financial challenges while remaining competitive within Market rates while still keeping our fees below those of C comparable and neighboring districts this is the first reading so no action is needed and I will return on January 13th to request your approval but I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have thank you very much at this time are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members thank you very much K we'll see you next month for the second reading thank you abut all right next on the agenda I'd like to welcome Danny duen back to the podium for 2024 25 final budget once again good evening chair Johnson members of the school board superintendent Bon and our district 196 Community tonight District administration presents the 2024-25 final budget for a first Reading and Review included in the board packet for this evening is a draft of the final budget book which I have a black and white copy of here the budget book includes a wealth of information about the various funds of the district and how the final budget is developed the content presented here tonight is a high level summary of some of the key pieces of information provided in the budget book before I begin sharing tonight's budget content there are a couple of quick thank yous that our team would like to extend first of all thank you to all the budget administrators principles and department managers for all their hard work their time and their planning during this particular budget cycle I'd also like to thank Kim Woods manager of financial system reporting and compliance in our finance department who is on the front lines of supporting all of the various budget managers and administrators within the district and she does a great job secondly my favorite thank you every single budget cycle is just a big thank you to all the students who allow us to Showcase their artwork in our budget books and really bring those budget books to life it's one of our favorite things to do is request the artwork receive it and then decide what what goes where and see how it turns out so really showcases how incredible our students are then do we send a we'll we'll put that in the budget for next time say is that in the budget I don't uh it's important to ground ourselves with the district strategic road map and continually remind ourselves with how the budget aligns to the district's Mission Vision core values and strategic priorities providing our staff and students with the resources needed to execute our road map a quick reminder of where we are within the within the 2425 budget cycle the final budget is step three for the current fiscal year and this is really the first opportunity for us to make adjustments to the preliminary budget using some actual information couple of those key pieces of information are actual prior year ending fund balances and also using October 1st actual enrollment headcount to prepare the final budget later this spring the finance team will do a full review of the budget and make any necess necessary adjustments before culminating with our annual Financial audit beginning in the summer of 2025 the 2425 final budget utilizes the actual October 1st 24 enrollment count of 29,40 students which was presented to the board at its October 7th meeting the final budget also includes 3,999 budgeted regular FTE across all employee groups a few interesting tidbits regarding the district's licensed teaching staff provided by the human resources department 66% of our licensed teachers have been with the district for at least 5 years 45% of the of licensed teachers have been with the district for at least 10 years and over 80% of licensed teachers have an advanced degree transitioning over to the financial information for the final budget final budget total revenues across all funds comes in at $666 million the general fund accounts for the largest share of the revenue budget at $59 million or 76.4% the District's internal service funds account for 79 million or 11.9% of all budgeted revenues and the district's internal service funds are our health our dental and our Severance funds you will note if you compare this to the final budget from last year that our total revenue budget is lower in 2425 than it was in 2324 and this is due due to the bond issuances from the 2023 um Bond referendum where we received the first Bond proceeds last year we will not receive Bond proceeds this year the next issue will happen next year so that's where you'll see some fluctuations as far as total amounts or percentages for each fund that stems from whether we're receiving those Bond proceeds in the construction fund on the expenditure side of the equation budgeted expenditures across all funds total 794 million similar to budgeted revenues the general fund accounts for the largest share of budgeted expenditures at 514 million right around 65% the second largest share of budget expenditures is the is that building construction fund at 130 million or 16.4% it is expected that expenditures in the building construction fund far outpace revenues once again we received Revenue last year but also this is the first full year that construction planning for a lot of the major projects have started to ramp up and so our total expenditures within the building construction fund is going to increase significantly diving into the district's general fund which is our main operating fund as is common across districts in the state state AIDS accounts for the largest share of Revenue sources at 70.4% of budgeted revenues with property taxes providing 23.6 of general fund Revenue sources for the current fiscal year in the general fund Federal sources budgeted at nearly $1 million comes in at 2.2% one thing to note about Federal sources in the general fund we had about $500,000 worth of covid grant funding remaining coming into 2425 um that was exhausted in July August and September of this year um so we are back to pre-pandemic Federal funding levels within the general fund so next year we should see that number down your 10.5 million which is pretty standard for federal funds two ways we can review the expenditure budget are by program and by classification the program Dimension essentially categorizes expenditures into broad buckets while the object Dimension or classification tells us the what that we are purchasing salaries benefits supplies and so on 86% 86.6% of our general fund budget is slated for programming that directly impacts students and 81.1% of the general fund expenditure budget is for staff compensation and salaries so connecting this back to our district strategic road map this is a direct reflection of the of the district's budget prioritizing student centered programming and investing in the people and relationships that deliver that programming zooming back out taking a 30,000 foot view at fund balances for all funds our total anticipated fiscal year 25 ending fund balance is $379 million with the general fund accounting for 106 million and the building construction fund accounting for 176 million as previously mentioned the building construction fund is the main reason for the decrease in total fund balance as construction expenditures will far outpace revenues for this particular year this is obviously an expected decrease in this fund and the impacts of its on its the district's overall fund balances well it's quite important to for us to connect budgeting practices with the district's strategic road map it's equally important to connect our budgeting practices to the outcomes that our students and staff experience some of which are very easily measurable others of which are more memorable the district's budget isn't merely a set of numbers in various charts and funds in a beautiful budget book it really is the Catalyst that connects our students staff and resources together so that all of these opportunities whether they're quantifiable or developmental are even possible our recommendation tonight is to review the 2425 final budget we will be back at the January 13th 2025 school board meeting for a second reading and recommended approval and at this time I'd be well I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have excellent this time are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members I just say um this is we have a very large budget and one thing above above anything I really really appreciate is fiscal transparency and the responsible use of taxpayer resources and that is in addition to all the fancy artwork that is one reason I love the budget book that we put out it is I'm just going to say it every time for any Community member um watching this or anyone in the audience if you ever have a question about our budget you can find the answer in that budget book you've the your team has won awards for putting that book together and it is organized EX extremely well even being a new board member when I was trying to understand our $666 million budget I was approving I went to that book and learned a lot so um thank you especially for I thank you for the presentation but especially for all the work your team puts into making our complicated budget as transparent as possible to the public really appreciate it thank you abolutely all right we'll see you next month next I'd like to welcome Janet switowski to the podium to go over our legislative priorities for 2025 good evening chairperson Johnson Schoolboard members and superintendent balani I'm here tonight to present a first draft of the district's legislative platform in your board packet at the outset we want to thank our local legislators for their commitment to public education to families and to our communities during the last biennium the legislature invested in our children families and public education to start closing an inflationary Gap that lasted 20 years there were also significant new mandates more than 300 pages of new legislation impacting schools our legislative advisory Council and budget advisory Council met in November to discuss this year's legislative priorities and I'd like to note that at this meeting this meeting was held before the state's budget forecast was released last week uh but at this meeting the top priority from that meeting was to allow districts and mde time to fully implement the 220 200 200 2023 laws before instituting any new school mandates so our number one ask is for no new mandates there are four items that we wish to highlight on our platform um that I'll draw attention to today number one if you listen to the stage budget forecast last week you heard that investments in special education were highlighted for for growth in the state's budget during the following B biennium we are thankful for that investment in special education um the legislature invested heavily last s session to close what we call the special education and English language development cross subsidy that is the promises that we have heard for decades of a state fed and federal and local partnership to fund special education that has been under funded for decades last bium the uh State Legislature um put money toward that cross subsidy uh and made a historic step forward in allocating fund a to close the special education cross subsidy by 50% which is significant this has been a priority for local school districts that have been we've been advocating for years and we want to thank our legislators again for this important step forward we urge them to continue on this path forward and protect that investment um moving forward during the 2023 24 sessions the legislature also invested heavily in literacy and the read act there is significant training required for this program 45 hours of learning time for all staff for each staff member um involved in literacy education and fulfilling the reskilling that we need to do of our of our educational staff and those coming through our University pipelines will take time and we urge the legislature to ensure that training is required in the future at the University uh teacher lure program levels there are two uh employment law priorities that are also on the platform one is related to the new family leave law that will be coming into place in January taking effect January 1 of 2026 for all Employers in Minnesota this is not just an educational Factor um it will provide eligible employees a combined 20 weeks of paid leave for family and medical reasons and the benefits include 55 to 90% of the employees wages school districts have not traditionally provided this benefit for this length of time um and so we do believe that this is an unfunded mandate that we wish the that we hope the legislature will look at uh for this year we're asking the legislature to look at long-term funding required as this law is enacted and get ahead of it in 2023 we uh school districts were surprised um by some of the laws that required additional investment particularly in unemployment insurance areas our next item is the unemployment insurance funding um in 2020 23 when lawmakers extended unemployment insurance to cover bus drivers substitute teachers cafeteria workers classroom AIDS and other seasonal workers during the summer months the state provided one-time funding for unemployment insurance and that funding is expected to run out this summer um the law has also negatively impacted our District's ability uh to staff summer programs and we are looking at Staffing programs right now based on staff availab ility and offering programs based on staff availability rather than student need um so we would like to look to work collaboratively with our legislators um to provide long-term funding for that program and look at ways we can incent uh employees to uh take positions over the summer there are other priorities that we are keeping on our platform from prior years those are related to local control reducing special education paperwork and bonding Authority for the Apple Valley Sports Arena again this is a first draft of our priorities we'll be collecting feedback in the coming weeks and present a final platform to the board in January thank you very much are there any questions or comments from the audience at this time seeing none questions or comments from board members thank you very much for this first reading and um I hope uh you get some good feedback so um we can see you back next month with the final version excellent that brings us almost to the end of our agenda tonight since we don't have anything under other actions so I will turn it over to superintendent Bon for superintendent updates thank you chair Johnson it's been a meeting with a lot of great information today and I appreciate everybody's um engagement with all of the presentations um exciting news our district is now accepting suggestions for naming our new Elementary School number 20 and we have a survey on our website and we invite community members to participate before December 30th we will bring a recommendation for the new school's name to the board in January I would also like to highlight upcoming Arts performances at our schools Egan High School presents Beauty in the Beast through December 14th East viw high schools presenting lay Miz through December 15th and Rosemont High School presents the 25th Annual putam County Spelling be through December 15th also a final reminder that we are in the application window for parents and Guardians who are interested in applying to have their child attend a magnet school in district 196 next year the deadlines to submit applications are December 15th for Valley Middle School of stem December 20th for the school of Environmental Studies a school that was just recently highlighted in the Star Tribune and January 3rd for Elementary Magnet Schools this month our Elementary magnet schools are holding Open House events both in the morning and evening on the following dates Oakridge Elementary tomorrow December 10th Cedar Park Elementary December 10th and December 12th Glacier Hills Elementary School December 10th and Echo Park Elementary School December 16th and for more information and links to these applications please go to district196.org magnet schools thank you that ends my report tonight excent thank you super thank thank you superintendent bony um I just have one update before I turn it over to the rest of the school board um to see if they have any updates um earlier tonight the school board met to select finalist for our two open vacancies on the school board as you can see that we have um this we received 24 applications and on behalf of the board I wanted to extend my sincere thank you to everyone that took the time to apply to our open vacancies and um volunteer to support and serve public education at the end the board can only uh pick two candidates to fill our open vacancies and tonight they selected six candidates to interview on December 16th the six candidates that they selected to interview are Robin Serio Amy feeder Katherine Hill Diamond Pia mua Andrea Sutherland and Matt cin um I will be sending out more information to those candidates with Logistics and things like that otherwise we look forward to seeing them on December 16th for an interview at this time are there any other board members with items they'd like to share Leah just really quick I do wan to um speak to you know we got a lot of important feedback tonight and I think we've gotten uh a lot in our inboxes in the last um month and I just wanted to say for um everyone who has shared their feedback you know how much we do appreciate that um and H and value being able to hear those perspectives and even if that you know doesn't result in everyone getting what they want I think you know that has to do with all of the various factors that we need to away but um you know similar to what the superintendent said earlier I think it's important to acknowledge how much we appreciate all of the um all of the staff in 196 whether that's a teacher a custodian a CF a CFA AA you know that that the work matters and is deeply appreciated um by me and I know not just me so just wanted to um put that out there absolutely thank you Le and I saw a lot of head knots when you were speaking so definitely not just you thank you that brings us to the end of our agenda tonight is there a motion to adjourn so moved second motion by Jackie seconded by Leah all those in favor of adjournment say I I I those opposed We Stand adjourned until January 13th [Music]