##VIDEO ID:OGQ57MToM30## [Music] good evening and Welcome to our September 23rd regular Schoolboard meeting at this time please rise and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance 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 thank you everyone and Welcome to our very first [Music] roll call vote so if you see that that's because we have some people in person and of course I am virtual today um with that is there um I am looking for a motion to approve the agenda there are no additions or deletions to the agenda today is there a motion to approve second Garder okay I heard a second we're going to work through a little bit of tech difficulties I'm pretty sure the second was Leah but I didn't could you raise your hand to tell me who made the original motion Anna awesome there's a motion by Anna second by Leah all those in favor of approving the agenda I will turn it over to Kristen to take a quick roll can you guys hear me yep director Gardner yes director Muhammad yes director Williams yes chairperson Johnson yes all right agenda is passed with a unanimous vote um we have no recognition by the school board on the agenda tonight so I will turn it over to superintendent Bon for superintendent's recognition of students and staff thank you chair Johnson congratulations to the 46 district 196 seniors receiving special recognition in the National Merit Scholarship program and the college board's National African-American and Hispanic recognition programs students are selected for recognition based on scores they achieve on a national standardized test they took last year as Juniors we look forward to officially recognizing these students and their families at our next regular school board meeting on October 7th last week we reached a milestone in planning for the new Rosemount Middle School which will be constructed as part of the May 2023 Bond referendum approved by by our voters the city of Rosemont has approved building plans and required permits we can move forward with the groundbreaking and construction soon we want to thank the Rosemont city council the professionals and the City Planning department and all the staff parents and community members who have been involved in this process we appreciate the collaboration and are excited about the educational opportunities this new building will provide to our students and to our community lastly I would want to recognize our outstanding principles and assistant principles on our consent agenda tonight the school board will have the opportunity to approve a resolution designating the week of October 7th to the 11th as principals and assistant principles Appreciation Week in district 196 our principls and assistant principles are talented dedicated and caring professionals who provide leadership for their schools and staff guidance for students and support for families thank you for the important work you do for our school communities and with that that ends my report thank you that BR to the next item our agenda which is special communication requests those who wish to sign up for special communication requests can do so in advance and speakers are allowed for up to four minutes in order to make their comments um as a reminder special communication request is an opportunity for board members to listen as such board members generally do not respond to speakers however individual board members or District administration may follow up with speakers regarding questions or comments after the board meeting um as a just uh for our speakers tonight um when you come up to the podium there will be a green light in order to start your comments an amber light will show up on the podium and you have about 30 seconds left and a red light um when you see a red light please wrap up your comments at this time I would like to welcome shudy rangu to the podium um and shudy when you get to the podium please start by introducing yourself hi uh good evening chairperson Johnson Schoolboard members and superintendent bson uh my name is Shy Ru I have three kids in district 196 two in elementary school and one in middle school he's a sixth grader this year uh and I'm thrilled to be here and have the opportunity to speak to the school board I'm here today to talk about first Lego League programs and why they should be a district 6 supported extracurricular activity first is a global Organization for inspiration and recognition of Science and Technology they offer numerous programs including LEGO League Explorer for kids in grades in second through fourth grade and Lego le challenge for fourth through eth graders um in addition to the stem curriculum offered by these programs they all all the first programs include a set of core values impact inclusion Innovation Discovery teamwork and most importantly having fun our District's motto is one District infinite possibilities we have fantastic support participation and recognition for kids participating in sports programs throughout our district but there are limited opportunities for students to participate in a stem extracurricular parents and kids are seeking a team extracurricular that promotes stem where kids can continue to develop leadership teamwork and presentation skills and be recognized for those achievements and we also need to encourage and support girls interest in stem Fields one way to do this would be to support in all girls f team there are so many proven benefits to stem-based education and it's well known that introducing stem curriculum at an earlier age is more effective a few benefits of first programs the emphasis on the core values builds essential life skills alums of first programs are more likely to pursue careers in a stem field and participating in LEGO League teams builds strong connections amongst the students if it were a school supported activity it would build those connections with the school as well that feeling of being more connected to your peers and to your school leads to decreased absenteeism in student population within district 196 there are a couple schools that currently offer uh first leg leag programs as an extracurricular either through a teacher coaching a team or a teacher or staff member providing administrative support with uh parents coaching the team team um so if you're lucky enough to live within the School boundaries of one of those schools your child could have this legally experience um otherwise there are a few parents trying to still provide the experience but it's very challenging in conclusion I'd love the opportunity to have a longer conversation about district 196 and first Lego League I'm requesting equal access throughout our district to high quality before or after school stem education by offering first Lego League Explorer and challenge as a district supported extracurricular for all of our kids in all of our elementary and middle schools parents we're passionate we're ready to partner with the district work together and we can figure out how to make this opportunity a reality for all of our kids thank you thank you shy next on the agenda is the consent agenda we have 13 items on the consent agenda today they include minutes of the September 9th 2024 regular school board meeting minutes of the September 16th 2024 special school board meeting gifts quarterly gifts advertising Revenue quarterly advertising Revenue grants Treasures report July 2024 Personnel Equity advisory Council appointments joint Powers agreements between the Dakota County and District 186 for the provision of school resource officer Services service agreements with the city of Apple Valley City of Ean and city of Rosemont for school resource officer services and principes and assistant principes Appreciation Week October 7th through the 11th 2024 are there any items on the consent agenda that a Schoolboard member would like to pull today seeing none is there a motion to approve so moved Cal second Garder I hear a motion by sowen and a second by Leah I will turn it over to Kristen for a roll call vote director Gardner yes director Mohammad yes director Williams yes chairperson Johnson yes and with that the consent agenda passes on a 404 we have no items under reports today so that brings us to Old business I would like to welcome Jill coil to the podium to go over the second reading of policy 506 student welfare [Music] good evening chairperson Johnson school board members and superintendent balson um I am here for before you tonight looking for action on proposed changes to policy 506 student welfare this policy governs a variety of topics related to Student Health and Welfare the proposed changes can be found in sections two five and seven of the policy they are relatively minor changes that include uh changes regarding the management of communicable diseases in schools um a change regarding the location of nck Zone in schools and the addition of references to Minnesota's free School meals program the changes were discussed in Greater detail at the September 9th Schoolboard meeting and the administration now seeks your approval please let me know if I can answer any questions thank you Jill this is an action item tonight so before I go into comments is there a motion to approve secondly I got a second from Leah who made the original motion SC excellent I have a motion by sowen in a second from Leah are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members excellent having no questions this be a second reading there is a motion by Soden second by Leah I will turn it over to Kristen for a roll call vote director Gardner yes director Mohammed yes director Williams yes chairperson Johnson yes excellent motion carries on A40 vote that brings us to our new business portion of the agenda today and I'd like to welcome Jill Coyle back to the podium to go over policy 101 district 196 Mission and beliefs and policy 201 General organization once again good evening uh so new tonight our proposed revisions to policy 101 district 196 Mission and beliefs and policy 2011 General organization currently both of these policies contain the district's previous mission statement educating our students to reach their full potential policy 101 also contains the district's previous belief statements tonight the administration seeks to update both policies with the district's current mission statement educating developing and inspiring our students for lifelong lifelong success the administration also seeks to replace the belief statements in policy 101 with the district's current Vision core values and strategic priorities this is a new business item tonight and we'll come back to you for Action in October I will also note at this time that there is one other policy policy 406 that also contains the district's previous mission statement but this is a policy that requires some additional revisions in other areas and will be presented to you at a later date down the road so for tonight please let me know if I can answer any questions about their proposed revisions to policies 101 and 2011 thank you very much Jill are for this time are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members seeing none seems like a um straightforward change in order to incorporate our newest mission and vision thank you very much jillen we look forward to seeing you at a future board meeting thank you next on the agenda I'd like to welcome uh director Jeremy s saurin s to the podium to go over our element attendance areas all right uh good evening superintendent Bon chair Johnson and members of the board we're here tonight to present the preliminary recommendation for Elementary attendance area adjustments we will start by describing process and then provide a two-part recommendation which includes creating an attendance area for opening of a new Elementary building and balancing enrollment at the elementary level across the southern portion of our district we will conclude by outlining our community engagement process and discuss next steps as we move forward a lot of information will be provided tonight we're PR presenting on proposals in two different zones of the district and we'll providing opportunities for feedback and questions from the board at the end of each zone so there'll be a pause at the during parts of this for for questions and comments we learned a lot from the secondary balancing process in 2022 and are replicating that process because of the scope and scale of the proposals we are bringing to the tonight these proposals span across the southern portion of the district and will affect many schools we use an internal steering committee and multiple subgroups to develop proposals our goal is to collect public feedback on this plan and use the feedback to make any appropriate changes before bringing it back to the board for a final decision later in November our process has been collaborative has been a collaborative effort involving building principles from the impacted schools and a diverse group of District staff key departments such as Transportation student services Community Education secondary education special education finance and communication have all contributed to the planning we've reviewed enrollment across the district consulted with our city City Planning departments regarding their comprehensive plan for future growth and have analyzed multiple scenarios in terms of meeting the needs in balancing enrollment this next phase of the process is critical in terms of getting feedback feedback and insight from both the board and community members will help refine and strengthen the plan engaging Community Partners in this process ensures that the adjustments reflect the diverse needs and strategic priorities of our schools families and the district as a whole for context there's not been a comprehensive adjustment to Elementary School attendance areas in this District since 1995 since that time there have been Minor Adjustments as schools have been built or developments have been created but changes to attendance areas have been isolated and met the needs of a specific area this timeline shows highlights over the last 10 years in our district notably there's been a significant change in the distribution of our student population across the district over the last several years specifically growth in the south East area of our district so when we're looking to make Elementary attendance area adjustments and using our facilities efficiently and effectively there are some districtwide focuses in mind first we want to maintain optimal School sizes and provide Equitable experiences for students and staff by targeting an ideal student population range of 6 to 800 students per building we aim to ensure a consistent educational experience across the district this is similar to the approach used in 2022 to establish a more balanced secondary enrollments next we're looking to alleviate overcrowding in elementary schools and lastly we're mindful of space needed for expanding Early Learning Program which is a directive the board provided Us in June we're not yet prepared to bring a recommendation for Early Childhood however this proposal accounts for existing Early Childhood classrooms and neighborhood schools our ultimate goal is to ensure our facilities can continue to meet the needs of all students from Early Child Ood through Elementary education using our strategic plan as a guide we believe the attendance area adjustments proposed this evening will help ensure that students across the district have Equitable access to well-resourced schools aligned instructional practices and consistent curriculum implementation contributing to Stronger student outcomes in addition to our strategic priorities there are a wide range of considerations we look at during the process consistent with path past attendance area adjustments our guiding principles have been to create attendance areas that protect the concept of neighborhood schools are contiguous and follow natural boundaries when possible allow room for growth and consider Middle and High School attendance areas and adhere to all state and federal guidelines specifically the Minnesota state desegregation and integration rules making sure that through our adjustments we are not creating any racially identifiable schools so now we're going to get into the actual adjustments first we're talking about Zone one zone one is the new Elementary School located at the corner of Arron Avenue and Bon Air path at Rosemount it's located in the current Red Pine Elementary attendance area just north of the border between Red Pine and Rosemount Elementary attendance areas Red Pine is designated by the color pink and Rosemont Elementary is designated by the color gray on this map in developing the attendance area for the new Elementary School we've carefully considered several key factors because of their proximity to the site both Red Pine Elementary and Rosemont Elementary are the two schools most impacted by the adjustments one of our primary goals is to alleviate overcrowding at Rosemont Elementary while ensuring that the new boundaries promote balance enrollment across all affected schools this process reflects a commitment to maintaining neighborhood schools and supporting the well-being and academic success of all of our students and taking into consideration future growth from the community from Community Development this slide shows the addition of the proposed attendance area for the new elementary school it's the purple space highlighted and circled in the above image it encompasses densely populated areas with close proximity to the school it also encompasses a rural and industrial area of our district that connects to neighboring District boundaries now you'll see a chart attached to this and what that chart signifies is is the number of students that live in an attendance area so that's not the exact rment but it's the number of students that actually live within the boundaries or attendance area of the school there's a strong correlation between that number and enrollment but every attendance area has students who um might choose to open enroll to another school in our district open enroll to a school outside of our district perhaps home school or go to a private school so that number isn't exactly rollment but it's a strong correlation and we when we do change attendance area boundaries that's the number that we impact so one of our main goals in creating the attendants area was to alleviate overcrowed at Rosemount Elementary this proposal reduces the number of students living in Rosemount Elementary attendance area from 913 to 493 students this allows room for growth from the Amber Fields area and additional developments within its attendance areas this is a known area of growth in our district and we anticipate that rosemal Elementary will quickly be with in the optimal zone of student population within the next few years it also keeps the number of students living in the Red Pine attent area at 636 and the new Elementary building at 635 so I'm going to pause here for any questions related to the first zone I'm G take my glasses off so I can see you to at this time are there any questions or comments from the audience related to Zone one seeing none questions or comments from board members okay if there's no questions now there'll be another opportunity to pause you can ask questions that time and then at the end there'll be another opportunity right so so we're going to move on to zone two and balancing enrollment in the southern area of our district Zone 2 encompasses attendance area adjustments in the southern portion of our district these are being proposed due to Rapid population growth and the imbalanced distribution of students across schools the schools impacted by this proposal are diamond path in the pink East Lake in the red Highland in aqua and Shannon Park in yellow so we have a similar graph up here showing the number of students who live in the attendance areas with current and then what proposed would be since East L Elementary opened in 2017 the area has become densely populated leading to significant overcrowding the number of students living in East Lake attendance area is currently 913 students in contrast Shannon park has 355 students Diamond path has 384 students living in their attendance areas the range or difference between the number of students living in a School's attendance area is as much as 556 students or in whole Elementary School's enrollment this creates inequities in Staffing allocations operating budgets and opportunities for students the proposed adjustments aimed to balance enrollment to be more Equitable among East Lake Diamond path Highland and Shannon Park moving all schools towards our opal enrollment of 600 to 800 students under the new plan Diamond path would have 578 students living in its attendance area leaving room to accept intradistrict International Studies interests East Lake drops to 710 students Highland will have 662 and Shannon Park will be at 489 and they currently accept about 150 students who in District transfer or open enroll all schools will now be closer to the optimal range of 6 to 800 students and more capable of providing an equitable experience for our students families and staff in this proposal Diamond path would be moved moving away from its Magnet School designation Diamond path was originally configured as a magnet school however unlike our other magnet schools it was not racially it was not a racially identifiable school it became a magnet school because of its International Studies theme Diamond path will continue that instructional theme however in moving away from the magnet school status we will phase out transport transporting students from outside the School's attendance areas with this attendance area rebalancing Diamond path attendance area increases so we'll have more students from its neighborhood while still maintaining capacity for intradistrict transfers or open enrollment based on its internal International Studies theme if you recall from the previous Slide the current attendance area is 384 and the proposed attendance area would have 578 students in the long run this this reduces overall Transportation costs and there will be no other changes to magnet programming additionally um the secondary process completed in 2022 has worked better than expected to stabilize and balance Middle School enrollment the only Middle School pathway that would be affected by the elementary balancing is this small neighborhood of 59 students um 59 elementary students that is moving from East Lake to Shannon Park currently 100% of students in the Shannon Park attendance area are also in the rosemal Middle School attendance area as as we increase the Shannon Park attendance area we pick up one neighborhood that is zoned for Scott Highlands Middle School we're proposing to adjust only this Middle School attendance area so that the 10% of Shannon Park students can accompany their classmates to rosemal middle school and we expect parents would support this proposal even though there are district-wide attendance area adjustments to Elementary there is no impact on high school and this is the only Middle School adjustment we are proposing do we have questions on zone two or anything that you thought of for for Zone one thank you at this time are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members director Williams thank you Corey uh just a quick question around that savings on Transportation was there like a value that you identified how much that savings would be yeah transportation for our magnet students so students outside of the attendance area at Diamond path right now it fluctuates each year a little bit but it's between 400 and $600,000 a year okay thank you y any other questions from board members seeing none um thank you for the presentation um and uh director senson do you want to give a little bit of information on what the next steps are with Zone one and zone two this proposal yep that concludes the zone two part I do have a few more slides with some of the next steps in some of those things so thank you that's a perfect lead in Cher Johnson all right so first of all we must want to talk about this proposal has a number of comprehensive benefits for our district IT addresses overcrowding at both Rosemount Elementary and East Lake Elementary The Proposal stabilizes enrollment for multiple elementary schools and then we provide additional Early Learning space in elementary schools for example East Lake has two rooms that were specifically designed for Early Childhood programming however because of their overcrowding these rooms are currently being used for K5 programming under this plan those rooms would be used for what we originally designed for early childhood and then lastly we believe this proposal allows us to have improved resource allocation across all the impacted areas and then this is our last slides but this is our communication plan it's shown up here um there's a number of communications going out to families during the month of September including tonight in addition to the board presentation we're sending districtwide emails to staff and families that will include links to a live interactive website where families can use their address to see how they're impacted by the proposed changes there'll also be a feedback form included in the communication and we're encouraging staff and families to put questions and comments in the form to help guide the feedback process and then during the month of October we will be holding number of family information sessions to engage in conversations about the proposed plan this will give us the opportunity to hear directly from our community once we've gathered feedback and information our plan is to review and make any appropriate adjustments prior to bringing the proposal to the board for approval in mid November I'd be happy to take any additional questions you may have at this time thank you very much are there any final questions or comments from the audience regarding the Elementary attendance areas seeing none final questions or comments from board members Leah just one question on when you mentioned just now in zone two that there would be some opening of Early Childhood space do you know what that amounts to in terms of actual uh kiddos that we'd be able to get in it's not a lot it' be balancing the enrollment across school so we could use some of the rooms that were designed for Early Childhood for that purpose so at East Lake there'd be two classrooms um it wouldn't technically be additional space but it' be trying to get kids closer to their home schools and those kinds of things yeah I mentioned any other sorry I mentioned before that um and we know that this is a priority for the for the board and we've been investigating different kind of scenarios and proposals um we don't have one ready tonight but there may be something in the near future that we would bring forward that would provide more space for early learning got thank you that would be great any other questions or comments from board members see none I would just add um to any community members um watching the presentation tonight that um as board members I know we all know that even small um attendance areas uh adjustments can sometimes take some time to digest so um thank you to the district and director senson for giving um families a lot of notice uh communic ation and um opportunities to provide feedback that you mentioned and um so any of our families watching please feel free to take advantage of any those opportunities to provide feedback on this plan all right thank you very much and we will see you at a future school board meeting all right that brings us to the other action item uh portion of our agenda and I would like to welcome Christopher anango robshaw to the podium to go over 2024 payable in 2 property tax levy limitation good evening chair Johnson Schoolboard members and superintend B as well as our U public stakeholders I am chrisopher and I'm going to be walking us through our proposed uh 2024 tax levy as I said I'm here to discuss our proposed 2024 property tax levies and these are for taxes payable in 2025 these tax leves will fund the school districts fiscal year 202 six operations the cycle for Levy begins this evening with the school boards authorizing the proposed Levy following this action the Minnesota Department of Education will transmit data to the county who will then compile it including data from other taxing entities uh create communication that they will be sharing with other taxpayers across the county the process then will return to this um body in December for the final certification the property tax levy is the local communities partnership with the state and federal government in supporting the school district's Mission it is a key component of our strategic priority in ensuring we're providing the right mix of resources to meet the needs of our students and as we begin this journey into our fiscal year 2026 budgeting process I want to spend a little bit of time reviewing the current Revenue components uh for the F fiscal year we're currently in so we pause here to note the impact of property taxes that they play into the mix of Revenue the district receives for the current school year a quarter of the revenue we receive is from property taxes the image on the right highlights the amount of Revenue that is received by the three other funds for the three funds based on the property taxes and as you can see the general fund receives 120 million which is about 77% of the overall tax our debt service receives 22% and Community Education receives 1% we will then discuss the key components of our Levy the referendum market value which is used to calculate our voter approved operating Levy local optional Levy and equity and transition levies the RMV for the proposed Levy is calculated at 26.3 billion and represents an increase of 5.8 billion from prior year the adjusted net tax capacity is used to calculate the remaining components of the general fund including the co operating capital projects Levy operating Capital Career and Technical education among other general fund items the NTC is also used to calculate all the other components of Levy related Community Education and Debt Service NTI is calculated at 329 million which represents an increase of 5.4% from prior year the median valued home in the district is currently valid at 392,000 this is based on a 2024 assessment by the county and this figure represents a decrease of 68% from prior year together these three components point to an increase in the overall tax base which helps distribute the tax impact to of all Levy across the community our December presentation will include the individual impact of property taxes um and to the prop to the property taxpayer for fiscal year 2026 ISD 196 Lev is based on a September 18th R MD run and represents about just over $155 million this Levy amount represents a decrease of about 1% from what was approved prior and I would say the decrease especially in the general fund is mainly attributed able to the changing enrollment projections uh for the district this slide shows a historical progression of our Levy Trend highlighting the commitment that our community of taxpayers continue to invest into our school district tonight our recommendation to the board is to adopt the maximum Levy for a pay 25 Levy this allows the Department of Education and theota County to make needed ad assments as key data Elements which impact the levy are finalized uh we will present the final certification back in December that's when we will also be holding our truth inter session hearing I'm happy to entertain any questions if there's across anything that I may have presented this evening so this is an action item tonight so before we go into questions is there a motion to approve so move toed second Leah a motion by sowen and a second by Leah at this time are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members again seeing none we have a motion by souten seconded by Leah to approve the property tax levy I will turn it over for to Kristen for a roll call vote director Gardner yes director Muhammad yes director Williams yes chairperson Johnson yes motion carries on a four zero vote I will turn it back over I'll turn the meeting back over to Kristen uh to Christopher again to go over the sale of land for Highway 3 roundabout thank you again chair Johnson um this item has been a conversation at the school district and the Minnesota Department of transp ation has been having for for for a while um beginning in 20 in June 2025 the Department of Transportation is proposing to construct a roundabout at the intersection of Highway 3 and 142nd Street um again this round about as has been we as a school district are not able to construct roads and through various lobing efforts we've asked for uh traffic studies to help improve the traffic flow around that area especially during early AR and dismissal time for those students um that attend Rosemont High School we anticipate that the construction of the roundabout will alleviate traffic congestion it will optimize operations at the entrance and also help with the improvements that the Min the Mina Department of Transportation will be making in terms of drainage and infrastructure improvements in the area this s resolution that we're proposing this evening avoids the condemnation and eminent domain process state would other wi pursue to arrive at a similar transfer of ownership they're proposing to pay for the land purchase um which is just slavers of land just to help with Asen process uh as far as them then constructing their roundout and allowing for free flow of um of vehicles around that intersection area and again I'll be happy to entertain any questions or provide clarification on on this item this is another action item today so before we go into questions is there a motion to approve so mov Leah second sowen heard a motion by Leah seconded by sowen at this time are there any questions or comments from the audience seeing none questions or comments from board members so just so I understand correctly the reason why we are getting in front of this is so that we can avoid an eminent domain process correct got it um the process they are hoping the Min Department of Transportation is they want if this process goes through this way then construction can begin in in June 2025 it'll take place over the summer months while students are out and then allow for the resumption of regular service when school returns the eminent domain process May lengthen that process interfering with our um education process uh the district supports it because it does present if you've been in that intersection around arrival dismissal time this actually we are benefiting without spending money to do uh this this Improvement do we also have an idea so how big of an are there Walkers do we have a lot of pedestrians that use that area yes okay so that is currently a tunnel I'm going to say about a quarter of a block away from that intersection that will not be impacted okay um they they will have signage they do not they do not think they will have a crossing right on the roundabout because of access either north of where the roundabout currently is located and south of where the roundabout is located so in the immediate uh vicinity of the roundabout that would not be Crossing um that's proposed currently okay thank thank you any other questions or comments from board members I just wanted to say I know over the years this is a um intersection I have heard um many times about concerns from the community uh especially thinking about you know um newly more inexperienced drivers coming and going from school in a very busy intersection so uh it is nice to see that the um uh county is going to be working with us to make some safety improvements there so with that I had a motion to approve from Leah seconded by sowen I will will turn it over for to Kristen for a roll call vote director Gardner yes director Mohammad yes director Williams yes chairperson Johnson yes good motion carries on a 40 vote that brings us near to the end of our agenda today I will turn it over to superintendent boson for his superintendent updates thank you chair Johnson uh a few updates here tonight absentee and early iners voting started last week for the November 5th general election and Schoolboard election in district 196 two candidates are seeking election to One open seat on the school board for information on where to vote go to mnvotes.org and again that's mnvotes.org Egan High School's fall play is this weekend and I plan to attend our students will bring to life the farce meets murder mystery comedy clue tickets are still available on the high school website three of our high schools Apple Valley East viw and Rosemount are all celebrating Homecoming this week East fuse football game will be on Thursday night Ros mounts on Friday and Apple Valley on Saturday Egan High School celebrations will follow next week we invite everyone from our communities and especially our alumni to come out and enjoy athletic events throughout the week there's so much pride in our community and homecoming is a great Community event our district advisory councils have started their first meetings of the Year district 196 advisory councils provide students parents staff and area community members the opportunity to be involved in the decision-making process and help guide the work of the district this community involvement is critical to the success of our schools we have nine advisory councils and a few seats open on different councils please visit our website and search advisory councils if you would like to get involved we want to thank all staff and community members who share their time and talents on our various councils last week I had the opportunity to visit Oakridge and Pinewood Elementary schools and saw firsthand what a great start of the school year we are having visiting those schools reaffirmed for me our commitment to our students every single day I want to com uh commend our staff especially our elementary teachers who are implementing four new curriculums Reading Writing science and math I saw teachers in action with solid consistency and instruction the hard work and can do attitude among staff is much appreciated one of our teacher one of our teachers commented on the emphasis on writing in the new curriculum and if we think about writing is a way that students process their thinking organize organize ideas and learn to express themselves it is a critical skill that certainly includes but goes far beyond grammar and sentence structure I'm very proud to see the promise of this new curriculum and what it holds for our student growth and achievement this year I want to thank all of our teams for welcoming welcoming me during the school visits and I invite board members to join me as their schedule allows for future visits thank you thank you superintendent Brony are there any board members with items they'd like to share tonight I just have one item I'd like to share so um as uh the community may have seen one of our um former colleagues art Coulson resigned from the Schoolboard effective the end of August I just wanted to um be transparent with the community I'm sure many of you know that that means the school board has a duty to fill um the vacancy that art has left um due to the election happening um right now for one of our Schoolboard seats um we will be um uh announcing the process for filling that vacancy but the process will um be happening after the November 5th election um so just so uh the community knows uh we will um just to avoid any uh un confusing communication about a board member election and a board member vacancy we will be doing them we will be working to fill the vacancy and accepting applications soon after the election so um please tune in we will have more communication um on our district website and at Schoolboard meetings when we get closer to that date that brings us to the end of our agenda today um is there a motion to adjourn the meeting Corey before we before we end the meeting um can you just speak a little bit about why uh we weren't able to actually uh have those two seats on the ballot uh meaning that why why are we going through an appointment process versus why it didn't open up and and and get on the ballot yeah good question and I can I can do my best to speak with that and we'll definitely go into more detail when we have um uh our legal councel to be able to speak to the exact but there are very specific so I can't quote the statute but there are very specific statute requirements that we need um to abide by in order to um fill vacancies and for this again I don't know the dates by um off the top of my hand but based on the dates of um director coulson's resignation there wouldn't be enough time to um put that on the November 5th election because counties need time to print the ballots and the certification and things that come along with that um so with the time window there wasn't enough there wouldn't be time to have it on the November 5th election so we would have to go through the appointment process the law does allow us to start the appointment process right away um however uh it just seemed to be quite it would be quite confusing to the community to be able to hold an election and a vacancy at the same time so we're going to wait till after the election in order to have a much cleaner process um and then start the position of filling that vacancy okay thank you you're very welcome thank you for the question is there a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved Leah second here a motion to adjourn from sowen seconded by Leah I will turn it over to priston for a roll call vote director Gardner yes director Muhammad yes director Williams yes chairperson Johnson yes motion to adjourn passes on a 4- z vote we are adjourned [Music]