##VIDEO ID:HBO3lIUSjZo## e e e e e e e e e [Music] [Music] that's me jeez sorry about that um it is Thursday September 26 2024 at 6m we are at the district service center in Cottage Grove Minnesota we would like to acknowledge that the land on which We Gather is the land of the mawakan Dakota people meakan means dwellers of the Spirit Lake our first item on the agenda is the roll call Dana here here here here here Simi petak here Katie Schwarz here um 2.0 Pledge of Allegiance please stand to flag United States of America to the for it stands na indivisible andice for all 3.0 is the approval of our agenda can I get a motion to approve so moved I who way around okay so that was Eran Ryan hi why did you see and then Melinda for the second okay all those in favor I any opposed motion passes comments to the board at this time individuals may speak to the school board on any item relating to South Washington County Schools the board will not respond to or discuss your comments character abuse or specific complaints identifying staff students or task force members will not be permitted the superintendent may be asked to prepare a response to your concerns each speaker is permitted to speak for up to three minutes in total at three minutes the microphone will be turned off and we will move on to the next agenda item we have one speaker signed up for tonight and e e e e e e 5.0 consent items all consent items are considered routine and non-controversial by the school board and will be approved by a single motion there will be no separate discussion of these items prior to this meeting board members have had the opportunity to review each of of these items and may request that an item be moved to an action item for individual consideration that did not happen this evening so can I get a motion to approve so move second motion by Pat seconded by simy all those in favor I any opposed and I uh have to abstain due to having a child on the um hiring so motion passes and 6.0 is information items 6.1 is summary of superintendent evaluation and that will be presented by myself um at the last board meeting on September 12th 2024 the school board entered into a closed session pursuant to Minnesota statute 133 d05 subdivision 3A to perform superintendent Julie nielson's yearly evaluation during that EV evaluation we discussed seven performance standards they were leadership and accountability policy governance communities communication values Planning and Development human resource relationships and financial and organizational management um Julie was rated either proficient or accomplished on all of those seven um standards um board members did have comments um regarding Julie they said she has good communication she is easily accessible she is present in the schools and focused on fiscal management um the board did have a couple um suggestions on things that could be um areas of focus in the future and those were Financial info information more user friendly on the website review of programs and if they don't seem to be working how can we work on replacing them and would like to see more on the achievement gas gaps SL dat gathering on different um or possibly different groupings um and then the board did also um form a committee so to speak of simy and Ryan to come up with the goals for the following year um and then they will give those to Julie um in the near future I would like to take this time to thank the board and cabinet members for their time and thoughtful feedback for the superintendent evaluation the overall performance was very positive from the director reports as as well as the board superintendent neelon we thank you for your leadership Vision positive attitude and your commitment to the community district and students of South Washington County Schools thank [Applause] you on to 6.2 and that will be our Middle School construction update and that will be introduced by Tyrone brookens assistant superintendent good good evening uh CH Schwarz school board members and superintendent neelson this evening you will be provided with a construction update for the District middle schools this update will be presented by our Architects Mark du boy from coma Architects Paul aalos and S Bagley from W Architects and before we get into the presentation I want to acknowledge we have our Middle School principls here on site uh for support they can entertain any questions if those questions come up we have Molly oi krie Lopez Joanie hayok and Justin ELO also on the audience we have KY yuker who is the director of our facilities who's also part of our construction projects uh the presentation will begin with updates on Woodburry middle school and open middle school and then we will conclude the presentation with updates on Cottage grow middle school and Lake Middle School I will now turn the microphone over to our Architects from w thank you good evening members of the board superintendent neelson I'm s Begley with wal and Paul lowski with wal and we're very excited to give you another update about how the progress of design has been going for both Woodbury and ultman um we came to a I think it was a workshop meeting in May to talk about uh progress thus far so um a lot has happened since then a reminder for those or maybe for those who are at home who aren't familiar with the project the scope of the project at Woodbury Middle School includes renovation at the main office to enhance security renovation of the formal pool area into educational space uh there's some long-term facility maintenance funded projects uh to improve the existing music area and then last but not least the creation of a bus road to help with site traffic we did have an advisory committee that Carrie helped us put together um that also uh Kelly Jansen served on and Dan Hines and Kyle uker and then some members of their Administration they had three meetings in February and March and then we went into the user group process where we met with for example the music staff to talk about the layout of their spaces or a few more members of the main office to talk about the nurse's office or things like that so those user input meetings happened in multiple rounds between April and June usually the first drawing we ever show them is not right right so it takes us one or two times to get the details right as we are talking about things down to cabinet design and Outlet layout and if any of you've ever done a project at home it takes a while to get all that all that right um one of the things the advisory committee helps us do is to really allow outline the goals of the project so you had your voters really approve um addressing needs but really this group gets to help us figure out how we're going to meet those needs with the funding that we have and so writing of these guiding principles and design criteria really helps us say that you know these are our Northstar this is how we're going to um choose to solve these problems so some of the key points from that um was to be consistent with the district Safety and Security standards uh the ultman main office for example was brought up many times as kind of you know ideal configurations and things as we think about Woodbury um to create a third music room all throughout the project and that the um the way that the former pool could best serve needs was to be a multi-purpose space for the building so there's lots of ways that they intend to use that uh here's an overall floor plan of Woodbury only the first level it's the only level that we're doing any work on um and I've kind of colorcoded it here by scope area so in the green or on the Le hand side of the floor plan there you can see uh renovations to create that secure entry sequence so that people have to be um kind of buzzed into the office and the kind of why they're in the school um pre-screen before they can get any further so the main office will move from the space that's labeled Lobby and actually take over to of the classrooms directly adjacent to the door so they're kind of moving towards the door uh then we have the music uh Suite renovation so there's the two existing spaces labeled choir and band that are getting uh reconfigured and updated and then there's a space getting taken over to make that third meaningfully sized music space that's what's labeled Orchestra today and there's some reshuffling of some gym storage and Outdoor Storage to accomplish that and then last but not least conversion of that former pool to the multi-purpose area one thing that's interesting about this project um for those that may remember the pre-referendum diagram is we haven't solved the problem in quite the same way um we have met all of the requirements and particularly that secure office vestibule um it's a very difficult challenging site to work on that building is wedged on the site pretty good um the original idea was to put an addition onto the building and we were able to figure out how to use some of the excess Lobby space that was there on the reconfiguration of the office to do that without an addition in that location which has put the the project in Good Financial condition we're we're under budget currently in that project um that's a good point I don't have any slides particularly about this but um we do work closely with the construction manager cruss Anderson and they do estimates all along the way so we um have kind of just passed through our third estimate of the project as we prepare to go out to bid so as Paul said we're in good standing uh here's a site plan so it just fits better on the slide this way so the last drawing was rotated the other way now North is to the left just because it's a very long narrow site um the buildings are called out in Gray on the bottom so you can obviously see the elementary school and the high school um and that school Drive is where really everything has to come and go to come and go from right now um which leads to you know parents for the Middle School staff for the middle school buses for the Middle School parents for the elementary school bus right so everybody's really trying to get in and out from the same area and there's a proposal in the design to include a new road for buses to come to enter the site and leave from the site so they can get all the way down to kind of the middle school bus parking area um to take at least one form of major traffic out of the mix um I do think they have car told me I think it's 27 buses this year so it's a lot of them and they're arriving and um and leaving really at the same time that some of the other major traffic points are happening this is something that we've talked about extensively with the City of Woodbury so um we've had uh every other week meetings with them to talk about this and what they want to see from a city engineering perspective um and then we actually have submitted drawing to them already so that those are under review um to be able to accomplish this road which is called called out in that golden color we will have to I'm calling that reorient some Fields we're really kind of cutting across where the fields are today but then we reconstruct them a little bit closer to the building so you can see there's a kind of a multi-purpose practice field and a softball field that will get constructed as the result of the grading um when we design projects we really like them to be rooted in the community that they serve and to be highly unique to the building as opposed to being just something that we come up with randomly and so our team spent a lot of time talking about the development of the City of Woodbury and the priorities that have been held true as that city has developed um and the Woodbury Historical Society had a quote that was really inspirational to our team about um that as Woodbury continued its steady growth that Parks were developed featuring many different amenities and today all the open space continues to be um make the city a wonderful place to live and why many of your families might choose to live there and come to your schools and so as we studied that development of the city um we really wanted to take note of how it was shaped and how natural elements have played with the built elements and so we studied where there are bodies of water within the district uh where the built infrastructure to get people from A to B is um and how the nature C systems are really integrated with that and one of the interesting things to note is really the the very strong relationship um between your school sites which are noted in yellow and your nature systems right there's a real inter interand um between those Community amenities and so we thought that that might be a strong thing to bring into the Woodburry middle school project um to kind of bring that value about outdoor space in uh we did take some inspiration from adjacent nature systems so I won't go through all of them but um you can see there's creep park or Fish Creek um tamarak Nature Center what have you as well as some inspiration from just kind of our beautiful state um in Broad terms around uh Trails parks and lakes and so we really started to work to develop a design language about how that would apply to the building um I'll go through this kind of quickly so we can get to the what's happening at your building and just to wrap your head around it there's really three components to it there's go ahead bodies of water um and then trails and then the park are kind of the three components the design elements that we're building around yeah so first was body of water the left are inspiration images not that's not Woodbury Middle School as you probably know um so bodies of water really we thought of those are landing spaces big Central open the sky opens up right large Gathering spaces um parks are a destination um we wanted to really celebrate visibility and light obviously it's a place where people come together and last but not least Trails being um obviously getting you from A to B and what it does to lead your eye down a path maybe have a moment to pause off to the side right why do people try to use trails and so as we look at the floor plan of the building you can see here um this is a um the scope areas with color superimposed with some of this design concept onto it and so we were really treating the lobby area as that body of water right it's our Central Landing space it's kind of the most open area area in the building as well as our multi-purpose it's another one of high volume space um and then there's trails that really take you from some of these destinations to each other and then last but not least the um where the main office used to be we're going to have a nice flexible open area so that is what we're uh determining to be the park and you'll see that in kind of our application and part of what this does is um obviously the building is going to function really well and we work really hard and all of this input we had is talking about how it's going to work and make sure it functions well this is really to give it um an extra feeling so we think about the experience people have within a building um and we we believe that if you in invest in this kind of design and make an environment that is open and pleasing and wel welcoming that the occupants of the building the students and the teachers feel valued in the process so that's our goal um for those who haven't been woodb Middle School anytime recently here's just a couple pictures of that Lobby and main office space today um so right now the main office is kind of an island in the center of the lobby and you have to kind of go cross a circulation area to get to it so we're obviously trying to move that up towards the main door um but there are some existing finishes in that space so just kind of views um then as we started thinking about all of these nature systems um kind of put together a mood board for example of um how we might be able to incorporate these colors into the project and then we worked with the um Carrie and her team uh to actually propose real materials so there is a material sample board um that she has at her building that shows physical samples of any of these um but I'll kind of go through this pretty quickly so um on the left- hand side we've got proposals for cabinets and counters um then we've got some wood panels that are acoustic treatments kind of towards the upper center of the slide along with some those two blue tones that say Buzzy that's a acoustic material that also allows for you to tack things up on it kind of a dual purpose product um we've got your existing building paint palette and some proposed accent paint colors to really bring in some of those um natural colors then on the bottom is really all of our flooring and tile so there's some existing tazzo flooring and some new tazzo that we'll be patching and putting in uh then we've got a couple of different carpet colors for the administration area the music area and then in the vestibule knocks um snow and salt better off boots than other carpets um a hard surface flooring that's what lvt is and then last but not least some tile on the wall both for protection as well as an accent um so now we'll move into kind of space by space so this is a floor plan and a what we call an axon drawing it's kind of like you're looking down into the space um so this is a it's really a snippet out of our user group book so this reflects all of the conversations we had with users throughout the design process um I'll kind of walk you through the floor plan is probably the easiest so bottom left is the secure vestibule um and if you've been to ultman this is a familiar process but you would come into that space and then be led into the main office so that's what's labeled reception and there's space for three positions there and then you can see off of reception there's only a few things you can actually get to there's a large conference room to the north of that uh there's a bathroom in case you're you're a visitor and need somewhere to go to the bathroom and then if you keep going to the right um You can get over to the nurse's Suite so that six students can kind of come be picked up by a parent or family member then there's a door that would really stop you from getting further in the office unless that unless that's why you were there and you can see the principal and the two assistant principal and Dean's offices are kind of on that other side and they have their own door to the hallway so that they can really have a different feeling um for operating with students and there's a little bit of a waiting area there so that not all students if they're coming to see for example the dean have to come way down into reception so those were some important relationships we worked on through the user group process and I have a few views of what that's proposed to look like um so uh there's a little key in the bottom left of all of these so it kind of shows the floor plan the Little Red Dot is where you're standing and then the the cone is kind of the field division so the the VES is right behind us the exterior wall is right to our left that's that window um and then you can see there's a um kind of a presentation or digital display wall ahead of us and then the reception desk to our right uh there's been some discussion about making sure to celebrate um being inside your school district when we come in so some branding on that wall behind there's a little bit of Woodberry branding on the outside um and then here's a view of the other directions now we're kind of in the opposite corner looking back at the vestibule uh we spent a lot of time talking about visibility so that the people at this desk can see who's coming up to the building can see who really is buzzing in and be able to see back out into that Lobby that's something that's valued today and then that door on the left hand side would be the door to the nurse's office just to give some context then if we move out um into the lobby uh so this is really where the main office used to be um so there's going to be an opportunity for a lot of different features to support small groups and individuals so we've got a soft seating Zone kind of just on the other side of the nurse's office um we've got a little bit of a waiting area as students go into student services and then um at some existing columns we did some built-in countertops and benches so a little bit of incorporation of small group work and I have I think it's five renderings of this so I'll kind of Step you through it so main office to our left now and like I said some identification of the building on that wall uh then you see that really that open that water element that we're hoping to um have that feeling evoked from so that's the blue ceiling element over that soft seating area then we've got our Trail off to the right hand side that takes you kind of from One Wing of the building to the other you can see student services there and then in the distance we've got that counter now we've kind of stepped further into the space and we're really staring right now at what would be the office volume so that open seating area off to the left with some of that accent um tile and then a wood ceiling and then those built-in counters we are proposing to paint the existing lockers on the right hand side so those are kind of a very um royal blue right now and so to kind of neutralize that inside the lobby environment so lockers are staying just getting painted a little closer view of that soft seating area and then last but not least that buil-in uh counter area so there are some existing columns that really had to stay because of the design but decided to give them a job to be able to do some um either intervention work or a small group could leave a classroom and come out here and then the waiting area U right outside student services so there's a built-in bench and then that blue curved uh element is that acoustic product that's also like a tackable surface so a little bit of display but also will help with sound so one of the benefits that we're able to achieve um this really stems from um not not doing the addition and pulling that office into the existing space we're able to create a little bit of a center so that building currently feels like a bunch of hallways and there's a bit of a lobby but it's kind of disconnected from circulation this sort of puts a gathering spot as the center of the school and hopefully we'll give it some identity so did you I can't is this on um did you just take then the current Lobby spa or sorry current office space and incorporate that into this new lobby area yeah let me go I'm going to go to an overall floor plan just because that'll be the easiest to talk over got to go way back I guess um so you can see the new office Arrangement will is that L-shaped yellow and so what that does is it takes some of what was open space and two classrooms um we've worked with car on kind of rearranging the building assignments um so then where it says Lobby and park um it's a little hard to see on here but there's actually some columns so there was really like a square shaped office in the center there so that's what's moved what's staying is the student what's labeled student services here just below Lobby there's another yellow so there's some Renovations happening in there for some positions that are going to stay in the same physical location they are just with some like acoustic improvements and things like that so a little bit of both okay yeah I got to click all the way back um so then when we talk about the music Suite I have two slides for this so you can see on the left hand side these are already music rooms today uh what they have is a series of um very very small practice rooms that are all kind of serving as storage rooms today um and really what they wanted was a larger practice area so you can see the rooms have been kind of reconfigured to support that in the center along with a storage um some equipment storage and then a shared office at the back uh these rooms will have flat floors now so that'll be a big change for flexibility um and then on the right hand side is a 3D view of that in case that's a little bit easier for you to interpret then the third space that doesn't exist yet today um is the what the group has been talking about using for orchestra um and so they also wanted an office and a practice area so you can see that there's a large large group teaching area labeled Orchestra then there's a practice room for more like Ensemble type work and then an office and then we had to do some reconfiguration of other elements that were here today like the outdoor storage you know things like snowplow and all that good stuff um and then there's some storage for the gym and Community Education so that's right off of the gymnasium there and again this is an attempt to repurpose space um to to achieve your goals without having to again add on to the building or things like that yeah I didn't see it before but there was a strong value system in the group of really trying to create a a department out of music so having all three spaces collocated as opposed to having two collocated and a third somewhere else in the building um last but not least um the multi-purpose room so this is a space that's really proposed to serve um a lot of different needs certainly I think there's a lot of um activities and physical education that Can Be Imagined in here but even for like large Gatherings and presentations and things like that um has been a lot of the discussion so proposed to have a multi-purpose floor um a projector a sound system there will be an entrance to the space I guess I'll go off of the right hand drawing so you can kind of see there um is proposed to be a door um out to the gymnasium area and then you can come down um either a stair or a ramp to get into the space so they the group wanted to maximize the volume that's still there so we had to do some reconciliation of heights um to get down to what you think of as pool deck level today so the pool volume is getting filled in but we're kind of having a floor at deck level so and then um there's some old pool mechanical rooms that were no longer needed so that can serve as storage um and then there will also be some storage where the viewing area the bleachers used to be so some storage benefits from that and here's a view of what that's proposed to look like so that's where that multi-purpose floor is with some striping incorporated into it um painting of structure the blue shapes off to the right hand side and the left hand side acoustic panels to try to make that a um less echoey space and then um just some incorporation of some light branding um from a schedule perspective we've been in design since January and like I I think I've mentioned we're kind of coming to the moment of about to go out to bid so planning to be done with design in October uh bid date um is currently set for November 12th and then construction is slated for kind of middle of 2025 through middle of 2026 I do have a phasing plan um so you can see here this is uh the current phasing plan showing um you know where contractor lay down and parking is proposed to be the red dash line is proposed construction fencing um and then I think the in the next slide explains it a little bit better but you can kind of see the color coding proposed for the phasing so the first phase is proposed to be the multi-purpose room so that would be kind of middle of next year through the end of the year then phase two is the creation of the third Music Space um in currently kind of underutilized space so that will be in January of 2026 through May and then last but not least in summer of 2026 will be um the music Renovations as well as the main office Renovations so that's the phasing as currently planned um obviously you can see there's draft on all of this because we still obviously have you know six weeks or so left for design um we can yeah can I ask it um so for the new bus road is that so the buses will still come in on school drive or is there they will be able to come and go from this y so they could enter the site on this new road it won't have a name right okay oh so they don't use they won't use school drive at all that's the proposal yep and then there's provision a little bit of reconfiguration happening down there so that they could come in park and then turn around and leave kind of the same way they came okay so kind of remove a whole traffic Source okay and then how will um how will the kids get into the school right because isn't there like there's a door back there oh okay yeah yeah yeah okay okay and then will like the car sorry will the car pickup work the same way too or is that going to try are you going to try to reconfigure that no then the car part will work the same way and it'll be a lot less because the buses are the ones that back up our whole car situation and so now I mean I don't think anyone else has kids at Woodbury middle but I have children at Woodbury middle and I cannot stress how excited I am for this I mean they're not there anymore but like the um so you will be able to ex like the buses will be able to exit and a car will be able to exit at the same exact time right because right now everybody all 100 employees all 27 buses all six specialed buses all are coming in at the same time and leaving then the buses are trying to leave so yeah you know simy it's pretty bad I'm very excited about this so am I any other questions or comments on woodb or Carrie if there's anything you wanted to add to the no it's just I'm really excited about it yeah so um this will be done you're estimating that this will be done for the fall of 2026 yep yep it's kind of in three major phases but that's the proposal right now yep okay I have a quick question is there anything on the critical path that Still Remains for the design phase of the project no I would say um you know we haven't finalized our work with the city so I'll just put that out there that we've gotten a couple rounds of comments back from them but we still have to go through the official site plan and building plan review process but um you know the design has been um in progress since January and we meet pretty regularly with for example Kyle and Dan from a technical side and then also all of our Consultants so the all the engineers on the project so no I don't think so very good thank you all right well um if you have if you think of a Woodbury question we can always go back but maybe we next we'll move into ultman Middle School um so the proposal or the project scope at ultman middle school is really around growth and capacity right so um the spaces that have been identified to include is two stem classrooms a multi-purpose room three science classrooms nine General classrooms two two medium group rooms and more flexx or pod space right that kind of space in in between the classrooms uh there is also expansion of the cafeteria kitchen and some modifications to the serving line um and this is one of the projects that as you see projects coming forth um we will have to comply with the trino shelter requirement so I'll point that out uh this advisory committee took a little bit longer it's a bigger bigger project so they met a couple times um in January and February but it did continue into March and their user groups did extend from April until July so we had a few more groups to meet with and a little bit more Nuance uh that advisory committee did also help us write guiding principles and design criteria so some of the key points um one of thing that was really important to the group was that the additions should look and feel like they match the rest of the building right wanted it to feel holistic and comprehensive um so you'll actually see that in a upcoming slide about building upon the material pet and the design not taking it in a New Direction um that the Pod layout will vary from the existing and that we should find opportunities for flexible learning for science and stem so you'll see that in the layout here is a site plan of the building so the existing building is shown in that gray outline and then the two addition SL renovation areas are in yellow um then I think I'll go to uh some existing photos and color palette so for those who haven't been to ultman in a while or maybe anyone watching from home has never been to ultman um it's a building that really has strong identification by color pod so each pod kind of has a color and that's a wayfinding feature and so we really wanted to build upon that when we started thinking about our color palette um so there's a lot of materials certainly that are um you know replication of what they have before right if something's still in production let's use it again um but the existing three pods are in the upper right hand corner is kind of an orange or Tangerine an aqua and a purple are the three colors and so the group proposed and agreed with the idea of having the new pod be kind of a golden rod color and then the science and stem is actually its own pod um and they wanted that to be green and so that's kind of of rounding out that color palette other things you can see on here is um there is some existing paint colors at the top and we're proposing to reuse many of those for that comprehensive look we've got some cabinets and countertops that'll be inside classrooms and storage areas um we've got our terazzo flooor in the bottom right hand or bottom leftand corner um the Pod carpet um and then some tile and uh windows so a lot of familiar things on this here is a view of the uh classroom pod area so this will be off the south of the building based on that site plan I just showed you um there will be five general classrooms on the bottom level and four on the upper level all surrounding that pod space then we've got a couple of medium group rooms and conference rooms in that blue color you can see to do Supportive Services and small group work uh there is a connection back to the existing building at two moments so you can get in on there's two sets of doors um on both levels as well as a connection um kind of off to the right to the next pot over CU there's kind of that back hallway at open right and those back steps so the group wanted to replicate that uh we will certainly have more lockers we have more bathrooms we have more space to clean so we need another custodial closet so there's kind of a service area in the upper right hand corner of both levels um as well as the mechanical area and then the right hand side is a axon view of one of those levels right so you can see um the choices that the advisory committee made around having you know still transparency and operability out to that pod space and things like that just a couple of views of what that's proposed to look like so and this is um I'll I'll tell you the floor plans on the left where you're standing is the Little Dot and then there's a cone of vision so this is on the main level um one of the kind of iconic parts of ultman is that huge expansive curtain wall getting to look outside and so that was a value that the group wanted to continue with so you can see that um and then entrances into the classrooms here and then if we turn around and look the other way at the connection back to the building there's that small group or conference room in the center and then two doors to come and go from to go out to the Lockers in that main hallway uh then if we go outside again that view have a little bit more volume on the upper level and looking back towards the rest of the building some of the other things I should say that are um kind of known about the design of ultman is the incorporation of some of these ceiling features kind of the hanging acoustic treatments and so wanted to replicate that but just in our new color um here's our science and stem pod so this is on the first level um this is where I mentioned we will have that storm shelter so the storm shelter will be this part of the building um the axon is probably the easiest to understand here so the main hallway is like kind of being bisected or cut through um there will be a new pickup and drop off door on that upper right hand corner um then in order we will have two stem rooms with a shared storage room and then three science rooms um with a shared prep room and then kind of on the hallway side we will have some bathrooms and a data closet and some other support features and there will be a series of um we call them shutters but it's really openings that have something that can come down and cover them in the event of a storm so there will be a few of those along that way so that it can feel quite open when it's not a tornado right and you'll see a little bit of that in this view so here's an example view of what that entrance to that pod would look like from the main hallway where those students are standing that's one of those openings I was mentioning right so can feel open facilitate circulation um but in the event of a storm there would be a coiling shutter that comes down that's protective um and a couple of the features here um a fun thing that our group looked at was um the sign Forman in the bottom left hand corner Corner um just kind of has some iconography on it some shapes and they thought it would be fun to bring that into the building so that's what um influenced like the wood pattern on the wall right CU there's not a science and stemp pod to take inspiration from today so kind of reinterpreting some existing features then above that there will be the multi-purpose room which will be very similar to um kind of the community rooms that like Lake and Cottage Grove the den at Woodbury Middle same same idea right a large Gathering space um so here's a flirt plan and accent of that and we have two views so here's a view um looking out towards the exterior we've obviously got incorporation for presentation and flexibility um some tackable wall surface um some branding on the left- hand side um kind of subtle nod to um South Washington County branding there with that wood feature and then here's looking back towards the entrance to the rest of the school one of the things we work really hard at um these storm shelters have become a code requirement um and it's it's quite a bit more expensive to go build a dedicated bunker somewhere so we're really working hard to try to make sure that we make a great learning environment that can also be a storm shelter um so you can see we have lots of Windows and those windows are actually they're made out of ballistic glass so they can take a two 2x4 at 200 miles hour hitting it and it won't won't shatter um so it hopefully it's deceptively normal looking but it really is armored for a direct hit from a tornado do we have to do that for our other do we have to do that for our other schools some of them yes um the it's triggered by an addition to the building if you increase the capacity of the building the code says you have to do this if you don't increase so at wbury middle for instance we're not doing it that's part of the advantage of not doing the offices we didn't have to make that into a STM shelter um oh sorry it was it was reacting okay so now we'll go to the other addition um so there's a view of the outside on the left hand side but I'll I'll talk through the floor plan that's on the right hand side of the slide so there's kind of a dash Gray Line um and so you can see that's where the existing building ends right now there's a series of columns and then just a big window and so kind of from there to the left um is the cafeteria expansion um so you can see there's a suggestion of a table layout and things like that um there will be there's a set of doors that will end up getting moved out um so you can see that on the northand side and then the kitchen is expanding in footprint a little bit and then some reconfiguration so there will be a dishroom added as a part of the addition and then inside the serving area there will be um both new equipment and reconfigurations of equipment to try to get better serving area flow so we can't just add more students to the same system right so all of this was to make sure that we can properly accommodate the capacity um then on the right hand side there's a series of smaller rooms that are table storage and concessions and for the most part there's not a lot of changes happening in those uh a couple views of that so just to orient you the columns that you see kind of halfway through the image that's where the space stops today right so that's the exterior so from there to the next set of Windows is where the addition is um still trying to prioritize getting natural daylight quite deep into this space um so you can see there's some high Windows proposed where the existing window is today and then quite a bit on the outside um I'll zoom in a little bit on a future side but there is a there has been discussion about how can this space um try to help reduce stimulation for some students for whom that loud incredibly voluminous environment is is a lot so there's a little bit of a calm Zone planned for the back corner um here's a view looking out towards the or looking towards the kitchen and servery and that set of doors obviously you can see to the exterior here and then here's that calm zone so it's not um enclosed because still wanted it to be flexible and um supervis um but try to have a little bit of a lower ceiling just in case there's students for whom sitting at that more typical cafeteria table isn't their most comfortable a few views of the exterior now so here's a view of the uh cafeteria Edition proposal um so the existing building um is kind of seen off to the right hand side so the cafeteria gets a little closer to the curb line and then the brick that's on the left hand side would be that um dishroom expansion just that same space from another view and then we can step down towards the South Edition so that's the um STEM Science multi-purpose and classroom pod so here's a View kind of from the pickup and drop off area so the addition would be off to the right hand side here um similar to the interior really working to build upon and respect the material pallet that's already on on the building there's kind of a rich um variety of metal panels and brick colors and so applied in a very similar way here's a view of that new pickup and drop off door so it's um existing building is to the left and then new building is to the right of that set of doors in this image then if we keep going down to the South um the students already enter the building on the on the south part of the building from the bus area um but we obviously have to remake that set of doors cuz that's where we're plugging in so door four will end up moving for the South and that will be the bus entry and then if I just step one more time around you can see that large um window on the right hand side that's really seeking to mimic that other pod language so there will be a fourth one of those as you look at that facade of the building schedule perspective we also started in January on this project and this one is actually um going out for bid in just a few days so um coming up on it and the bid opening is scheduled for October 30th at this time and construction is proposed to start next spring and go through the summer of 2026 so just like L more than a year here is K Krauss Anderson's kind of staging SL phasing plan so um as you can see on the I'm going to start on the South Side the dash red line is kind of what's going to be construction area for a little while so there's material lay down where the jobsite trailer is going to be and that building addition is proposed to be from April of next year through August of 2026 so that one will take about was that like 14 or 15 months um then the cafeteria Edition is proposed to be um June through December of 2026 so obviously we've been working closely with Joanie and her team about making this an operational School site while it is having significant construction the basic premise here is to build the additions outside of the school building during the school year to take advantage of that time and then summer will be used to knit it all back together and since the cafeteria is um quite integral that is proposed to start more in a summer and then here's that same phasing plan just with the same color coding as Woodbury so you can see here um that phase one is the big addition on the south that's in that kind of electric blue color so again April through August of the following year then phase two is the shell of like kind of the expansion of the cafeteria so they'll start that in June go through December and then they will do all of the renovations in summer 2026 of the stitching it all together uh so that is the proposal right now for phasing adultman and Jon anything you would want to add to that please do oh you snu up behind me I was glancing up just in questions yeah is there questions comments so it looks like the construction in where the drop off is the same or the parent drop off is the same area right or did I am I reading this wrong that's correct so is there going to be an impact on um the traffic flow or parent drop off I mean I see that there's like temporary walkways but so what is the like where are kids going to actually be when they get dropped off it's going to be reconfigured a little bit during construction at various times but not a lot you so once everything is finished where are they going to be dropping off well actually that too but also during the Construction Construction I think is the question yeah but we've got a we're kind of reconfiguring through the parking lot we've got a couple of different options and parents come through our bus looking and exploring a couple of different options and that's for during construction and then after construction will it just be the same as it is now return okay good question any other questions or comments for ultman thank you so much thanks turn it over to Mark hey good evening board members and superintendent uh the projects that I will be updating on are Cottage Grove and Lake Middle School they are um two sites built being built and designed as one project so they will be designed bid and constructed simultaneously because of the um overall referendum schedule of projects this uh project and these sites the design is not as far uh developed as the ones we just looked at so just as a heads up and an expectation but I will give you an update we are now uh through the first phase of design which we call schematic design and we're moving into the next uh design development as a reminder uh the scope of the project uh at both sites uh as you may be familiar both both buildings are very similar in their architecture and orientation um and so we are looking to create an addition that brings the administration forward into a secure entry and administration addition and by doing that we will then have some existing office administration space within the building that can be renovated and you'll see differences between the two um the additions are very similar to mimic and continue the existing architectural uh feel of the buildings materiality uh and even orientation but the interior remodels are slightly different based on the needs of the particular school again the the main driver of this was to create a more secure entry if you're familiar with the existing entry sequence of both buildings there is a secure vule but once inside that the visitor or guest or parent would pretty much has free reign to go throughout the school this uh addition and remodel will seek to um resolve that by creating a one secure entry point um as has been our custom uh throughout all the projects uh we have a leadership team that uh is consisted one leadership team for each building consists of the principal and sort of the key administrative staff um and we have met individually and met together um throughout the spring and the summer and into the fall I'll start with Cottage Grove Middle School uh this is an aerial view uh partial of the of the site honed in on the area of the addition which is in purple um again for orientation sake the existing main entry is just on the uh top side of this addition that kind of curve due to the expansion uh and the increased what we call impervious area of this addition we are going to have to incorporate a small uh storm water retention pond in the front and this will cause and and give us the opportunity for U reconfiguring Landscaping in this front area as well it's not shown on these plans because hasn't been developed but conceptually that's what will be happening the entry sequence as we'll look at in further detail will remain in essence the same um the same traffic flow the same um visitor experience as an orientation of the entire building uh this overall plan uh if you're familiar with the lettering uh designations of of cottage girl as well as Lake um gives you an orientation the purple being the addition and then that teal color in the middle being the area of renovation and we'll look at that in more detail one of the things to note if you're familiar with the building is on the plan about North or the left side where area B is at Cottage Grove there is an an addition that was put on several years ago that serves special education needs and I will highlight that when we get to Lake Middle School and some of the renovations that they are planning to do um but that addition is not part of Lake Middle School this gives you uh an exometrium of the view and the remodeling space at Cottage Grove after meeting with the leadership team and developing a program of spaces it was determined that the existing space to be renovated which is the current Administration front office um should turn into to more of a student services Hub um so that will include staff uh such as the uh cultural liaison the psychologists counselors special ed coordinator and the dean so that will become their new home and that will be a more centralized um location for those functions the addition as I mentioned is primarily an Administration but also a health office so we're moving all of those functions together around a new secure front entry vestibule to get a little more detailed into the flow uh for a visitor or a parent coming in now they'll be coming into a secure vestibule which is in yellow and from that point the interior doors of that vestibule will be locked during the day so they will take a right in this plan um and be buzzed in through uh A system that a greeter on the inside of this secure Administration office will interact with the person and allow them into the main office into a waiting area that point obviously they can take care of the business that they are there for the principal assistant principls and uh and an office coordinator will be within that secure Administration addition the uh Health office and area is also part of this new addition and it's in that kind of mauve color so that's going to be a new location that will be accessed by the students um on the top side plan north um whether there be a reception of the student they can assess their needs the nurse will have an office there as well the Cs and and a restroom for their use highlighting again the interior remodel of the existing Administration office in the center of the space in the teal color again as I mentioned there'll be a new office and um space for students to to be in the with the culturally aison the psychologists will be there counselors will be there Administration for the counselors and the special ed coordinator and Dean will take over uh the existing principal and assistant principal offices a preliminary exterior elevation of that addition again the intention was to expand upon the existing exting architecture materials forms Heights openings um and you can see even the new entry uh Under The Canopy is similar to what is existing today this being the view coming up from the parking lot so that's Cottage Grove can I ask a question yeah so on the slide that has the if you go back a couple slides there's like the where the purple and the mauve and the yellow are so if I'm a parent and I'm coming to pick up my child who's in the nurse's office yes how how am I prevented from going out into the building um when once I get into the secure area once you're into the waiting area yeah the door to the rest of the building is also secured so you you need to be buzzed out through um or if you were um correct me if I'm misspeaking about the the process but my understanding is that the nurse would bring the student to you okay in in the waiting area right now our sorry our nurse's office is in the main Commons area so it's a long jaunt of sorts to bring the student to the to the parent because we don't want to have uh parents and guests entering the building so changing the configuration to to make the proximity a lot closer you will need to be buzzed in and buzzed out but the nurse and kind of that face-to-face contact is important as well too because a lot of times that conversation of what's going on or things of that sort so just less or lessening that or increasing that proximity so oh and then the like the the kids will still be able to they come in the back like with the buses right and that's not none of that is changing umre that'll correct yep on the back side on on the east side the back bus parking lot that's all staying the same okay is there any change to how the um car line and stuff will work no that'll operate as as usual as well too okay thanks any other questions about Cottage Grove middle I can say again um schedule wise and maybe we'll get to that at the end but this work will begin Construction in January of 202 26 so that's part of why we're not as far along in the design because it's not going to be bid out and constructed the plan is for it to be constru constructed the addition uh starting in January of 26 and then in the summer of 26 after school is out then the administration offices can move into it and then be renovated so that by the fall of 2026 all construction will be done on the site okay Lake Middle School uh a similar approach similar building similar needs um again here is the overall aerial view showing the addition in purple and um some reconfigured uh Landscaping will need to occur in the front um due to this storm water retention um also at both Cottage Grove and Lake we will be replacing some of the existing trees that are kind of near the front of the building now uh to make way for the new path from the parking lot sidewalk up to the new front entry again similarly the overall building um as you can see if you remember from the overall plan at Cottage Grove that area B you see here there is not an addition for special education and some of the high needs so that started to drive the discussion about what should happen within the existing Administration office once it is vacated and can be remodeled so the uh the team together determined that the best use would to be would be to make that more of a special education Hub in the center of the building so why while the renovations will be minor uh you can see again the color the teal color is the basic extent of Renovations at Lake Middle School lesser than at Cottage Grove but in those spaces will be sorry will be um some sensory rooms some additional sensory rooms um a and this is taking place mainly in the existing uh nurses and health area um so we're going to create some sensory rooms we're also going to expand the existing restroom to create a large uh changing room um to allow for a Hoyer lift and other special needs which will align it with what Cottage Grove Middle has in their in their special ed area as well um we're also going to have uh psychologist uh and outside service provider spaces in some of the existing offices like the principal's office and assistant principal's office which will now be vacated again the addition is very similar uh but some of the spaces inside and some of the uses will be slightly different because the counselors will be moving up to this Administration addition along with the principles and assistant principles so that's where you might be able to detect some slightly different floor plan uh changes but the but the main uh flow of traffic Remains the Same to the front secure entry buzzed in to by the greeter into the secure Administration office and then buzzed out if the person needs to go out into the rest of the building the health office area remains identical in Lake as it was shown in Cottage Grove so again uh this is just the colored floor plan identifying very similar um functions as we looked at for Cottage Grove again very similar uh conceptual rendering of the of the entry the new entry into Lake Middle School any questions specific to the lake site what is the threshold for so there's not a storm water retention there now no there's not okay what is the threshold before the water is I assume the Watershed District tells us we have to make a storm water retention or yes I'm um not being a civil engineer I'm not going to speak to specifically to that but I know that in their in our Consultants review with the cities and understanding of the codes this addition which is roughly 5,000 square feet of a building does trigger the the current code requirements does it so this does so this triggers also that um 200 M Hour Glass no it doesn't and it's a it's a bit of nuance of the code but the addition it's an addition but also an occupant load and because these occupants and this space is not a classroom setting it has a different occupant load meaning there's fewer occupants that will occupy the the space according to the building code and so because we're below that threshold we're not the storm shelter requirements not triggered in these projects okay and the retention Pond is not triggered for ultman or for Woodbury oh it is okay okay all right thanks so as I mentioned uh earlier the schedule is that these projects will go out to bid sometime in February um and then the bidding will be in uh February March and open in April um but again due to the scheduling that cruss Anderson the construction manager has detailed out for all of these projects it was determined that it would make the most sense to start this one in January due to the length of construction so that it would be ready by the time school starts in the fall of 2026 and through the schematic design and now moving into the design development phase um we are also tracking on budget with this project so I guess I can run through this slide it's sort of combined for all of us um the next steps as obviously we are presenting the the updates to the middle school projects this evening um and has been mentioned all of the projects uh middle and high school projects are currently or about to bid or will be bid between now and April bids the bidding periods and bids being taken um and then in December at this board meeting our teams will come back and give updates of the high school projects and um as it's mentioned here we our teams will also be starting the design in 2025 for elementary schol school projects um and so in 2025 we'll be coming back to give more updates of that okay thank you very much any final questions no thank you okay we will move on to 7.0 action item 7.1 Nordic ski Co-op and that will be introduced by Christine chaer assistant superintendent good evening School Board chair Schwarz school board members superintendent neelson tonight we are here to seek your approval for forming a cooperative for high school dance and also a cooperative for Nordic skiing this would be a Cooperative agreement with the three Comprehensive High Schools Woodbury Park and Eastridge as members of the Minnesota State High School league were required to follow bylaws related to any cooperative and Athletics these Bow State that as a school district we need to prove that we do not have enough athletes in a particular activity and therefore need a Cooperative to sustain the activity and provide that experience for students at this time I'd like to invite jod Lin leer from Woodbury High School to share additional details about both of these good evening board chair Schwarz board members and superintendent Nelson uh tonight I will not be asking for any construction plans on dance studios or artificial snow machines uh so uh please know that that is uh not a request I do have our windbury high school dance coach ktie har Meer here with us she's a teacher at the Alternative High School as well and um thank you for uh listening as we talk about cooperatives uh Co cooperatives are when we end up um sorry I didn't plan this here we go I'm just going to press enter uh cooperatives are when we have an agreement between two or more high schools to join together to form a State High School league team uh we have one State High School league Cooperative currently at Woodbury High School and that's our girls hockey program and that has existed since about 2014 um I will share with you that um we are currently in a situation where we have far more girls hockey players than we've had in the past and and so that's a good thing um but we're in a situation right now with dance and Nordic ski are two sports in which our numbers are low and so as we look at that I'm going to explain some of the different pieces um and reasons why because both of the sports are a little bit different but we're really talking about participation in order for us to move forward with a cooperative agement we have to have section approval uh Schoolboard approval and State High School league approval and then every two years uh we have to have the signature of everybody uh in the co-op and it's really easy when it's Southwestern County Schools when it's a bunch of other schools um that we have for girls hockey it's it can be a challenge to get everybody's signature um and to get that done in in a timely manner so the first one I'm going to talk about is our power Nordic Co-op team and uh this is the logo that they use they actually have Mar maroon uniforms um because they operate and consider themselves one team um they are currently scored as um as a conference team so in our Suburban East Conference competition they actually have one score and they continue to get scored that way through conference and so we've been operating as one team and it makes it difficult when we go to sections because um we have three schools we are led by one coach we have several assistant coaches three of three or four of them um and then we're assigned to two different sections so that means that Woodburry and East Ridge compete in section three and park competes in section one and that requires us to split our coaches it requires us to split our Huts we probably will never have another season like we did this year where people were able to wear t-shirts and spandex um typically we are um trying to find indoor spaces to stay warm and when we talk about the Huts they're I like ice fishing igloo and they have uh warming areas in there for the kids and so we really have to um spread our resources for that um we also as we as we are considered one team for the conference we train together all year and so we split each other for sections and it really takes a um a a toll to our team because we don't have the same teammates there we don't have the same number of competitors that are there supporting us and knowing where we're at and so um there's some morale that's lost when we do that um when we take a look at um sections why it's in particular and and challenging is because we've been in a situation where we are actually putting uh skiers that don't have enough experience to compete in sections um it's like sometimes asking a ninth grade basketball player to go into a varsity basketball game and they don't have the skill level or the the speed to go and if we choose to not put that inexperienced skier in then we just forfeit that spot and so that's what we've been doing and I when I show you the numbers here um you'll see how that that's a a challenge if we do have Cooperative approval um the outcomes would be that we be able to field our teams uh during competition uh we'd have appropriate and safer section racing racing conditions uh for both our team as well as opponents and then we'd have better team morale and chemistry um we would hopefully have higher placement uh at our section race races and because we were doing better we'd also hope that we'd have higher recruitment now if there ever came to be a time that we would um not uh be able that we had that our teams were too big we would look to dissolve it because ideally we'd like to keep as separate teams so that we have more opportunities for competition but in our current numbers we're not able to do that uh when we look at our current numbers uh with with our our skiers um right now East Ridge Boys are literally the only team that is able to field a section team and when we look at what a section team consists of it consists of 11 Racers there are five Pursuit Racers and they ski on the afternoon and morning it's a two-day race of classic and skate and then they'll ski the next that same afternoon in um a relay and in the relay you have two teams of the same gender and then you have two alternates that can compete in either one and so if you need 11 people to fill a section roster and these are our numbers right here we literally do not fill a section roster for anybody other than the East Bridge boys team um and and that's our that's our issue um current ski cooperatives that exist are listed here up on the board um and you'll notice that there's larger schools as well so it's not just um it's not just the smaller schools we do have some large large schools um you might ask well what have we been doing um at the end of last year in May we had a a zoom meeting um for the families and students to participate it was June not many people were thinking about skiing we didn't have great attendance I asked Drew to follow back up he sent emails we still didn't have great attendance but we don't have a lot of numbers with that um our coach is a Spanish teacher at Park um and he has tried to in his Flyers well we'll have pizza at the meeting just to get kids there um you know different things like that um we've sought and had a section approval from 3aa for us to move forward with it um and so we've tried to do larger recruitment efforts by having more flyers in the schools by announcing and getting the meeting information out earlier um the past two years we've had summer programs um in which the booster club has looked to buy the roller the ski roller skis to try and get more people out in the summer and we haven't been able to garnish uh that support for the ski program for the Nordic ski program which is ironic because on the other side our Alpine Ski programs at least with Woodberry and eastbridge have high numbers and are doing well um but Nordic ski is a little bit different and um you don't get to go down as many Hills you have to climb up a lot so um there's some challenges as it's presented with it so that's the information that I would share with you about Nordic um do you have any questions um Jody what section will they they comp what section will they compete in we would compete in three is that pending School pending State High School league approval that that's where they would put us so that's where Woodbury and um EAS are currently yes okay and then um so I know that uh right now the Nordic ski team has like um captains at each school and like you know children get Varsity letters who maybe don't deserve Varsity letters I'm not speaking about anyone L them lives in my house but um what uh like what will be happening with that like is that expected to continue as normal for sure we still need representation from every school so we'd still continue to have leaders in every in every for all of our schools we'd have letters we'd have that different recognition that currently exists okay for sure um I I did not say that an average like if we could say hey this would be if we could have 20 kids per school that would be an ideal area for us to say nope we're not going to have a co-op anymore would allow for us to dissolve if if we're able to reach some of those threshold numbers Jody if you if you were to reach those numbers uh and dissolve the co-op do you do you anticipate any issues with that um I don't know how what that process we would still operate as one team and in the conference we'd still have one one head coach um that's currently what we have for setup for Alpine Ski as well um so it would be assistant coaches may be requested to add more because we had a larger number of kids and we have kids in you know as you race with Nordic it's not like Alpine where you stay in one area and it's real fast you're you're in different areas um and they're it's hard to see but uh short of that I would say adding assistant coach would be the only thing that would be a financial obligation if we were to dissolve and separate because we had larger numbers thanks all right so at this time we would like to seek approval for the co-op for Nordic sche for three high schools can I get a motion to approve so moved second motion by Melinda seconded by Eric Brian sorry having the two men really mess up you go by Ryan now I'm gonna go by that's fine any other comments or questions okay all those in favor any opposed motion passes now we will move on to 7. two and that is the dance team Co-op presented or also presented by Christine Schaefer assistant superintendent thank you y um so with Winter Dance Competition um we have the the possibility of essentially four teams and that would be varsity and JV Jazz um and then varsity and JV kick for the State High School league you must have a minimum of five dancers in any one of those areas to compete uh and to have a varsity event and so when we look at those numbers um our current situation that happened last year was that um Eastridge has not hosted a team for the past three years um Park I'm sorry our current situation says 23 24 it should say 2425 um this would be what we're going into this year um park has six athletes that are committed to W to dance and they had some injuries and with six athletes it's uh it's hard because then they can really compete in only Varsity if if their quality is good enough to compete Varsity um and then Woodbury we have 12 12 athletes that are participating over the course of my uh last four years here at Woodbury we've had anywhere from 12 to 15 student athletes that have participated in our Dance Program um similarly dance numbers of of an average uh high kick dance team you know you'd love to have 25 30 30 um dancers out there um Jazz 15ish would be a number that uh would be ideal and so with 12 athletes currently um our jazz team and our high kick team are not maximizing or have have great numbers um it also pre prevents us from being able to have higher scores um because of our numbers are low because our formations are not able to be as complicated with our choreography um an average team during the 23 24 season in the Suburban East Conference was at least 18 dancers the outcomes for a dance Cooperative would be that we would have um all district schools would have the opportunity to participate in a dance team um as I said East Ridge currently does not have a team um we would form a team that is comparable in size to other conference teams uh we'd also be able to have a JV team and that would allow for development of our student athletes in that sport um and as I shared with you that would uh create uh a better opportunity for higher scores and visual Effectiveness and difficulty of formations uh which are both categories on the score sheet you might ask the question well why don't we have enough dancers um you know High School dance is something that I want to say came in the late 90s early 2000s and when it happened it reduced the number of cheerleaders because you saw you saw people move in that direction to dance um I'll also say that dance studios um practice three hours five to six times a week high school dancers we have an hour and a half to two hours uh four to five times a week and so the commitment level is different and the D the the high school students are in the studio um are dancing at a different level and so um it's it's similar to gymnastics in that regard and we have a lot of of our own students that are in the studios um and uh the the amount of uh competition and practice time that they have in the studios is um is is greater and what they are doing is different in the studios as well there's different types of dance that they're working on so these are some of the different dance cooperatives that currently exist um I will add that in the past week Tartan and North St Paul also approved um a dance cooperative for them to be together so bigger schools as well prior to our school board approval um we had talked with the families uh ktie had reached out and talked with them um to provide better opportunities we'd actually tried to do been in the works of adding East Ridge um earlier on and it was in late summer that Park had sort of tapped on us and said hey can we join too um and so um that is where that came in and had Park not done that we would have been here with Eastridge um so do you have any questions about dance do they was it the dance uh I was at the football game on Friday was that the dance team is that the co-op team that performed at halftime and that the fall team doesn't need any sort of approval because that's just like a club right yeah okay the performance team has been um a feeder to the high school program and all three schools have struggled to to have enough numbers to even host that so that's why we've joined together it means to try and get better numbers as well any other questions at this time we'd like to seek approval for a co-op for Dan for Woodbury Park and eastren can I get a motion so move second second Eric okay motion by Eric seconded by simy any other comments questions all those in favor I any opposed motion passes right thank you okay we will move on to 7.3 open enrollment resolution and that will be presented by Tyrone brookens assistant superintendent Sherl Schwarz SCH board members and superintendent Nelson this evening I am seeking approval for a resolution limiting open enrollment and adopting standards for accepting and rejecting open enrollment applications for the 25 26 school year this information uh was shared at a workshop meeting on September 14th the resolution will set limits and standards for accepting and rejecting open enrollment applications as required by Minnesota statute section 124 d03 key points of this resol solution include open enrollment limits the number of non-resident students in any grade level would not exceed the lesser of 1 to 3% of our total enrollment at that grade level in our district or the number of District 833 residents enrolled in other districts under the enrollment options act program class and building capacity open enrollment will be denied if the program class or building reaches capacity defined by uh a need need for additional space need for additional staff or significant changes that will impact educational quality capacity considerations decisions will be based on various factors including our staff to student ratios our curent and projected enrollment facility size and also recommendations from our health authorities our school capacity capacities for each School are established and schools will be closed to open enrollment once they reach 90% capacity at the elementary level or 95% capacity for our middle and high schools schools currently closed and recommended to continue to be closed for New open enrollment at the elementary level we have Bailey Elementary School Great Cloud Elementary School Pine Hill Elementary School and Red Rock Elementary School the middle schools uh Cottage gr Middle School Lake Middle School open middle school and also Woodbury Middle School and our three Comprehensive High Schools East Ridge High School Park uh high school and w B High School this resolution ensures adherence to enrollment limits while maintaining High educational standards across our district at this time we would like to request the adoption of this resolution for the 2526 school year can I get a motion to approve move second motion by Pat seconded by simy any comments oh seeing none this is a resolution so we will need a roll call vote Dana Ryan Clark yes Sharon Van yes Eric Tesmer yes Pat Driscoll yes Melinda does yes simy petn yes Katie Schwarz yes motion passes thank you thank you okay moving on to 7.4 and that is our workers comp insurance renewal and that will be presented by Chris black so I kept teasing everybody in finance today I said so are you gonna watch the Chris show tonight because I was going to text Dan Pine and see how many in a row did you have for admin reports so we're going to try to beat a record tonight um good evening chair Schwarz members of the school board superintendent neelson I'm here tonight um to discuss the Workers Compensation Insurance renewal the district has contract with the sfm mutual insurance company for workers compensation since the 2010 2011 policy period the 2425 renewal reflects an increase in total premium due largely to increases in total payroll and the a slight increase in the experience mod the district and sfm continue ongoing efforts to control claims expense through workers comp safety programs return to work programs and more proactive claims management a 5-year rate renewal history with sfm is included below I'll note that the change in premiums between 2021 and the 25 final one showing is just just over $4,000 um in in that time frame I would say that's pretty good the proposed premium for 2425 is just over 1.1 million the district does also participate in a unique retention plan offered by sfm selectively for Minnesota school district qualify so we're fortunate to qualify we are eligible um for a return premium if the claim experience performs favorably so if our claims come in lower than our premium they'll never increase our premium if it the results are otherwise but if we are lower we'll receive a rebate on our a premium rebate um since 2014 the district has received more than 890,000 through participation in this plan the most recent check was just over $777,000 Administration recommends approval of the workers compy Compensation Insurance renewal with sfm insurance company for the period October 1st 2024 through September 30th 2025 okay can I get a motion to approve so moved second motion by simy seconded by Melinda any comments or questions um I just had one question Chris the premiums that you have for the years prior to 2425 are those net of the rebate or those are before the rebate those were actually before the rebate okay thanks any other okay all those in favor I any opposed motion passes on to 7.5 and that is our proposed Levy for taxes payable in 2025 presented by Chris Blackburn Director of Business Services I did joke that I wanted just to walk back and forth each time but I don't know that I need those steps this evening so good evening again tonight we were seeking approval of the preliminary tax levy for taxes payable in 2025 each year the school board must approve a preliminary Levy by September 30th our Levy provides about 27% of the district's general fund revenue and 32% of the district's total revenue MD provides our Levy reports and almost every Levy has some type of limit determined either by law by the school board or by the voters as they approve operating levies in bond elections we've attached a summary of the levy which shows the various levies in total the preliminary Levy is about $128 million which is an increase of 1 .2% this does not mean that everyone's taxes of course will go up by 1.2% as property tax values continue to increase as well so again we're in that favorable and fortunate scenario in our communities of those growing Market values the taxable market value referendum market value and tax capacity all increased over 11% and again some of the various levies are based on different depending on the levy are different categories of those this Levy amount could change as MD continues to update the information as the truth and at the truth and Taxation hearing um and presentation in December we should have information on the tax impact of this Levy we're asking the school board to approve the maximum preliminary Levy and that is a maximum not a dollar amount but the word we ask for this rather than this specific amount as once the Lev is approved you cannot increase however you can decrease the levy amount the reason as well is that this also allows us to reflect any adjustments between now and then from um mde as they continue to issue those preliminary Levy reports with that I'm asking for a motion to approve the levy at the maximum can I get a motion to approve so move second motion by Pat seconded by simy any comments or questions hearing none all those in favor I any opposed motion passes okay on to 7.6 and that's a purchase agreement for light the way church and that will also be presented by Chris Blackburn all right well good evening once again South Washington County schools at its school board meeting on August 22nd had a discussion and allowed Republic comment on the Minnesota Department of Education Commissioners review and comment on proposed financing for the purchase and remodeling of a facility property for the transition program I won't say that fast three times the special education transition program project includes purchasing light The Way Church remodeling the building and site and in addition to the building the district has negotiated a purchase and sale agreement with light The Way Church to purchase the property and buil existing facility for $1.7 million this purchase will be reimbursed from proceeds of the certificates of participation series 2024b which were anticipating issuing later this fall jod de zba was at the August um business meeting discussing that and that it was authorized by the resolution approved by the board at that August 22nd meeting the purchase agreement was attached to the board agenda um or the board board packets and at this time we would recommend approval of the resolution to purchase light the way church can I get a motion to approve I'll move okay you both said it at the same time now [Laughter] you're okay so that was Mo by Melinda and seconded by Ryan any comments okay this is also a rose roll call Dana Sharon vener approved Eric Tesmer yep Pat Driscoll y yes Melinda Doles yes Simmy petag yep Ryan Clark yep Katie Schwarz yes motion passes okay now we are on to 7.7 and that's easements with the city of Cottage Grove thank you again CHR the city of Cottage Grove is Seeking a permanent access easement for lot one block one of new ultman Middle School for the purpose of providing access to the hydrants which are installed upon the property there's actually three attached in the board the second two are their city of C gr is seeking to amend to existing permanent easements for storm sewer for lot two block one new Oldman M Middle School those of both been recorded with the Washington County back in 2017 the purpose of the amended easement agreements is to adjust existing easements to accommodate the construction of the new addition at ultman Middle School administration recommends approval of the permanent easement for the hydron access as well as the two amended permanent easement agreements for the storm sewer between South Washington County schools and the city of Cottage Grove can I get a motion to approve so moved second motion by Ryan seconded by simy any comments questions seeing none all those in favor I any opposed motion passes and 7.8 is our storm water management facilities agreement by Chris Blackburn director and once again good evening so I am going to try I was going to tell text after this and say I made it in this many minutes with this many items U the district has an easement agreement with the city of kaj Grove to use the stormw water pond on city property for an irrigation system at ultman Middle School storm water water management facilities refers to an irrigation and storm water reuse system that utilizes the stormon pond on city property so can we can leverage that for the irrigation system the city and School District desired to set forth their understanding with respect to the construction repair and maintenance of the stor monitor management facilities and the responsibility relating to the cost of the repaired maintenance of the storm water management facilities Administration recommends approval of the storm water management facilities agreement between South Washington County schools and the City of Cottage Grove can I get a motion to approve so moved second motion by simy seconded by Eric any questions or comments I have a quick question so it says here the understanding uh with respect to construction repair and maintenance so this is between the city and the school district correct is there do we have a resolution of that like who is responsible for the repair and maintenance so in the um document that was attached in the actual agreement it does go into detail regarding who's responsible for which things very good thank you okay any other questions or comments okay all those in favor I any opposed motion passes thank you very much thank you Chris okay now we'll move on to .0 and that is our superintendent report right to start out with on um September 16th the City of Woodbury held their annual development tour of the city and we traveled by uh coach bus and we were reminded of how much growth is still occurring in our commun we number of board members attended we appreciate uh the City of Woodbury hosting this event it's informative and serves as a great reminder of how fortunate we are to be in growing communities but everywhere we traveled it was just amazing to see that there's more developments going up and just really how much more land and space there is available in our community um on Tuesday of this week I got to start my day bright and early in the transportation department and I was ever so lucky to ride along with bus driver Ron and bus driver Ron happens to be in the audience tonight along with uh Miss Tammy and Miss Zach who are also bus drivers in the school district um and let no did I say Miss Zach okay Mr Zach I apologize I think it was supposed to be Miss T Amy and Zach um but let me let me tell you this um number one I'm an early riser so it worked out well but I had the opportunity to start by being at Transportation early to just hear what our drivers had to say and it was really fun I felt super welcomed they were grabbing their tablets and of course you know that we started our new tracking system but before we get to the tracking system you must know that there is at least a good 30 minutes spent on the pre-planning trip and it is from everything from pulling on every single mirror Ron I listened I want you to know you have to unbuckle literally unbuckle the hood and you have to have it open you have to check the oil the transmission fluid you have to check the blinker fluid the brake fluid I mean everything you are checking everything and what I learned is that it's actually required and that if a bus of ours got pulled over you have to make sure every day you do that pre-planning trip when they come back in the afternoon that's not required and that's all just to get the bus ready to start and get it ready to back out of the garage and then I realized there's the backing out of the garage now I drive a Suburban and I thought well this must not be that hard but clearly it is extremely difficult to back a bus out of a garage um but nonetheless we got onto the bus I got to watch the Tyler tracking system and I will just tell you I was so amazed first of all this little system this little um tracking pad that they have has full GPS of their routes which is one wonderful it's great if we have consistent drivers which many times we do but we also have a number of subd drivers and drivers who are filling in and in that particular case it gives GPS of the entire route to the point it gives the GPS you stop at a route the names and the pictures of the students come up and so Mr Ron knew exactly who should be getting on the Bus kids scanned onto the bus every so often there was a student that he had already known and built a relationship and he knew that either they were new to the district or perhaps they haven't gotten their badge yet you know he called one student Tyler did you get your badge yet he said no and so then Mr Ron can press the button that loads him onto the bus and it turns his little icon green so at the end of the day you could see you could very quickly at the end you could have your load counts you could see who was missing from the ride um it was just incredible um and very well done I'm going to say that 80% of the drivers and the technology is a bit complicated but 80% of the drivers appear to be really happy and they're still learning and so as I shared with the drivers that you know we're still looking at figuring out these Kinks and bumps with the technology up until mea we know that we're always going to have students that may not have their cards but if we know they're on our bus route they're going to get onto the bus and I really compared it similar to lunches we never take a lunch away from the student if we know a student needs to ride the bus we're always going to allow them to get onto the school bus but it was a great opportunity um I was was reminded how sleepy the kids are in the morning and Mr Ron did a nice job of greeting all of them and most of them kind of grunted out a hello um and I will also tell you I was reminded of what Elementary kindergarten first and second graders mostly look like on a school bus when the seats are at least a head taller than they are um Mr Ron has some rules about sitting on the seats and not touching other kids and well that they really enjoyed doing that didn't they Mr Ron mhm especially when it was a sibling but the seats are so high you can't see so you either climb over or you climb around um but overall it was just a great morning I know Dana loves when I'm out in the schools or in Department she's like you always come back so happy like something about the kids they're just great and Ron thank you um I also offered to go out again after mea to take a look at just how the system is running but we feel really fortunate that with the system during our opening weeks we did not have a student that was unaccounted for or lost um and that's a good sign that it's working and we know that it will get better because the system is new for our drivers as well as all of our leaders so thank you as well to Abby who's out there Abby who's now leading our transportation department and overseeing that as well as our transportation leadership um we know that there are still some areas to fix in the way of routing um and those um things will continue to be addressed um this coming Monday September 30th is a no school day for students staff will be engaged in Reda training as well as hbps activities um I will share with you that our District staff our teaching staff is very grateful for the time in the calendar to complete this required training as we've talked with our teachers um depending upon the teacher it takes less time or more time um but if it takes more time they're grateful for the time that has been given to them um finally it's fall and that means that homecoming festivities that are high schools today I was out at East Ridge they are celebrating high school this week um Woodbury will follow next week and then Park will round out the spirit um October 7th through the 11th so a lot of fun things happening um throughout the school schools um and then finally um some of you may have seen that our board members have little bun cakes over they got to kind of choose and select their their cake um but this month has been set aside to honor and recognize our school board members on behalf of our executive cabinet we want to extend a thank you for your commitment and Leadership to our schools our students and our communities as part of our appreciation recognition we have purchased Bulet cakes for each of you to enjoy and I know you can eat it all in one sitting because I've done it before um as you indulge please be reminded of the import work that you do in providing governance and vision for the school district and we want to say thank you to each one of you thank you on to 9.0 and that is our future meeting dates um October 10th 2024 Schoolboard Workshop meeting here at the district service center at 6m then October 24th uh Schoolboard business meeting also here at the district service center at 6 p.m. and with that 10.0 and we are adjourned [Music] m 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