##VIDEO ID:mPw-96SPIfw## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] he [Music] good evening it is Thursday October 24th at 6 pm. we are at the district service center in cottage Gro Grove Minnesota we would like to acknowledge that the land on which We Gather is the land of the mwan Dakota people meakan means dweller of the Spirit Lake the first item on our agenda is 1 roll call Dana Ryan Clark Sharon vanir Eric Tesmer Pat Driscoll is absent Melinda does simy Pat here Katie Schwarz here um next is 2.0 Pledge of Allegiance please stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for stands na God indivisible with libery and justice for all okay 3.0 is approval of our agenda can I get a motion to approve an amended agenda adding 7.5 easements with the city of Cottage Grove so moved second moved by Sharon seconded by Eric U all those in favor I any oppose motion passes comments to the board we do not have any this evening um 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 did have the opportunity to review each of these items and may have requested 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 moved second motion by Melinda seconded by S all those in favor I any opposed motion passes um now we will move on to 6.0 information items and we do have one of those this evening 6.1 construction update and that will be presented by Tyrone brookens assistant superintendent Grace and peace CH Schwarz school board members and superintendent neelson uh this evening I am providing a update on our construction projects on the screen you will see the comprehensive schedule for all 15 projects and I will bring your attention to the top seven and those projects are our four middle schools and our three Comprehensive High Schools uh we are within the design and planning stages uh for all seven projects and we're looking to shift into construction I would say Mid Winter early spring with that and then for the bottom eight projects we will get into the design phase uh in early winter so as we look at our curent projects those seven sites are all in design uh phases where we're meeting with user groups having uh specific user group meetings for specific departments we are also uh making sure that we stay within the master schedule and adhering to the parameters that uh were set out when we went out to the public and we're also working to make sure that the budget remains intact and we stay within those budget parameters for each project additionally we're also meeting with the cities of Cottage Grove and Woodbury uh those meetings are taking place every two weeks uh for each City uh what's coming out of those meetings is we are uh working with the City of Woodbury right now to send letters to uh residents in Woodbury uh for Woodbury Middle School and also East Ridge High School and those uh letters are going to Residents who live within 500 feet of the school property line letting them know about the scope of the project and also the the schedule of the project and that and we're working with the city on both the uh for both of those sites we're working with the city for those letters it's a standard uh procedure that the city has ask for and we are cooperating and working with them to do that you will see coming uh in the next few meetings uh the bid bids are growing out uh this fall for high schools East Ridge and park you will see bids in the consent agenda and then for the Middle School of open and Woodbury you will receive bids in the Cent agenda uh as we go into the uh winter phases you'll see bids coming in for wbury high school and then Cottage Grove and Lake Middle Schools there is an update uh with our project that is moving ahead of schedule and that is the uh bus road that is part of the Woodbury middle school project uh it is actually going to start the summer of 2025 and as that road goes in we are also working to put a fence in place uh along the uh playground east side of the play ground uh for Woodbury Elementary School to make sure that uh we our students are safe and our staff are safe as that road goes in our next steps we plan to bring our Architects to present an update on our high school Design Concepts that will take place on December 12th and then in January we'll begin the uh planning phase for those eight other projects which are focused on Elementary and as always updates and information can be found on our website soash co.org construction thank you Tyrone does anybody have any questions um I had one so Tyrone you said that the letters go out to people living within 500 feet of each of the projects um if what is the um I mean I guess what is the purpose of the letter I mean if people have objections like what or you know what is it what is the letter what is the intent of the letter the letter is more so to inform uh the residents that this is taking place okay so then there's no like yeah it's not like they can come back and be like I mean we don't want this no yeah it's too late now right okay right thanks okay thank you thank you okay we will move on to 7.0 action items we do have a few this evening the first one is 7.1 the mshsl grants and that will be presented by Christine schaer assistant superintendent good evening Schoolboard chair Schwarz school board members and superintendent neelson tonight I'd like to seek approval of the resolution for application to the Minnesota State High School league Foundation the request tonight is for parts A and B of the Minnesota State High School league Grant this is a grant that we've applied for each year and have received from the high school league part A of the grant is awarded to school districts to assist and promote extracurricular participation by high school students in athletics and fine arts schools receive funds based on the number of of students participating in in activities that qualify for free medu lunch our activities directors use these funds to buy equipment uniforms and pay fees for students in need so that's part A Part B of this grant is used for funds for activities directors to work with student captains and student leaders for Fine Arts activities and Athletics Park W wearing Eastridge have requested grants in the category B application um for student leadership training the funds will be used to continue the high school's leadership development program which includes bringing in speakers to talk with students about being student leaders and having book studies on leadership skills the student leadership groups meet monthly as part of the application the high school league requires a board of directors resolution requesting fun funds from the high school league foundation so at this time I'd like to seek approval of the resolution to request funds from the Minnesota State High School league Foundation Grant thank you can I get a motion to approve no move second motion by Sharon seconded by simy any questions or comments I do have a question Christine y Sor right what's what's the amount of the Grant I knew someone was going to ask that I should have said it um the part B is which is the one for leadership that's about $5,000 for all three schools and part A which is based on students and fun launch ranges from about, 1500 up to 4600 depending upon the number of students you know how the grant is funded you mean from the high school leag yeah from the high school le how they get the funds correct I'm not sure how they get the funds okay just curious yeah other question any other questions okay seeing none census is a resolution Dana can you call the role or call the vote Ryan Clark approved Sharon vanir yes Eric Tesmer yes Melinda does yes sdy pnag yes Katie Schwarz yes thank you thank you 7.2 is our proposed policy changes and that will be presented by Julie Nelson superintendent good evening and thank you um this evening I am bringing forth for approval five policies that we shared with our Workshop meeting uh this evening 51.1 athletic and activity participation what you will have seen and what we discussed as far as that policy changes to participation and guidelines 522 Title 9 sex non-discrimination um basically right now policy was Rewritten and is in alignment with the current regulations for Title 9 and then policies 81.1 81.2 and 81.3 um all dealing with facilities Andor site acquisition um we are recommending deleting um as there is no model policy and no reason that we need to continue to have those um in our policy manual so this evening I am asking for approval on those five policies can I get a motion to approve so moved second motion by simy seconded by Melinda any comments okay seeing none all those in favor I all opposed motion passes okay on to 7.3 and that's health insurance and that's presented by Chris Blackburn Director of Business Services good evening chair Schwarz Schoolboard members superintendent neelon tonight we're here to talk health insurance so per Minnesota statute 47161 61 public employees employers excuse me must Market their medical insurance every two years South Washington County Schools was required to Market this benefit for January 1st 2025 the district released the request for proposal to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota Health Partners Meda Minnesota Public Employee insurance program otherwise known as Peep and United Healthcare in addition District administration also evaluated the possibility of moving to a self-funded platform for 2025 based on the analytics and expected rate projections compared to fully insured premiums it was determined that staying fully insured was the more fiscally prudent approach for 2025 District administration will evaluate again during the next Market cycle after review of the financial impact of the proposals healthc care Cost Containment efforts value added benefits Network and Pharmacy access and disruption along with overall Premium cost savings District administration and the benefit committee is recommending commending the district enter into a 2-year fully insured contract with Health Partners beginning January 1st 2025 and ending December 31st 2026 Administration recommends acceptance of the Health Partners proposal in entering into a two-year agreement with Health Partners can I get a motion to approve so moved second moov by simy seconded by Eric any comments or questions Chris what is the um and I I don't need exact numbers but what is kind of like the threshold where we would um or the Tipping Point between um where and self-insured Y and so what we see is really high utilization amongst our um participants and so I think as we look forward that's really the driver for that is because until we can um offer premiums that are affordable to our employees and then are effective that way that we can maintain enough dollars to pay out those claims and like I said right now with the high utilization it just wouldn't make sense at this time so I don't know that we have a specific number um but we're well over um 100 depending on the given month 1 15 125 but most plans are well over 100 routinely and so um absent that then I think once we would get under that I think or near or that it might make more sense okay and then if we did move to like a self-insured option at some point in the future um is there anything preventing us from moving back to a fully insured option like do the health insurance companies have some sort of um uh disincentive yeah disincentive to do that no not that I'm aware of I know that they're um across the state right we've seen some different movements because we've seen some self-insured plans that had significant increases in their premiums as well and some of them have I think um opted to look at some other to go back into fully insured um and so I think that's always something that we should keep in mind and there's no penalty for us to do either way any other questions what what what did we have Health Partners before and so this will be a continuation of our partnership with them um once again I know a number of years ago we had preferred one um we've had Health Partners more predominantly in the years that I've been here so but yes is the coverage compared to the Blue Cross or what whatever the other ones are is it comparable then they cover yep we offer a couple of different plans so there's an open access plan so like I live um and many of you know that I commute a ways and so up by me there's not a lot of Health Partners clinics it's more alab based um particularly and so for me the Open Access plan makes more sense um it just provides that um more variety in choices and options whereas the Health Partners achieve plan that we also offer um has a more selected group and we anytime that we consider vendors we do look at to see in our population of um participants where like would we lose any um availability for people to see whether it's a regular doctor or specialist and things so we certainly want to have people maintain that regular Health Care as well with their provider of choice and so we try to provide some options um some may be a little affordable than others you know back in the days I remember ppos and hmos and you know where it gets a little scope down that way um and so that's the achieve just offers a slightly narrower network but again in this community with Health Partners being primary um with a number of clinics in the area from where we often see our employees come from that makes sense so thank you okay um any other questions okay seeing none all those in favor I any oppos motion passes thank you Chris and now we're on to 7.4 and that is the board government plan go I cannot talk today board governance plan that will be presented by myself um at our last board meeting on October 10th we did review and update our board governance plan plan um you can see all the um changes we did take out a few items um nothing was added in but we did take out a few things um and that is attached to the packet for your review so can I get a motion to approve the updated plan go moved second move by Sharon seconded by simy any questions or comments okay seeing none can I get a motion to approve we have a motion or I'm sorry can I all those in favor it's a really long week oppose okay motion passes yes okay on to our um last item here 7.5 easements with the city of Cottage Grove and that will be presented by Chris Blackburn directed Director of Business Services good evening again so this may seem very similar um and I'll read through it but it was approved appr at um the board meet last business meeting in September and subsequent to that the city did come back and ask us to um revise and really replaces the legal description um to move two permanent easements into Just One Singular um easement of record so on September 26 2024 the school board approved amendments to two existing permanent easan app agreements with between South Washington County schools in the city of Cottage Grove to accommodate the construction of the new addition ultman Middle School the existing permanent easements were originally recorded as document numbers 410 3337 and 410 3339 on February 21st 2017 subsequently the city of kajar requested the two separate easements be combined into one permanent easement agreement for lot two block one Newman middle school instead as a result we're requesting approval of the singular permanent easement the permanent easement was attached um we believe sent out to you as well Administration recommends approval of the permanent easement agreement agreement for the storm sewer between South washingt County schools and the City of cach Grove can I get a motion to approve don't move second motion by Sharon seconded by Eric any comments or questions um what is the difference between this so it really was two separate so at the time so it's literally the same thing just it's like it's a combined legal description accounting or not accounting a semantic difference correct okay any other questions okay seeing none all those in favor I any opposed motion passes thank you thank you Chris on to 8.0 and that is our superintendent report feel like I should really talk a long time or something right like doesn't it seem very fast oh I well let me start by sharing um it is that fall season where all of our high schools have uh Productions going on and so for the board and for the uh Community viewing um those Productions start those play start this Friday with Park High School A Midsummer's Night Dream Shakespeare I here um and then we move on to Woodberry Uh Wood bries will start on November 1st and then Eastridge uh will be performing beginning November 8th and so I think for those of us who have attended they are absolutely great Productions I happen to be a little bit more into the musicals the dancing and the singing than the overall plays I think Melinda might be as well but I'll keep it at that um but please uh for Community people please participate grab your ticket um all tickets are available online um next November 5th um election day for our um staff that will actually be and students it will be a K12 professional development day so our staff will be doing redact training on that day our 6 to 12 students will also be having an asynchronous day so if you have students in grade 6 through 12 they will still still be connecting virtually while um their secondary teachers um are also doing training um and then November 11th uh we will have our celebration across the district and many of our high schools have special celebrations around Veterans Day um and then as I close um I think our school board uh has was made aware um as well as our community we knew that there was National media tension um our school Community experienced uh extremely inappropriate and racially harmful Behavior by substitute teacher last week at Woodbury High School uh the behavior by The Substitute was reprehensible um I want to take just a moment without saying names to thank the students who came forward to report this Behavior their actions were Brave and cous and I also want to take a moment to thank Sarah senson Wagner the building principal to walk down to a classroom and ask a staff member to leave um the building immediately uh was very courageous and brave as well uh we are working with Woodbury High School to create as much time and space as students need to have conversations that will lead to Healing action and education our Focus has been on the trauma that students uh were caused while that substitute was in the classroom um I also want to remind our students that if they see something inappropriate or uncomfortable in the classroom they have the right to stand up walk out and report it to a trusted adult we are working in Partnership right now with the Woodbury Police Department during this investigation um we are also working with the Hudson Police Department as they do an internal investigation on behalf of the Prescott Police Department the situation has significantly impacted our students staff families and Community it has also damaged the reputation of our teachers and law enforcement officers who serve our community currently uh we will continue to work toward restoration and healing we want our students to know that they matter what happened on October 14th was deplorable and our students deserve better in our schools and so I just uh want to make an announcement about that um so that it's not overlooked and that we uh condone those behaviors in our school thank you Julie on to 9.0 and that is our future meeting dates November 7th 2024 is a Schoolboard Workshop meeting and that will be here at the district service center at 6m and then on November 21st 2024 is a Schoolboard business meeting also here at the district service center at 6 pm. and with that 10.0 we are adjourned is this our shortest meeting ever 20 minutes [Music] n [Music] he [Music] m [Music] he [Music]