##VIDEO ID:Pvrr3pQ-h9c## stand all right welcome everyone and those watching welcome moving on to agenda approval are there any changes to the agenda there's no changes to the agenda can I get a motion so move by Schmidt second second by hennen to approve the agenda as presented all in favor please say I I those opposed motion passes moving on to uh some future events please check the district calendar and resource guide or the district website uh for a complete list of monthly events Wednesday November 27th no school for students staff professional workday Thursday November 28th and Friday November 29th no school for students and staff District service center is closed Thursday December 5th school board retreat at 11:30 a.m. uh locations to be determined uh Tuesday December 17th Schoolboard regular meeting at 7 pm with communication to the school board and administration at 6:45 and also we'll have truth and in taxation clear hearing moving on to Cent agenda can I get a motion motion by forsberg second by by Scully to approve the following items in the consent agenda minutes of the October 8th 2024 regular Schoolboard meeting October 29 2024 Schoolboard work session bills paid for September 2024 in the amount of 5,329 163 and Personnel items all in favor please say I I those opposed motion passes moving on to discussion reports and information items Communications and connections increase the connection engagement and support of our families and communities support student attendance and an enriching learning environment District operational plan project update Miss Kalen sanivan Marinello hi evening thank you nice to see you all again um my name is Ken sanan Marinello I'm the director of special education and student services and tonight I'm going to talk to you about the district operational plan project um supporting student attendance and an enriching learning environment I know we spent a lot of time talking about this at our October work session and I really appreciated your engagement and your great questions um but tonight I'm going to give a briefer overview of some of those key achievements from the past few years can you guys you guys have it I was just making sure because you cannot see it on that other screen okay all right so before I jump in I want to talk a little bit about the why and the history behind the project um over the past two years we have focused on refining and implementing our processes around student attendance this year we added focusing on our students who are absent at School absent at school means you're in the building but you're not engaged in our learning um in order to do this work really well with those students one thing we do know is that we have to support a learner centered environment um by fostering a sense of belonging for our students that compels them to want to be engaged in their learning right that they want to be here and fully engage in their learning community so where did we all start with this work so looking back at the 2223 school year we're heavily focused on developing the resources that are staff needed in order to support our students in this area so one of those big pieces of resources that we started with was developing our learner centered environment Playbook um what this Playbook is is a whole just a whole big conglomeration of strategies that we really divided into four key areas planning for our students right this is where we work to get to know our students really well what are the strategies we use to know what motivates them what helps plug them in with their learning cultivating a learner environment so this is how do we form that Community within our classrooms and help our students and staff get to know one another and have a positive learning environment how do we know how we treat one another in a classroom and then managing one thing we know is that despite best efforts challenging behaviors will occur um so in those moments how do we manage through them so we support the student who may be struggling but we also support their classmates and ensure continued Safety and Security in the classroom and then how do we all re-engage positively and then finally reinforcing that learning environment by what we put in front of the students so how are we designing those pieces of learning that fully engage students because when you're engaged and your mind's busy and your hands are busy lot less time for challenging behavior and getting off task um and then really when we think of 22 23 there was a ton of other resources that we we focus on developing we worked on a morning meeting toolkit morning meeting is part of a responsive classroom and it's how we all start our day together and get clear messages on what the day holds and a little bit of that social emotional and behavioral um growth and development learning um we refined our high leverage engagement strategies toolkit our career and life competencies toolkit and then for those of you who are parents in the district you might have seen this pop up or you should have in Parent Portal we implemented our behavior and attendance agreements with families so part of this agreement is um asking you to review that with your student talking through it what that means for your student and your family and then acknowledging that you've read through it um and that's a way where we just open the door for partnership with families if needs around attendance or behavior arise um and then we also developed attendance and behavior dashboard so this is related to getting data in one spot so we can identify students who might need more support and then we started to develop our approach to alternatives to suspension so in those times when challenging behaviors arise and a student needs to be absent from the learning community in order to regain some of that sense of safety and move forward what what are we doing with those students to support them so they come back in a positive way so in 23 24 that's when we kind of moved into that space of a lot more implementation but still some of that refinement we did Implement our alternatives to suspension for our 712 students so that program is called rev which stands for reflection empathy and values and really what that program's aim is for is to keep students connected academically and keep making progress academically while they're away from school due to a consequence it also an opportunity for them to access any social emotional or mental health supports they might need um get access to a social worker and then finally that piece of really understanding their impact on their Learning Community by their behavior like how did this impact those around me and how can I come back and make it right and re-enter really positively um we expanded professional learning for our Educators around Community Building circles so a little bit more about cultivating that learner centered environment and how do we Norm as a classroom Community um and then we received a fair amount of feedback about our attendance letters and this was really great for both staff and students and what we heard was our letters were not really accessible um they were kind of scary kind of like kind of um adversarial and that isn't what we are looking for some of the language is really Technical and it was really dense so we refined that and we made it clearer and we made it more concise and we made it kind because what we really want is inform families when their students are struggling with attendance but we want to invite them into a partnership on how we can work together to impact that um in that same vein we piloted talking points which is a two-way um app text messaging app so this allowed us to meet uh reach families that we have not been able to reach before like historically the phone and the email process really hasn't worked well and then suddenly we're we're getting that that conversation going with families that way and then really when we think about attendance that that year um we focused a lot on what those tier one supports are so like what are buildings doing all the time to support our students with attendance and one of those was around an attendance slump in the spring if you're not um kind of a nerd who gets into attendance data like I am you might not know spring is a time where student attendance slumps and we see a lot more ISM so fa um so buildings were able to develop what would be their strategies to help keep students fully engaged um and really excited and energetic about coming to school through the end of the school year so now we're in 2425 so while you'll still see some of that refinement in our key achievement points you're going to see a lot more supporting of that deeper implementation of our attendance processes and our learner centered environment strategies with our buildings and our building teams um one of the first things we looked at was our enrollment process so how do we start off with our new students in a really good way and getting to know them really deeply by their name their strength their interest need and motivations and one of the ways we're able to do that is by refining our enrollment process to include some of the learner profile questions so just an example one of the questions question is what are your current and potential Sparks so that's how do we get that student excited to tell us about what makes them really pumped for learning is it Tigers is it space is it Sports what is it that really gets a student excited to be at school and learn and then also asking the caregiver what are your hopes and dreams for your child what do you need from us in order to meet those hopes and dreams and then what we do from there is we take this information and we put it right into the students learner profile so then the students teachers then have access to some of these answers and maybe have a really ready connection Point like hey I also love the Minnesota Vikings right let's commiserate over the loss or celebrate the win right so it's that opportunity to make some of those instant connections and really make a student who might feel uncomfortable being new feel really welcome and really seen um we also had um our buildings take the lead on making plans on how they want to support teachers and create expectations around teaching new routines to their students and how do they support their students with really becoming a part of their school community so a cool example of this is at Westwood schools um on the intermediate side in 56 these are panther buddies on the 78 side these are panther mentors and this student is a Westwood student who has leadership qualities and a lot of enthusiasm for Westwood they're assigned to Shadow the new student those first few days making sure they can get in their locker they can sure they have a friendly face to sit with at lunch showing them where the classrooms are all of those types of things and then during the day the students um counselor for personalized learning checks in with that student hey how's it going how are you adjusting what do you need and then finally at the end of the day the students Panther time teacher so that advisory teacher makes a call to the home to check in with the caregiver how are things going with your student what does your family need um and this creates multiple touch points for a student and a family to feel really cared for and to just hear various voices from Westwood schools and really wrap up their students um so the next part not as exciting it's at monitoring and um the implementation of the attendance processes so that's things like myself or Abby Pierce who is our lead for attendance work in the district pushing into those attendance team meetings um seeing how things are functioning what do you need where are you getting stuck providing consultation when maybe we're intervening and it's not working really well um and then once a student does reach those six absences parents are now provided that data in that letter that they get about the six unexcused absences but it Compares it to the National chronic absenteeism data so like one of the things we know is that you don't know there's a problem until you know there's a problem right so if you're not thinking about absences in the totality and the impact of learning you might not realize you know two orthodontic appointments at the same time a family trip an illness all those pieces and how they might add up and you might accidentally be impacting one period of the day when you're able to look at data compared to others or compared to where we're trying to go it opens the door for a really good conversation on how hey maybe I can shift your next appointment or maybe hey buddy why are you skipping that same hour right so it just opens the door for families to have those conversations with their student and with us and then um finally oops did I not go ahead so sorry I was so excited um and then finally that last best piece is really staff engaging with students about their attendance um students like talking about where are you at datawise but also what are the things we need to do to grow those really good habits around attendance punctuality and then when we're in class not just being there for the sake of attendance but truly engaging in our school work and really learning as much as we can um the next piece is around that chronic are those students who are absent at school I talked about this a little at the beginning and shared the definition um yes absent at school means you're in the building but you're not engaged in your learning um but we did need to Norm around what that means and who we're talking about with our staff so we came up with that common definition and did some learning around that with staff and students and now we're in the place where we are already identifying students who are absent at school and providing intervention um what we're still working through with that achievement point is really around how are we documenting it how are we documenting what we've done what's working and how are we making adjustments as we go um what we don't want to do is keep doing the same thing that isn't working so like where does all of that information live who can see it and how do they access it so that's one piece that we're still going through um but probably if I had to um guess on a Time line I would think more towards um late winter where we'll have that kind of solidified and have a good idea of what we want to do we're trying out a couple things right now and then that last piece is around that learner centered environment right so in the beginning we talked about that Playbook we housed all the strategies over the last three years we've done a ton of professional learning how to implement the strategies and choose the right strategy for the right students and now we're asking buildings to really look at their their school year in totality so if we were to map out where we're placing our emphasis and where we're providing um professional learning to support a learner set an environment what would that look like um so a really great example of that is we know that a long break from school can bring up various things for students so mapping out hey what are we focused on that week before a break so we're really maintaining positive and safe learning environment so the kids who are excited for the break can be excited for the kids who are anxious about the break can get the support they need and we all are we all are coming together and really just being what it's like to be an SLP student in our environment and maintaining that and then after the break Believe It or Not sometimes kids forget some of those routines right they come back maybe they're tired because they had a whole different schedule break at over break or maybe they had so much fun and they come back and they kind of forgot what it means to be a student and how we do business so how as a staff do we all go back to that and revisit those expectations and really support our students in getting back into those routines quickly um and moving on with their learning regardless of the Break um so by looking at that throughout the year the buildings can make adjustments based on their data based on student need and feedback um but really it's just a way to look at it instead of a week at a time just looking at the whole school year so well we've accomplished a lot and we have a lot of great things going and we're getting some positive data points and some good feedback we know that there's always more to learn and more to do and we can always be better at supporting our students and our staff um so the work will continue on but that's a little bit about our key achievement and I'm curious if you have any questions for me any questions I think we drilled you a lot on this in the work session so thank you for all that time then giving us that feedback and answering so many but yeah I don't really have a question because Mel's right we we no we we really went for it session um I just want to make the comment that you know students need so much more than just information when they show up they're not just there to obviously the primary thing is to get their academic needs met but it's so much more than that and I'm always so impressed with how well this district and your staff and so many others uh in the district um do at you know meeting students where they're at and taking that more holistic approach to help kids um get to a place where they can learn and that and it's you know it's it's not as simple as just sitting down in in a seat every day so I just want to say um thank you and I'm really impressed with all you guys do thank you so much I really appreciate that feedback anyone else yeah we did kind of go in depth too you did if you asked me for another specific strategy I was like going to actually make you like do one I don't think I could I I do want to say I appreciate all the energy and effort put into it um I mean we're not that far off from National averages so just for those who are watching this isn't because we have a attendance problem we're right at the average nationally but we're wanting to address it we want to be proactive and we want to put things in place to make sure that our kiddos feel like they can come to school like we want to make sure they're having fun we want to make make sure that they're getting the education that we're promising to provide them so so thank you appreciate it yes and thank you all for your time and your support of this really important work so have a lovely evening thank you thank you so moving on to engaged enthusiastic Learners align work of adults and con and continually improve personalized instruction and responsiveness to meet our students unique and varied needs athletic and activities update fall 2024 Mr will wackman welcome thanks thanks for having me holistic approach you talked about that I that's what we're part of you know and we've talked about that every time I'm here we talk about that how we're part of the cake you know and we're the frosting and we're part of the cake and all that kind of stuff but um I was thinking about that attendance and Ken did she worked with me we got our coaches on board too because our coaches are Educators and that's important right if you want to play sports it's a privilege to play athletics and act do activities you got to be at school to do that so we more than we are more than willing to help with that along with our academic policies and things like that because the goal is to get them out of here so they can go do great things outside of our our Nest as I like to say but um it's weird that I'm here for fall because I'm running out of here to go to a girls hockey game right after so Winter's already started I always that's just kind of uh they kind of Mel together after after our our Ready set go in August but we had a great uh we had a great fall um we had 573 kids participate in just mshsl uh activities this year it's almost impossible to figure out how many are in our interest based clubs CU everything's so fluid right we actually have 48 clubs now online and I have two more on my desk so we're hitting 50 I mean it just seems to me like I think I'm going to come in the spring I'm going to say 65 70 but that's what we're about it's engaging kids and and that because it's really important um the school day is not just 810 to 2 255 I really believe that if it is you're missing out and those are the kids we want to capture when we do that um like I said we have we added boys volleyball we've talked about that many times s it's interest I was just at a a meeting with the Minnesota Vikings and they are going to start pushing flag football for girls as a sport it's blowing up in the nation they're like looking to get that into emerging sport status and they're actually going to fund a lot of that for school so that's coming down the pipe Ultimate Frisbee Esports they're all trying to emerge and do these things because why because kids want to do them and uh the best part about our school district is we say if you want to do it we'll do it we know we're going to find a way if we have kids to do that so I love working in a school district that does that so that is not the case in every school district so with that uh like I said we have 48 clubs um like that's going to grow um you name it they they figure it out uh whether it's gaming whether it's you know robotics it's all these kind of cool things I'm going to highlight a couple of ones that are really kind of taking off um and partly because we have a caring adult that's really pushing that and kids want to be a part of it on there we do have a purpose and uh we to create a positive experience connect our our student with a caring adult and then te Teach life lessons there's our co-curricular piece what do we what are we doing to help these these kids student athletes and kids in general um move on in life um because you I like to say the person I've talked talk about the slow their coaches that the person's more and born than the athlete you know you know and that's what we're there for with that um I think a shining example we got two of them right here and they met with me today a shining example of that I just wanted to highlight is a is our girls tennis program and Coach cther does a great job I was thinking about this if I go back a second to purpose how do we figure how do we evaluate that right well I think you evaluate it by asking the kids they're the ones that they're they're our primary customers so we send out surveys to every kid that's involved in a in athletic then the best part of my whole year is iect to seniors and I kind of do an exit interview tell us what we're tell us what we do good what can we improve on those type of things did you have a great experience that's pretty easy one for them to answer does your coach care about you those are the type of things you know what tell me about that and so when we send these out I send out schooly messages hey come get your a senior and literally in a 10 minutes after I sent out the girls tennis seniors there was like 12 of them in the office it just turned into cha I'm like wow they got something to say so let's hope that you know but knowing coach coach cuther uh it was going to be great here's a couple things that they said he helped me uh into the person I am today he's like a second dad always supportive welcoming help me grow as both a player and a person uh it is one of the most positive supportive atmospheres I have ever experienced on a sports team best high school sports experience my coaches push me to do my best and strive for better than my best so much fun I wish I had more time when I doubted myself he encouraged me I encourage anyone who wants to join tennis the atmosphere is super welcome welcoming making sure we knew winning wasn't everything being a good person was these are our kids saying that so I think he's got that down pretty good evaluation for him um it was the best decision of my life to join that's what he won coached it I just got this two days ago he was a coach of the year not cuz we won the section because the other coaches know about him so it's awesome to have coaches like that so there are people getting it done for us um and he's not in it to win championships he's in it to help kids and I think we have two Testaments right here that would probably agree with that on there so he's went from 25 student athletes to 73 girls played tennis now he's asked me if you guys can give us some funding to build more tennis courts that's our only drawback right so 73 kids and uh it keeps growing it it's you know I don't know how he does it but they want to be a part of that but what a testament to him you know and you know he could be a lot of different places I've asked him why why do you choose spring l park I said that to him because he could coach anywhere that's how good he is and he said because I can make a difference so and there's the difference right there so awesome for Coach Dave um and uh he'll be back this spring with them um let me hit some uh uh so I guess the person is more me I think that's kind of the point I'm trying to make I think I did that with Coach we have a lot of adults that do that for our kids um we had some H great team success this year and that's part of you know being part of a team is a great thing that's uh you know that's what you miss as I'm not a coach anymore but that's what I miss the most is being part of a team because when you hear kids talk they don't often talk about what's your favorite experience they talk about the locker room and the car boads the bus rides those kind of things and that's just being with other people and being part of a team you don't always get that in life um our girl soccer was you know rated six in state but their only loss was their last game of the year so ran into a tough Maple Grove Grove team but uh you know and the ball bounces certain ways and in those games you know go our way that year so we got second in the conference too and we were a section runner up our football played a great game against Rogers to get to the section final um so that was awesome I think we totally surprised Rogers that day and and totally took it to him and they got to play for a championship and they beat irell which we got our block back so it's right we let iron Del have it for a year they didn't know really know what it was I think but uh we got it back from and then last Wednesday I went to the adapted soccer game and uh we were playing for a championship but everybody won in that gym it was pretty cool to see and Natalie quintaro who's you've seen her picture before she was an all state bowler she joined team sports this year and so Mr Po off was there after and everybody said kids were crying and hugging just like you know it was great it was fun to watch and cupcakes and all that but Mr Po said you need to play floor hockey well the next morning she was the first person in our office say talking to my assistant Kelly saying how I sign up for FL hockey so we we got her to do that and that's awesome so we're super excited for her to do that so and they had a great year over there we partner with sentennial on that it's you know with the transportation and all that we're we've done a great job coach uh Mr poof has done a great job with that we're going our floor hockey team I was just talking um to Ken Bet Mand been back there we're going to Morhead for a regular season game so that's going to be present some challenges we got it figured out we're getting a coach bus for them but they that's a regular season game by the way um but so we want to go up there they came down last year and so we got we owe them to go back so should be a fun experience for them um we had we have great individuals you guys can see watch our I mean probably our girl soccer team that girl the Brooke is in the pink right there she's our goalie she's like first team All State goalie only two girls in the whole state make that so she's the one she's outstanding along with Brianna who is a Brianna finnean who is a Miss soccer finalist it's one of the top seniors out there Viana Smith and Jacob Knockin those are all Juniors the bottom three Brooke uh vivana and Jacob so they're all coming back so I expect your girl soccer team to keep keep get uh keep that success going our state uh participants we had uh genev and cross country so it was fun to watch her uh run at the University of Minnesota that the pageantry of that meet is really cool because you have about 200 kids just boom B at once and all different school colors and she finished in the 93rd so she did a great job she's only an eighth grader too so that's that's a huge uh future for her and then I just happened last uh Saturday cor and Ella Ellis uh they qualified for the state meet in swimming which is this weekend so coach cougler does a great job and we've had a tradition of success getting kids to the state tournament and then 18 All Conference you know and but you know having being good having good team Ates these are all good leaders too you know they're not just you know the stars and that kind of thing they're they're they're engaged they're part of their team they're bringing people along they're making people better so that's just so fun to see on that so that was our our fall individual highlights and then I wanted just to highlight bowling and and Ultimate Frisbee those are two uh two um clubs that we have that have kind of started to take off a little bit where we had to find Space now for Ultimate Frisbee and they were using our baseball fields Outfield so I'm like well why don't we have a lot of turf in this District we have a partnership with NC so we ended up finding them space actually on Turf and things like that so he was really uh he was uh really excited about that the kids were excited about that they played in a tournament Crush toober tournament um and there so it's middle school and that and then our bowling team was state champions a couple years ago and we had an all state so that's another really really uh kind of a cool and they're actually open through to fifth graders they can't compete the fifth and sixth graders but they can practice so there's another two two grades that they get involved which I think is a really cool idea for that Association to do that so those are those are taking off so those are going to have more and more kids start to do those when they see those type of things I mentioned Brianna before tomorrow morning at 7:45 in our Panther gym if you want to come there's we'll have donuts and refreshments uh but we're going to honor Brianna that she's going to South Coast State University which plays the Gophers in the NCAA tournament so that's a very good program that she's going to and a lot of Metro girls have started going there so Brianna is really excited about going to a team that can you know start to to uh do better uh nationally and things like that but she's just was a great she had a great year uh seems like she scores every game one or two goals and and she's fastest can be she's an all state track athlete for us too so there's our multiport athletes which are awesome to have and so she's all stay in two sports so that's really cool for her so she will um be honored tomorrow morning just like her sister was uh who was a cross country Runner um our Fine Arts we our our conference is a leader in terms of Fine Arts with a music festival that you that I've talked to you about that we hosted a couple times every year they go to the menaka Center for the Arts as well so we take 11 of our students this art does and they go actually take classes at the metaka center for the art so that's not just our school that's all of our 14 Schools so there they're sitting in classes with kids from other schools really need event so they kind of can take their passion and run with it so it's great that the art teachers do that but it's you know financially our our conference thinks that's important so they put money behind that so the kids can do that so it's just a great thing for us then I just wanted to hit on our youth and and Community engagement a lot of that has to do with our partnership with Community Ed because that's our summer summer things a lot of our coaches work with with our community yet on that but you know it's more than that it's got to be more than that you know and it's got to be more than youth nights you know and some of the pictures you see the football on from youth night but we have a lot of things going we have a free youth uh Youth Camp that a couple of our couple of our uh um alumni have helped with but Community has really taken a lead and help us promote that thing you know there's our our dance team has has camps for that um that top picture is a Halloween softball clinic so our softball coach is figuring out a way to keep girls having fun with that and then our Band program has has done done concerts where it was the haunted uh concert but they did create a mask and things like that out so it was more the the engagement and that's what we need because we want to keep those kids coming up I know our our football and our basketball teams work with our learning Ventures programs just these are kids that's doing it on their own which is really really cool but that's that make that's like the kids are the stars they get the feel you know and these little kids look up to them and then they come to games and things like that so we'll have like a learning Ventures boys basketball game it's really fun to see with that uh our hockey team our my son just did it they were out there with the Cubs our littlest hockey players they're our coach coach gag and is running that program um for the Youth for the Youth uh for spring L Park youth hockey um you know we have the skate with the cslp girls that's coming up so we're doing things to engage our community right and that's really important important right especially and it's good for our kids to realize that they're look up to right so there is a standard when you're out in the community when you're wearing Panther gear there's a standard when you're an athlete and because there's a lot of kids that look up to you because they want to be you when when it is so um you know and you hear that a lot I want to be that guy you know so Teddy wackman I want to wear I want to be K you know I want to be you know Aiden McMahon now somebody wants to be Teddy wackman so I guess that's pretty cool I guess that's kind of how it works so um looking forward to a great winter and and you know obviously I'm going to go see the girls hockey team play tonight and you with them we know they got a chance to go to the state tournament so um that's fun it's the start of their season they're really excited about that so that's all I got for you I'll be longer in the spring warning warning any questions yeah we know you have to run off uh thank you again I it's exciting to see the different clubs and activities for the students it's just not about sports and I appreciate you pointing out that it's it's the person that's important not just not the the sport or the athletic part so I really appreciate that right see you at a game you got a free pass yes absolutely all right see you thank you moving to effective operations improve our effective management of human financial and physical resources monthly financial report September 2024 Miss Amy Schultz okay Amy you're gonna have to top that well as I walked up here was like boring I may not feel the matches energy or maybe the uh Topic's not quite the same but I am sure the board is really excited that we are back to our monthly financial statements so uh these are the financial statements we do each month they are Cash basis so what we do is we walk through a Treasures report a statement of revenues and a statement of expenditures and we'll do these really quick because it is something that the board does see each month and so the board's very familiar with it um so with that we'll start with our first one is the treasures report this is our beginning and ending cash balance as well as our receipts and dispersements for the month of September so we don't do after may we skip June July and August at that point we're focusing on the audit and a lot of cash actually moves between funds at that point so it makes trying to get this report together difficult as we kind of have expenses that get charged back between Food Service nutrition services the general funds so when we look at this we're starting in September first one for the school year so now you can see we're ending with just over $71 million um receipts are maybe a little bit in line with what we would expect to see each month dispersements are a little bit on the low end um in September as we have some staff that come back to work at the end of August some start in September but we have um one or two of our groups that don't start getting paid until September 30th and so September does not include a full month of pay for some of our staff so we will see the dispersement number click up a little bit as we get into October so on the statement of revenues this report shows our uh the month of September as well as year to date and then compared to our originally adopted budget from June and then as a comparison through September of the previous two years as well so on this you can see our general and our nutrition services accounts are lower than what they were last year and the year before we were getting a lot of Federal Aid in and state aid in quickly in the past couple years those we were kind of coming out of Co those have stopped so at this point we aren't seeing those anymore that kind of influx of cash that we were getting at the beginning of the year is just something that has slowed down and that will be our new Norm expected I guess going forward um and so with that I would I should say our Co dollars are officially done as of September so we have no more dollars enough to spend we head through September on a couple of Grants so we finish those out um and then on debt you can see that does look different we don't usually talk about debt it's usually pretty consistent year-over year we did have the bond refunding this Summer that was done it seems like a really long time ago already but we did refund one of our bonds and that was able to capture about $375,000 of savings um in principal and interest payments in the future so similar to refinancing your morgage at a lower rate we did the same thing with some of our bonds the school district does not keep that $375,000 it actually is a lower tax levy amount that we than ask our taxpayers for so principal and interest on those we just don't as much so the savings goes directly back to taxpayers so but that is why debt looks a little different than it has in the past and then on the statement of expenditures similar report um I'll just highlight kind of a couple of the things that maybe look a little bit different um overall a general fund does look if you just look at the bottom line looks very consistent year-over-year we don't usually focus a lot on the lines that make that up as sites and departments have an ability to move money around within those as they to spend money um but what we did have as coming into this year on our Capital expenditures a few things that we were doing and made larger kind of close out payments in September for were the Park Terrace roof and our LED project so those are two things that we just had some larger ones coming and where we didn't have those as much last year um on other that's an unusual one to kind of be as large as it is when we close out an audit and with all of the federal grants we had we have an ability to code just of a it's called indirect cost we can say that the district has a lot of indirect costs in a lot of our Grant Management and we're able to Cod that but it goes to other so it really reduces kind of salaries and benefits goes to other so it is causing that percentage to swing even though the dollar amounts are actually quite small um so that's the general fund on food service again they're a little bit lower this year than what they were last year some of that's just our timing of payments um when we're paying for Commodities and things like that on debt Serv again you can see that one is a lot lower than the past that's because the budget is so much larger our payments are actually fairly consistent but with a larger budget the percentage looks much less and then just on opad because we don't talk about our other post- employment benefits bonds very often uh this is our last year of payes so we have a payment in the fall and one in the spring and then these bonds are paid off the bonds were issued I think it was back in 2009 in order to fund our OPB liability that we talk as we go through a budget process so we are still fully funded with that and so those Bonds were issued in order to fund Lally and we are paying them off this year that is all I have for September if there are any questions any questions you know me comments um I just want to say I really appreciate every month when you do this that you're not only very thorough but you anticipate the questions we're going to have so it's so helpful because I can look at something and and and then you address it like immediately I don't even have to ask the question so thank you for doing that that's super helpful well if I miss something please ask yeah only I'm going to say is really it's it's kind of awkward to look at the budget because since I've been a part of the board we've had some building program going on or some you know major renovation or something happening so it's kind of kind of nice to see the percentages look somewhat normal and not so out of yeah the Federal funding and all that through things off for several years so I think we all start to see assuming the state stays fiscally healthy and our meteran payments at the same I would expect that we will start to even out awesome other comments questions thank you Amy put my mic on all right moving on to act or excuse me superintendence report I was going to move on to action I was going to skip right over you lots of lots of fun news to share with you so you don't want to skip it because I think have fun hearing these things and um there we go so first we had our early childhood fall family Carnival more than 200 families participated in that so you can see the pictures of the different ways that kids were involved um Sydney bro pro hockey player here in Minnesota was won the first championship in the women's hockey league her mom actually teaches up at North Point dorsy po so she was up there um visiting with our North Point first graders I happened to be up there the day after she was visiting the kids were still talking about it so they were very excited the opportunity to get to meet them Wood Crest Wood Crest Spanish Immersion they think this is just a really good example of in disciplinary learning at work science specialist pulling things together and doing some great work say um at Centerview our PTO helped to get some new for square and Hopscotch um on at the playground it's been very popular according to Mike so you see the kids having fun at recess a favorite for many students a spark program that we've now had for a number of years at Park Terrace launched again recently so all kinds of activities for kids to be able to sample various interests explored things it's a lot of fun to see um the kids and the teachers do a great job being involved with that so it's uh it's a lot of fun appreciate their focus on really trying to help kids find that spark at Westwood they're using their classroom uh Windows as math graphing paper so making most of those flexible learning environments so lower left you can see them at work there so it's been and it's just this kind of learning everywhere in the past week I've been in every school um and just seeing the different things going on and and Cen talked earlier about uh the work we're doing around attendance and Lear Center environment it's so evidence as you go around the schools the work that uh that people are doing and and uh the care they're putting into to really doing all they can to design engaging learning for kids so White House had a back back a bus fundraiser supported education so for the field trips and enrichment so and then at theol school we had over 55 colleges um and the college fair earlier year we shared some pictures from their uh career fair college fair so you can see just pictures of all the the kids getting to chance to engage with various colleges so it's a lot of fun that's something that's really grown and expanded over the over the years from when they the first first round with that had our fall play which will referenced in his presentation so theater and the round hit so our theater program it's amazing job this is one that we've really worked we talked about this last year actually at our retreat in the fall about that journey and how do we really bring that Vision to life and talk about what personalized learning how it looks different at an elementary level versus a middle level versus at the high school you each have a copy of this trifold that Eric and her team have worked partnered with hope members of Hope's team and talk to principles and everybody else but really to put together this Glimpse for people that may be looking for schools or just wondering what that's like to just kind of see a description of what when we talk about what is personalized learning what is engagement just kind of captures it and they did an amazing job with it so really appreciate the work they did also the first um issue of SLP experience is is in homes in online if you haven't checked that out um do so just a wealth of information and fun stories about things going on across the district some dates so last day of trimester is the uh Tuesday before um Thanksgiving this year and then Wednesday will be a staff day where they're primarily focused on assessment um reporting and learning design so they're really kind of wrapping up that trimester on that Wednesday and then December 2nd the Monday before we start uh trimester two there'll be this will be another day of react learning around literacy as well as working on engagement the design of learning our teachers will be doing that and then of course we have winter break at the end of the month so remers with that cat Perkins will be visiting on December 4th so encourage people to go and hear her L boys our gr five and six play on December 6th 7 pm at the high school our Winter Market so that's something that's been I don't know how many years we've been doing that clean a team lead that so 9 to noon on December 7th so K4 gift shop um all kinds of other things going on and again wonderful experience for kids in the community that is it so just a glimpse of some of the many things going on thank you moving on to action items can I get them can I get them well let's see it's a resolution so make it a motion so mooved by scull or Schmidt second m for a resolution of governing board supporting form a application to Minnesota State High School league Foundation whereas the Minnesota State High School league Foundation was formed to provide support for Minnesota high school youth to participate in athletic and Fine Arts whereas a governing board of Spring Lake Park schools recognizes the value of Stu of student participation in extracurricular activities and whereas the Min MSL Foundation is offering grants and funding to assist schools in recognizing promoting and funding extracurricular participation by high school students in athletic and Fine Arts programs therefore be it resolved that the governing board of Spring Lake Park School supports the school School's application to the Minnesota State High School league foundation for a form a grant to offset Student Activity fees any discussion absolutely and it supports uh again that holistic uh approach towards uh building uh great students if you're curious it's about a $7,000 Grant we receive from the State High School league foundation and while that's not a ton of money it does help because I do think it's important to note that um over time we've continued to really make it a priority to keep our fees as low as we can so if you look at surrounding high schools our fees um I really the lowest around for kids to be able to participate um in activities so I think that's just then this goes directly to that help CL can you call Miss H yes Miss mclen yes Miss Smith yes Miss skilly yes Mr valella yes Miss forsberg yes Mr Easter yes the resolution is adopted on a 70 vote thank you moving to onto approval of bus contract with Loren for fiscal year 25 and fiscal year through fiscal year 27 can I get a motion so move by hennon second second by forsberg to approve the bus contract with Len for the school year 2025 through 2020 or through 2027 all in favor please say I I was opposed motion passes I just want to add similar to when kayen talked earlier you said you shared that there was a lot of discussion around like her presentation there was also a lot of discussion around this bus contract our previous work session so this is something that the board did discuss fully previously yeah yes thank you for for correcting me on that I should have opened it up for discussion any discussion since it's already approved all right my apologies on that uh moving to acknowled acknowledgement of gifts can I get a motion so moved so move by Scully second by Vala to approve the following resolution whereas School Board policy 706 establishes guidelines for the acceptance of gifts to the district and whereas Minnesota statute 4653 states that a school board May accept a gift of real or personal property by the adoption of a resolution approved by two-thirds of its members therefore be it resolved that the school board of Spring Lake Park schools accepts with appreciation the gifts as shown any discussion I just want to per periodically when we do this want to point out for people that may be watching because I remember years ago when jimon was on the board he said that doesn't seem like because there seems like there's a lot more things that I hear about the people are donating this doesn't capture at all this is what's come comes directly uh to the district so the many ways that you know with Associated groups with some of our booster groups the panther foundation and so on that doesn't come here because those donations are going of the planta foundations the course not taking action on it so there's multiple ways that people are um providing monetary or other um support to that goes um to our students and to our system that I just want to point that out because sometimes people wonder this is just one way that that happens thank you and for all who donate thank you this the district greatly appreciates the support any more discussion any other discussion clerk would you please call roll Miss forber yes Mr valella yes M Skelly yes Miss schmidth yes Miss mlen yes Miss Hannah yes M Easter yes that resolution is also adopted on a 70 vote thank you moving to board forum and reports we'll start with our student reps welcome back great to have you with us this evening thank you it's good to be here so there's been a lot going on lately I mean it's end of try and everything but we did just have our college fair and had upwards of 50 colleges and if that doesn't sound like a lot jym is packed with both booths and students so it does feel like a lot when you're there and as a senior who's going to be going to college in less than a year now it's good to experience just all the options out there whether it's colleges through these college fairs or learning about going straight into the workforce or joining the army or navy or whatever ever it is it's great that our school offers these options and shows them to students um we've also been having a lot of our clubs give back to the community so FCCLA just had their Panther gear Drive where people could donate old Panther gear and that gets donated to members of our community Deca had their hygiene Supply Drive which was really amazing to see what they were able to get and just what they were really getting for the community oec had which is is always giving back whe whether it's volunteering at sports games you know Sidelines at the football games and they were just at a community Marathon helping out there which was really awesome and then finally we had the performance of Puffs and if you weren't able to see it I'm sorry to say you missed out it is one of my favorite shows now I cried I laughed I almost fell off my chair laughing it was the best thing and it was awesome to see our high school students um a lot of I think almost all of them were senior so they're going to be leaving this next year but they did a wonderful job in this play and I was glad to be able to make it I wasn't able to get a ticket to the second show since sold out really quickly but I was glad to make it to the first one awesome yeah the the Puffs performance can't be overstated like everyone was just laughing so hard and it was just so fun um find your future event is tomorrow after school well at like 4:30 to 6 and so as a junior I'm excited to go to that and kind of figure some things out hopefully um because the college grind has started so yeah um I bet a lot of people will be there I went there last year and it was really well attended um the end of try is also two weeks away uh everyone is retaking their tests turning in their homework getting those grades ready for parents to see I love so appreciate that love it I so appreciate that um for stuco we are accepting applications um which is really exciting we got 54 applications and um they should be joining us in a couple of weeks so that's really excited a lot of new which helps to do our work and make the school a more positive place um we also have the blood drive coming up on December 6th um I'm 16 so I'm now old enough to give blood and I'm really excited to do that and then farther into the future we have our winter spirit week so just we're looking thinking about now while there's still a lot of time Wass to engage our student body and just make a more positive impact on SLP awesome yeah can a quick question what is the current makeup of student console is it like a certain number of ninth graders and 10th graders or is it kind of whoever applies you go from there so actually currently we have no freshmen which is so freshmen actually I shouldn't say this but they have priority in this application process um because we do need their opinions and their voice and every matter but we don't have set numbers for each grade um it's if you want to make an impact and you have the purpose to do so welcome um we really don't have a limit either we're trying not to get to 90 kids so we have to cut down but we have about 30 40 right now and we're going to be accepting maybe 20 30 more yeah and it was really cool because this year um Allison and I and a few other members of student council actually had some input on like what we want to see in our new members and like looking at their applications which I don't think had been done previous so that was cool okay great really want to do it great okay parents that are listening if you have a freshman There's an opportunity really no it really it is because I remember that's how honestly that's how I started in getting involved is I was on student council when I was a freshman actually started middle school so but that's how it starts and you know that's how you learn to to give back and and enjoy the process of giving back so so parents you have a freshman opportunity all right thank you for sharing I just from just from hearing all the activities I'm exhausted seriously I don't remember being that busy when I was on student council and in high school but you know my goodness what a great what a great opportunity and and uh super excited I want to go back we'll start on this side any updates I a lot of it's been said and I a lot of it's been said I have to also um say Puffs was amazing and the theater in the round was such an Innovative way to really change up how the theater has been done and so there were just if you didn't get a chance to go it meant that there were just chairs on the stairs on the stage surrounding the actors and so they could come in from any place um but you were not sitting out in the audience you were really up close and that was I think a a nice uh change up from you know traditional shows that we see so kudos to them and and the tech and um doring team that P It Off daughter plays volleyball so we went to the end of the season volleyball banquet and you know they make a big production of it and it's just you can just see how much how invested the kids are but how much all the coaches just care about them it's just just really cool to see I unfortunately did not get to see Puffs but a good friend of mine daughter was in it and she said that she laughed and she cried and she almost fell off her chair as well so I'm sad that I missed out of the opportunity but I'm thankful that we have that at our schools and the volleyball banquet was my first banquet having a freshman now and it blew me away how much time was put into it effort it was not rushed um the coaches really do care about those kids and I'm looking forward to Addie's next year's season and she is a freshman that put in an application for student counsel so um I'm very proud of her progress that she's made coming over her shelf and I think that Allison has helped her with that because Addie and Aaron are really good friends um so I thank Allison for that and there's going to be big shoes for someone to fill when she's gone next year so um and then yes my son hoe who's 13 adores uh Teddy wackman so he'll talk about him when hockey season starts so that's kind of fun to to see to see him have it idle in in the program that will has made um and then I want to give Melody a shout out for for breakfast club which how many kids did you have so far every it's up to about 165 a time so yeah it's great yeah and I go there too I just started this year and like it has such a positive impact on my day and I just love everything about it so that's fun to seeing her I'll see you tomorrow thank you guys all right let's go to this side I attended the light house uh PTO meeting and um they love Kelly by the way she was their last person and it was really exciting because they did you mentioned it that they had the back Aus F fundraiser and they were super stoked to have earned or raised about Lighthouse so I was very impressed with how much they really do enrichment with these kids and the things that they're just so eager and excited and excited about learning for these kids too so it was a really awesome experience and they're pretty motivated and so the ideas are just going crazy it's just so different it's just so different and I really enjoyed it I look forward to going back again too so that was kind of the big the big thing there was they're excited about their fundraiser and where they're going to start to spend those monies um for the kids activities that they have coming yeah that was fun for me and then our lion meeting are you talking on it I can okay great sted stoked I know sorry Melody right come on yes it's probably the kids would probably tell me that that is old that is so old what is the word I should use I'll think of it I'll talk to you later get the right a good word yes I know Puffs was a sold out show um 9916 was routine business but one thing they're doing is having a video video at each meeting of some of their programs and the last meeting was auditory oral which is Little People preschoolers who have a significant hearing loss and it's just so impressive to see what they're doing with those little kids and I think I'll ask Dr Bo if we can show some of those videos they're very short it would just be you know I I talk about 916 but I always feel like well yeah she's just talking on again and so it might be very interesting to share some of that with you I was at the as amsd meeting and I assume some of of you were um part of that meeting was a discussion of the new Department of Children families whatever I came away feeling like that has a long ways to go yep so that was my impress impression I did not go to the Westwood PTO meeting because we didn't coordinate timing very well but I did have a good conversation with their president I was at the panther Foundation event and uh I am getting prepared to go to the msba delegate assembly um this book was at my place tonight there just a little reading here there are 28 resolutions this year those resolutions will be voted up and down and become part of the platform of msba it's an unusually large number of resolutions and I think 11 of them have to do with Finance so um I would encourage any of you who have any interest in becoming that now next year there's going to be a different way of selecting members for that body I don't know what it is yet it hasn't been announced what the new methodology is going to be but really an interesting Ro um Grassroots um becoming involved with school finance and school policy yeah I don't remember it being that big uh I don't either that's that's a lot that's a lot um one of the things and I don't know what it's tied to it all I just happen to open the page and it tells um districts with declining enrollment and it says that Spring Lake Park has um 44.6 less apus which cost us $90,000 so unless all the districts in the state I just happen to open it to that page so but that's the kind of things that are in here interesting Amy can you confirm that I'm just kidding just kidding I I would say though I me and I were just looking at it that's that is about right and it's what we're seeing across the state with schools if if you didn't see there was an interesting article in the Star Tribune uh this weekend around the uh birth rate across the the state of Minnesota um it's down significantly it's for example I think just from last year um this year's incoming kindergarteners versus last year's so this year's first graders we were down to I think it was what 79 roughly um 79 or 80 um resident kindergarteners fewer in one year that lived in our district so because of people want to come here we didn't see that many fewer kindergarteners but um because we're retaining a pretty good group of them but that's something that you're seeing that decline in enrollment in most systems across the across the state into the future so that's going to have an impact of the legislature when it comes to funding schools and everything else because that's what drives the revenue in the districts is is the students so that'll be something to keep keep an eye on as we as we look forward and if we look back all the way back to even the initial um the report when 2013 or 14 that hael Reinhardt did we we reviewed that with you last couple last year the year before when did the updated one but back then she said it would be right around 2024 23 she said you the state would start experiencing a sign significant decline in in birth rate then a few years later we start seeing that that come back up around 2030 early 2030 so I don't know how she goes around predicting these things but it's we always talk it's like we go back and look and say she nail these things so well that she really does she knew was coming for 44 students that means there's between three and four per grade so it's not real obvious that we have a a decline I mean you wouldn't say you have an open building because you have 44 less when it's just that you know spread over a lot of buildings so it's not something that's going to hit you in the face but well and I think it speaks to what we have to offer students and the variety of students that were less than some of the other places and that were the place to be we have to continue to communicate that but I Al so think that'll be something we'll talk about just a quick chance to say this for anybody that may be watching it's as you're growing it's always easier to grow because if you see those three four students per grade that doesn't usually result for example if you have one more at this Elementary and this one and this one you don't need to your expenses don't really go up so you might have additional Revenue that allows you to enhance programs well when you have declining enrollment your expenses also don't go down but now you have less Revenue to do that that works so that's just something that we're going to it will be um a new reality that most metro area districts will be facing in the coming years a little bit we we'll work with it a good job working with it so I have full confidence in our and our Administration and cabinet that uh we'll do great whatever challeng are we some board support I hope right that's right absolutely absolutely so for me I can one one other thing just because of D mentioned the the election last week so at a Lo at the local level of how we since we're talking about the funding at the legislative level so Minnesota Senate stayed where it was at last time so it's actually tied Democrat Republican but with the lieutenant governor is the tiebreaker there so demr really have the Senate on the house side though however there's now um a tie there but what that means is it's going to lead to probably a unique environment in that they'll they'll almost have a conference committee in the house before where typically would happen with the house and the Senate because in order to get to an agreement there and we don't know how this is going to work exactly but you're going to have to have the Republicans and Democrats agreeing on a budget at the house level before they you know which normally you'll do but it's really typically Republicans or Dem have that when they come together and then there's the comence committee AC the house and the Senate that then have to agree Al they'll almost have to be that at the house so it will be a new um environment that we haven't experienced for quite some time um in St in St Paul this spring so that will be something for us to continue to uh monitor an opportunity to uh to uh do some advocacy down there yeah so think very unique they were saying what it was the 70s was the last time they had sitation yeah 79 yeah yeah it's going to be interesting times so for me I I was unable to make it to the Park Terrace uh PTO meeting uh just had a conflict of meetings uh we did have a meeting uh Melody and I uh had a meeting with the uh Panther um Lions uh Scholarship Foundation uh so we were able to get together there we're kind of doing some restructuring a little bit with the board so we're able to uh get everyone who's a current board member we're able to get together uh walk through a pathway uh for the future here to really bring some stability to that organization so that we can continue to offer uh scholarships to uh students who are graduating so um so it was a really positive meeting uh we are looking for uh community members to be in involved so if you know of anyone who's looking for which a great entry point again into volunteering uh and it's a it's a great uh organization to volunteer for because we only meet a couple times a year but we have a huge impact uh come April when we offer scholarships we're offering 25 usually I think gets an average of $25,000 in scholarships so it's a great way to uh help out those students who are gradua went off to college and careers um and then uh next uh just uh it's more of a uh of a communication just a reminder that starting January at our work session we're actually shifting that time to F to a 5:00 P PM start I just want to make sure that everybody's aware of that who's listening uh we're going to uh trial that uh we'll revisit that at our board retreat next year and see if we want to move to uh permanent start time at 5:00 P p.m. and that's just for the work session regular meeting will remain at uh starting time of 6:45 for communication to the board and 7 o'clock meeting anything else for board just just just just for fun yes all these activities I'm so impressed I graduated with a class of 14 wow so none of this occur so this is super exciting for you yes it is very impressive yes it is very impressive all right should we move to adjournment can I get a motion so move so move by forsberg second by Vella to adjourn our meeting at 8817 all in favor please say I I those opposed meeting is a journey Marilyn