##VIDEO ID:rX0BJhEf3_w## e e e e time is 6:34 and I'm going to call this our regular business meeting for December 10th um to to call our meeting to order um first thing on our agenda land acknowledgement we are gathered on the land of the Dakota noj peoples I ask you to join me in acknowledging the Dakota noj Community their Elders both past past and present as well as future Generations St Louis Park public schools also acknowledges that it was founded upon exclusions and erasers of many indigenous peoples including those on Whose land the school district is located this acknowledgement demonstrates a commitment to dismantling the ongoing legacies of colonial power in the district's desire to support the ongoing work of local indigenous communities to thrive in our schools all right the next thing on our agenda is approval of the agenda which includes public comment which includes superintendent report discussion item 6A is enrollment data and budget update 6B is overview preview and discussion of curriculum and program review process design teams in three phases number seven is consent agenda when we get there we're going to make a modification um to that but I'll explain that when we get there 8A is our pay 24 Levy um certification 8B is approval of our uh school year 26 and 27 school calendar 8 C is Stadium storage bid and acceptance and then that brings us up to board member updates and adjournments so um it is recommended that the school board approved the agenda for December 10th 2024 is presented I have a motion thank you Taylor um do we have a second second second byan all those in favor say I I any opposed pass a 7 Z okay public comment do we have anybody here for public comment tonight we do not have anybody for our truth and Taxation we do not have anybody here for this meeting okay thank you very much what's that s's here who oh but she's not here to speak is she okay I'm in inance of people here to speak okay um good to see you Su um number five is a superintendent's report anouncment over to Dr hin thank you chair Cox um our mission ground Us in seeing inspiring and empowering each learner to live their Brilliance in an environment that centers student voice and experience to create racially Equitable learning that energizes and enhances the spirit of our community this month we celebrate National special education day international day of people with disabilities and inclusive schools week these days serve as a reminder of the importance of creating learning environments where each student feels value respected and supported for my report I want to share some of the highlights of our fall activities and Athletics we have many activities and programs and one of our great highlights from the Middle School is the first issue of the student newspaper the newspaper Club is a student created club now in its fourth year the students are responsible for all aspects of the newspaper from design content and editing addition Al students in the Middle School play partic in the Middle School play participated in the production of Robin Hood at the high school there have been a number of happenings the high school put on a great performance of The Wizard of O just in time for the wicked movie release additionally 413 students participated in Fall Sports at the high school the boys soccer team won the Metro West Conference Championship a senior Nora lman qualified for the girls state cross country championship for swimming freshman ma ma mcaren qualified for the girls State swimming Championship championship in the 100 breaststroke and Senior Emily Foster qualified for the girls State swimming championship in the 200 freestyle we are also excited for a number of students who received an athletic scholarship that has that have completed signings so so so far these students are uh Micah Curtis men's basketball University of North Dakota Marley Curtis men's basketball University of North Dakota NAA Carlson women's volleyball the miji state Eva T tab softball aastana University Cole denim baseball the midy state Lam Miller men's golf University of North Dakota and Alise Alish Fitzpatrick women's lacrosse Florida Tech these are some of the great achievements within our activities and Athletics and only some of the students were in the photos however we are very proud of each of their achievements thank you Dr um all right that brings us up to discussion items and the first item on here is enrollment dat and budget updates and that brings director Magnuson who heard from earlier tonight and our truth and Taxation she's here to talk about some stuff related to that but now the truth and Taxation part about enrollment and budget so yeah welcome good evening again Sher Cox I'm superintendent Dr Hines and members of the board this is a traditional um update that we give at this time of the year to give us an idea of how enrollment has done for the current school year how that might impact the budget and um as a matter of policy we have reported about um PSI and um the lottery for the pre for this year so we are going to talk about those things tonight what all this is okay so good news to start off with I don't know if we've officially looked at the numbers here in the school district or here at the board meeting but our numbers for enrollment are up from projections by 3.4% 143 students so that is just fantastic news so I just want to hover on here for a minute and just look at that trend line and how we anticipated in the budget that we would be down to 4,212 students based on birth rates and based on the trends of the previous years and you can see we have bucked the trend and for the first time in this report ing history our um enrollment is actually up not only from budget but from last year increasing enrollment so that's really really great news there was a lot of efforts under um Dr hines's leadership and Dr mle's leadership over the summer with principles to make sure we were connecting with families making sure we knew whether they were returning and I believe that that personal connection has made a difference in our enrollment and I hope we can continue and enhance those practices here's our preliminary fall enrollment we are at 4,355 if you look down at the bottom right hand corner what you're looking at here is the schools listed along um the the left hand side the grades um going across the top so you can look at this by grade or by school this next slide you have seen um in this way before what we're looking at is that 143 students above projection and you can see where they um where they're at in the district so if you look along the right hand side you can see that every grade level in the district is above projections that's really great news what it tells me is that the trends are changing at least for this year and that's the conversation we're having with um the finance advisory committee is how much of the of these Trends do we carry into our projections for next year um obviously we probably won't be recommending enrollment um un enroll en M budget that changes at this pace will do some Blended increase but the future enrollment will um be better than we had anticipated because we're starting from a higher point this year and if you look along um the bottom you can see that by grade level we're up at almost every grade level with the exception of sixth grade and this is up from projection sixth grade and 12th grade one of the most notable numbers to look at is kindergarten we're up by students and if those families stay with us that's um that is really important for our future I want you to see um what's happening with our gains in open enrollment so if you look at just um enrollment options in and enrollment options out and then charter schools so what this is showing you going from fiscal 2017 to this this um to last year fiscal 2024 we don't have data yet for this year obviously but what this shows is um on the bottom the number of students that are leaving the district who live in our school district and are leaving to go to a public charter school the next part of that stacked bar the Orange is the number of students who are leaving the St Louis Park public schools who live here and are leaving to go to another public school and then that line that um line chart across the top shows the number of students who opt in to St Louis Park from another Public School District and we've generally had a a small um net gain in those numbers for fiscal year 2024 we are one student higher in total than the students that leave so if you think about this in terms of enrollment options just Public School District to public school district in fiscal 20124 there were 794 students who came in 551 who left for another Public School District but when you add the public charter option um it's almost even so we need to be mindful of that that um and so I want to just think about the Open Enrollment in you know some can argue that our open enrollment is too high some that it's too low you know I don't think anyone can agree about that but what I want to point out here is that the percentage of our students who come to us through open enrollment who are residents of another District but attend here is 18.33% and this just shows the numbers in some neighboring districts we're about mid-range so we're not the highest like vatanka who has a really large percentage of their students who come to them from other school districts and we're not low like a wetta who is closed because that that's one of the um areas in the metro area that is continuing to grow and build new housing so their schools are are closed for the most part so that's you know that nothing stands out in that picture but the thing that we have been watching this is a complicated chart and I want to um explain it to you because I think it's important um I'm talking about the capture rate here so these are families that choose Public Schools so this picture doesn't um talk about families who are choosing a private school option we'll talk about that later but what this is showing first in the orange it's the residents of St Louis Park who are choosing to come to school in St Louis Park and in fiscal year 2024 last year 3,470 students and then the next part are residents who are choosing to go somewhere else a public school option 551 and then the top is the residents who are going to another Charter School 241 so if you look at the families who live here and are choosing a free public option for for school we are capturing 81% 81.4 one% of Resident students and that has been declining steadily over the last couple of years so that's one um metric for us to be thinking about as we think about our enrollment we know that birth rates are declining across the country across the state and in our County and zip code areas but where our opportunity will be to capture students and increase enrollment will be in those other public options that families are CH choosing there's nearly 800 students that leave our district that are choosing a public school option um that's an important market for us I took that same calculation and looked at the other school districts at same Cort of school districts around us and again we don't stand out as either the highest or lowest in the middle but um the highest is motanka um 96% of their resident students stay in nanka the lowest on this chart um and these are metro area districts that Finance advisory committee asked us to compare ourselves to for other means so we did it here the lowest um resident um capture rate is in Hopkins at 66.9 one% we're sort of in the middle there but I just want to flip back it is declining just ever so slightly so let's dig into where those other public school options are this um chart reads um chronologically from left to right so the latest data is on the far right so we've got students that are coming in in the third from the right column so for instance Minneapolis 459 students come into St Louis Park public schools 29 students leave St Louis Park to go to Minneapolis public Public Schools so the net incoming is 430 so then if you look backwards compare 430 um two years ago we had 461 net students from Minneapolis so that number has gone down so you can see we um have a net loss to Hopkins public schools and we gain from Robinsdale we also have a net loss to Edina and a growing law to minono so then on public charter schools obviously this isn't in andout situation charter schools are just a public option and they don't have any Resident students so the three School distri are the three charter schools that have more than 20 St Louis Park resident students enrolling are agamim Classical Academy Eagle rich academy and the international Spanish language Academy and the one that's growing is Eagle Ridge Academy seems to have grown the most in this last year so that's where our families are are attending now in addition to Public Schools we have students that attend private schools as well and again this data um is for last year and this is also another opportunity um to increase our enrollment these are families who are choosing perhaps in every category to pay tuition to attend somewhere other than um St Louis Park public schools who who live here in St Louis Park the highest of course is Torah Academy we didn't have data to show for the last several years um we can get that we just don't have it um to create this chart so you can this is high to low and it's and it's um private schools that had more than 20 at some time in the in the time of this reporting so um Torah Academy and vanil St Margaret are the two highest private school categories I think it's another Market opportunity for us whether a family would choose to leave um these types of choice schools I I don't know um so that's what's happened with enrollment for last year we're in a different um as I said earlier the pattern has changed this year for our um Public School enrollment so it'll be interesting to see once everything is known for this year what's happening with patterning around that I want to talk a little bit about Park Spanish Immersion um always our applicant numbers outpace our available seats um but the this is an analysis of where our resident students are choosing to attend so along the left hand side you can see the three boundar elementary schools Aquilla Peter Hobart and Susan lingren and the First Column of numbers shows the K5 residents from those boundaries that enroll at PSI and then the K5 residents who are enrolled at the boundary school so they're somewhat comparable the percentage of students students um that live in the boundary that attend at PSI the highest um percentage being Peter Hobart and the lowest at Susan lingren so about a quarter of the the resident students in those areas attend PSI which is how it was set up as a you know as one of the schools that our children can attend in our district this is another little complicated chart um but we can make sense of it so what this does is take each boundary School and and um analyzes the racial makeup of the resident students in that boundary school and then the racial makeup of the resident students that leave the boundary school to attend PSI and then finally at the right are the is the racial makeup of Resident students at PSI so at Aquilla um 46% of the students at Aquilla resident students at Aquilla identify as white 74% of students who are leaving Aquilla to attend PSI um are identify as white so there's a racial disparity in in the choices um that folks are making who attend PSI Peter Hobart is is much the same um the percentage of students that are leaving um with a choice to attend at PSI they have a little bit larger of a white identifying population in szm lingren um has an even larger percentage of um families and students who are choosing PSI and of course if you look at those three um percentages of students attending PSI 75% of the population at PSI identifies as white um I didn't lay last year's numbers up against this or previous year's numbers for a couple reasons one it's it's this is a busy chart already and the other is I don't think we have enough time for a trend yet with the change in board policy um it appears to me that it hasn't budged that the the the percentage of students of color um has not changed at PSI overall it appears it's a one-year Trend that perhaps the percentage of Hispanic students has increased um at PSI it's going to take some time for that new policy to take effect um it was very late it was right before the lottery when the policy change was made so um we continue to um work to make sure all families are informed so that they feel more comfortable um and informed about making a choice to join the lottery at PSI so just to summarize the big news is our enrollment for this year exceeded our projections by 3.4% really tremendous news for this year's budget and as we start to build next year's budget and we haven't increased our revenues um in the budget yet we'll ask the board to do that in the spring um as we normally do and keep in mind that with more students came more costs so we've hired some teachers and some other staff members um and we are really monitoring our cost drivers like Transportation substitute teachers um special education and as those costs increase it begins to eat into the about a million dollars that will come to us as a result of these enrollment in increases um our and again our capture rate is about mid range to our neighboring districts but it's it's declining our capture rate up until last year um we gain more students by one then we lose through open enrollment and our Spanish emergent Elementary School does not reflect the racial makeup of the residents who choose St Louis Park public schools thank you thank you director Mar questions comments from thank you for this very informative and helpful um just going back to the slide where it looks at the with the green and red boxes about where we're up and where we're down I recall um so we had a conversation I think it was over the summer where we heard from some parents I think it was like fourth grade at Susan lingren with concerns about class sizes and it looks like that grade level had um maybe the highest above we projected at 17 and so just wondering you may not know this off the top but how did that work out in terms of we did add a section at fourth grade we added a section at kindergarten and at another grade level at Susan lingren it was either first or second grade um don't remember but Susan lren received three additional teachers this year and if you look at an increase of 52 students um it makes sense um also wondered because Park Spanish Immersion was six over on kindergarten like how does that happen because that's based on a very specific rning the project yeah the projection um I don't have the projection in here was just based on the average kindergarten classes in the previous years and we pushed the envelope a little bit this year um knowing that our enrollments declin and last year we ended up with no one on the waiting list by the time we were done we do continue to have a waiting list this here I was going to ask so how do we know how many kids are on the waiting list I do I got that data and um I can email it to the board um because I don't have it memorized I have it in an email don't have it in front of me and do we know the demographics of that waiting I'm trying to think if we have if we have their application we most likely have their demographic data I don't I can't give you the answer to that right now but I can supply that to you I have a question page before that page number five pardon uh p h uh fifth grade they have 100 so I'm wondering how many sections they have I don't know the answer y y I suppose that they have either probably four sections I would guess with those numbers but four is good 25 yeah that's what my guess would be they're not going to have over 30 students so it's it's got to be four okay we have very good class sizes that's some data I should include in here we have very low class sizes you will make adjustments right um even during the school year if needed to get class sizes appropriate so even if we've hit and we project and that's way up or whatever and you're going to make an adjustment to make sure that we're Staffing or keeping those ratios in I just want that just as we did with Susan lingren this year it it's hard and painful I know for families it's painful for us to to wait until we know the data is real because it's really costly to add staff when you don't have the student numbers and that causes us to be in budget cuts um is one of the reasons so we do absolutely make adust but it's painful to wait yeah as you said in our truth and Taxation here a lot of our money comes per pupil and so when you are projecting or when numbers are under that's not money we regain that's not money we've L for that is money that's come directly to us yes and so that's why that's huge you know a significant problem so that's 20 kids or whatever that we're losing that's whatever 40 whatever trying to do it right now but I can um so I just have one other thing just a comment it's not really a question I just I know I've said this in the past to my board colleagues but you know my kids are Elementary age I just enrolled I know the other night our youngest in kindergarten through the Forum and so this that's sort of my parent group right and I hear from folks a lot something that I think does affect our capture rate is access to immersion right I mean just folks leave because they can't get access to immersion where in minaka for examp example every school has a form of immersion and so I just going to I just bring it up again as we see that declining capture rate I'm I'm I'm confident there are other reasons as well but I do just want to share that with the board that comments questions I guess I just had a question about uh Staffing and making adjustments kind of um as as the class sizes take shape or as the number of enroles take shape um are there challenges with with filling those those staffing needs we've been able to fill um all of our staffing needs even well we made that decision fairly early for business manager needs maybe not for parents but you know in the early part of August so we were able to fill those positions I'm I'm just seeing ready useful dat see uh we are losing every year more numbers in J schools yes I'm trying to find that you're looking at that chart um it's not growing as fast as some of our other areas but yeah um particularly to Eagle Ridge Academy question but you don't have to answer today but I will be um looking forward to hearing an answer in the future um what does the financial advisory committee hope to do with this data well the thing we are doing with the data is using it to build projections for future years they um the committee doesn't really um do marketing you know we'd like to you know believe that we could go out and capture all the students back but there's a great support team for for that in the Communications Department but we will use it to build projections for next year and future Year's budgets I have sort of a half question that I don't know that I don't need an answer to right now but I'm trying to think through something that we've said before about increased special ed costs and do we find that most of the people are residents that stay within special ed or do people open en roll ever for special I don't have that data okay I mean it's just yes students do open en roll okay um with special I don't know the percentages however and they can obviously then they roll out I just was here as whether that was something you tend to see more residents to or if there was any difference there again just more of a curiosity and not like I don't know what thats or what that shows us but just kind of curious okay I mean regardless where they come from it's right absolutely just like anybody who wants to come in but I'm just just curious for staff sure okay um all right any other comments questions we appreciate the update we are encouraged by the numbers and I know that there's been a lot of efforts like the enrollment center and things like that that we do that have hopefully in some Communications that we'll do and continue to do and that will be a part of what we see so been encourag by this and appreciate the information so thank you very much thank you all right that brings us to 6B which um is a overview preview and discussion G in program review processes design teams in three phases which I think Dr duer you get the award for the most words in that is a that is just unbelievable I can't believe we got that many words on the screen so we welcome you to explain every single word of that to us here you know what I trust that you all know enough about those words I can move right on the next slide all right next on the agenda no okay go ahead there we go so um I'll just say uh thank you for having me here tonight this is a topic that um I know we've we've spent a lot of time talking about over the past few years and we are going to be having a number of teams coming in over the next few months and rather than um go back over this each time I wanted to just do an overview of it now for anybody for whom this might be new and just as a reminder about the work that we're doing um and so to get ourselves ready for the teacher leaders that come in so this is just a kind of a closer look at our curriculum instru review process so I want to go back to the beginning um back in 2019 201819 um we were looking at um really how we could bring about racial Equity transformation in the schools and have a a program that would really share that responsibility with our teacher leaders across the district and I actually spent a lot of time um listening to principls cabinet members teachers coaches students students in fact I met with I think anybody that was on the board at that time I I think it might have just been you and yeah so it's funny how things change right so um six and a half years ago we had those conversations about all of the things that were coming up and at that time um with about 50 conversations I had I was told that there were 81 top priorities that needed to be addressed urgently in St Louis Park um and I just realized there's no way that alone nor our entire District could cover all 81 at once so we tried to figure out a way to develop a program that would spread this out over a period of years but also really bring about substantive change and what came out of those conversations was some of these ideas that we have the talent within our district to bring about transformational change and we don't need to partner with all kinds of people outside of our district to do that that we really needed a leadership development program because many of our teachers weren't thinking systemically about change they were thinking about their own Department their own classroom or at the largest maybe at of their school but not necessarily of the school system um we decided to develop a program that would have design teams that would be small and Nimble and could actually find time to connect with each other on a regular basis and Consulting teams that are larger diverse stakeholder groups um that meet once or twice a year to really provide input on change um we recognize that transformational change needs to have an intentional anti-racist lens or we replicate old practices just with new programs with new names that get us the same results um we also needed to find a way to make more student centered recommendations and plans not ones that were dependent upon territory or around somebody's um you know program that they felt really strongly about but rather about what our students wanted needed and then we also needed to consider a pace that is good for our system and meets the needs of all of our students and I'll just say this is one of the hardest I think it's one of those pieces I have seen in my whole time here um sometimes people are saying we're moving way too fast sometimes people are saying this needs to happen right now and then trying to find that happy medium with all of the work is one of the challenges we have in leadership so to do that we've looked at a three-phase process that many of you are familiar with with and one of the the pieces in this is to ensure that there's transparency each year and that our design teams who are charged with really leading this review process come and share with the school board so that way the community has an understanding of what they're looking at throughout a three-year process and the first phase is really about knowing thyself and in that phase the design teams will come in and share who they are and why they believe this work is important and what they've just seen on the ground in terms of what sort of things are happening in our current reality um we have three teams that are entering phase one they will be presenting um in the winter of 2025 um phase two is looking around and that is when really our teachers engage as Scholars of the work they do action research but they also engage with Scholars from perhaps um Regional or national to kind of inform what is best practice um and also may spend that time in curriculum if they believe that that's the direction we need to go and then phase three is about looking outward and that is looking at how do we build a program that outlasts us um the average member of a design team says they haven't been in our district for more than 13 years um but our students we have from kindergarten through well for longer than that from birth to Earth as we talk about we have we have students that are here much longer than maybe some of our St even are so how do we build something that's not dependent on the Charisma or the skills of a particular individual so this is really the timeline that has been laid out around how we have tried to um tear the work that we're doing since 2019 and what you'll notice you've seen this before many times but I want to point out a couple of things um let's look at the first three reviews that we did around math gifted and talented and World languages I want to point out that they shared their recommendations with the board in the spring of 2022 we are only two and a half years removed from the first recommendations of these design teams it's pretty remarkable when you think about how much they've done what has been forward facing and the recommendations that they've made for transformation um there's quite a bit so when we look at this and you have it in front of you um you'll notice that that we didn't start a group in in 2023 so this year we only have three teams that are in phase one three teams that are in phase three um and we have a couple of teams starting here in the winter of 2025 um we'll be looking at our digital learning um with a team from across the district and then our art and Tech and design programs um one of the things um I also want us to do is actually do a review of our review process and we won't go through a three phase process of that but to look at what have been the strengths and what are some areas that we can use to improve it one of the things I think that we have to really look at is the pace of the work because we have to make sure that we are doing transformational work for our students but we also have to make sure that we have the capacity to continue to bring about change Implement curriculum Implement new structures systems programs um so just to kind of look back one of the things that I want to kind of look at take a deeper dive at is those programs that you saw in the in the fall in the spring of 2022 presenting recommendations and kind of revisit where have we gone since then because one of the things that I think gets lost is these recommendations get shared and then some of the people say did anything get implemented did we actually bring about change so um back in the spring of 2022 there were some emergent themes that came from our math team um they said that there were barriers to closing our opportunity gaps at each level that most often LED back to math and our beliefs around math that there were structural changes within our e to 12 Pathways that were needed that there were mindset shifts that that build around math and that was that needed to happen for teachers students and families um around confidence high expectations joy in a math classroom and cultural relevance of our teaching many of our students at all levels when we spoke to them said they felt bored in math and they wanted more rigor and relevance our elementary teachers didn't have resources that they needed for success in fact the curriculum that we had when the review started didn't align with any of our Minnesota state standards and there was also a recognition from the design team this is going to take some time this isn't an overnight change so when you look back these teams share their racial Equity purpose and they developed that to really ground themselves in the decisions that they're making and the math racial Equity purpose started with a why and the why was all St Louis Park students will see themselves as successful in math regardless of race or background and as a math team they believe that we could transform every mathematics class in St Louis Park to basically have a better experience for our children so one of the things that's interesting then is that they laid out how to do that they shared recommendations around Early Learning elementary middle school high school um um you can see here four five 6 7 8 9 10 11 recommendations that they made about work that we should do and as you go to this next slide what I will say is um eight of them we've completed two of them are in progress and a couple of them are work that we can't measure yet so when we start looking at phase three which is about building for eternity one of the things that it says on there is that we develop threeyear and fiveyear benchmarks the benchmarks really are about whether or not we've implemented these recommendations and if we haven't identifying what the barriers are is it about our will to do it is it about our skill to do it our knowledge and most often what we found it's about our capacity can we actually Implement all of the things that we wanted to do in the period of time that we asked so for instance one of them about graduating each student with at least one college course by 2027 we won't know that till 2027 but we're on track as we saw with our data story from November that Dr lafette and I shared with you all is this the slide 10 with the colors it's the one with the colors yeah so can you is that can you just briefly explain the colors yeah I'm sorry so green or probably doesn't look green are ones that have been implemented orange are the ones that are in progress and are ongoing and the red are the things that we haven't yet been able to measure so I'm going to come back to for instance the adoption of a new curriculum in elementary for Bridges mathema we've done that but what we also said back when the math team presented was that this is going to take some time we're going to identify things the standards change the relevance changes the things change and I'm going to come back to what that means in just a moment there's a slide coming up um does that help okay so the next slide is about the racial Equity purpose of the gifted and talented team and if you look at their design team they said grounded in our belief that all students should have opportunities to apply develop and cultivate their Brilliance which is tied right to our first core value and have it recognized and acknowledged it will be necessary to develop and support the will skill knowledge and capacity of staff to recognize and disrupt the racial predictability of programming enrichment and advanced classes so when you look they also had three six seven eight nine recommendations very detailed around which Scholars we needed to work with in professional development structural changes that included FTE changes at our elementary level as well as um shifts in courses and programming that we offer at the middle school and high school and you can see some of the work around extending our curriculum and extending um acceleration opportunities at the middle school is still ongoing and then I would say the work that we've talked about in here since September around care teams and continuing to Deep and that work is something that we still can't measure whether or not that has gotten to the level that we want but all of the others have been implemented and again this is two and a half years ago so one of the pieces that I that I love is that last year there was a study of elementary students and asking them what their favorite activities were in elementary and if you ask most elementary students they're going to say recess well I was excited to see that math art and talent development actually beat recess in terms of um their favorite activities in elementary school it's really remarkable when you think about at the beginning of the study the math team was saying that most students did not see the relevance in math and didn't see themselves as mathematicians so did many of our teachers um and what this does is it gives me hope when I think about we are one and a half years into the recommendations of the reading and language language arts and literacy team we are just six months into our social studies team and when we think about science we think about multilingual learning this is ongoing work the recommendations don't happen overnight um and we continue to process it so this next slide that has sort of the Minnesota math standards and benchmarks is just an example of how we come back to the teams and say okay now that we've implemented the curriculum what are some gaps that we have if we're going to have a multi-tiered system of support for our students and this was not something that we could have implemented overnight two and a half years ago but it's something now we're identifying um how other um resources can help us make sure that we're helping each student meet standards um and how Frameworks help us think about how we want to teach mathematics um the slide after that is recommendations from the social studies team and I just wanted to elevate this because on Friday our social studies team and many of our students from the high school helped lead professional development about the connection between social studies education and the work of our mission vision and core values and they um talked about the implementation of social studies Frameworks that really are Universal across any content area and about the idea that they didn't want to say we should Implement new curriculum but rather embed ideas about identity and connection and community and criticality into our math and into our science and into our language arts work and it was really well received by our staff and this idea of having cross District coordination for that and making sure that there's professional development time for teachers was important to them so you can see this recommendation one that just last spring um social studies brought forward this framework was shared with all Staff last Friday so I come back to these three phases at the end of the presentation phase one phase two phase three the this work is really some of the most remarkable leadership development work that we have in our district there is no way that we could have man ested much of the racial Equity transformation in our strategic plan without the hard work of the 60 plus teachers on design teams over the past four years and the 120 plus Consulting team members that have helped give input into this work um it's it's it's amazing how many things that we've been able to implement on behalf of our children um because of their efforts so I just wanted to share that with you because some of teams the phase one teams will be coming in during some of our business meetings just to share here's where we're starting the work and then during the study sessions our phase three teams will be coming in to have more of a dialogue with you about where they are as they're closing out their process so thank you for your time thank you and just to be clear with the in here in the room we're having issues with the with the displays but I've been told at home people can see them so if you're here and you can't see them and want to check out this information you can check out the recording later on um but thank you for walking us through all of the slides too um questions comments from board members I don't have questions but comments my daughter goes to middle school last night I was just I'm seeing adopting in elementary school which my kid goes so I was wondering to see like CBM in the middle school they doing right now yeah so you're talking about the the new math curriculum yeah I didn't see up in the newdle school yeah so I don't have slides on that but that's another piece that just started this year so as we looked at at the middle school there was major changes that we felt needed to take place there and it started with structural changes then it started with deep-seated professional development around helping student staff look at how they could collaborate around culturally relevant pedagogy and then it was identified okay we've looked at the structures we've looked at our instru we do need new curriculum and that's just been implemented this year so again it's like finding the capacity to do this and doing it at a pace that makes sure we're not students aren't falling behind while we're trying to make sure that we're getting all of our ducks in a row so I'm really excited about the work that's happening in math at the middle school and I really believe we're going to see results for our students in terms of their engagement and their achievement over the next couple of years I think we'll start to see that yeah I just had a quick comment uh thank you for the presentation and I just wanted to say it's really impressive uh that math art and talent development fell ahead of recess and JY on favorite activities in school and I can I I've said it before in a study session but I can vouch for the talent development class uh seeing the kids in those classes they're so excited to learn and they're so engaged in that it makes me excited I want to see what's going on in one of those math classes because um yeah it's really impressive and a true Testament to to the work the team has been doing so thank you thank you great thank you Dr Duffy we're see many much more of you we will yeah they loveing so thank you so much you have a good night that brings us up to the consent agenda and as I mentioned well there are currently there are some there's are business items which are payroll recap of expenditures electronic fund transfers accountable payable disbursements investment Holdings donations and um that's it but there was a mistake with the donations so my first U we're going to do this the I'm going to recommend that we first um remove the donations from the consent agenda so I'm going to move that in second by Happ your team um all those in favor I any oppos pass it 70 okay with that in place um it is I'm going to recommend that the school board approved the consent agenda with the um amended change for December 10 2024 school board meeting as presented do I have a motion on that by an do I have a second second second by Sarah all those in favor say I I I any passes 70 great thank you all right that brings us up to our action items the first item is pay Levy certification um director Magnus has um presented earlier to us um so it is recommended that I'm going to get this on the floor here first it's recommended that the board approve the pay 2025 tax levy as presented do I have a motion on that so moved moved by Virginia I'll second that okay discussion um we have director Magnuson present earlier tonight in our truth and Taxation hearing about the things related to our Levy is there any further questions conversations we heard nobody came to provide public comments so there's nothing else to be considered at this time appreciation as always for all the information detailed information if people have questions watch that that recording to see all of the things and as we always say I think it's amazing that you guys can sip through so many years of data at any one time and know all the things that are going on and where the money is going I appreciate that and um with that said all those in favor say I anyos passes 70 okay the next item it is uh the approval of school year 2026 and 27 school calendar and it's recommended that the board I'm going to get this out here and then we can discuss it is recommended that the board approve the um school year 26 and school year 27 school calendar as presented do I have a motion to bring this forward okay you're going to ask for but we're not to the vote yet so I'm asking for a motion to get out of the vote I okay all right okay that's that's we have a a motion to bring it forward and then do I have a second oh second second great T all right now um is there discussion questions comments related to the school year 2627 calendar you may not be successful okay so I know as as we te this up um what you're going to see and what will be presented to you are two calendars one is the recommended by Administration and one is in reflection to the request from the board to add the all of the holidays that fall within the school week onto the calendar so you all could see the impact that it would have um as they are trying to get the screens here going um I'll kind of tee this up we are really thank you um director Magnuson for your presentation about enrollment because as I onboarded this year um there was some there were there was a continuous theme that I heard um from our community members and our parents in regards to how how we see um academic excellence and rigor so that is always in the back of my mind as we plan forward and it is I think one of the elements one of the variables that plays into that is our school calendar and how are we PR preserving our instructional days to ensure that teachers have enough time and students have enough opportunities to practice content and contextual skills so that they can show Mastery when it comes to these screenings and standardized assessments and as they are creating their portfolios so um what we wanted to do was to really honor the our holidays for our Jewish and Muslims families and you will see the the recommendation from Administration is to honor two of the um holidays for non instructional days so that means that the students and staff will be off and then two holidays as instructional days and on those instructional days we're going to structure it as we do our indigenous people's days and we have specific curriculum that is taught by our teachers to every student so this gets into the theme of our racial Equity transformational work where our students are learning more about each other and their cultures and their identities so that when you have this difference we are not combating with each other but we're bringing more empathy to the table because I know more about your culture so I am then I'm going to hand this off to the team so that they can go through their presentation but I you will see two calendars for school year 26 and two for school year 27 but there will be one calendar for both years that is recommended by Administration thank you Dr chair members of the board superintendent um thanks for the opportunity to talk about calendar again um and we did like superintendent um mentioned we're going to go through some of the um the effects of of each of the calendars and and pros and cons and why the rationale behind recommending um the calendar that Administration is recommending so um I can't get it up on that screen but board members have access to it okay so I'm on the first slide request to the uh board Administration as uh at the last time we came uh we brought one calendar the board um asked to see another version of the calendar that would recognize up to two holidays for uh the two of the Jewish holidays and two of the Muslim holidays and um so we also are bringing a second version so the board can at least see what would that look like if we were um to be able to do that so the administrative recommendation calendar is actually the calendar that the board approved last January um um January 9th of 2024 it has a holiday for uh uh the Jewish and I believe that's yam kapor on October 2nd uh would be recognized but we're also just highlighting the fact that rashash Shana uh would be a would be falling on Tuesday of September um 23rd and that's when the curriculum would would be um discussed and we also would then plan around so there weren't things like um tests and other things that students may miss um again the um calendar flows as it has you know in the past U we have uh e alaer on um being recognized Friday uh March 20th and then on May 27th we note uh that um e um would fall on that it's Sundown on the 26th so it would be recognized on um the 27th um when we put all four of those in there what we what we see is um we would be off on Memorial Day for the holiday we would come back on the 26th and then we'd be off for Eid on the 27th and that seemed to be the worst of many situations for students and so if we were trying to do that calendar we'd have another recommendation to move to hold school on President's Day um and then float that alternative holiday down so that there would be an extended uh Memorial Day break that would go all the way through May 27th so students would be off Monday Tuesday Wednesday and come back the 28th and 29th option two slide that would be option two with four observed holidays that's the um um the other thing that um it does is it breaks up to two week uh winter break and we have school going um Monday the 22nd Tuesday the 23rd and the first day of break is actually um the 24th um and that that even with those changes students are still in session until uh June 10th and the teachers last day is June 11th any questions on that one I have a question I do um so is is it not an option on that second calendar to have students last they be the 12th that Friday if people still wanted to have a two we that would be an yeah that would be mathematically that would be possible the one the one thing that we also um are aware of is we want as many instructional days before we get to the testing cycle so so adding those days after that you know students miss that content before testing comes up so that's just one we that was from our I'm just trying to understand like yeah that that was the ab IP and some of the teacher recommendations is that anything we can do to have more instruction earlier it works for them and director manini also posed a question and we were provided with the same feedback across the board that the more instructional days earlier will best support every single program especially AP okay so if we get to the one that says 2627 administrative recommendation again we go back to um one holiday being observed as a non-instructional day for each uh of the Jewish and and Muslim holidays and then the other ones are noted on the calendar um so that you know we can be planning planful around them um the administrative recommendation is is a really a roll over of the the previous year as as much as it can be um does this one does have a shortened winter break um again we're you know we're faced with that situation where Labor Day falls on as late as it possibly can on Monday the 7th um you know which pushes the whole calendar later and um so um in this in this calendar I believe rash Rashia falls on a Saturday and yam Kor again is observed on um September 21 that Monday and um Eid aler is is recognized on March 10th um we note ID Alda on the 17th of May um students are out on June 11th and last day for teachers is um like the grading and reporting day is the four is Monday the 14th one of the things the board asked is to make sure that we also had Community input and so you will see in the presentation um what the members of the the the group that we gathered a small But Mighty group that we gathered which was they appreciated observing one of each um and understood the constraints of all four and so I wanted to make sure that you had that information and um as Dr Hines noted what do we do for those days that are observed they wanted to make sure they had clear guidance for teachers and for families and so we've we've done that in in our recommendation option one yeah and as we put all these together Dr Hines also just committed to that calendar committee and ongoing stakeholder input thank you for that um so then the 2627 draft uh there would be three of the four uh holidays observed again um as rashash Shana falls on a Saturday that would already be a non-instructional day um so then it goes down to we would add um May 17th as a non-instructional day uh the last day for students would be the 15th of June last day for teachers on on the 16th of June so discussion questions on the other to is now the right time to ask on the 26 27 or should I wait till we do the first one doesn't matter to me no I think it could be any I think I didn't understand why adding one additional observed holiday pushed the end of school to June 15 from June 11th it's so tiny it's really hard for me to me to right now but it just didn't make a lot of sense to me that it would um this is on the 25 26 266 oh I'm sorry so 267 because Monday will come I got you okay that makes sense thank you um I also would like to propose that we consider starting school the first week of September which I know technically runs in contention of State Statute I'm in conversation with colleagues that I know who are who work at mde to ask about that but it's not clear to me that that's enforceable under the state code or that it would be enforced even if it was if there was an enforcable provision which I yet to find an enforcement provision in the state code for that and I I my concern about it is what you talked about earlier is like do the test States push back or are they still in the same time frame and you're losing an entire instr we're losing instruction which is what the teachers I just like to take the temperature of the board starting students this is 2627 2627 calendar which know and can I make one just comment that so even if the board acts tonight on the 26 27 C you will see it again next year and so you know when when it comes around what we always do is we're I'm sorry 26 yeah so when when we we when we do the calendars it's it's next year's calendar and one year out but then we always bring that calendar back as okay we've had a year of thinking we've had the calendar committee is there anything we want to tweak on 2627 all right and then we propose 2728 so you would see the 26 27 again and have a chance to say we have construction projects we think this qualifies or we're just going to do it yeah and I I totally understand that I think from my P um so thank you for that reminder I think that this is more than a tweak and I think about like my colleagues who are in professions in which they sort of have to make their time off requests well in advance and they're looking at sort of what we're looking at so that's why I'm just raising you tonight as friendly I you could you could also act on one tonight and not act on the other tonight but you okay but the question is some BO temperature and I think yeah yeah I um I I think this the Labor Day start thing is it's extremely frustrating our friends in Edina start the week before Labor Day a whole week before Labor Day every year because they spend the money to do it and it it is absolutely ridiculous that a district can pay to get five instruction days before AP testing we just had this conversation a couple weeks ago about all the AP and IB testing were doing they do not move those test dayses based on Labor Day they're the same so I know that um amsd is lobbying the legislature this year to get them to at least look at this year if not a permanent change to the Labor Day start perhaps we could wait and see if if that happens and I would hope to have an answer by the time we come back in January from the people that I know just about their perspective yeah um but that just strengthens my resolve so sorry I know you're like but just and we can bring someone show me that it's enforceable 2627 back um based on any information that you receive but if you know just to get for now I think your question is what is the temperature of the board of starting before Labor Day with the current statute as it currently and can you tell me a little bit more about um what you meant when you said they pay are you just saying like because we're paying our teachers to come back sooner like what no they they create construction projects that they get a waiver from mde based on the construction project that they're doing and they create construction projects every year I just looked at their last they did it this year they did it last year they're doing it next year they don't have their 26 27 out yet but it's like 300,000 I'm just pulling up the stat I'm pretty sure it's 12840 I'm pretty sure $300,000 is part of their L SE be 400,000 or more several years so did you get your did you get your question answer no I mean we're not experts in this stuff but but did you get what director Casey was saying okay I because we have a couple more questions too and I just want make sure that okay okay I guess I had a clarifying question on the 2627 option two calendar and I would agree with director Davis and I would be interested in looking at starting for wa day for the 2627 um but as far as the clarifying question so I noticed uh ESS were if we were to observe Al on the 17th of May so that's an extra day and so we moved the end of school date to Tuesday the following week because we couldn't end on a Monday is that right or we don't want to end school on a Monday um well we're also trying to balance and I got to look at this math again but it you know we're always trying to balance did did did the teachers work 185 days right did we get 169 days at least of instruction um and I'm looking to see and I can't do it quickly in my head but everything seems to balance out that yes by adding that day then it moved it over we didn't artificially um like jump over Monday and go to Tuesday because then we would have we would have had extra sure teacher work days that we weren't paying for and that wouldn't Li so I guess yeah I just noticed also there's a difference there um on the winter break I think in the first option the Winter break starts on the 24th and on the second option when your break starts on the 23rd yeah I I I believe that that was The Tweak is okay we didn't want it to we didn't want it to end on Mon we didn't want the last day for students to be Monday um and so we had we added one day to the winter break which then allowed one day which is again contrary to wanting more instruction for the testing but it's balancing the the um desires I mean we could we could put that day back as an instructional day and students would end on Monday I don't know if it would matter for Quality instructional days either way thank you yeah also interested I have a couple of clarifications um so calendar 2026 we are observing All 4 days it's going to be three days right um if the board went with if the board went with the what in the 2627 yeah if the board U selected that option there would be three uh of the four holidays observed so one holidays goes one one holiday rash Shana falls on Saturday same like uh this 2025 there is both Muslim holidays they happen to be in the weekend correct right and if we are observing uh 2025 2026 we already uh we already two of done so two days left it's four right we observe already two if we if we for if we went with 25 26 the second option it would be all four yeah or it would be four and how many we observe right now already two we would we would observe yam kapor and um eat out the deer sered two this year the current calendar for next year that has been approved at this point we have two on it we we did two last year 23 24 we have two this year and we have we're recommending two next year thank you more comments questions about this the current again to to reiterate we' approve but this would be to uh to um again Pro approve the the recommendation right now is the administration's recommendation and that would be to keep the 25 26 Calendar as current as previously approved with just two holidays and to approve a 26 calendar with two um holidays yes go ahead I just I want to observe for for holidays because they are equally important and and I I will say why because like recognizing those holidays not just like person pay it's their identity too so like when we bed from the beginning we were obering all four holiday but couple of them they were happen in in know off day Saturday Sunday happen so now we happen when it comes heaven in intersectional if you told me as a Muslim chuse one holidays I can't both of them they're equally very either we recognize all of them or we don't recognize them as all well with with that though there are depending on 13 to 19 Jewish holidays and there's seven Christian holidays yeah so we we would it's not like that like you see uh winter break how many days now they have it the the winter break is between 10 usually 10 days and sometimes let let's say seven to seven to 10 days so I I I would like to move uh including all four holidays when the com but that would be a separate motion that we would have to have we need to first see if this one would um passes or not or fails and then then then there would be another vote gu that point clarifying question on that that's so um there's a lot going on right now because I think it was getting the temperature of starting before Labor Day I think we need to go through that first then there needs to be a recommendation as to whether or not um we you all decide to go with the calendar that has already been approved if there is a desire to make a motion to go with a different calendar then that's when that motion needs to be made point of clarification just real quick but in order for that motion the so the first recommendation has to fail in order to make the second recomend well can I can I make an amendment to the first recommendation which is to remove the 2627 from that discussion from that motion for today and that we do that we come back on that in January once we have a little bit more information yes so you want to make a motion to amend the current correct and that motion you need a second I do need a second okay let me write the okay and then we're up for discussion on that any discussion on removing the 2627 calendar from inspiration today hearing n right only to say that I think that it would be we haven't we haven't gotten stakeholder input on labor days before Labor Day started right that wasn't part of your conversation so that would be something that we would want it's not like we just wanted that we but I think we want have the option to to talk about it so it did come up but it wasn't the center of the conversation Davis and then this okay all those in favor of removing 26 27 um from approval today say I I any close so pass is 70 okay we're back to just the calendar for 2526 and whether we want to um the the recommendation currently is to approved as um as has previously been approved there was as um Dr Hines pointed out there was a comment about checking um people's input on Labor Day start but we just just I guess I think the question is for Sarah do you still W to check temperature did you still get any of that I I got what I do we're GNA come yeah I I don't think we have an answer yet I think we just want more information we can hope to have early next year so we are currently just focusing on the 25 26 calar and it is the administration's recommendation to do just two holidays we discuss we've had some other conversations from people um looks like you want to say something directly I I yeah I mean I know that this is a painful Topic in in a an Ideal World to be culturally responsive to the needs of our students and our families would be to recognize um all of our identities at our school I worry about two things um my first worry is that this board gave a directive to two different superintendents Dr Maguire as well as Dr Hines to to pull together Community input um to talk to teachers to talk to cabinets to talk to administrators and we have the same recommendation both times from both superintendents um so I guess My worry is if we're going to ask for input and we don't take it it feels as though we're breaking more trust with our new superintendent with our cabinet with our staff and with our community if we're going to ask for their input and then not listen to it feels really weird to me um second as a recovering AP teacher um there's a reason why I got burnt out there's a reason why teachers are getting burnt out there's a reason why teachers kids don't want to go into school there's a reason why my daughter comes home every day and cries because she has three hours of homework um and when you when we take away instructional days what that says to teachers is that you have to cover this material when covering material is not the same thing as teaching and this doesn't matter if it's AP it is for our Littles because in the way that fast Bridge works is that as it is ongoing data that we are collecting to help students and support students and move forward and I am I'm telling you classroom teachers are can't cover that material in that matter of time and so like looking at that Memorial Day weekend coming back during finals at the high school for two days and then the next week going into finals like I would start looking for a new job I mean that's hard that would be that's like may we were joking at lunch today and my colleagues had no idea what we're talking about at the board but we were joking about how like it is no teacher in this world would ever get married in May or have a child in May because May is the most stressful time of the school year because of all of the testing um but I also just want to just Dr Duffy presented earlier about pacing and we're implementing such rigorous and fantastic curriculum and I have high hopes for this district and our enrollment is going to continue to go up we're going to continue to recover from Co but like we're putting massive strings on our on our students most importantly and on our families and our teachers so that's why um but most importantly and because we asked our superintendent to get feedback she did that so that's why I will be in voting in favor of just sticking with our already approved calendar I had a question about how that feedback was requested I know I mentioned this a few ago but um there's been confusion sort of throughout about what the preference or intention of the board has been and so I I guess I want to make clear want to be clear for myself before I vote on this that folks were asked with an understanding that it would be the preference of this board if we could do it to honor all four holidays versus would you be okay with us just um honoring two of the of the four and there similar but very fundamentally different framings of that question and so I have yet to speak to anybody who was present for those I was present um and I can share and Jason was as well and so it was a really great facilitated conversation about here's the request from the board right as we're looking at the calendar and looking at observing what does it mean for you and we really talked about the why right um not just observing but the why behind it and then also the communication behind it so it was interesting the conversation was um you know what is your what is your feedback on um what does it look like to observe these holidays and what what do these holidays mean for you and your family and so one interesting thing that came up um and I invite uh Jason to to add is folks were like we just want communication Regarding why you're doing what you're doing right we we appreciate you observing two like observing four we understand the constraint but the most important thing is when you observe any holiday what is the why behind it and that was loud and clear loud and clear and so one of the things that came from that is if we observe to and we observe we observe to and then also honor to um and we still have um SE class and session those days then those days will be dedicated to learning the why so that we're not just taking days just to take days and one of the things that I I am impacted by in our PD in December um last week uh Friday in December was our students got up and they talked about we want to learn more about each other and how we interact with each other and we it was through the lens of social studies and standards and how to incorporate them and we're all social studies and we all can incorporate social study standards into everything we do but they ask the same thing and so it's not just coming from our families it's coming from our students as well what is the why behind it is it just to observe it just to observe it or is there what's the rationale and what why is it important to to our students and our colleagues and our friends and that is the piece that we need to go deeper in thank you for that it's very helpful uh and I do appreciate that thought behind the intentionality behind adding um discussion and teaching those days I will just one thing that comes up for me as you're talking about that is that if we do go forward with the calendar where we're only observing two you know that we probably will have Jewish students and Muslim Students who are not attending that day and they then miss the opportunity to have their voices in that conversation about why that day is so important and um and so I just flag that as whether there's option to think about other other ways um but with with that information um I will be supporting the recommendation from Administration okay so sorry did you have a question or okay but we we still are still work some questions discussion yeah I guess I just had a a quick thought on on kind of the the why and I think it's because um you know observing these these holidays is is Thoroughly a part of our mission and vision um and I I believe actions like calendar Equity is really what sets us apart from our peers um and it's our you know it's that and our communities and our District's diversity and commitment to it um so I've really struggled with this this decision um and as I've been reflecting on it like again the why um last year I had a chance to visit Peter Hobart um the day before we uh observed e alfit last year um and it was at the end of the day and the students had this announcement about how tomorrow's eat and we're observing it and were I think two uh Somali students who gave that announcement and and then after the classes were out uh one of the students came kind of uh um bounding down the hall toward uh the principal and myself and was like very beaming and proud and saying like did you hear my announcement um and that's like in my mind what makes us so special and like the inclusion is very serious here and uh you know I think it creates an environment of inclusion that students can really feel and they can feel the joy and that and we do that because that's the environment kids Thrive and and they have the best chances for academic Excellence so um saying that I do also appreciate the challenges and uh involved with observing those especially next year as we go into there's four holidays are instructional typically instructional days um there are constraints to that and uh taking a couple days out of winter break is not ideal um especially the way winter break lines up those days line up next year um I guess what I've been struggling with is I feel like we could use maybe more data on this and I I would like to see whatever decision we decide to do moving for is to kind of maybe track um absences in these key days whether it be uh a couple days a winter break or whether it be the uh um absences around enada or rashash and see how what what the impact really is there so that would be one of the things I would like to see moving forward whatever decision we make um saying that I I will support the the uh uh cabinet's recommendations for for this year because of the challenges and Par just a stupid question are we allow do we do parents have to say why their kid isn't going to school I don't know the answer to this question so there are state approved um titles of things that can be identified as excused absences that it's sick days um doctor's appointments emergency there's like seven qualifiers or categories that parents can is is religious holiday one of them because I I actually have a followup question to that like because I don't even know if they have to divulge that information um you don't have to answer this question but I am curious so for staff who take off the holidays do they get charged charged that sounds weird but like an annual leave day or is it a holiday for them so they don't have to so is it like do not non leave adjustments yeah so so a a for a 10-month employee teacher par professional would be a non-instructional day and a nonwork day so they're not being you know penalized charged for those days if there's additional days that they take off we have we do have some Jewish employees who take more than one or more than two and right I'm talking about the holiday yeah they're using so no leave adjustment if I'm if I'm Jewish I'm taking off rashishana I there's no leave adjustment if you're taking off rashishana but we're observing yam for there you would use your person a personal day can I answer your legal question just really quick uh if you look at minat 12.35 it does require uh reasonable efforts to allow absence from school for religious and cultural observances and I am 99.9% sure the treny statute uh authorizes religious observations as an excused absence which matters just for purposes of try reporting that was Minnesota statute 12a which is s of the education Cod point but I think that's really important for what you were saying about Dr M about communication right people asking for more communication that is a piece of that right like what is the protocol if my family for any for any you know for any holiday because we have certainly people who observe religious holidays who wen't any of the relig religious we're talking about right for any religious holiday what is protocol you know how how do you make up your work whatever because we we we we can't observe everything um but we certainly want our families to be able to observe the things that are important to them yes F kind questions um I I mean I I haven't chimed in I wanted to hear from other board members um a lot of my thoughts are similar to the director man Cen in terms of collecting input and and trusting a lot of whatever what we've heard from our Administration so I've been strongly influenced by hearing the both of those things and that's why made me in supportive of the current recommendation the currently approv the current recommendation but um that's all that I'm going to add there and we've had we've had the request for here so you want to comment um as I always say like you know when talk about you know uh I mentioned a couple times and that that's the beginning of the calendar to I won be supporting for one holiday because both holidays equ important you it's frustrating sometimes as a board it happen before to [Music] we and that's something you know happened before too and I I talk a lot uh Muslim and Jewish before even ined in 20 24 right when was the first time you 23 24 yeah the board the board proposed this in 2223 we worked on it in 2223 and then the first calendar was 232 so so we went about Equity inclusions cus but the thing is is like we just hon our when it's convenient when the uh are holidays happening in Sundays or off dayss we are okay with it one but when when it comes into you know uh in the instructional days uh we are not honoring I ask this question before to uh day before Thanksgiving Day we have off a day let yes the kids we have Thanksgiving oh Community Day and I don't have the answer of that so like finding one days I don't think it's going to be like challenging to find one days wherever we come from me the the the answer to that question is we have we have that day off could be a different day but we have that day off because teachers do two evenings of conferences so because they teach all day long and then they work two extra shifts in the evening doing conferences we give them a compensatory day off and we have just chosen to put it on the day before Thanksgiving so it's it's payment to the teachers for working in the evenings I'm going to make it short uh I will be supporting uh more inclusive I mean recognizing all the holidays because it's equally important and it's not just recognizing person's Fai or religion it's their identity you know and whether you we observe holiday or not Muslims to Jewish holidays then the whole day time they will not come they will not be for reason I'm okay any more comments All right so um the recommendation is to approve the the sorry looking at the wrong thing you approv that we're just approving the school year 26 Calendar and there's been to look I have one question question I have is before even you started I move off for the four holidays what happened to that no because because we already had a motion on the floor to approve this calendar I said before that we should leave don't I say that we're going by the agenda here this is the first thing on the agenda this is on the agenda I I'm not an expert in this but my understanding of the the Roberts rule is the first agend if the first agenda fails then you can make a motion for a different but I the one who say the first agenda I want to move for holidays I said that but I think I think that I think that the well I don't know I don't it was so that was my point of clarification to Dr Hines and Sher Cox so as it reads is it it's recommended to approve um as presented by the cabinet by so as presented so when I asked for clarification that had to fail in order for us to be able to vote in favor of the four holidays another board M we had we had approved the agenda at the beginning of the meeting agenda me talk so I moved the agenda before you move I did you moved an wasn't okay um so it is recommended that the board approved the school year 26 Calendar there's been a roll C V I should have asked this a long time ago after our previous rur call does anybody have a preference of how I do this I just went like this and around or I could also do alphabetical does it matter I could start with myself manini I uh Williams hi wait but sorry actually clarifying what are we we're voting for the6 yeah okay I no C hi casy hi Anderson hi Davis passes six1 thank you all right thank you thank you for everything here uh all right let's move on to the next item on the 8 C Stadium storage bid acceptance and we have um Jim here I think it is recommended that the school board Independent School District j3 approve the above bids in the amount of and this is tiny print so I'm doing my best here 5,562 876,00 or 876 and caning General Contractors of 568 286 for a total of6 m1311 162 do I have a motion bring this forr move move uh Casey second second second by director Williams okay any do you have anything to share with us no no um nothing to share I'm just here to support this and see if there's any questions if you had on it so so we had um previously we had approved at a previous meeting in Aquilla um this is very similar to this you gave us a preview that this B was slightly more it is we're about 8% over estimated budget y it it'll wash out between aqu and and this is out of this is out of the total total bond package that we currently have out there so we've heard about all this stuff is there questions that we have here just to clarify nothing has changed since you previously presented I just making sure and the information about the contract stuff is in the board packet so if there's no other questions then I'll those in favor say I I I any oppos passes 7 Z okay at this time we thank you thank you J for all right at this point we're at to board member updates and um besides the usual board member updates I've also asked we're at our last board meeting for the year it's it's December this is we have only one meeting in December and then we're back in January we start a new calendar so to speak for the board um not it's a school year calendar so that stays true but um I did suggest that if board members are interested because we'll be electing officers at the first board meeting that if people had interest in certain decisions and wanted to State those at this time that could be helpful but as we know um the process for that is still open it's up until we get up into that spot there so anybody can be nominated including self- nomination on that date but if anybody wanted to share any of that um their interest in any of those offices I'd encourage that but I'll just throw it open to any board member for any sort of states that they want to do at this time I'm going start with the the roles I'd like to be Treasurer again I'd like to kind of revamp what the treasurer does um I feel like I didn't really earn the extra money um and I just like to be able to attend some um sort of meetings with cment or whoever's um in charge of that department and be able to come back to the board and present something I don't have any case okay okay other members ahead go ahead no you go I have no attention of um running for a board role a board officer role but I will I will say since we're sort of doing these updates um I next year is my last year of my current term my second term and we don't actually have term limits on this board but I sort of believe in them and for myself I definitely do so um I I'm not running again next year so any who's in the audience or listening or knows anybody who um is interested we're gonna have an election next year um and I think it's time for for me to pass the Baton and I know there's a lot of amazing people out there who um who would be great so um think about it um think about it if you might be if you might be interested anybody who's watching this um besides you all who work here um if you're watching this you are already you're already like 10 steps ahead because you you you know what this is about you've been watching these meetings that's most most of us like that's maybe more than we even knew when we started so um think about that I also want to acknowledge director CER um this is your last meeting with us it's your last calendar thank you for everything um Dr Duffy said he he looked at me he was like you're the only one who was here but Rick was here before me there's not very many here who were here before me but um been a great 10 and a half years thank you director David sure um I just uh I have an update since I didn't come I wasn't here for our last board meeting um I did my I I try and do at least two ideally three a year like visits to the school whatever school I'm the liais on to and so I did my fall visit several weeks ago but I haven't been here um and I had a great tour at PSI um just really impressed by all the things that are going on um in that building talked a little bit about the biliteracy work that's happening um which is really evidence driven and designed to um um ensure that our Young Learners um have what they need to be successful in Old languages moving forward um had a chance to step into classrooms and just see um the joy of what was happening there and so just wanted to lift up that experience um in terms of board RS uh I am not interested in uh putting myself forward for a titled role uh whatever any of the officer type roles and I would ask you all not to nominate me for any of those roles uh it's a capacity issue for me and I just think we need to be mindful of what our capacity is and for me right now my capacity is to be able to to join um this work as a as a colleague of yours and not in a leadership role I would agree I'm I'm at the clerk I this is this is fine if somebody else wants it they can have it I can't I don't have the capacity to go beyond clerk um so I like one of the things that would be helpful and Ann I don't recall how it worked with you but for the Committees that we serve on um like I'm overwhelmed so can you include when they meet and like what time because like when I was on linox I mean I would have loved to stay on linox but they meet at 2 pm. in the afternoon and that just doesn't work for a teacher unless it's July which they don't meet in July so I I went to like one meeting um so I just like I I love DPAC um it is it's a fabulous it's just it's a lot and it it's a lot for me um I have the I would love to be able to stay with the career Pathways because that is my my passion um and they meet at a time that it's easier for me to to attend also you know I've only been on it for a year so I'd love to see like the the progress and how it the thing because it's a ballbe so um I don't have a an officer announcement or anything but I do have a quick announcement since the next time we meet won't be until or the next time do these until like 28th of January I think so um for Susan lingren uh they are having the Festival of Nations on January 23rd in 2025 I know that's a little ways away in past Christmas so no one's thinking about it but uh put it on your calendars uh Festival of Nations Thursday January 23rd uh from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Susan lren Elementary School it is a fantastic event I went to it for my first time last year and I absolutely loved it and plan to go again so uh I hope to see you there I don't remember not I just want to thanks my colleagues uh it's not what I want but it's always democ I I love to see not only in schools I would like I would love to see in know states keep holidays you know some of the big cities they have New York they have it one day I would like to see all the schools I would like to say my uh place I feel I did nothing uh my colleague did not train me well he didn't Escape one day so I can be AC yet I'm just kidding but if someone else want I'm okay with it so okay that's it okay um uh I couldn't remember I'd seen the high school shows since the last time but I I did go see the high school show I just want to add one I would love to see students like yeah student what representation oh yeah I think that's going to happen don't you think yeah I mean I guess we could put our wish list so 2020 we we should share that but some of those will have those discussions with um director Hinds too next year too um next 20 25 um yeah so thank you for bringing that up too I know that's something we've been working on um amsd um we approved our legislative platform it does I saw that you know yeah um so that was I can't make those meetings but I watch the film um and if you can't make them and this is something that I've talked about a couple other committees too that I think we should think about is um sending somebody else amsd is always like if you can't make them and you know you can't make you know like if you can make some of them and you can't make one I did mention to you in September that I wouldn't be able to be at the December one but I think it's okay so and there's like a January one coming up which is the big one where where anybody can come to it they do want you to RSVP so that they know how many people there so they have do you all get the emails or is it just Colin and I it should be in their amsd newsletter I think new everybody should be getting those that's when they invite um all the like key people um we know that representative yukim who's our representative will be there because she is returning that role she'll be co-chair whatever education and then there's a couple of other people that they identified that will be at that meeting as well it's good to hear from them they've invited the governor as they always say you never know if the governor is going to show up until about I don't know about a day before and he has shown up before um in the past and so it's possible but the Comm commissioner Jeff has has said that he would be there so good opportunity there's always good discussion afterwards good opportunities to to meet with other board members superintendents all sorts of people that attend those meetings um but yeah we approved our legislative platform and we also had a nice conversation at the early part of it by two of our P lobbyists for amsd about the realities of what this next year looks like and what we're going to see coming into this and a little bit of their history and stuff and that was a good discussion and I'm was trying to remember the second part of the amsd meeting I can't remember what it was it was I just paid attention to the legislative agenda so I think that those were the key things that came out of that again I'm a huge fan they oh they did a tour of their website if you have not been on their website recently go check it out they've revamped it they've revamped their policy information their legisl how this is for people out there this is for people who are watching at home that there's information in there how to contact your legisl legislator there's all sorts of resources that they really revamp because they know this is important and as as you all know we have sort of a unique situation that seems to be holding true that will have a split legislature split house and I think it's going to be important to hear from people there's um a day at the capital that amsd does other groups do days at the capital so I encourage you to to pay attention to those and look at those opportunities as well um plenty of opportunities to to do things like that so um with that said and then I you know I am interested in continuing on this chair I feel like um uh it's uh been an honor to do it and I'd like to do it for one more year and then I've got a kid graduating and I'd like to not do that anymore at that point because I'd like to focus on his on his year and then maybe there'll be some opportunities for anybody who's inv Vice chair other opportunities too because it it will be my son will be entering a senior year towards the end of um the next year and um that I'll probably want to miss some meetings not that I will want to but it'll probably be the choices will be that I will want to go see my kid versus as much as I would like to be here with all of you um so I am interested in continuing on this chair if you have questions or comments or feedback I'd love to hear that again as people have said like there's some ideas here about how we set up committee you know um some conversations uh sorry how we are setting up some of these liaison roles and what the time commitments are and we're looking at that with the city and we have a joint meeting set up with with the city in January as well and so um some opportunities to really think about that and I'd really like to hear from people about that even if I'm not reelected this chair but I'm presuming then it' be great to hear some of that so that we have that information and we collected it so if you have thoughts about that send it my way I'll gather up that information too and so can be we're doing and just to put another plug for amsd I think the difference between amsd and msba is that MSD is metro area so if you're looking to um if you're looking to sort of connect with and and network with people who are experiencing more what we experience here in the urban area um it's a great it's it's really fascinating and um I think that there's some really uh I've learned so I've learned a lot more through amsd um with uh just even watching the the videos so I just would put a plug in for that January meeting because it's been it's been very worthwhile for me to be parti like good portions of those meetings so they're online watch them they're very informative and to your point it's it's and a couple of the larger districts like Rochester and Deluth that participate and they share lots of information and they have they have a lot of the same issues that we see it's a lot of same populations a lot of same things and just really informative too so again really appreciate the work that they do um really appreciate the work that you all have done here yes I have one more quick thing just while we were at since Virginia mentioned committee assignment I forgot to say um I um have been um honored to serve as the vice chair of intermediate District 287 for the past couple of years and we have a nominating Committee in that in that just on that board and I have going to indicate to the nominating committee that I would serve as chair if so nominated and voted upon so um I would ask this board to please um consider reaping me for that um for that board for next year um in January it's been um it's been it's been great thanks saying congratulations work I mean you know willing to take it on um yeah um again appreciative for everybody's work again this is not the end of our school year but end of the calendar year and so um it feels like you know it's time to reflect and appreciate all that we've been through through this past year and just my appreciation for everybody I'm hoping that we get a little bit of a break here and that when we see you in January we refreshed and ready to carry out for the the next part so thank you everybody um uh do I have a motion to adjourn I'll move it can I get a second second from and all those in favor say I I 827 oh my --------- ##VIDEO ID:HS2bOvLBobI## e it is 601 on uh December 10th 2024 is um this is our special meeting the truth and Taxation hearing I'm calling it to order um first thing is to approve the agenda the only thing on our agenda is number three discussion on truth and Taxation hearing then we have sorry there should one more thing public comment if there's anybody here which so far I don't see anybody here I'll make another request when we get to that point then adjournment so it is recommended that the school board approve the agenda for the special meeting truth in taxation December 2024 as presented we have a motion move vilia do I have a second second by Taylor um all those in favor say I I any oppos pass 60 all right let's get to the truth and Taxation part here with director um Patricia Magnuson to talk to us about what she wants to talk to us about good evening uh chair CL and members of the board I'm here to present on behalf of the board our truth and Taxation hearing so here's why we're here tonight um the law in Minnesota requires that we hold a public meeting about uh property taxes between November 27th and December 28th at 6 p.m. or later and it can be part of a regular scheduled meeting we have to allow for public comment and we can we are able to adopt the final Levy at the same meeting which we will be doing um which we have a recommended on the agenda for tonight we also have to present the current Year's budget and the proposed tax levy for taxes payable in 2025 so here's what the agenda looks like I'll give background information on school funding we'll talk about the current Year's budget we'll talk about the um proposed taxes payable in 2025 not 24 and then we can take time for public comment so the legislature basically sets school funding that's all this slide is about Mo every line item in the tax levy and in school funding um revenue is basically set by a funding formula so the state sets the form foras for most of the revenues a lot of them are based on amounts per pupil the state also sets tax policy for local school districts and other taxing jurisdictions but for us as a school district and then there's maximum authorized property tax levies so we can Levy less tonight as a school district um but we cannot just choose to Levy more than those formulas allow um oh and we can also um authorize voter approval for certain line items we did not have any voter approvals between last tax levy and this tax levy there's a couple of things about school funding um that we want to make sure that we're clear about the the general education funding formula which really isn't part of the tax levy but is the majority of revenue for school districts um lags behind inflation and we've been talking about some budget reductions we have next year year and that's a major portion of the of the reason um that Revenue just does not keep up if you look all the way to the right um on this funding formula grid this is a widely used graphic in the state of Minnesota for school districts and basically what it shows is that had funding kept up with the costs inflationary costs for school districts we would be receiving 8,645 per student and as as of current ly the the state law is $728 per student the difference between those dollar amounts is $5 million for St Louis Park so it gives you an idea um as that accumulates over time how um constrained our budgets are as costs push um push us higher way more quickly than Revenue another part is the underfunding of special education there's been a huge effort in the state of Minnesota to to fully fund the state's portion of special education costs the federal portion has has not um come through but we're very thankful for the increase in special education funding it frankly saved our budgets in these last couple of years so ultimately any change in the tax levy we're talking about tonight doesn't really mean our budget changes and there's several reasons behind that there's a bunch of state determined formulas that are set in state law it um we can't really just spend and then decide to to Levy there's formulas that determine most of that and some of the tax levies are Revenue neutral so we talk about equalized formulas so some funding formulas the state says if you get $100 50 is paid by by the tax levy 50 is paid through state aid and so sometimes the the legislature might make a change and say 60% of that is now going to be coming from the tax levy and only 40 from state aid so local levies go up but we didn't increase Revenue it's just shifting sort of from one pocket to the other we still get 100 bucks so that's one of the the biggest reasons that levies can change and no Revenue results from that our expenditure budget is limited by state formulas and those levies and fund balance and so we don't always um see an increase or decrease in taxes changing the budgets that much there's differences in different taxing jurisdictions school districts um budgets begin on July 1st so these taxes payable in 2025 that we're talking about tonight our Revenue not until next year so we record these revenues for 2526 different than the city um and County whose budget year begins on January 1st so they correlate um so here's our different budgets we've talked about this several times um these are the different budgets that the school district budgets within we put an asteris next to the ones that have a tax levy component so the general fund community service and Debt Service we Levy we have the authority to Levy within School nutrition and building construction are not levies this is an overall picture of the budget um it includes actuals for fiscal year 2024 and a budget for fiscal year 2025 um and it just shows that we are ending um last fiscal year at 8.27% fund balance we talked about that at the last board meeting we're very um thankful that we held our expenditures down and that we had some increases in Revenue particularly special education that helped us balance the budget and we intend to continue a balanced budget for this year and end the year at 8.25% we're working on that um as we speak this is what Revenue looks like um for all of our funds and the the reason for this is to just show that the majority of our revenue of course is in the general fund that's where the majority of our activity takes place so general fund is where all the the teaching and learning in our K12 school schools happens transportation of students the lights and the heat um some deferred maintenance costs um all of the administrative costs come out of the general fund Debt Service pays for a voter approved Debt Service principal and interest majority of that fund is um tax levy Revenue the community service fund pays for before and after school Child Care um the senior program and lots of other lifetime learning programs for adults and students after school and the school nutrition fund um pays for all of school nutrition so if you just look at that 73% of Revenue that's the general fund here's how the general fund breaks down the majority of Revenue is state revenue comes through state aid a small portion um we're back to a very small portion postco of federal revenue and then property taxes which we're going to be talking about tonight is about 30% of our overall Revenue there's a small part of local fees and AD and interest Revenue um that the general fund also receives on the expense side we are a salary organization um over 75 nearly 80% I didn't put percentages on here of our budget goes towards salary and benefits we hire teachers custodians other staff that's the majority of what we do purchase Services is the next largest portion um a large part of purchase Services is transportation we're an organization that outsources Transportation so that comes through as a purchase service um not as hired staff and then the the other portion is supplies and equipment if you then split that same expenditure budget by program instead of by um spending category you can see that the majority of our um funding goes into either direct classroom instruction or classroom support so for instance the elementary and secondary regular instruction is 43% of the budget special ad instruction 18% of the budget and then um pupil support Ser instructional Support Services first at 6% of the budget and then pupil Support Services another 11% that's mostly transportation and and then you can see the other components of the budget District support services and administration um District support are things like the business office um other departments that support um programs custodial that kind of thing so I'm going to talk a little bit about the tax levy how the levies is determined we'll compare last year's Levy to this year's Levy and the reasons for the changes and how that might impact taxpayers on their individual property tax bill so every owner of taxable property pays different taxing jurisdictions and you've seen your property tax bills there's the city the County watershed districts and we are the the school district the taxing jurisdiction in the state of Minnesota so we set our own Levy with limits in state law and henen county in our case sends out the tax bills and collects them so we work with the Department of Education and the county to compile um that data so they can complete the tax bills this is what a a tax um statement look like obviously it's not an invoice or a bill it helps um Property Owners know what their taxes might look like so they they can come to these taxing um these tax hearings and either make comment or ask get their questions answered our phone numbers are on those on on those statements so we can get phone calls as well so here's um School District property taxes are levied in about 40 different categories there's a bunch of really um detailed funding formulas but maximum Levy amounts that are calculated by de which is the Department of Education they're either set by state law or they're set by voter approval in a in a few very specific categories so these are the steps that happen in the property tax process so in the early part of um the calendar year the city or the county estimates the market value for each parcel of property and then the legislature meets between about January and May and sets um for formulas not only for taxes the legislature might change the way property taxes are levied but they also set Levy limits and formula limits and then the counting auditor calculates the tax capacity so the value that taxes are levied against and then the Department of Education we work with them right up until September 30th to set the levy limit for the school district and then we get to this part where the school board adopts the final Levy we send the final um calculations off to the county auditor and then they can actually Levy the specific taxes once boards and other jurisdictions have approved tax levies so here's a way of looking at that process for our district so on September 8th we we got the first Levy limits um on September 24th of this year the board approved the preliminary Levy that helped the county produce the property tax statements that came out late November tonight we are at the public hearing and then following the hearing if the board approves the tax levy later in the business meeting we'll certify the levy to the um state of Minnesota and to the county and that has to be done by December 30th so here's an overview of our Levy this is really good news for our um taxpayers keeping in mind that a flat or lower than normal property tax levy means lower revenue for fiscal year 26 in the category of tax levy it could mean that some of these are equalized levies so our state aid might go up but just keep in mind that there's another side to to every story um and that there's lots of reasons for the changes and we'll go through some of those so our tax levy itself the dollar amount is increasing by 98,6 less than one less than half of 1% 45% so here's a breakdown of that 0 45% in those three funds for which we can Levy in the general fund the property tax levy is actually going down by $35,000 in community service the levy is going up by $179,000 and in debt service it's basically flat going up by $54,000 and you can see in the chart on the side the largest portion of the levy um creates Revenue in the general fund then Debt Service and community service is the smallest portion of the levy these are a few of the line out there's an attachment in tonight's um um packet in the packet for the for the tax hearing that gives you a few more line items so you can see a little bit more detail around this but really I wanted to just highlight a couple of things so if you go all the way to the bottom you can see that the general fund Levy is going down the driving thing behind that decrease of one is11 n6 million that top line for the operating referendum generally that number goes up because it's it's by voter approval connected um to inflation but we had a large negative adjustment in this year's taxes because what the tax levy does is forever correct itself so we have to um in the summer send our predicted enrollment numbers to the state and then come fall um as the actuals are known in the following two years those are corrected to actual so what this tells us is that we over levied in the operating referendum and if you recall our numbers in the last couple of years our enrollment numbers were below what we had anticipated so our we are paying back that tax levy to our taxpayers because we over levied in those categories um keep in mind that this summer we also turned in numbers for this fall and as you know we are 100 students ahead so we will see an adjustment but it'll be the other way so in a future tax hearing we're going to be talking about an increase in the operating referendum because we under levied this year for operating referendum and so I just wanted you to be aware of that I also highlighted the capital projects Levy um for technology which is voter approved as well going up by only $198,000 that Levy is connected to growth in adjusted net tax capacity and while our tax capacity is continuing to grow the pace is not what it has been in these last few years so as we think about the way this District uses and most districts use the capital projects Levy we're paying for a lot of staff and with staff come cost increases for salaries and benefits so it's just a caution that I just want to speak out loud out that we want to be mindful of that we have a healthy fund balance in our capital projects referendum but as we have onetime you know Capital needs that we pay for we're also funding a lot of staff that if we can't continue to do from cap from the capital projects Levy it comes from the unassigned general fund so it's just something for us to continue to think about as we build the budget in the Community Education fund um that Levy is going up by $79,000 there's a couple of things some good news in on the second line item there is the Early Childhood family education Levy um has gone up and that's because that's actually an increase in funding that funding formula is connected to the basic funding formula and so when the state calculated the levy the state is estimating currently a 2 and a half% increase in the funding formula for next year that's subject to change we don't know what that inflationary amount will be and the legislature could change it could increase or lower it but because the ECFE Levy is connected to that that's the increase that's where that increase comes from so it's a dollar amount per zero to foury Old we have um a flat number of zero to four year olds so it's that's all attributed to that connection to state aid or to um the general funding state aid keeping in mind that once that funding formula is known there will be an adjust adjustment to this Levy in the future so it's just one of those things that we'll have to explain at a future time but many levies are made based on estimates school age child care is increasing that's the majority of the increase and that's the cost to serve students with disabilities in our before and after school care and that is a dollar for dooll um tax levy so there's two things happening one is we had a back a an adjustment a back Levy because our estimated cost for school age child care was too low um two years ago and when the actual cost came through it was higher so we are able to Levy for the difference so we two things happened we have this adjustment happening in here and we also increase the base Levy for this year so we don't have an adjustment in the future we hope so that's what's happening there um it's just the way that that funding comes to us and then in The Debt Service fund our debt service principal and interest payments are set up to basically be flat so um since we have no changes in debt our debt service um Levy is flat so I want to talk a little bit about what's happening to individual property um taxes um and you know this is basically some public service announcements a lot of things can change an individual homeowners tax levy and we'll talk about that in a little bit I'm not sure this this is the best visual but it's a way we've been talking about the levy if you think about the levy being a whole pie our pie only grew by $198,000 so we didn't get much bigger pie this year for the levy each individual home homeowners portion of that pie piece of the pie that they're paying in changes depending on a few things were there more are there more players in the pie so are there more properties and in St Louis Park there are more properties and then what happened to valuations if value if your value went way up or you made a big um Improvement to your property your piece of Supply is going to get bigger if your valuation went down it it will go down we are hearing um in the metro area that there are several home valuations that actually went down this year following a couple of years of really strong Market in in housing so many home 's property values might have gone down this year we're hearing a lot about that um and so now we're going to show a four-year Levy comparison so what we're going to show it in two ways one if your if your property values did not change at all and and then one if your property values went up by an average of 11.3% over the the period of time that we're showing here these are for properties in the city of St Louis Park and um it's preliminary estimates um so as you know final amounts can change as tax rates are finally set and Market values are set and our Municipal advisor ERS and Associates prepared these estimates for us so what I want to show you in in general is that if property our tax rates are going down so if property if your property value didn't change your tax bill is going down for the school district portion of property taxes um and the way a tax rate is calculated is it's a basic numerator denominator situation the numerator is the amount of the tax levy so remember our our the top of our calculation is only going up by $198,000 less than a half of 1% the denominator is the entire property values across the school district and those are going up not as high as normal but they or as they have in the last couple of years but by about 1 and a half% so if you divide a small increase by a bigger increase the percentage tax rate is going down so if your property value went down your your um your taxes should go down because the rates are going down if your property values are flat your taxes should go down because the tax rates are going down um and we're going to show that on a few values here and then we'll talk about what happens if your value changed um at the at the trend TR um so this is a $300,000 home and a $400,000 home it shows that small decrease in school district portion of property taxes so for instance on that on the right hand side the $400,000 homes property taxes would go from 1,789 for the school district to 1,751 for the school district here's a couple of other values 500,000 and 750,000 again on the our right side you'll see taxes last year would have been 3,544 um for taxes um payable in 25 next year 3533 so this is what's happening if if your home valuation went up on average 11.3% over this period of time depicted here so in most of these cases the taxes are going down again um so on the right hand side the $400,000 home goes from , 770 to 1751 and again here we've got a 500,000 and a $750,000 home going from 5 3 3505 to 3533 now you can see that one went up as did the $500,000 home there's another small it's big um for lower priced homes below $500,000 in 2023 there was a change to state law for the way property taxes are calculated and it is effective for taxes payable next year and it there's a homestead exclusion so your some portions of the value of your property are excluded from the property tax calculation that exclusion rate was increased for values that are less than $500,000 so that exclusion um benefits lower valued properties and pushes that piece the rest of the pie to higher valued Properties or non-homestead properties so if you own a business or um recreational property um it does not benefit those but it the taxes went down so there's lots of accumulating reasons why taxes are going down this year the um the tax levy itself did not go up very much that Homestead exclusion um also changed so um I think it's a good news here for property tax um for St Louis Park public schools so here are the next steps then the board can accept public comment on this proposed Levy tonight and then later in the agenda we have we are proposing that the board accept the levy as presented thank you director Magnuson I'm just for the sake of people at home uh does not appear do we have anybody here for public comments I'm just checking I'm orally checking here do we have any anybody here for public comment I'm hearing no one I'm seeing no one so U with that I think question sure yeah and it's not specific necessarily to the ly just to the slides that you shared with us um the federal percentage obviously is a very small percentage of our revenue is that mostly special education and title funds or is there any other categor mostly special entitle we um trying to think if there's any other they're all the the titles and yeah the DEA funding for special education thank you how how much percentage the percentage of federal was about 2% I think of our of our general funds it's a small and mighty portion because we need that $2 million okay all right well thank you very much with that I'll take a motion for us to adjourn we're doing it later I'll move move I'll second it all those in favor say I I any oppos passes 70628 we are adjourned and we will reconvene here in a few minutes for