good evening and welcome to the eye of the isd 191 burnsville eagan savage school board meeting to call um tonight's meeting to order the date is october 8th 2020 and the time is 6 30. i'd like to start by welcoming everyone who's joining us from home and just a reminder that our next meeting october 22nd will be our hybrid meeting in which both staff and board members will be attending in person and virtually with that director halwiger would you please leave us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you uh next we'll start by approving tonight's agenda do i have a motion move by director stop second second seconded by director hume any questions or comments seeing none ms kenny would you please call the role alt i chester i courier i paul wager i hume i miller aye shots and the motion carries uh we will start uh tonight's meeting um with our information section uh we will be receiving an update about district 191's efforts to implement covet 19 related educational and public health guidance issued by the mde and the mdh respectively and we will start with dr battle welcome dr battle thank you good evening chair alt and directors of the board tonight i want to first acknowledge staff forcing expressed that they appreciate the staff allowed them to ease into the new routines the hybrid model as well as virtual academy as educators we are accustomed to dealing with ambiguity but covet 19 has taken ambiguity to a whole new uncharted level so i want to thank the staff for the work to implement the six first in-person dates so we not only had one first day in the school but six and following my report amina off the doll and stephanie white will present on learning and teaching and support services in hybrid and in the virtual academy with that i start first with health and safety with the latest county updates from dakota and scott these numbers represent the period 912-926 dakota county reported 20.23 per 100 000 residents of confirmed cases an increase from 16.57 and scott county reported 24.83 up from 19.25 we are using the confirmed what happened glad to be back i think everyone's here chair alt i think so that was short-lived just as we had a schoology outage this wednesday during our flex day that was quickly uh uh corrected it was a global outage so glad to be back i'm glad everyone is able to adjust to these tech technology glitches so i was reporting on the counting numbers i finished that report and now i'm going to move on to uh from the mandated advisory committee we have the covit 19 advisory committee as mandated through our state's guidance the mde safe schools guidance stipulates that a school district may choose to be more restrictive than what is recommended by the parameters set forth in the safe learning plan and one of the uh the main purpose for the covet 19 191 advisory committee is to review data and other factors and advise the superintendent on the need to dial back or become more restrictive in our chosen learning model the committee members include parents staff bargaining unit leaders and board reporters kick us out there was the committee has suggested a criteria in addition to the county confirmed cases that could be used to recommend a change in our learning model these include trend data of decreased confirmed cases both scott and dakota county public health share that cases fluctuate so we would want more than a few weeks of decrease they also asked us to consider staffing the five percent or lower threshold in the county of confirmed cases secondary scheduling it's very difficult within a matter of days to change the secondary schedules for grades 6 through 12. they also asked me to consider cost time and resources to transition and they took a system wide view and recommended that we look at the impact on other systems in our organization such as busing scheduling and food service assistant superintendent brian gershes and i shared additional criteria we might consider and we also place all the criteria into categories the staffing academic slash student and health and safety also the covet 19 leadership team has also provided input now to move on to the area of academic and guidance for school planning teachers for the 612 pathways courses have revamped them and identified software that supports pathways and can be used with chromebooks as many of these courses do provide hands-on experiences there was a need for them to revamp the courses and to find some software that could provide more hands-on for our students at the end of september there were eighteen hundred contingency plans for students receiving specialized services as an addition to their individual education plans 800 were completed for in-person students k-12 and 500 for virtual academy students these plans were developed to ensure that we can still meet students individual needs in a virtual environment student and family support the communication plan is to continue educating our students families and staff on the health and safety practices after each break in our calendar so as you know next week we will have two days of non-instruction due to the state teachers meeting education minnesota so using social media and our websites the communication department will continue to push our videos instructional posters and procedures on mass wearing social distancing hand washing and staying home when you are feeling ill also building leaders will send out parallel pieces of information through newsletters emails and their building social media accounts an update on technology since the beginning of the school year we have handed out 6 000 learning devices the tech team is working on improvements such as speeding up access for new students exploring an unlimited plan for hot spots and training to support substitutes moving on to activities the minnesota state high school league board voted to permit winter sports winter sports are scheduled to begin from one to five weeks later than usual to minimize overlap with the fall sports seasons there will also be a 30 reduction in games and matches allowing for two allowing for two per week minnesota state high school league also decided that fall sports will conclude with section championships no decision was made on the winter sports postseason our athletic director guillaume peck continues to meet with conference leaders to discuss the impact for our students coaches and spectators our marching band also worked with the burnsville high school leadership team and determined they would not be playing at the football games the advisors cited several factors included but not limited to cold weather limitation of spectators limited performance time and ability to practice we will continue to work with the team at burnsville high school determine our next steps to provide opportunities for students and to ensure safe participation for our students coaches and families today just earlier today uh minnesota department of education mdh in minnesota state high school league updated their guidance for fall sports particularly regarding spectators so since this is new information staff will be reviewing to determine any adjustments moving on to enrollment um as of october 5th k-12 enrollment is 7631 and vpk through 12 which is the voluntary pre-k through 12 is 7905. there's a full report that will be posted after my report after the board meeting with more enrollment data moving on to operations previously i mentioned that we had six first days um and so bus drivers and students managed it well so kudos to smitty and sons um their drivers the whole support team at smitty and son as well as students following the safety protocols and so i really want to thank everyone for that smooth transition in the fall operations is working on transportation plans for an in-person act administration so that's one example of some tailored transportation that they are providing and so now i'll turn it over to amina off the doll and stephanie white sharon all members of the board superintendent battle i'm really excited to be here tonight to share with you some of the uh um some of the uh things that we have in place that will um support the learning environments for all students i would like to share my screen if that is possible um tonight uh director stephanie white and i will be sharing uh some information from the ceases department systems improvement in student achievement and the special education department uh one of the things to keep into in mind with the csa department moving forward is that as we began the year our intention was to provide instructional models that responded to the information and feedback that we gathered from students parents and staff last spring and over the summer the distance learning 2.0 model included a minimum of 120 minutes of live student teacher interaction each day this powerful engagement tool as well as teachers setting specific schedules has set us apart from our neighboring districts and provide a school environment in each student's location beyond the school's brick and mortar in some middle schools and high school classroom it even includes students at home joining their peers in class virtually this has required even more technology solutions for connect for connectivity and devices uh keep in mind that we are maintaining three instructional models simultaneously and this requires innovation to deliver uh differentiated instruction and support for students utilizing our academic uh support teachers as elementary pod instructors makes what i need or win time a very different experience this year sisa coordinator janet golden and multilingual coordinator maria argo collaborating with special ed supervisor amy piotrovsky are working with each building principal to build a workable support and enrichment structure that can serve in-person distance learning and virtual academy students beyond core instruction this includes fulfilling the educational service plans for students with disabilities and multilingual students learning english technology and csa staff have collaborated to create common expectations for organization and navigation in seesaw and schoology to assist students and parents as they access the learning platforms our k-5 curriculum coordinator bethany van aal has been leading teams of teachers to create a guide and support for the hybrid distance learning instructional model this includes a step-by-step guide for elementary teachers to develop the face-to-face and distance learning days curriculum pacing and lessons are collaboratively written and available to all teachers including those in virtual academy activities have been identified for best delivery method face-to-face video conference and independent practice our digital learning specialist prior to moving into elementary pods created a technology skill scope and sequence with lessons for each grade band the intention being to build student capacity and skills to be more effective for their remote learning time also classroom assessments are a valuable tool to measure student progress toward content standard mastery and students will continue to complete their classroom assessments for progress reporting including using district report cards in addition to conferences with parents district benchmarking assessments are also currently underway using in-person whenever possible and remote administration when necessary last week we um the middle school administered 2 uh assessments through fastbridge online services with little or no support from technology allowing the tech support folks to continue to work in the areas of greatest need responding to students and teachers this required the support of the assistant principals and deans in the building and they were outstanding in the secondary buildings building leadership teams building principals and 612 curriculum coordinator frannie becker have developed schedules and systems that support hybrid learning and distance learning the key to putting together the schedules was ensuring that regardless of whatever choice of model made by the students the students would have equitable access to courses middle school was able to transition to their block schedule as part of the middle school redesign it has been adjusted to fit the health and safety requirements but rather than alternating days for science and social studies they alternate semesters one semester for science and one semester middle school electives and exploratories are being delivered remotely for both hybrid and virtual academy high school is incorporating more classroom live streaming to ensure that students have access to single section courses and virtual academy teachers are part of all the content area meetings and planning currently english language arts is aligning the aligning the grade 9 and 10 courses with the 11 12 scope and sequence for writing and literature reflecting multiple perspectives in literature with more inclusive lists of authors and texts using the best practices identified in the blended learning cohorts provided by director tech director rachel gorton teachers are being asked to use this lesson design framework which incorporates digital tools into planning and practice and utilizing over 25 district vetted digital tools that are either free or have been purchased the digital lesson planning guide offers multiple options for teachers and students the expectations for high quality lessons are that they engage the student assume high expectations for all students and build capacity for digital independence the sisa team is also very focused on providing the professional development and support for teachers in all three of the models there was a extended workshop week and new teacher onboarding actually last week we onboarded four additional uh elementary teachers so it is continues to be ongoing as we hire there is instructional support for elementary hybrid teachers new or returning to the classroom there is ongoing technology training and support for video conferencing teams developing elementary literacy math and technology lessons and professional development on teaching in the block or extended time and avid school-wide along supporting hybrid distance learning the regular work of curriculum continues continues simultaneously we continue to work toward district equity and anti-racism work through cpss k5 math curriculum review and implementation continues the 612 next generation science standards implementation continues 6 8 social emotional learning curriculum implementation is ongoing along with the as part of the middle school redesign avid school-wide for secondary and moving demonstration site status um moving toward demonstration site status at both buildings the grade six literacy implementations of being a reader worked was worked on over the summer we did k-8 fast bridge assessment implementation um through remote assessments this fall we have the advanced learning and stem instruction for coding through the universal plus grant and k-8 pathways implementation through the arts continues through this year so um it's been a lot of things that are going on in the season department but we feel as though we are supporting our teachers as they are moving forward and delivering instruction to our students and now i'd like to hand it over to uh director stephanie white thank you alina good evening chair alt directors and superintendent battle thanks so much for this opportunity to tell you um what our special education services look like under all those amazing offerings that amina just highlighted through the work that the season department is doing we really have become a strong triangle director gordon in technology director octadom in curriculum instruction and then the special education department really are collaborating at a level that we've never done before and we believe that through this alignment and collaboration together we are we are providing uh the very best services we can for all students um as we're thinking about special education students the two overarching principles that we are considering as we're debating debating on what model is best for each individual student is the ability to follow health and safety and the ability to access and engage in distance learning we want our our students to have the most access to the marvelous offerings that we have in our district and so those are the two beginning um lenses from which we look at dr battle highlighted this that we have created contingency learning plans for all of our special education students if they're in virtual academy or in person which helps us flex between whatever model they choose or whatever model we happen to be in to maximize the learning and the and the general education curriculum our priorities again our health and safety the relationships with our students and we're so thankful to have all this time in person with our students and and continuing to grow our relationships virtually with the students there and then of course our educational and social emotional needs of the students receiving special ed services special ed is notorious for being flexible in the first place and we continue to hone our skills in these models as well again our our top priority is to give all students access to these um amazing offerings and opportunities and so the work that we do is always thinking about how we can provide access to accommodations modifications and of course specialized instruction one of the things that's really different this year is some of our individual service providers our occupational therapists our speech therapists we now have a physical therapist that's on our staff providing their services virtually and i'm using what they call telehealth so a live teacher or therapy provider and then a student as well and we're practicing this even in our preschool classrooms so that they can be prepared if we do end up going to distance learning um we have around 515 students in our distance learning school um on virtual academy um they're learning at specific times in a synchronous or live meeting special ed teachers provide specialized instruction live sessions could be individual or they could be in small groups and again speech occupational therapy and physical therapy provide that teletherapy model services um that were previously face to face have now moved virtual and of course that's all for health and safety in our hybrid model we have around 800 students and these numbers are really reflecting k-12 um and they do um two days a week and three days a week at home the majority of our resource students are assigned to those two days just like all students and then three days synchronous the special ed services are adjusted to meet the specific needs of each individual student and that goes back to those contingency learning plans there's likely not one plan that looks the same students we also have students who traditionally would have most of their day in a special ed setting and we have offered those students four days a week so they come monday tuesday they're home like all students practicing their distance learning skills and then back with us on thursday friday i can't tell you how amazing the services are that our teachers are providing in these settings these are the kiddos that we really um work closely with both in instruction but physically helping them do all all kinds of tasks and skills and our teachers have been amazing and adapting the services they're providing to make sure that the students are safe and that they remain safe thank you stephanie and amina and that concludes our report chair all right thank you very much always always an in-depth and informative report board members i'll open it up for questions and comments anyone uh director miller yes thank you um everyone for that that's uh very interesting and informative i appreciate it um and it was uh full of facts and uh statistics which is excellent i'll add a little personal touch to it i'll say that my middle schooler uh who's you know thrives in a structured environment has really uh enjoyed and made advantage of this uh change uh versus what happened in the spring so it's been effective for him um my fourth grader is plodding right along and enjoying her classes and the high touch she's getting in her hybrid model and my kindergartner the second day he had been there i went to pick him up so the next day was gonna be wednesday he was going to be home and walking back to the car and he said dad i have a zoom call at 10 o'clock tomorrow on a zoom call at 1 o'clock i know how to turn on my computer and get into it geez you have more zoom calls than i have tomorrow so it was fantastic so it's you guys are doing a great job i appreciate it i do have a question um for uh uh potentially not for you to uh for dr battle uh or c sobein but uh we have um posted this before asked this before i would like to eventually see uh something about how we're doing for class size for the virtual academy it continues to be a concern um i'm not sure maybe it's been resolved and solved i haven't heard anything in recent times but i know early on we have some struggles in getting matched up i understand the reasonings behind that but we do need to get to a completion point where um we're at a class size that's more in alignment with what this board expects in our district so i'd appreciate getting some information in the future about that and not just an average but but you know a breakdown so i can make sure that there's not some pretty bad outliers out there that then i can counter any rumors i hear so that's my uh take away your question for at least for the future unless you have i'm assuming you don't have a media data in front of you but thank you thank you director miller i do have a brief response and we can definitely get some more detailed information for you uh director of the doll mentioned that they provided training for three new teachers last week actually i believe the three were for the virtual academy or for the virtual academy um so i'll let stacey provide some more details so we should have some uh more regular class size i we had a new teachers start on monday and we reassigned on monday at the elementary level all of our class sizes that the averages are lower than our max so we're the elementary is in really good shape secondary um we may have different hot spots different classes that are around 40 students maybe a little bit over 40 students and again we talked earlier that we're looking at about 10 class sizes 10 larger than what our in-person class sizes would be and that we're still in line with with that as well in most places so i i can provide you more information especially with the elementary but uh we're in alignment with where we should be in most places great thank you stacy uh director chester thank you chair oh um my question well well it's a question in a statement so um and it's probably for stephanie um so kier 11 a week ago aired a an investigative information about families with kids with ieps or with higher needs or special ed and the needs where it's conflicting with their in-home support because there's an expectation for districts to be providing that education you know educational services but oftentimes there's other components of just life skills that happen in the instructional setting in a school environment but if school's not in session and they're at home their dhs is not um is conflicting with wanting to provide in-home support services while there's in school instruction and so i was wondering how our district is addressing um some of that with a lot of families who may have in-home supports now being not being able to access them during distance learning time um thanks for the question that i mean we really are in an unprecedented time with that because with our students with disabilities we would always put the needs of them of the student first and we have to think of their health and safety and the health and safety of others first during the pandemic and so that puts us in some precarious difficult situations what we've found and what's been working for us is the amazing relationships that our teachers and staff have with families out there to make those decisions as a collaborative team and to make sure that those student needs are are met and we are having lots and lots of collaborative iep meetings individual education plan meetings in order to solve the barriers that families are experiencing and our school staff is experiencing um they're difficult decisions and under the conditions that we're in right now we are not allowed to go in the home and so that does create difficulties for families and for students and we want to really partner with them as much as we can some of the things that we've done is gone out to meet with families um outside um we can't go in the home but we've been in the driveways we've been in the front yards and we've had lots and lots of zoom meetings we have material deliveries that are happening lots of consultations with outside agencies that are working with families we're working more and more with our counties to make sure that if there are other community resources that can support the family during this time while we are all having to prioritize health and safety um we're doing that as well and so that and we're determined to um to get to the solution that pets the team and so that's that's our recipe today and so far i think it's working and and we'll continue to do that thank you stephanie thank you director shots thank you um so thanks to um superintendent battle and the staff for the continued great work to address the needs of our students and families during this rather tricky time um in education so i appreciate that very much um clearly you're working as a team and that reflects what we do here in this district we work as a team for the betterment of our students so thank you for that my question is about um maybe for a meet up and preps for all of you is what opportunities students and families have to provide feedback on how the distance and hybrid learning is going you know not just for the virtual academy students but also for the hybrid students that are working virtually when they're in the classroom we can kind of see you know how things are going for them you know but what opportunity do we have for um for those students and families to provide feedback on their experience probably especially for virtual academy since we don't see them in the classroom um ever so thank you for the question i mean i'll lead off with our discussion we had at executive leadership team we did talk about how can we survey to get feedback about the opening of school and so i'll let uh staff fill in uh some more information about how we think we're going to approach it go ahead and meet him sure i just wanted to say that um parent-teacher conferences come to us at the end of october and that is one of our prime opportunities to collect information from families about the start of the school year as well as goals and progress for their students so we will be utilizing uh the time when we are meeting with parents and providing an opportunity for survey at that time okay thank you and cheryl serrano then phelps and so um so is that the so other than okay so that's the end of october and so how are what are parent teacher harvest is going to look like this year yeah because yeah i mean there's and that's you know i i absolutely that is an absolutely terrific time to provide feedback um from to and receive feedback from parents and students if they if they are present if thinking about my students and me as a parent um i can certainly i can certainly contact my teacher i can certainly you know who may or may not you know you know who can kind of address the you know some of the issues certainly um you know the principal and things like that um but the the opportunity to that's sometimes a lot more about academics than it is kind of about how it's working you know as a whole like does my child who's that assumes a lot of um kind of ability of the student and the and the family to understand how a student learns and if they're struggling they may think it's the subject matter or something so how are we really able to kind of get at what the root of might be that my child struggles to learn in this way and we didn't we don't really know that's that's a fact so parent-teacher conferences uh will be held virtually we are not bringing families into the buildings in numbers and having them you know moving in and out of the buildings so they will be scheduled virtually and i just wanted to be clear it's an opportunity at each of those conferences to also not only talk about the academic growth of the individual student but to also deliver the invitation to complete the survey about the process overall and about the starting school um and then have some so that those two things are separate we just take that opportunity because we are talking with the parent face to face to say here please complete this survey for us um so that's one of the ways that we can separate that out and we continue to work with families principals and support staff in the buildings continue to work with families for students who are not being successful with whatever structures are in place and really digging down into what are the root causes of those and what are the things that we can do as a district to adapt adjust and uh um eliminate barriers okay thank you yeah it was not clear that that there was a survey and the parent teacher comments okay all right thank you all right cheryl additionally aaron um tinklenberg and i in our planning for the launch of the school year we have zoom meetings with parents as well as students um and so we also plan to uh replicate that again as well as making sure that we have our cultural liaisons um get some feedback um from the parents they work with um so yes we'll also get some student um feedback also director shoutouts great thank you i actually have a um a question um just just for clarity the survey that parents will be invited to take um during conferences that will be sent out separately to everybody yeah okay so it's not simply those people that attend conferences who will get the survey okay great thank you um board members any other questions or comments no um i had a couple um just a comment just really appreciating um all the additional um information that you provided about the rigor um that we're really focused on both in person and virtually particularly the curriculum review at the high school and um you know really making sure that many perspectives are being included in the work that um that the students are are doing um and also the um kind of the re re-examining of wind time the what i need time for elementary students and making sure that both the english learners and special ed kids beyond core are really getting what they need and the support that they need so i i thank you i really appreciated that um i guess my question i have two questions um one is uh we uh i just want to make sure i mean i understood your um your comment about the avid demonstration schools we still have one middle school that's still a demonstration school we just want to get the second one to that status right and um district director uh becker has um is just really pleased with uh the progress that uh has been made at eagle ridge since nicollet already is a demonstration school um but the external views and um reviews from avid leadership externally have been very very positive as eagle ridge makes progress in that direction great thank you and then kind of a technology and access question um how are we doing with 100 access for students and families to um to be able to get into the the virtual learning hi rachel that's probably a question for you hello good evening um yeah it's it's an ongoing process definitely we have at this point we are caught up with all of the hot spot requests that we have had coming in and i just want to kind of uh say thank you to the the hard work that our social workers and our cultural liaisons our associate principles and our principles and down to individual teachers that have been working with individual students to find out what situations are happening where they may not be connecting into class and then if it is an access issue for tech for um internet that we are able to solve that so at this point we do have an inventory of hot spots still so we can we can meet the needs immediately um it's been a really interesting process because as amina was talking about um one of those things that has really been wonderful has been that 120 minutes of synchronous learning that we are providing our students which has been a foundational piece that has provided some success here in the last few weeks is that that actually is a is a quite taxing thing on the internet system so families that have internet in their home um there are some variations that we're working through to help help them so even today we were working with a student at one of our schools um and their family to provide ethernet cables to hook up directly to their modem for a faster experience for that student um and so i feel really um proud of the fact that we're at the individual student level now in solving those problems and so um it's been a lot of work we've handed out a lot of uh hot spots and a lot of um support but um it's it's definitely been one of the things that's been really fulfilling this past few weeks awesome thank you rachel and uh just just a curious question again rachel for you are we aware of any areas in the district where there are just dead zones in terms of access and what the hot spots are able to support um we haven't found any luckily because of our suburban um you know geographic location we don't have a lot of dead zones we we were finding that we were having some of our hot spots having problems um because they had not been updated to the unlimited plan and we have now uh remedied that so those are now moving so we haven't seen anything however in anticipation that we might have a few areas that we're not able to solve using our current t-mobile hotspots we are getting some hot spots in on a different network as well so we have we would only have a few of those and we would only need those if absolutely needed in an area awesome thank you uh well this i this report is always as i said you know and as other board members have alluded to it's always very informative and really gives us um a lot a lot more you know greater understanding of what you all are doing and everything that's going on in our schools even though you know we personally may not witness it so um thank you again for for a great report uh next ah we're um staying with kovid will be receiving a report from lisa ryder executive director of business services about coveted funding updates welcome lisa thank you and good evening gerald board directors and superintendent battle and those listening as we begin tonight we want to cover a bit of information regarding our funding that we have received through state and federal means so at this point i'd like to share my screen if that's okay hang on it's not working lisa we were seeing it initially okay so are you seeing okay are you seeing the presentation yes oh perfect perfect i thought you were seeing a different part of my screen so great thank you so much for um taking time this evening to hear about the information related to our funding as we take a look at this um this is funding that was um notified to us somewhat i mean we knew of the cares funding as we get into this but some of this came to us fairly recently so as we take a look at this agenda we will review the federal and state coven 19 funding and some other funding the purpose and allocation for each of those different sources are 191 proposed use of funds for how are we planning to use them county funding and our coronavirus relief funding with some next steps indicated as well as this is going to be an ongoing process for a while okay so as we start there's a lots and lots of acronyms um that's typical of my world but um this has really been um just a step up in the volume of acronyms we're dealing with so this this screen will help us to kind of know as we go through the rest of the presentation what some of these words mean when we talk about cares we're talking about the coronavirus aid relief and economic security a part of the cares is broken down into two pieces one is esser which is the elementary and secondary school emergency relief and the other part of it is the gear which is the cares governor's emergency education relief so cares esser and gear are all kind of one of the same package but they are they're referred to for different reasons okay and they have different purposes as we'll talk about then we have our cares funding that the dakota county received and that we've made a request to see if they would have a portion allocated to us and then there's the cares funding that scott county received that there too they have allocated a portion to us as a member of their county and as for the students that reside within scott county then we have our crf allocation which is the coronavirus relief funds so this is more recent and the crf funding um is a very limited period of time it basically starts from july 1st and goes only through december so it's a much shorter period of time we'll get into that in a moment and then we have our dakota electric grant so when we take a look at just the table that kind of compares them that's what you're seeing here now in front of you um the cares esser funds is the first column of numbers that you see and so you can tell that there's a 90 and a 9.5 amount and they they are being handled differently and treated differently as there was some pending um law change that was being requested so we know that together that's a that's about a 1.5 million dollars there and then you have your gears funds the gear funds are intended um or to be of the amount of 295 665. our crf is the last column to the right and that is a 2.7 million dollars that you see listed there the dates that these are effective all are um they do vary the cares funds run from march when this all began with the covid um through september of 22 2022. so these funds these 1.5 million are intended to be able to be used all the way through september of 2022. that's true of the gear as well the cares funds as i mentioned that's a much shorter and smaller time period that we're talking about we have yet to submit our final application and budget for the cares but we will be doing that we're going to be utilizing some for the past school year so um at 339 000 you see at the bottom on the left is for fiscal year 20 which is the year we're closing out and auditing and so as a result then we'll have an application for fiscal year 20 for cares and we'll have an application for fiscal year 21 and assuming there's still some funds remaining we would then utilize that in fiscal year 22 with a separate and distinct application for 22. on the gear funds we anticipate we have not yet submitted that but we know where they're going towards as you'll hear the later the detail of and so we know for fiscal year 20 we're not going to be utilizing the gears funds in that year we are instead going to use them in fy 21 and i anticipate those will be fully used as you'll see in a moment the crf funds um that's solely for the current fiscal year fiscal year 2021 and so um we'll move on to the next slide which talks a little more about that cares esser funds so when we talk about last school year and our audited numbers that we're looking at we're working on those audit entries now and we're anticipating around 339 000 to be spent there uh the general fund will show 196 729 being spent um in areas of hourly wages for planning for ppe and that does stand for personal protective equipment it seems a very common phrase anymore but just to clarify what that is for supplies and technology on ninety six thousand seven hundred and ten dollars will be spent on our transportation delivery routes that we did last spring for community service there is and forty two thousand four hundred thirty six dollars for child care hourly wages that uh were identified as being solely due to that coveted time period and so for fiscal year twenty there that amount will be um coded to the cares esser funds the remaining funds for care's esser will happen in fiscal year 21 and hopefully there will still be some as well still available for fiscal year 2022 if needed as we talk about gear as i mentioned we're not doing any for last fiscal year because all of our extra chromebooks that we purchased came in after july 1st as the spring we really made use of what we had available in our you know storage and other needs that we um we may have been holding those machines for in the classrooms we we sent them all out to everybody and so we made that happen for last spring and we did not purchase anything at that last minute because frankly there was a there was also an issue of being able to receive them in time so our order actually was received after july first and we are now in a position where we are one-to-one ratio at this time um the total cost of that purchase that was related to the chromebooks necessary was 420 000. you can see that's a larger amount than the gear funds that are available so we'll code 295 665 towards gear and then the remaining amount of that cost of chromebooks we would consider as part of our cr fund crf allocation and i'll talk in a moment as to why i say it and the way i did there may be another means to cover those funds and we'll talk about that for our cares dakota county in early september we did share with dakota county our enrollment numbers and specifically those numbers of students that we know to be residing within dakota county similar to what we had done for scott and i'll talk about that in a second but the group of dakota county superintendents also met prior to september and they they discussed how would we utilize and what is our need um when it comes to something that is a shared need for the county as well as the school district and that's where it was determined that child care and internet connectivity are the two main things that are most problematic for our families and so with that in mind we asked for a an allocation to be determined for each school district within dakota county through the funds that they had received through cares our total request as a group of dakota county superintendent school districts superintendents and their school districts um is eight million three hundred thirty three thousand four seventy seven and then as we take a look at what was our specific request 585 650 was intended for child care reimbursement for the period of march through november and technology connectivity is 35 280 we are still awaiting a determination from dakota county as to how and if there will be an allocation of funds through their cares funds for scott county in september of 2020 we we were notified that fifty one thousand ninety four dollars would be allocated to our school district so we have already identified the cost there related to child care in the period of march 1st through november 30th is what their allocation allows us to spend it during that period of time so those those expenses have been identified and um they're basically at the same sites that are located and serving our families that are in the scott county area so this works well um the expenditures uh we just need to show them a proof of evidence of that and uh in their required format so we'll be doing that in october then lastly i want to talk a little bit about our cr funds um our coronavirus relief funds this allocation is 2.7 million dollars september 26 is when we had received approval from mde of our proposed allocation application and we had submitted a budget as well now we can work on that budget with mde as far as adjustments that may be required but what that meant to produce the necessary documents to that point was a review of all of our expenditures thus far and then an estimate of estimate of what it is that we would anticipate before the end of december the challenge for us is we need to make sure that not only do we incur the costs but we also report them and receive the funds reimbursed back down through the system all by december 30th um because it's a little different than in past where you have time to make that paperwork and stuff happen you got to have it all done by the end of the end of december for us to be able to receive the funds two projects were identified that did require pre-approval of even submitting the application so we did do that those two projects will address another layer of protection to our which would include ventilation filters within our hvac systems across all our schools and a second project was identified to address our front office and our health office protections for employees in these spaces as i mentioned the funds needed to be need to be com used and everything completed by december 30th our budget that we submitted is laid out in this format so you can see kind of how we're planning to spend those funds the challenge for us is just sometimes you you estimate a certain amount for salaries or wages and and it might change so we want to be flexible that way and be monitoring that on a regular basis so we can ensure that we're fully utilizing this as i mentioned earlier about the technology piece for the amount that is necessary the the dollars that we've identified for those chromebooks is clearly eligible under the cr funding but if we have expenditures in other areas that actually make better sense to utilize the cr funds we will do so as we know we also still do have um some other possibilities for funding of those chromebooks if necessary but um they're clearly eligible we're just needing that flexibility of being able to is it technology or is it salaries and wages depending upon how those estimates come through to actual all right dakota county or sorry dakota electric grant we received a grant from dakota electric 25 000 has been received for the use of bringing our internet connectivity this will fund a hundred families during our 2020 2021 school year um so that that's very helpful to us and then additionally they they they added in an extra two thousand five hundred dollars as a bonus and that we have received towards our covet 19 costs incurred in delivering food to our community families so we really appreciate that that generosity for our fiscal year 2019 2020 as the audit is still in process the final impact of the fund balance is going to be in our report to the school board in the audited data on november 12th and i will say though that we are anticipating the actual results are improved from the budgeted projections so we'll share more about that at in november our assumptions for the school year of 2020 2021 and beyond this is something that is going to be with us for a while as we anticipate that the impact to um of cove at 19 on our finances will probably go through 2023 fiscal year for example unemployment costs that we're incurring now they become an adjustment two years down the line on the levy and so when you incur expenses higher than what was estimated two years ago then um those actual expenditures they um they result in an adjustment then later down the road um so at this time we have not heard of any probation to our current year fiscal year funding uh there is concern that possibly some of our funding formulas might be adjusted down um we haven't heard that for certain yet either for the current year there are lots of upcoming conferences and sessions that are related to covid and cares funding and even our cr funds for example we learned of one just today that's being held next week so these are these are topics that are constantly changing and we're just wanting to stay um stay in tune and make sure that we're accomplishing not only the necessary deadlines that need to be met but also making sure that we're maximizing the use of these funds as best possible for the for the future for fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 23 at this moment we would anticipate utilizing zero percent increase on the funding formulas not knowing exactly what the impact is going to be at a state level and how that's going to flow down through um on the legislation so that is the plan at this time for next steps um we're wrapping up those journal entries for last year we're monitoring our current your budget and actual expenses as they relate to the crf allocation and we'll be completing those necessary steps for the esser and gear applications and budgets and that concludes my report thank you very much lisa board members i will open it up for questions comments director hume yeah i just can you hear me yes i was curious to learn a little bit more i think it was slide 11 about the hvac ventilation improvements and employee protections that are like what what are some examples of that i guess is what i'm curious about somehow i knew that would be a question so i have up on my screen the email that we had sent um so i wanted to have it up because this gets a little technical but what we found is that we've we know that our ventilation system that we have is up to par and it meets all the requirements um what we did though is we did take a look and and brought in a consultant just to kind of take a look at things and help us to define what it is that we could do as another layer of protection and we found that if we were focused on the main offices in our health offices we would be looking at what it is that we can do to improve that air quality and as a result there's some research and the upgrades that are recommended is a needle point bipolar ionization which reduces the viruses spores and bacteria in the air so it's a special filter process that's placed within our actually within our vends in our hvac system and it does that then it ionizes the air and further um eliminates and reduces those viruses spores and bacteria so that is the um project that you see listed there in the first first bullet that one sorry everything has to be completed by december so yes very soon got it thanks and we're trying to do it at all of our sites and so that's they're hard at you know there's the planning of the project there's getting all the equipment ordered and then installed sure and then the second bullet is regarding our front office and health areas and it's pretty much the um kind of plastic barriers that you see and and finding a way to make that a little bit more permanent in those in their settings great thank you you're welcome uh director shots i believe you were next thank you um thank you lisa i um i know this is a lot of work in a really tight time frame to take um to find and take advantage of these funds which are um outside of you know what we're used to for funding opportunities so i appreciate you um and your diligence in finding them and um working through what those um what the funding is and the requirements and i um i didn't know that we had a kind of a dakota county consortium for um deciding what that the that child care and um access were kind of priorities but you know that makes that makes perfect sense i mean those are the certainly the two areas that go across um across school districts um and the needs that we have so that's um that's a really nice um shows really nice cooperation between our districts um in dakota county so my um i just want a clarification on slide four or page four where it talks about the funding updates it has esther and gear are yet to be submitted and so everything else this is march 20 to september 2022 so we these are the two areas that are not don't are not done are not due in december everything else is is that right these are the longer term projects yeah actually do the due date for um these applications for the current fiscal year is march um so it's a very unique situation um however these applications we have the application all ready to go it's just fine-tuning it we're wanting to make it as close to possible as to audited numbers so that there's absolutely no no adjustments to the previous year so it's just a matter of getting that finalized and then um submitting it okay and then these are the two as you described here and is listed here and the purpose are much broader than the kind of i guess the local grants or the um as the county grants are um they have a much more expansive scope of funding than the other ones exactly and that's where we're we're really taking a look at the cost that we've incurred in identifying now where's the best fit for this to make sure that we are maximizing the use of the funds available to us right and then so for the esther then this has a list of one two three four five six seven eight ten items here is this some um some money will go to each of them we have we have some somehow calculated what what that money and how that money is allocated between each of those 10 items it's kind of a lot of items to fund yeah these this is these are items that are taken straight from the application information and allows for us to use any or all so we may not choose to use all of those different items but this is the breadth of what that those funds are able to be utilized for okay and we don't have to state that in the application what we're going to specifically use them for when we when we submit that application we need to be particular about the essentially we're marking all of those areas simply because as we go through there might be some hourly wages related to this or to that and so we ended up as we went through the application and preparing it we're marking them all because the other thing about this is as we move into 21 we also include our non-publics as well and so they may they may choose an area that we didn't for example so we want to make sure it's all inclusive okay um okay so we're just some assigning some dollar amount estimated dollar amount to each one of these areas and is there flexibility and but there's flexibility in what that ultimate number turns out to be yes yes yes so this is like the broad list of you know this is where you can spend it and take your pick of where you where you're finding it most needed and then there's the um budget application you submit to say here's how we're going to plan to spend it in this fiscal year and the dollar amounts we anticipate and then as we move through the year we can adjust that so that it more accurately reflects what our actuals are and then when we submit our actuals it's just like our federal grants that we do and they reimburse based only on our actual expenses okay perfect that helps very much thank you very much sure thank you director schatz uh director courier oh dear thank you um lisa i just wanna express my gratitude for the page where you took all those abbreviations and gave us the codes and sometimes we don't do that and i don't and as much as i've been in education all of these years i printed this page off so as i went through and and read your report i referred back to this to keep it straight so thank you very much for this page any other questions okay i just have i just want to second the gratitude uh really appreciate um the education finance is not simple to begin with and kovit just adds another layer and um so being able to pull this information together and make it relatively easily digestible it's just just really great thank you um i guess just i had just one clarification um which you had already covered and i just want to make sure i understand so basically in terms of like we're very fortunate to have a tech levy yes and where we can what i'm hearing you saying is that where we can we will try to direct the cares funding that could be used for technology um elsewhere so that we're maximizing the other areas that we might need to provide services and support and kind of use our tech levy specifically for technology rather than using the cares funding for technology when we already have a way to pay for it right because your technology levy um that we receive on an annual basis that is available as a restricted fund right so as we've talked about our goal is to utilize those restricted funds first before we do general funds so we have expenditures that are necessary for covid that are otherwise going to use general unassigned fund balances uh we'll use the crf funds first right and yet if now i'm down to a point where okay i've got those all addressed and i don't have any other needs then then i can look at you know what's the next layer and so technology is that next one we go to because we also know that we have plenty of technology needs and if we need to we will absolutely then make another order but we know now that those orders are also months out got it thank you appreciate it um all right um i think we will move on to the student representative report um comey welcome hello can you hear me yes okay great um hello board for the past month and a half students at bhs have been readjusting to hybrid in the virtual academy though it's been tricky at times with connection failures it has been a relatively steady transition an amazing subject that multiple caring teachers have brought into our virtual classroom is a discussion of race through racism i've personally had many teachers assign assignments and lead inclusive discussions on the current events of racial profiling systemic racism and police brutality my class was even lucky enough to have a discussion with mrs baker on her and our experiences with racism it's been such a great learning experience for many that weren't informed prior to the discussions on the other hand multiple students have voiced their concern about the load of work they receive they feel overwhelmed with work family life college applications act prep and on top of all that school schoolwork our student and body hopes that teachers will become more informed with our hectic lifestyles at this point in time and accommodate their workload with our current lifestyle thank you and that is all for this report thank you very much mccomey next uh we'll go to our superintendent report dr battle thank you chair alt and directors of the board tonight i want to highlight a couple of partnerships that have already or will provide opportunities for students to find and pursue their pathways the first is a grant through the minnesota department of education for 80 000 that will support our pathways model at elementary level by engaging students and supporting staff in the area of computer science the funding which could be continued for two years and we may receive an additional 200 000 is especially intended to help identify students and underrepresented groups who have a talent and interest in computer science the second partnership is the with the greater twin cities united way in which a pilot group of 15 burnsville high school students participated and earned money in a four-week summer internship and sustainability program the students receive relevant work exposure and experiences which is a core tenant of the district 191 pathways model at the high school level as part of the experience students identified their pathway interests interviewed employees in that career field developed a plan of action to accomplish their goals published a video on the importance of workplace skill development and also created a professional resume they also completed online modules that helped them better understand workplace competencies like attitude appearance dependability integrity and persistence mentor teachers supported the students throughout the program and at the end of the summer students earned a certificate of completion that is included in their portfolio providing these experiences and removing barriers so all of our students can have them as a part of what it means for us as a pathways district so i want to thank the department of education and greater twin cities united way all of our community partners and i especially want to thank kathy funston our director of partnerships and pathways for her work to develop and maintain those partnerships for the benefit of our students so as you see we are continuing with the launch and implementation of pre-k 12 pathways that concludes my report for tonight thank you very much dr battle next we will go to board member reports any board member reports director holiker thank you dr battle and members of the board i am writing this to inform you of my intent to resign from my position on the board of isd 191 effective at the close of this needy when i ran for the board back in 2018 and i had two children in school full-time now that i have two more little ones both under 14 months and a much fuller plate i feel that i can't properly devote the time and energy needed to be an effective member of this board because of this i feel that it is in the best interest if i step down i've had such a wonderful experience getting to work with all of you and to know you on a personal level thank you for everything you have done for me i appreciate it more than you will ever know thank you jen it's hard news to receive and we understand um i'll make an exception um given this unique nature of your report board members um do you have any comments for jen i'll just say jen you and i joined at the same time and it's been a pleasure getting to know you and i think i texted you this you'll you'll definitely be missed and we'll miss you and we wish you nothing but the best in the future director shots um yeah jen i think you um had an amazing start um to the to your tenure in the board um you just came on running and really made a lot of valuable contributions and um we will miss the babies on zoom so yes really thank you uh director tester yes jen just like scott said i think the three of us are all new together as board members and um i have value getting the opportunity to know you a little bit better um get to see her two new children um and um more importantly just your your voice and your activism on this board has been valuable um especially in the committees that you have represented and served and going through what i would have to say um and what people have told me this is a unique board experience for two for the two years that we've started as board members and that you've handled that through all of your growth personally with your family very gracefully and appreciate everything that you've brought to serving our students i know you will continue to do so even though you will not be at all of these board meetings thank you leslie uh director courier yes thank you jen thank you for all of your work thus far but looking ahead i hope you reconsider and join our board in the future um because children do grow up and you have been such a great board member so far and given this experience you can take this forward and build on it and return and even with more experience and more wisdom and come back and contribute even more so thank you for your service but we're looking forward to you possibly coming back so thank you and best wishes thank you dede eric well john thank you so much for the time you put into this board um you know is in any group of people um there are always people that are tend to be more uh outgoing and and verbal and outspoken and and others that are a little bit more quiet and you know i think it's a surprise that you typically fall into that ladder apart from often but um i got to tell you there's a number of evenings like leaving i went home and i thought you know jen turned her mic on and said something that just i had not even thought about it was very insightful it was it was right on spot and i i was always amazed with the input you had that you brought to the table so thank you very much um the hardest part about service and volunteering and helping out your community is um it can become overwhelming and i totally understand that and the best thing you can do for yourself is and you know is to know when it's time to say no and step back and take care of yourself and your family so i think you're making the right decision thank you very much for your time the service of the sport and this community thank you eric theresa did you want it did you have anything you wanted to say yes thank you chair all so first i want to thank you for your service and your faith in me um to select me as superintendent first and foremost you prioritize children and because your children are part of this community i was especially moved that you put that faith in me and so i want to thank you for your wise stable counsel i also want to thank you for seeing me and knowing i had a different lived experience when shortly after the killing of george floyd we had a meeting and the first thing you wanted to know was how are you um because when he called out for his mother you and i both were very touched by that in a different way so i wanted to thank you for that and i'll miss you and i hope you know you're a member of this community so just thank you thank you all i did with help prepare a brief statement um jen i just want to give you my personal thanks for your service to this board to the district and to the 191 community it's been a pleasure to get to know you and to work with you over the past two years as others have already mentioned i don't think you could have picked a more important and more demanding time to serve in this in this role we've had laughter and we've had tears facing the kind of challenges many boards may not see over decades or more i know all of us have appreciated your thoughtful questions and insights your positive attitude and your collaborative approach as we navigated those challenges together this board has made difficult decisions and we did a better job because you were here with us so thank you for your service and please keep in touch you are still here we're still all here and coffee shops are open so thank you all right were there any other board member reports nope okay oh i almost forgot i'm sorry it's remote and i wanted to present you on behalf of the board with a little a bell um we can figure out how to get that to you um there is an inscription on the base um honoring yours your years served here and um it's inscribed with your name so thank you again all right on to the business meeting starting with the consent agenda although board action is required it is generally unnecessary to hold discussion on these items in the event of board member wishes to discuss an item that item will be moved for separate consideration is there anything that board members would like to move for separation seeing them i will take a motion moved by director chester second second seconded by director courier um ms candy would you please call the roll esther i courier i holwigger i hume i miller i schatz i alt i and the most in the carries next on to new business we will be starting um taking action on awarding the sale of refunding bonds with lisa ryder executive director of business services and jeff steeley with ellers thank you welcome jeff thank you i'll start off jeff um with just a little intro to the fact that we sold bonds today that jeff is going to give us information around and so there i just want to make sure that all board members are aware that there is a sale day report that was added this afternoon to the board book so you should have that available to you as well and that's the data that jeff will be covering and then um maybe after his report then um if you would like for me to read the recommendation um i could do that at that point all right so jeff i'll turn it over to you then so that you can provide us with the information we need to know about the sale of bonds today all right thank you lisa thank you for having me it's pleasure to be with you tonight um as you know uh we sold bonds today for the refunding of your 2011 a bonds those were issued back in 2011. in the amount of 16 or 16 million 575 000 those are alternative facility bonds uh so we refinanced or refunded them today with the sale of these bonds and we received four bids on it the winning bidder was bny mellon capitals out of new york and uh the their bid had a true interest cost of point one seven percent so um the high bid was one point four six percent uh so all four were very good bids but we're seeing incredible rates right now um the lowest that we've probably ever seen it's it's just kind of crazy out there on tax exempt bonds right now so congratulations on the timing because that worked very well for you so um i gave you a pre-sale report it's in your board packets and uh here's the bottom line so the resulting uh savings to the taxpayer um is 2 million 242 000 um that represents a 14.1 net present value benefit and it has been a long time since i've seen a 14.1 percent net present value benefit that is extremely high so just kind of go through um the report uh quickly here if you look at the attachments um page one you can see byn melon is the winning bidder and the reoffering yield is actually the true interest rate that you're receiving on each one of those maturities each each principal payment or maturity has its own interest rate so 0.24 for next year's uh principal payment all the way up to 1.35 percent those are your true interest rates on those bonds uh and again each one has its own uh interest rate so you'll be saving money from 2022 through 2030 and of course that money is going directly back to the taxpayers this is not money that's freed up for expanding or spending on other types of expenditures instead it is a direct uh savings to the taxpayer and it's almost 250 000 a year for each of those years uh so other bidders um hilltop of dallas texas baird al milwaukee and morgan stanley out of new york those are the other bids that uh rounded out the um proposals so taking a look at it the next page we're issuing 11 million 485 000 worth of bonds uh the reoffering premium the premium is uh money and i think we've talked about this before money given to you up front and the way it's generated if if you look back on the winning bid you can see an interest rate of four percent and that drops a three and two but the reoffering yield is much lower what what happens is you're actually going to pay that higher coupon but they give you money in order to do that why think of it from an investor's standpoint it really isn't that attractive for me to invest or buy a bond that pays me 0.23 right so the underwriter who buys it offers it to me as a retail buyer for four percent earnings and now that's a good return in today's market but in return i don't pay just par you know face value for the bonds i actually pay like a dollar five for it or 105 percent so that extra five percent goes directly back to you to offset the difference between the actual interest rate you're paying and what the market interest rate is so that million dollars uh 1 million 477 actually goes back towards savings for the taxpayers so that's a little bit about premium um just hit a few other items here you can see on the attachment page five that is your new debt service that's something that uh lisa will be very interested in you can see the principal interest payments by a date there and then of course the big news there it is on page six about 250 000 a year savings for about two million two and a quarter million dollars in savings so you have a resolution and oh and i also include the rating report for anyone who wants to read how your district was was rated i won't go through that but um it's the credit opinion from moody's um you have a resolution from you that resolution awards the sale to the winning bidder so the recommendation before the board is that the board of education adopts the formal resolution awarding the sale of general obligation alternative facilities refunding bonds series 2020a in the original aggregate principal amount of 11 million 485 000 fixing their form and specifications directing their execution and delivery providing for their payment and providing for the redemption of bonds refunded thank you lisa thank you jeff i will take a motion to approve and we'll by director shot second second second by director miller questions or comments well i really appreciate that um we're doing this again that we're able to save our taxpayers um to the tune of 250 000 annually um just nice nice to have a little bit of good news like that so thank you very much um and miss kenny would you please call the roll courier i paul wager i you i miller i shots and the motion carries thank you very much thank you have a good night yes you too and uh that was our one new business item so i will declare us adjourned uh in light of uh director halwiger's uh resignation we are adjourning to a workshop for board planning and it will focus on an appointment to fill the vacancy um erin do we need a couple minutes pause between we can just pause for about one minute you