Action of the School Board Action of the School Board 09/22/14

• Maximize opportunities for early identification of at-risk students. • Increase students’ ability to cope with adversity. • With parent consent, offer co-located school-based mental health services and/or engage community mental health agencies in co-creating mental health service provisions. • Utilize the mental health consultant to provide leadership for mental health programming. • Expand community awareness of mental health issues by adding educational mental health information to the district website. • Utilize multidisciplinary teams for consultation on complex issues. • Develop procedures to follow-up with youth who have been identified as experiencing multiple risk factors and provide continued support. • Offer mental health professional development opportunities to district employees. Action items under each recommendation include some type of stakeholder engagement, a training component and an avenue to monitor or evaluate its success. Currently 24 action items (57 percent) have been completed, eight action items (19 percent) are ongoing items that have been started, and 10 action items (24 percent) have not been accomplished yet. Recommendation four has helped double the size of the program. A combination of the district’s existing budget, grant and individual health plan dollars is financing it. And as Dr. Kumar reported, families are utilizing the services. “It’s very good news that we have been able to expand,” said Tom Heidemann, School Board chair. “It’s been positive for everyone involved.” Drs. Gustafson and Kumar plan to share a mid-year status report to the School Board. The PowerPoint presentation can be seen in its entirety on the Sept. 22 agenda. Finance Board approves preliminary tax levy The School Board approved the preliminary 2014 tax levy for taxes payable in 2015 to fund the 2015-16 school year. The total levy of $92 million is virtually the same as the previous year, dropping by about $13,400, a change of .01 percent. “The board has made very much of an effort to keep these taxes level in our district,” said Chief Financial Officer Michelle Vargas. She explained that board approval of the preliminary levy sets in motion the process through which counties prepare property tax statements for property owners, which are then mailed in mid-November. The district will hold a public hearing on the proposed levy Dec. 8, 6 p.m., at Sandburg Education Center prior to the regular School Board meeting that evening. Following the hearing, the board will certify the final levy amounts. The total levy is made up of a number of individual levies in four separate funds – general, community service, debt service and OPEB debt service. The most significant fund is the general fund; its 15 separate levies cover a significant share of the cost of educating students. The general fund levy increased by nearly $9.9 million. The biggest general fund changes are an increase of $3.7 million in the alternative facility levy, which funds building maintenance and enhancements, and a $1.8 million increase in the lease levy, which can be used to lease space for educational programs and to make small additions to schools. 3 ACTION The alternative facility levy will be spent primarily on upgrading ventilating systems in five to six buildings at the cost of $1 to $2 million each. The state requires districts to provide a 10-year plan of facility improvements and to get state approval on each project within the plan. The lease levy will be spent primarily on the certificates of participation the board approved to pay for additions at six elementary schools needed to accommodate all-dayevery-day kindergarten and a new cafeteria-gymnasium project at Coon Rapids Middle School.

Action of the School Board Action of the School Board 09/22/14 | Page 3