##VIDEO ID:cRgpg7k-TW8## [Music] good evening I would like to call to order this Sona hennipen school board meeting for today January 27th 2025 please join the board in pledging our Allegiance I pledge alance 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 our first order of business is to approve the board agenda is there a motion to approve the board agenda as presented so moved thank you uh co-chair Arco is there a second second thank you director langenfeld any discussion all right hearing none all in favor of approving the board agenda say I I I I any opposed say no with four in favor and zero opposed the agenda is approved uh members our next order of business is item four recognitions uh and our kindness poster winners from across the district we would welcome uh Becky Broder associate superintendent Tom Shaw director of student services and Britt oen District social worker welcome thank you good evening co-chairs Arco and Des Shan board members superintendent McIntyre we are honored to share with you recognitions for the inoah henin kindness post contest winners tonight over three decades ago the ananin school board thoughtfully adopted a set of core values respect responsibility appreciation of diversity integrity and compassion and they serve as the foundation of our District's culture as you will witness today these values are beautifully reflected and are the artwork created by our talented students our theme kindness takes all of us perfectly encapsulate the spirit of these values I am deeply honored to serve a district that prioritize kindness and strives to embody these core values in our daily lives Tom Shaw director of student services and Brit oen District social worker will share more about the contest and our winners good evening board members and superintendent McIntyre tonight I'm joined by Brit oen District school social worker in recognizing the talent and the wonderful creativity of our 2425 kindness post poster contest winners this is the 21st year that the enoah Henman school district has hosted the kindness poster contest each year the contest encourages students into kindergarten through 12th grade in a positive call to action to counteract the negative impact of bullying and to highlight in Noah henin's core values as was said earlier respect responsibility appreciation of diversity integrity and the compassion as the basis of kindness along with our District's theme the power of purpose and this year's back to school theme it takes all of us this year's theme for our kindness poster contest kindness takes all of us was a perfect choice just as every staff member student parent and Community member contributes to Preparing our students to cross the stage at graduation every staff member student parent and Community member contribute to the positive climate of our schools through kindness kindness can help people feel more connected to others increase happiness and help prevent bullying kindness can also be contagious when people receive kindness they are more likely to be kind to others in return let's take a look at this video highlighting the project this year [Music] I'm Brit oene School social worker at Anoka hennipen schools and I'm excited to recognize the winners of this year's annual kindness poster contest congratulations and thank you to all of our participants in a henpen We Believe kindness takes all of us our students and staff model kindness in their school communities each day when we asked our students to illustrate their vision of kindness they brought this year's theme of kindness takes all of us to life we received nearly 170 entries for this year's 21st annual poster contest thank you to our participants for creatively demonstrating how kindness takes all of us congratulations to this year's winners lilan rashki kindergarten Sunrise Elementary Gabe Zuck first grade McKinley Elementary olly Miller second grade Sunrise Elementary Mavis Yang third grade McKinley Elementary Addison Bartley fourth grade Dayton Elementary Sabrine zenu fifth grade Sun Sunrise Elementary meline parrot 6th grade an NOA Middle School for the Arts Adda Hammond 7th grade Northdale Middle School Fatima Muhammad 8th grade Northdale Middle School Katie Tron 9th grade Andover High School well I just thought about how it really does take all of us to make the world a better Kinder place and I just wanted to inspire others I did like a bunch of like different parts of my poster and like one of them was somebody buying groceries for someone one of them was somebody showing sportsmanship one of them was um planting trees and like recycling it shows like there are like lots of different ways to be kind kindness really takes over a person and shows the kind of person you really are I Illustrated all of these kids going up to a kid in a wheelchair and asking him to play because I really think that no matter who you are I think every kid should be included my favorite part of the poster was making the faces cuz it like shows all around the world my favorite part of my poster is um my handprints can you show us your hands again congratulations once again to all of our kindness poster contest winners and a special thank you to Horus man for providing Kindle tablets to the winners kindness takes all of us and together we can make our schools a welcoming place to learn thank you to our staff and students for continuing to spread kindness in our [Music] schools each winner will receive a Kindle from the Horus man company and their artwork will be reproduced and displayed across the district we are thankful to Dave and Tom from the Horus man company for their Contin Ed partnership in our annual kindness poster contest we believe the benefits of kindness and when we all take part in being kind we ensure we ensure our schools are safe and welcoming thank you board members and superintendent McIntyre for your support and recognition of our amazing student artists thank you so much for your time I will call students names and they may come forward and school board members are invited to join us as we recognize our winners I'll have Dave and Tom come up right here so students you'll get a medal right here and then your prize and then you can come line up here in a row and we'll take some pictures sound good okay Lillian rashki kindergarten Sun Rise Elementary Gabe zook first grade McKinley Elementary olly Miller second grade Sunrise Elementary [Applause] Mavis Ying third grade McKinley Elementary Addison Bartley fourth grade Dayton Elementary sabrian zenu fifth grade Sunrise Elementary meline parrot sixth grade an NOA Middle School for the Arts Anna Hammond seventh grade Northdale Middle School Fatima Muhammad 8th grade Northdale Middle School and Katie Tron ninth grade Andover High School okay we'll just have everyone look up here yeah I think if you're right here then kind of along the side that would work out find a window no just snapping a lot for insurance okay [Applause] congratul thank you so much appreciate every here thank you so much all [Music] right all right members the next uh item on our agenda is item five the consent agenda uh as normal members can remove items for separate consideration and discussion if that's their desire uh otherwise is there a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented so thank you is there a second second thank you uh any discussion hearing none all those in favor say I I I any opposed say Nay with four in favor and zero opposed the consent agenda is approved our next agenda item is item six Communications delegations and petitions this is time for community members to provide input directly to the school board about issues that fall within the school board's Authority we plan this agenda item for 15 minutes minutes and our policy allows for members to speak to up to for up to 5 minutes uh but if there are several people who want to speak we will reduce that a bit to keep our meeting on schedule we have four cards so uh let's do four minutes uh each and if you'll help me keep a timer as our speakers are coming up uh I will ask co-chair to Arco to monitor the timer um if anyone else wants to complete a yellow card please do so at this time and hand it to miss kovsky so we can get you into the list uh a couple of procedural reminders our meeting participation procedures are in place to assure an open and orderly public comment section as well as to protect the due process and privacy rights of individuals under the law if speakers use specific names of staff students or board members I'll need to interrupt and and stop the speaker please remember to direct your comments to the school board co-chairs uh and members of the audience please listen respectfully if the board cannot hear our speakers we will have to reset the timer to make sure that they can be heard and audience members that disrupt this portion of the meeting may be asked to leave with that said we will begin our first speaker is Lori schultzy [Music] schultzel hi welcome thank [Music] you good evening my name is Lori Schley and I'm a resident of the school district and a retired staff member I am here tonight to talk about the closure of the child and parent education center or Cape Center the cape Center offers child care for infants and toddlers of student parents in middle school high school and the 18 to 21y Old special education program allowing student parents to continue their education the center has been open for 35 years and has worked with over 700 plus infants and toddlers in a reply letter to me from Dr Mcintyre in November he spoke about the teen pregnancy and parenting program called TPP and the cape Center as if they were interchangeable programs and stated that the changes for next year relate were related to space needs for other District programs and the level of support needed to maintain current program and providing Direct District funded daycare or transportation for children while these programs have worked together it is possible for the student parents to receive their education in one of several schools in the district but there is only one Child Care Program and is funded from a very different Source Cape Center brings in money from the inoa and henpen County Child Care Assistance programs as well as Head Start and has been self-sufficient for many years except for the cost of transportation for student parents and their child we understand that transportation is costly but many of the student parents fall under the definition of mckin vento students which receive special funding for transportation there is also grant money available for transportation costs for student parents which our district has not always fully utilized the Anoka child care assistant staff are concerned about what will happen to the students who use the cape Center concerns include the difficulty of finding alternative daycare the complexity of the county assistant application process and the inadequacy of family member care options due to stringent requirements and low compensation infant child care in inoka and henpen county is extremely difficult to find Within in our school district boundaries it has also been me mentioned that a student parent can have a family member take care of a child and still get county assistance while this is true in Minnesota the guidelines state that the family member cannot live with the child they care for so the student will still need to get their baby to that location and then get themselves to school on time also the family member that's taking care of the child will need to pass a background check as well as all other adults who live in that home they will need to pass a health inspection the person that's in charge of the child will also need to follow all of the county guidelines for a child care provider and stay current in continuing education they will need to meet all of these requirements so they get paid $100 a week to take care of that child many family members will find the process too intrusive for such a small payment or will not be available to take care of a child as they need to work a job that will pay more money per week the cape Center receives $615 per week per child no matter how they find Child Care these students will need to get their child to the Prov wrer each morning and then get themselves to school on time to continue their education you're just about a time I implore you to visit the cape Center speak to the director of the center and discuss if this decision is in the best interest of student parents and their children thank you thank you our next speaker is Carolyn Bean job it's usually not pronounced correctly welcome thank you good evening members of the school board superintendent McIntyre I am also speaking with regard to the proposed closure of the cape Center and I find it really interesting that the theme for the year is um kindness and how um it takes all of us it takes all of us especially when we're talking about a small portion of students within our district the last four years alone there have been less than 19 seniors within our cap program prior to the cap program being available more than 50% of these girls these teen parents dropped out of school as soon as their babies were born because they didn't have daycare and so it's been a success story with the last year alone we had 19 seniors 13 of them graduated three returned as super seniors three did drop out but they were likely to return to Two Rivers with regard to transportation funding is available and I don't think that it is a budget breaker when you're looking at 19 students to bring them to make it available for them to get up in the morning get their kids ready bring them to a quality daycare where they're going to receive the attention and the education that they need in order to bring them back to our school district as proposed students and then go on to their classroom work so again I implore you to look at this again it's not a huge budget breaker we're receiving money from Anoka County hanpen County um and transportation grants are available for the mcken evanel students so thank you very much our next speaker is Mark Duffy welcome thank you good evening board members and superintendent McIntyre my name is Mark Duffy I am here tonight as a constituent a social studies teacher and a social studies Department leader I am also here on behalf of all the social studies department leaders in the district at all of our high schools and middle schools I am here to ask for the impass over the new social studies curriculum be resolved in less than 2 years we will be teaching the new Minnesota state social study standards we will be doing this not because we want to subvert your Authority but because we are required by law to do that no matter what your personal opinion is on these new standards we will have to teach them period we were in the process of preparing our departments to do exactly that when we were told to stop we were in the process of choosing new texts and building curriculum around those new standards when we were told to stop now we have many social studies teachers in this District who have no idea what we will be doing in less than two years when we have no choice but to teach the new standards many of you work in the private sector if you are given a task that you know will require lots of preparation you appreciate lots of time to get things ready we teachers are much the same we are professionals who take the job of teaching our students very seriously the current impass is filling our jobs with uncertainty and frustration we feel our needs are being ignored by the very people who are in charge of this District I've heard many excuses why this is the case but very little in the way of attempts to solve this issue one of the things I have heard is that costs are concern costs really over the last two years this district has paid Educators to create curriculum which we are now being told to ignore and not use if costs were really a concern you would think that the district would do a better job using the resources we have already created in instead of telling us not to use them additionally the money for our new textbooks was allocated years ago and will therefore have no immediate impact on our current financial status so I have a hard time believing that costs are a concern many teachers in this District are frustrated by the uncertainty surrounding this issue the many teachers who have worked hard to create a new and dynamic curriculum for our students are feeling insulted that their hard work is being ignored we respect that you have the authority over the priorities of the district and that your concerns for your communities help inform the decisions that you make here but remember you are also in charge of the work we do every day to educate the students in each and every one of our schools the work you do in this chamber has an impact on the work we do every day one of the most important things I stress to every person above me whose decisions impact my curriculum my classroom is that our workplace is our students learning space when teachers are frustrated and uncertain that works its way into our classrooms no matter how hard we try do you want the best learning environment for our students or not trust us to be the professionals we are and allow us to do our jobs to the best of our ability the message we are getting from you right now is that you do not do better the students of this District are depending on you thank you our next speaker is Emily mcculler hi welcome hey thank you can you hear me okay good evening members of the board Administration and community members my name is Emily mcaer and I'm here tonight not just as a student but as an advocate for the quality of Education in our district as you deliberate on the difficult decisions surrounding the budget deficit I urge you to prioritize the most critical element of any school district our students the proposed cuts to Elementary Staffing are particularly troubling cuts to instructional coaches math and literacy interventions enrichment programs disproportionately harm students who rely on additional support yes this may balance the budget shortterm but at what cost large class sizes and reduced resources create inequities worsening the achievement Gap and perpetuating socioeconomic divides in our school while this may save money today it risks creating a ripple effect that will follow students throughout their educational Journey leading to Greater academic challenges in middle and high school and an increased need for support later our district is currently advertising specialized programs for the 2025 26 school year however that will affect enrollment numbers with families considering the benefits of these programs however by promoting these programs while cutting the very positions required for their success we are engaging in false advertising and setting unrealistic standards families are being drawn towards our district under the promise of opportunities and programs that may no longer be sustainable if these Cuts proceed this undermines the trust of our community and risks damaging our District's reputation and this isn't just about Educators in the classroom positions like the curriculum integration coordinator and other behindth scenes roles often go unnoticed but are vital to the success of all of our students these professionals shape the learning environment and designing curricula that reflects Equity diversity and yet still challenges our students academically they ensure that all students regardless of background have access to the resources and instructions they need to thrive cutting these roles doesn't just affect one school or one classroom it impacts every student in our district it their absence will a void in our educational system as elected officials you were entrusted with your responsibility of protecting and shaping the future of our students education this responsibility requires putting first putting our students first above political ideologies external pressures and even the challenges above budget deficit ask you to take the time to understand the positions you're cutting get to know the people behind the statistics ask yourself what they contribute to our schools and our students if you truly do this I believe you'll see that cutting roles essential to student growth and Equity will have consequences far beyond any budget report can show instead I encourage you to consider the cuts that have the least direct impact on students and classrooms look deeper into areas like Central Services and operational adjustments yes these decisions are difficult but they are necessary if we are to preserve the Integrity of our educational system and ensure that every student has the access to the opportunities they deserve these choices you make now will shape the future of our schools and our community please don't let short-term Solutions lead to long-term consequences let us work together as a community to find solutions that balance the fiscal responsibility with the educational needs of our students thank you [Applause] all right board members our next agenda item is seven Board calendar and District update I'll turn it to superintendent McIntyre thank you uh chair Des Shane so tonight I'll be presenting on some items of interest of the board and our community regarding activities and events we're proud of in our district and we do this to celebrate students and staff and community members who are contributing to the accomplishment of our mission which is to effectively educate each of students for Success an Noah hanapin magnet and Specialty schools have provided high quality learning options for students and this year six of those schools have earned National recognition from the magnet magnet schools of America first off Hoover Elementary a biomedic Health Sciences and Engineering specialty school located in Rapids was one of 94 schools Nationwide to be named a 2025 top Magnet School of Excellence Anoka Middle School for the Arts received the magnet school of excellence as well Champlin Bookman Park Academy University Avenue Elementary School Monroe Elementary School and Lincoln Elementary School for the Arts each earned Merit School of Distinction honors representatives from these schools will be recognized at future board meetings and in District Publications and the awards recognize the district's commitment to providing quality education choices for students and families I'm moving on to our next one prayer professional recognition week is um happening in an Noah henen schools join districts from across the state and showing appreciation for our dedicated staff members who serve our students as par Educators during Minnesota par professional recognition week par Educators serve student needs for instruction Student Activities special education individual student needs health safety transportation and many other various roles nearly all of our thousand plus par Educators also live in our communities so this is a true call for service for these dedicated community members par professionals serve a vital role in ensuring the best possible educational experience for our students and helping provide the best possible schools for our community so just a heartfelt thank you to all of our par Educators this week and really every day of the school year for your service to our schools and our community and ultimately our students board members as you know we've been um busy at the legislature and there's lots of activity here in the last week the school board and District leadership met with our area legislators on Wednesday January 22nd to share the district's legislative priorities in advance of the upcoming session the district was also invited to share testimony with the Senate education policy committee and the house education policy committee that same day actually we're back testifying again on Wednesday of this week the district is fortunate to be served by the representatives who engage with the district and um really lean into the legislative issues and value the P perspectives of the district as they discuss the educational issues during a tough um Financial time that we're we're in Anoka hennipin schools will celebrate academic growth in reading math and English language acquisition for over 3,000 students districtwide at recognition ceremonies in February the top 10 Achievers from each elementary school middle school and special education program will be recognized at the ceremonies certificates of accomplishment will be shared with all students who achieved the honor at their schools the district will be live streaming the ceremony on the YouTube page and website so please tune in if you can attend in person and finally I know work continues to happen in setting up for the inoka henin Education Foundation as they're planning for the annual fundraising Gala the northern Stars celebration which is set for Saturday February 8th at Bunker Hills Event Center in Rapids anyone interested should visit at ah ef. us or af. US for tickets and additional information and I just need to point out with how dist the district's grateful for the efforts of the Anoka hanapin Education Foundation and the many corporate and individual donors who support the learning needs of our students here in the district this concludes my superintendent's report for this evening thank you thank you superintendent McIntyre members any questions all right our NE our next agenda item is finance item 8A the annual audit we welcome Aon neelen partner with mmkr welcome thank you very much I appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening uh as mentioned my name is Aaron neelson I'm the independent auditor hired by the board to conduct this past Year's audit for the year end of June 30th 2024 uh you've received before you three reports the annual comprehensive financial report for which your District submits for two awards for the certificate of excellence and financial reporting you also have received the special purpose reports and the management reports so tonight we put together our PowerPoint presentation really from some slides that we've included within the management report so nothing to surprise the board members with tonight but just to facilitate our presentation so with that I'll make my way through that document or presentation and if there's any questions at the end he'd be happy to try to answer them so with that we'll get right to it the audit results for this past year on the district Financial audit or that Aur uh We've issued what is known as an unmodified or a clean opinion on the basic financial statements so meaning those financial statements are fairly stated as of June 30th 2024 and the results of operation for the year then ended are fairly stated uh we noted the just the the change this past year so we're continually implementing new gasby standards and guidance this past year there was a new standard that impacted Capital assets and when you purchase significant amounts of smaller items uh computers and Furniture tend to be what we're running into at our school districts to be capitalized as a group where individually one of them would not meet your threshold um but your District successfully implemented that standard again this year with the requirement this year internal control and compliance over the financial audit uh that's our report on government auditing standards in Minnesota you're required to have your audit conducted in accordance with government auditing standards and is also a requirement of your federal single audit a or audit act uh to be tested so you receive well in excess of the $750,000 threshold of federal Awards requiring that extra audit um but that must be conducted in accordance with the yellow book or government auditing standards and we're pleased to report as you can see we had no material weaknesses or instances of non compliance with this past Year's audit and our testing with regard to that a couple of other broad areas so the Minnesota legal compliance guide or the Office of the State Auditors legal compliance guide there are seven broad categories bid laws claims and dispersements uh uh conflicts of interest U many areas to be tested Ted and then within each one of those areas several questions that we're following up on and testing and we're pleased to report we had no instances of non-compliance to report with regard to all of that testing and then the last area which I mentioned a little bit was the single audit of federal Awards so uh your federal Awards get a separate additional audit if you're over that threshold and we've issued what is known as a clean opinion on your ca or the schedule of expenditures of federal Awards with regard to the compliance and internal controls again we were pleased to report we had no material weaknesses or instances of non-compliance required to be reported to you for this evening so very good results uh exactly what you're looking for with regard to that testing and completion of the audit results as I make my way through the rest of the slides it's really some information that we've Consolidated or pulled together uh from over the years of your financial statements and simply information we pulled from those documents so a key factor in funding education in Minnesota is the number of students you're serving and we include the adjusted ADM or that adjusted average daily membership uh within the presentation here this evening this past year you served approximately 3 37,5 36 students as measured under an ADM basis uh that represented a decrease of about 2058 medium or about a half a percent compared to the prior year on the next slide we have here for the general fund financial position we've included some key components when we look at the financial position of the districts when we're working with them the unrestricted fund balance so I'll get into a little bit more detail on the next slide with total fund balance but this is the unrestricted component of fund balance cash and Investments and then expenditures that are often used as a measure the size of the operation so as you can see as your size is grown the district has continued to maintain a stable financial position for each of the years as presented here this slide uh is our attempt to show you a breakdown of a further deeper dive into the fund balance or the equity of your general fund so the general fund this past year uh you can see comparison from 23 to 24 the total fund balance while it did increase our percentages are calculated on the total expenditures for this past year so as that expenditures have grown there was a slight decrease in the percent of each of those components so when we look at the various components of fund balance you can see we've got nonspendable that's largely made up of or in your case entirely inventory and prepaids that were purchased before the end of the year so they're really identified for that purpose that they were purchased for restricted fund balance you can see there was an increase in that category of equity or fund balance this past year and those are largely dollars primarily restricted by state requirements that you receive the funding for them operating Capital as an example long-term facilities maintenance uh basic skills uh this past year that increase was largely in basic skills funding and I had also noted uh capital projects Levy for this past year you saw an increase in those two categories as key changes from the prior year then everything else will fall to an unrestricted category of fund balance however within that then we've separated them between assigned and unassigned and the assigned fund balance then represents resources for which the board or an individual the board has delegated the authority to have set aside those for a particular purpose uh another example of an assignment of fund balance is when you're adopting your annual budget uh right now you're halfway through your next fiscal year and uh as we close the books after the fiscal year we knew you had adopted a budget where your deficit spending so one of those assignments is a deficit to cover that uh deficit for subsequent Year's budget so knowing that if it were all the fund balance you've already really set aside some to balance the budget this next fiscal year and then after that everything falls to that unassigned fund balance so I know one of the key policies for the school board and the organization is maintaining that fund balance goal and the goal has been to maintain a or strive to maintain a 10% unassigned fund balance so one clarification I want to make here is you did continue to meet that goal uh your policy reads that it's 10% of your operating budget expenditures so our table here we include in our management reports is to be consistent with all the districts we audit so we're using total expenditures when we measured your unassigned fund balance as a percentage of operating expenditures so we're backing off some of those restricted expenditures the what I just mentioned for operating Capital long-term facility spendings that will uh range up and down depending on the number of projects you did again meet that 10% goal that you have in place for your organization [Applause] I have a couple more slides for the general funds so the general fund revenues this past year you can see we have a comparison of budget to actual to Prior year uh just to share for the audience at large the total revenues for the organization of an Noah hopan schools in total amounted to 652.5rpm 2% better or over the amount anticipated in that final budget so coming in within 2% of what was anticipated when that budget was approved that amended budget and then about 12.1% over the prior year so as you can see by the graph you can see very minimal changes in the budget to actual variances there uh the changes from the prior year you can see a little more significant or dramatic change from state sources when you look at the pr year column to the current year column and that was largely due to some funding improvements in the basic formula allowance uh special ed saw some significant increases to help provide funding for that cross subsidy of general fund resources this past year and then there were some new categorical grant funding for new programs that um were approved to provide additional funds for school districts this past year uh the last comment I generally make uh when we look at this graph and is consistent with other districts we work with as well is the concentration and where you're riant on the state of Minnesota for a majority of your dollars to educate students within the district so for your District this past year uh State sources amounted to 74.3% and Then followed by property taxes at 18% and then the federal and other category following up with about 4 4.6% and 3.1% uh that other category capturing investment earnings so seeing an increase in that this past year with some improved investment earnings which we haven't seen for many years just the last couple with improved investment results my last slide for the general fund uh as you can see is similar to the revenues we've broken it down by the object categories the salary benefit purchase Services when you look inside of your act for document and the the in statement for the general fund we break it down by program category so Elementary and secondary regular instruction special education people support services and so on so a different look when you compare it at this presentation level so for 20124 total expenditures of the general fund amounted to $44.20 210 of 1% on overall expenditures compared to budget so coming in slightly under budget so as a conservative auditor we like to see our revenues come in over budget our expenses held within what was approved by the board and the Appropriations you've allotted for your educational expenditures and other general fund needs this past year uh when we compared to Prior year that was about 7.1% over the amount uh spent in the prior year for the district's General funds so the other comment we share and you're similar to other districts and salaries employee benefits really driving uh the spending within the general fund as anticipated to educate students in our state and within the general fund uh really that driving factor in the budget variance as well in the change uh 78.3% of your salaries and benefits is the general fund expenditures uh came in about 7.6% um over the prior year and about 8% under the anticipated the budget so similar results of what we expected and we talked about in total there so that wraps up my discussion the general funded is the primary operating fund so we do spend a majority of our presentation with that uh as you can see uh as we discuss the accuracy of the budget versus actual for both uh the revenues and expenditures are key component that we look for when we're completing our annual audit and making our inquiries so um hopefully that is providing you comfort and the information you're getting on a day-to-day basis or on a monthly basis to the school board for the financial information you're receiving moving on to uh I'll I'll make a couple of comments here on some of the other funds of the organization and then wrap it up in total uh the other governmental or operating funds we uh focus in on the Food Service your community service special Revenue funds both of these funds saw an increase in their year-end Equity balance or fund balance at year end uh the comparison of size when we were talking about 644 million for your general fund each one of these funds had about 28.6 and then 28.7 million of activity uh so we stick to just showing you the fund balance component for presentation this evening the next slide I'll comment on a couple other funds that we don't have you also have a capital project fund where you had your bond proceeds that were approved by taxpayers of the district you're nearing the end of the resources that were available from that issuance uh I think you were down to about the last $3.8 million but that fund operated as anticipated this past year similar with your debt service fund uh to pay the debt service payments you Levy your property taxes and receive the related Aid components there uh that fund operated as anticipated as well but both of those funds the equity find in those are restricted for their respective purposes for Capital purposes as well as Debt Service funding the internal service fund slide I have before you really is to share the district's operation of self-insured activities for your self-insured dental self-insured health and then the self ured workers compensation plans that you have uh as you can see uh you're similar to other organizations we are running into with Rising claims costs uh you have been managing your rates and have implemented increases as you can see uh and even with the Improvement and investment earnings specifically the last couple of years uh hasn't been enough to really get over that hump of the deficit spending of the net position in each of the p last three years that you've seen here so we just encourage you to continue to monitor that but I know and speaking with your management they're well aware of the trends that you've been incurring and then my last slide to wrap up to this point we've been talking about the individual funds which is how we believe that you're operating the district on a day-to-day basis with the budget process looking at the individual funds however the look you get with those funds is when on a current short-term resources Focus so it doesn't encapsulate and capture all of the long-term assets long-term obligations of the organization uh the focus within the general fund for instance is to find out how many spendable resources you have that you can utilize to put to work for educating your students and other uh needs that you have within the general fund and goals the entity-wide statements allow us to do just that to capture to capture the Lo long-term capital assets the long-term obligations so what we've done is then consolidate all of the funds of the organization you can see that Top Line there total fund balances the governmental funds so what we talked about with the individual funds an overall increase of about $7.4 million this past year taking it down to the total net position increase that amounted to about $3 31.3 million of an increase so on a short-term perspective you saw an increase in your Equity position on a long-term basis you also saw an improvement on that entity-wide basis however one thing I do like to point out is you can see a significant portion of that increas is in that net investment and capital assets so while it's nice to see an increase there it is tied up and locked up in your infrastructure assets so uh you've purchasing Capital assets you're paying down debt at a faster Pace than you're depreciating the building so that's what we would anticipate uh usually you're paying your bonds off in a 20-year period your buildings will last well beyond that time frame so you depreciate more the useful life so you see an improvement in equity but it's not readily available to be spent on programs uh the restricted is for the increases we talked about in long-term facilities maintenance operating Capital other areas that we talked about basic skills and then everything else Falls to that unrestricted category so the change in unrestricted fund balance of the general fund rolling in the internal service funds and then the changes in pension and opip obligations come into play there so with that I know I went through a lot of information your financial statement is a heavy document that uh carries a lot of information as well so thank you thank you so much members any questions for our auditor director hulman I have just one question um I'm looking at slide four I believe and it says it's a slide that has general fund expenditures and I see purchased Services could you just tell me what purchased services are or what Things fall in that category so uh that can be Supply uh purchase Services can be uh Outsourcing of uh Transportation costs when you have to buy your transportation cost Professional Services and other components like that that you have to hire so supplies of materials are pretty straightforward it's it's kind of a catchall for the uh Professional Services and as I said like contracted Services as well thank you members any other questions uh superintendent McIntyre I just want to say thank you uh the Auditors are with us for days and weeks and really go through everything in in detail as you can imagine and um with our wrestling with the budget you know the variables that keep moving right whether it's enrollment or the funding we get from the state the contract settlements the mandates all those things that we know are behind all this I want to give a shout out to our financial team um I I hope the community and and I know the board knows this as well and sees it but to not have any findings as we're going through some really challenging Financial Times means our accounting is really tight which I hope gives you as a board and our community members confidence that as we work through challenging times you're getting accurate information and that the the audit really confirms that you can trust that information as we make some really tough decisions as we move through the challenges we're facing um so this just an important point to point out whether it's general fund whether it's our our dental and health um cost whether it's our food service or you know community service or even Transportation it's a wide ranging um lots to manage so for uh Michelle Vargas and our our great team to to do all that and um thank you for the reports it really confirms that we're accurate with our reporting and our and our accounting of our our resources and I hope that gives taxpayers confidence in in our work so thank you thank you that yeah thank you superintendent uh director langenfeld would you recommend if someone is watching this from home and has a question who would they direct it toward they can just anyone I would say usually we say our Communications Department but if they find any one of us we will get it to the right uh to the finance department and make sure we get a response back to that because you know we're we're wrestling with some hard things here right so usually our our uh Communications page as different ways to reach out to whether it's the board or just directly to our team yeah superintendent MC you picked up on the piece that I I wrote down as a part of the presentation and that I just wanted to reiterate as well for the Community listening uh this really this this external audit that's hired out not a part of our district but coming in spending weeks looking at policies procedures internal control systems to make sure that all of this data is accurate really does provide Comfort over the validity of our financial reporting that's received throughout the year and it um is used every day by us to help make decisions to guide decisions that we're making so thank you for that and thank you to our wonderful finance department for their hard work all year to get us these clean audit results thank you take care all right members we are nearing our last board agenda item uh board correspondence and communication is next uh this is our opportunity to share happenings in our communities report on committee assignments or any other items of interest does anyone have anything that they would like to share I do so I'll just go oh okay go ahead director leld thank you I I'd just like to give folks a little bit of an update in terms of the Minnesota School Board Association work that's underway um recently we had the leadership conference and as the district director um serving for Centennial St Francis Fridley Columbia Heights Spring Lake Park and in Noah henpen we had a district director meeting as well during the conference and I'd like to share a few insights and updates for everyone just to make sure everybody's on the same page we're looking forward on March 10th to do our day at the capital with uh msba and also the Minnesota Association of school administrators is a great day to be there collectively as a team I'm hoping people can join us down there um what I like is how they're setting it up this year and I know we talked a little bit about it at our legislative evening but the fact that the morning will be dedicated to hearing from speakers meeting at the Rison and having conversations networking learning with and from each other and having Minnesota education policy folks come and finance folks speak with us the afternoon will be all scheduled appointments so if people are have work schedules that maybe they could work around it would be really great I think to especially um to be there for your meeting with your constituent uh legislators as well so and I know one of our uh Senators already offered their office that we could throw all our stuff in if we get down there as well so that's coming up on March 10th also just to remind everyone the Friday chat room msba Friday chat room is available to all members um to catch up on what's going on each week at the legislature um things move quickly and former School Board member from monoka hopen Denise Dietrich is now the government relations person uh running that effort in between she also served in the House of Representatives so she brings um very clear straightforward information um for us and if you miss it it is recorded um it's Friday mornings from 9:00 to 9:30 it moves very quickly but it also for those who may not be able to join at 9:00 um you can certainly listen to it at a later time finally I just wanted to highlight one more thing uh during our our meetings um with the district directors at the State Convention I was afforded the opport opportunity um in the room uh co-chair desan joined as well as superintendent McIntyre and other board members from the districts I referenced earlier to share insights and their wisdom success and challenges and leaned into many of the same issues that we are challenged with in terms of mandates and so forth and there was also a really good discussions um that began in the room to talk about the work of school boards and how we sometimes think we are unique and we find ourselves that not everybody has Universal thinking around issues and and just leaning into how other school districts are working together collaboratively to ensure that students have what they need and our focus is really wanting the best for students and I believe that we are there but it was it was very interesting to have that conversation and also then to carry that later there were a number of work sessions and I know uh co-chair duchaine and and I attended one that was really focused on a workshop breakout session focused on superintendent and board relations and how um the story was very interesting and that it was a a person who had run for the school board and how that particular team built trust together over time and it was really um a heartfelt story um that some of us could possibly remember and relate to what happened began in Co and then um the the the board member then decided to run because she didn't agree with what was going on in the district and they eventually came to Shared shared values really focused in on the love for the students in the school district and how they could work together as we think about going forward as noted at the last meeting we are the guardians of the public trust and I know one of our board me our speakers tonight really talked about let's work together I thought that was a really critically important point one of the priorities for the Minnesota School Board Association this year is to speak in a unifying voice for public education so as we think about and celebrate School Board recognition and that's come up a couple times to speak in one voice is so vitally important and um there is a video out that is made by students from across the state speaking about how School boards impact their lives and if you've not seen it I encourage you to take a look at it it's very uplifting it's powerful from the perspective when we hear from students it's very heartening and it's very real and so it really puts the reason why we do what we do around around that responsibility but also brings in that value of community so if you've not seen that I invite you to to look at that and also recognize and I just took the statement off the website um that msba is is um posted that talks about helping our communities better understand and trust and value the power and potential of public education systems really bringing that benefit together um regardless of where we all come from and our varied beliefs I I'm proud of the fact that we as a board have come together to recognize that we are supportive of every child we have the privilege to serve that we work hard to get the trust of our community in most importantly recognize that we serve as the Frontline of our public schools in our community and we all want and share the best for every single child that we serve so that's what I have to share let's speak with one voice thank you anyone else have anything they'd like to to share or I'll go quickly um I had the opportunity to attend our District's stem fair this weekend and saw uh over 200 middle and high school students presentation who uh these students were eager to share their hypothesis their ideas and tests the observations that they had and then the conclusions that they reached it was really exciting to see the energy in the room at 7 o' in the morning when they were getting all set up and and arranging their displays for the public to walk through and view so uh encourage everyone next year if you're able to get out there and see these presentations they they've got some great ideas that they're trying to figure out and wrestle with uh using the tools of science uh and lastly I just want to give a a shout out in a story again about the power of our students and just how inspiring they can be uh the Champlin Park girls basketball team had a youth night where they invited all the youth basketball players to come to the game uh at that game the pep band was there and there was a large student section mostly freshman boys and there were one or two that you could see near the beginning of the game come up gather their friends they got everybody standing together in a section starting cheers and just that that that power of positivity and being an encouraging voice really brought such a great energy to to the game they won in overtime by one point so it was just an exciting finish but I'm just so grateful for our students showing that type of leadership and really showing us um that it just you know it only takes a few to do the right thing and do something exciting to make a great moment so thank you to them that is it from me all right our last agenda item is to adjourn do we have a motion to adjourn a motion to adjourn thank you co-chair Arco do we have a [Music] second thank you director langenfeld any discussion all those in favor say I I I any oppos say Nay with four in favor and zero opposed we are adjourned at 7:33 thank you [Music] e e e e