e
oh her mic's awful Sarah spear here John Ward here okay let's stand for 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 this meeting of the Brainard School Board is being conducted in accordance with Minnesota statutes 13d d02 this meeting is being recorded access to the recording is available on the school district's YouTube channel do I have a motion to approve um the
agenda madam chair yes director Ward I'd like to uh make a motion to amend the agenda to include under number 10 committee report um just a report from the students serving on the Comm board committees
11 so number under number 11 is our current agenda and report on the students participating in Schoolboard committees is that right that's my motion do I have a second I'll second any further discussion
we'll need a roll call vote Stephanie edman yes Randy Hyman yes Sarah spear yes John Ward yes Jo Breen yes okay now I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda for this evening that's all we think we needed is
that all we need yeah okay perfect all right we have some recognitions to report Peter if you want to start with the first one as you can tell by the signs around and so forth we are celebrating um Minnesota school board appreciation month and I have a short statement to read in honor of the school board appreciation month excuse me we would like to take a moment to express our heartfelt thanks
thanks for your dedication and service to your school to our school district your leadership commitment and hard work make a lasting impact on the lives of our students staff and Community your decisions help shape the future of education and we are truly grateful for the time energy and care you in excuse me you invest in supporting our schools thank you for your continued
advocacy guidance and wavering support we appreciate everything you do okay we'll continue on congratulations to Brainard High School teacher Nicole harmer for being selected as the 2025 Innovative teacher of the year congratulations to the Warrior dance team for earning their section 4 AAA championship in Kick and section runner up in jazz congratulations to the
warrior boys Nordic ski team for winning the Central Lakes Conference Championship and the section 88 Team Championship congratulation to Warrior Nordic skeers Tristan cubista and Joe Newman for winning the section 8A relay Championship congratulations to Nordic coach Ethan yo for being selected as the section A assistant coach of the
year congratulations to Warrior Nordic SK Analise beard for winning the section 8A individual Championship congratulations to Piper Grillo for being a warrior Alpine Ski State qualifi qualifier congratulations to Warrior wrestler Ari pakar for winning the section seven and eight championship at 124 pounds Ari is the first girls wrestling section champion in school
history she went 4 to0 this weekend now we'll move on to public input a member of the public can address the board during this time comments will be Li limited to three minutes complaints or allegations against students or employees may me may not be discussed due to data privacy complaints or allegations must be submitted in writing to superintendent Grant the
Board of Education superintendent will not converse with guests to address the topics discussed at this time so first we would like to welcome Doug Kern to come and give your public comment yep all I got to say is that that singing and the band playing all you saw was Talent that's all you saw was talent and uh one of the things that
that uh I am I'm proud of is that you don't have to look for race color or Creed you just see Talent um the uh uh the thing that I I I missed a few school board meetings but the previous chair made a comment that there is no Dei being pushed in the school district um you know when when I look at there's different things that I look at on the agenda there would be the equity task force uh if there was no Dei we wouldn't
need a task for us and so uh that's one of the issues that I have is is that that's on the agenda the other thing is on this this um agenda that I see here we have the approval of the third and final reading of msba policy 906 Community notification of predatory offenders uh a year and a half ago we we went through the whole book thing where you have pornographic books in the schools and according to the state statutes you know providing pornographic material to
miners is a a felony um and I still don't understand why that wasn't addressed and why they weren't removed and the content that's in those books is more pornographic than anything I've ever read some of them books and I still don't understand why the adults in the room didn't see that they should have been pulled so um people ask I had different people ask me why are students why are parents T pulling their kids from the schools I want to see
the school district succeed I mean this school district is huge and it needs to succeed with everything that we have um part of it is you know the adults in the room need to step up and readdress these books in the schools uh because it wasn't just the few that we read a year and a half ago it's bigger than that so that's my comment thank you thank you Dad okay now we would like to
call Art Lord Bach to give your comments good evening at the last October meeting there was a member from the community expressed her uh opinion that someone who believes in school choice should not serve on the board uh my opinion is exactly opposite I think
all of you should believe in school choice um another lady that night talked about critical thinking on facts let's do a little critical thinking I talk about some premises first parents have the responsibility for educating their children parents will choose the best way to fulfill that responsibility Schoolboard members have the task for making the educational system the best it can be and I have to believe that's why you're on the school board because you think you can make a difference and make the school board this
school district the best it can be if the educational system is excellent then first parents will choose to keep their children in the local school second parents that have chosen to leave the local school will bring their children back third parents from other districts will bring their children from failing schools to get an excellent education for their children if give them back the right to choose so if you are successful in what I think
you believe you'll have people beating down your doors to get back in this District okay now if you don't believe in school choice um then you must believe that the government has Authority and power and right to force parents to send their children to government controlled schools most likely failing schools to indoctrinate them in whatever idea the government want the children to believe to be true for the government's benefit forcing parents to send their
children children to government controlled school is a practice in communist type governance we you go to China Russia Venezuela North Korea they control the kids because they know the education system is how you control a population in a country to get them to do what you as a government wants them to do now this is just not my opinion um I assume you probably know who condalisa rice was so are you for school choice or not
we really have a choice system education if you are of means you will move to a district where the schools are good and houses are expensive if you're really wealthy you will send your kids to private schools so who is stuck in failing neighborhood schools poor kids a lot of them minority kids so how can you say you're for civil rights how can you say you're for the poor when you're condemning those children to be in failing schools um Robin D'Angelo wrote this book
nice racism she also wrote the book uh White fragility has to do with the fact that she believes well she says how Progressive white people perpetuate racial harm her premise is that every white person is a racist and you cannot be a racist okay that's what she believes um and she wrote consider for example the ways which schools are funded through the property tax base of the surrounded Community Mr Lord Bach your
time is up okay but thank you we'll be back thank you think about it your um assignment read this from next time IND Doctrine your children to death thank you and I'm sorry but I have to leave for medical reasons so you have a good evening I'll watch the rest on YouTube thank you thank you now we'll um move to the approval of the minutes we'll start with approving having a motion to approve
the organization school board meeting from January 13th 2005 move do I have a second second any discussion we have a roll call vot Kelly uh Randy hman yeah there spear yes John Ward
yes Breen yes Stephanie yes now I would entertain a motion to approve the regular Schoolboard meeting minutes from January 13 2025 so move second any further discussion roll call Randy Hyman yes SAR spear yes John Ward yes
yes Stephanie yes all in favor okay all right now moving to number eight on the agenda the consent calendar is there anything of significance we need to report no on the consent calendar okay I would entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar I'll make a motion to approve do I have a
second I'll second any further discussion um chair yes have we the house proposal is a done deal correct pardon the house proposal the trade y okay I just wanted to clarify but that's we had a minimum bid of 107 okay and they came in at 100 okay good any other discussion
Madam chair yes Mr Ward director Ward so I just want to I just want to point out that uh the donations we received this month are over $10,500 that's really significant and there are also many in kind clothes and food and uh things like that to help the uh students of the of our school district so we so much appreciate the generosity of our community thank you director
Ward any other further disc discussion okay then I'll ask for a roll call vote Sarah yes Don Ward yes Michelle Breen yes Stephanie edman yes yes all right now we move on to a presentation from the American Indian parent advisory committee I would like to welcome the representatives from the American indiaan Indian parent
advisory Council known as APAC to give you a little bit of background APAC serve in an advisory role to districts and help to ensure that American Indian students are receiving culturally relevant and Equitable educational opportunities Apex are critical to the achievement and success of American Indian students Statewide and their presence input
and knowledge is key to strengthening district and parent part Partnerships prior to March 1st of each year the APAC committees meet annually to discuss whether or not they concur with the educational offerings that have been extended by the district to the American Indian students if the vote is one of non-c concurrence the APAC provides written recommendations for improvement each year to the school board and the
the board is required to respond in writing to each recommendation within 60 days we will hear from the members of the APAC committee at this time give her
one thank thank you thank you thank you oh thank you thank you
end this chair try to get you to sit in there
good evening everyone my name is Kayla Schubert hello my name is Charles black lance and I a parent of three children in the school district I'm
a parent in volunteer you guys don't have to there's another microphone is that what you're looking at yeah you don't have to move at this one right here I'll pick it up you're fine okay we don't have to move this I guess this right here I'll move this normal be fine talk normal IND um I am a
um grandfathered a pack member um concerned citizen of our community and volunteer um my name is Mary and I'm a Community member and volunteer
good afternoon or good evening again my name is Charles blacklance and I'm pleased to be a member of APAC committee and I'll start off our presentation to you all thank you for your time thank you superintendent Grant and all of you school board members for uh giving us the opportunity we understand that when we start off in this way of offering first the AA that elevates this conversation and that
what we ask for is in this good way is to be heard and in Partnership support positive growth in the district this is the way that we have begun every year for the past seven years in that time this request has extended Beyond this boardroom calling calling in families to join this work families that have enrolled their children because of this positive dialogue volunteers and State leaders that have
provided immense support to the district and the indigenous students we have also started with the with the things that we are thankful for in the district the Apec acknowledges our district for their achievements and accomplishments in the building of relationships Community Partnerships and growth this year we would
like to share the these seven items M to all the school leaders for fostering space for indigenous education program a special thank you to Riverside and the Brainard Learning Center for going above and beyond in supporting indigenous education for all students when we uplift native students we uplift all students MCH we appreciate the inclusion of American Indian family representation on the hiring committee
for the indigenous liaison and coordinator M we have noticed the dedication in Schoolboard representation in our APAC meetings we understand that this is voluntary and how it can be time consuming we thank the board members who who volunteered to share their space or share our space and learn with us Big W to directors Sarah Spear and Michelle Breen for your years on
our committee and to the new representative director Hyman M we are thankful for our student liaison Max and for the district supporting student Representatives on committees mwit for hiring of the new indigenous education liaison chassid and isab Mig for supporting the implementation of dreamcatcher in our school district and for engaging in
our indigenous education staff in school leadership and training a special acknowledgement to Joel Heather Kayla Shelly Tammy Shayla and Chassidy M to our new indigenous Education Direct supervisors Andrea Rusk and Jessica Jessica haaji as well as Jenny barnhard the BL blca the BLC clerical staff for your unwavering
support of indigen education programming and staff Shayla and Chassidy your dedication is deeply appreciated thanks again for the opportunity to speak today I'm speaking as a parent um who specifically chose to come to this District um because of the Indian Ed program here um so to continue from Charles we intentionally try to walk into this room keeping our feet well grounded in our responsibilities walking this Earth these responsibilities include the teach ings
of the grandfathers honesty love courage truth wisdom humility and respect when we come we have heard that some view this as contentious or take our honesty and Truth as individual criticism we always try to walk with the courage and humility to respect and love each other in this process we are only sitting opposite of you because of the way that the system is designed not because of it being oppositional in our hearts and Minds The APAC exists out of leadership of those who came before for
us to establish the statutory requirements of having collaboration and advisement from the caregivers of indigenous students in this District the critical nature of our relationship is reciprocal each year the APAC Community is asked to vote on whether the district is following all the statut statutory requirements and meeting the needs of indigenous students through our responsibilities to try to live by the seven teachings we are compelled to respond with honesty and Truth in this vote we have provided
the rubric and the recent 2023 updates to the state statutes that we are using to evaluate the district the district does not have to wait for our official vote to determine where the district lies in this work this is and always has been the district's responsibility to follow State statutes we appreciate that the district leadership had completed the rubric in years past we have not we have not been informed that the district has continued to evaluate their progress
independently we would appreciate being in positive collaboration towards generating the type of education that nourishes Bright Futures for all children we know that there are individual efforts and individual apathy this is fundamentally about system change that is rooted that is generated from the roots and supported from the very top leaves of leadership Beyond individuals how is this work being held up for those who want to support children and how is it being corrected with those that perpetuate the system knowingly or unknowingly we have
V quoted non-c concurrence unanimously as a committee and have a series of recommendations that we see as interrelated just like the living pieces that make up a healthy Forest the APAC has voted on four recommendations of of many these are recommendations that have been that have been deemed important to the APAC and resolvable over the next year however it should always be acknowledge that there are many statutes and sustainability practices that the district could be understanding and engaging on their own
this year we are delving deeper into each of the four recommendations our goal is to provide the new school board members with essential background knowledge number one state stat State Statute 124d 25 subdivision 9 clearly states and hiring for all positions in these programs referring to
indigenous education and specifically American Indian Language and Cultural education teachers school districts and participating schools shall give preference to and make affirmative efforts to seek recruit and employ persons who share the culture of the American Union children who are enrolled in the program The District or participating School must provide procedures for the involvement of the parent advisory committees in the recruitment screening and selection of
applicants this statute has been in place since 1977 historically our committee has had to Advocate to ensure this legal requirement is upheld as demonstrated in past hiring decisions regarding indigenous lays on and coordinator positions last year new statutory requirements introduced the need for our district to offer an OJ language and culture course however indigenous represent
atives from our committee and program were not included in the hiring process for this position despite their efforts to engage in discussions when we sought clarification on the district's approach to meeting State Statute we encouraged challenges in receiving clear and accurate information despite meetings with the former superintendent and the IND individual now referred to as the Director of schools we were unable to reach a resolution that supports the required engagement ment of
the APAC committee we appreciate the district's efforts in implementing this course in alignment with State Statute however we have concerns about the consistency of how statutory requirements are applied additionally there are questions about whether the hiring process upheld fair and inclusive practices as the position was posted internally with a job description that appeared to align closely with a specific candidate the statute was not
upheld when the American indan parent advisory committee APAC was not included in the hiring process for the American indan language and culture teacher this was more than a missed Pro procedural step it was a missed opportunity to honor both the legal and ethical commitment to indigenous students and families that this statute is meant to support number two as we stated
each year our American Indian parent advisory committee APAC votes on whether the district is compliance with State Statute and effectively serving indigenous students to make an informed decis decision we must submit we submit a data request to assess key student outcomes most years we have struggled to get access to data required for an informed vote vot we established a better process with previous leadership however recent changes to the
data request policy implemented without our knowledge continued to create barriers that prevented us from assessing once again critical information in time for this year's vote it is important to highlight guidance from the Minnesota Department of Education mde which states for the APAC to make informed decisions the district must afford the committee the information and data needed to make sound recommendations this information included
includes but is not limited to testing data attendance data graduation rates and student count information although we were eventually able to analyze some of the requested data through additional voluntary efforts outside of our regular meeting times we identified significant discrepancies that raise concerns about data accuracy and representation uh the first one special education services in initial data provided
stated that 66 out of 2011 indigenous students received special education services however upon further review we found the actual number to be 99 out of 293 meaning nearly 34% of the indigenous students reive special education services this discrepancy resulted in 92 additional students not being accounted for disciplinary data the district reported only four total
disciplinary actions for indigenous students during the entire 2023 2024 school year however dis discussions with our parent committee identified a greater number of known disciplinary actions that than was officially reported Additionally the data provided showed that all four reported disciplinary actions were for female students only yet we have direct knowledge of at least one recorded disciplinary response involving a
federally and state identified indigenous student who is male this single Omission alone calls into question the accuracy and completeness of the disciplinary data fastbridge data we were informed that fastbridge assessments do not currently recognize demographic information limiting our ability to analyze outcomes for indigenous students School climate and comfortability data we were guided to utilize the Minnesota report report card
but we were unable to desegregate and view due to small cell size meaning we had no measurable Insight on how indigenous students feel about their school experience attendance data the district reported that last year 39 out of 222 indigenous students had five or more absences however given the inaccuracies found in other data points there is a lack of confidence in the reliability of this information out of the
six key data points we requested two were found to be inaccurate the special education and disciplinary data one is not currently being tracked and another is unable to be assessed by our committee the fastbridge demographics and the school climate comfortability and one is difficult to verify due to ex existing inaccuracies that was the attendance data given these findings we urg the district to evaluate and improve proove data accuracy
transparency and procedures to allow for timely access so that APAC can fulfill its role in making informed decisions strengthening this process will Foster trust accountability and ultimately better outcomes for all students in the district our third recommendation is about statute 12a 42 and it states on
indigenous people's day at least one hour of the school program must be devoted to the observance of the day as part of its observance a district May provide professional development to teachers and staff or instruction to students this means that the district had two primary options for meeting the requirement one provide at least one hour of professional development for teachers and staff on the topics outlined in the statute or two ensuring every student receives at least one hour
of instruction on these topics on which was October 14th 2024 the last indigenous people's day to support this effort an indigenous people's Day committee was formed including Shayla Melissa Robin and APAC represent representative Michelle this committee first convened on September 13th 2024 giving them less than a month to gather resources for the entire district and even less time for teachers to prepare meaning instruction well
the statute was enacted on February 2023 providing an opportunity for proactive planning The Limited preparation time this year posed a significant challenge despite these constraints there were not notable successes such as the sixth grade at Forest View Middle School which has already integrated a responsive curriculum that aligns with the statutory requirements however feedback from
Educators indicated that many feel unprepared to facilitate conversations about indigenous people's day due to the lack of background knowledge resources and professional development ultimately the district did not meet the statutory requirement of 1 hour of instruction per student this year due to the not due to the lack of effort by teachers but because they were not provided with the necessary time resources or training to implement the content effectively since the
district opted at this time to have teachers deliver the instruction rather than offering professional development our recommendation is to strengthen the support for both the indigenous people's Day committee and our teachers providing Educators with the tools training and resources they will need to help ensure successful implementation moving forward the fourth recommendation for the past seven years the responsibility of educating District leadership on Minnesota state statutes has largely
fallen on the APAC as volunteers parents Guardians grandparents and Indigenous community members we take this work not because it's our job but because we deeply care about the children in the future Generations despite our ongoing efforts leadership transitions continuously set us back forcing us to restart this educational effort time and time again to create lasting progress
we strongly recommend implementing sustainable leadership training practices new and existing leadership should be equipped with the knowledge of past efforts and remain upto-date on changing statutes ensuring continuity in the compliance and commitment as dedicated volunteers we willingly give of our time but it is unsustainable to repeatedly re-educate those entrusted with the responsibility of upholding the statutes and serve our students equitably a proactive
and Sy systemic approach to leadership training would not only be supported indigenous students but also strengthening the entire District's ability to Foster an inclusive and effective educational environment last year a statement was made by one of our school boards members that we do not give them credit for what they have done we have always LED for the past seven years acknowledging the good work of the district has done the
question was then posed why if you will continue to give an f right why to continue if we give an f but we repute with this voting in compliance when the district is not following State statutes and not doing the best by our indigenous students is like continuing to water a plant with polluted water because that's what's available you might be following a routine but the plant never truly thrives it just barely survives lives
under the conditions that stunts its growth true change requires not only not just going through the motions but addressing the root issue replacing the polluted water with what the plant actually needs to flourish MWI Biz and thank you to the APAC members for this um very detailed and helpful feedback um as I mentioned before the district and the school board have 60
days to respond in writing to each recommendation so we'll be taking that under advisement okay thank you okay and do you want these back or do yeah I mean unless
you tell us what we should do with them I do that okay thank thank you they said
okay we now move on to new business and we have a presentation from um Marcy Lord and Mary REI good evening and I do want to I know you just said but introduce Mary reer REI she's our lead auditor she's been on us on our um district for go yeah and
she'll she'll um lead the present presentation but I'll just chime in as needed please feel free to add definitely open dialogue as you did um so we issued the audited financial statements all of the mdna letters and stuff are in there we like to just do the high level presentation on the PowerPoint a little bit easier um quicker sometimes too better to understand we do comparative year over-year a little bit easier to see where the
district has been and where you're at so we'll start with the PowerPoint here page two um require communication so our primary responsibility as Auditors is to write an opinion on the fairness of the financial statements presented tonight um we do review internal accounting controls right we want to make sure that there's controls in place over revenues coming in expenditures going out so we test those if there are any issues noted we would definitely report back to the board on that we
can't test every transaction obviously just too many going on so we do some detail level transaction testing and then we do some higher comparisons right current year to budget current year to Prior year if anything looks out of the ordinary then we do more tests over that as well we do a special test of your federal expenditures you spent over 750,000 so we do detailed testing of those we select programs based on standards um and this year we just tested one we'll go over that
in a little bit significant accounting policies those are outlined in note one kind of gives you a brief overview the numbers and what they mean um and then no new accounting standards for this yearin bound document remember there's going to be management judgments and accounting estimates we try and get those numbers as accurate as we can but some of those are still truly just estimates so no disagreements
with management here um a little bit delayed in the audit we work hard with Marcy to get this turned around as fast as we can I just received final trial balance in December so we tried to get it moving as fast as we could once we got that done so financial statements when we come in to audit we don't have to correct any and there's no uncorrected adjustment so really the the information you're getting on a monthly basis is accurate you can
make informed decisions on those that information so overall the summary of the audit results the financial statements we issued an unmodified or clean opinion so highest level of assurance that us as Auditors can give um one material weakness just preparation of the financial statements so we come in and we do actually draft those financial statements Marcy does a detail level review she just doesn't have time to check in all of those numbers back in uniform guidance that is your single
audit where we single out the federal Awards here we did test the education stabilization fund this year and there were no findings noted Minnesota legal compliance we test about a 25 page checklist to make sure that the district is in compliance with all laws and regulations and there were no findings noted there so now we'll get into some numbers again feel free to stop me um at any time if you have any questions so far
left is going to be 2024 far right is going to be your 2020 information you can see revenues coming in at about 9 96.7 million expenditures at 93.7 um so overall your net change in fund balance was a positive3 million if you go down and you do your comparisons actual to budget revenues came in over budget about 1.9 million when you look in detail that was mostly going to be your interest income which can fluctuate
greatly from year to year depending on the market um Student Activities Revenue came in higher than expected and then medical assistance also fluctuated um more this year as well total expenditures at 93.8 budgeted for 95.2 came in positive or under budget by about 1.4 million when you look at that there was quite a bit of projects
that were not completed through um long-term facility maintenance and capital funding there so if you go up to that section where it says unassigned fund balance nonspendable and restricted restricted you can see increased from prior year a lot of that additional funding that came in um was restricted right so really hard to spend that money with short notice um so Marcy will keep an eye on that you obvious OB want to try and
spend as much of that first as you can and then dip into your unassigned you look at your unassigned wi up about 14.9 million the district policy is to have 10% which is a little low um for district your size um but right now um you're currently at 16% but you really want to strive between the 15 to 20% range if you can in that unassigned un
balance oh and as you guys know our current deficit is about three million so um there is a revision coming and that could change but if we looked at what we're projected to go into deficit we're going to be about right where we what the money that went in for 2324 is going to come right back out so I don't want you to think that going to be built
building did Mary did you say that our um we have 16% fund balance right now correct so your unassigned fund balance compared to your expenditures correct okay okay again that will fluctuate with your amount of expenditures and then your amounts of unassigned as well right okay given year okay M chair so the
next page yes director Ward when uh Mary when you look at the un uh percent of unassigned fund balance do you take into account um um State mandates like unemployment insurance and school lunch and things like that um and relate it to the fund balance at all so this is just general fund so your um Food Service would be in fund to so we wouldn't do that um and no we only take into account the money that comes in
that's restricted or assigned um that we exclude then but we do include all expenditures thank you so general fund unassigned fund balance per average daily membership now as you we'll um get into the presentation a little bit but average daily memberships did decrease un assigned fund bance went up so you're going to see that uptick this year
for that um just with with the increase and the decrease in the student count here then the next page is your percentage of expenditure so you can see that it fluctuates year-over-year um 1920 being the lowest then you built up a little bit 23 and 24 so the next page is your food service funds here you can see revenues
increased by about increase from prior year up to 4.8 million remember that um fully funded right from 23 where students had to pay 24 is fully funded through state and federal so your increase is expected increase in participation and then that drives up your expenditures as well up to four 3.9 million there so when you look at your budget to actual revenues came in over budget about 266,000 expenditures
over by about 448,000 so you budgeted for a loss of about 22 and you came in at 83 loss so actually positive there your fund balance at 1 Point um about 1.2 million is um pretty much where you need it to be um not excessive in any means and um you can see the last two years you've decreased but it hasn't been really
significant um food service is very restrictive on what you can spend the money on a lot of times you have to get approval for outside expenditures outside of wages and food cost okay they did open up some of the restrictions like now we can buy tables which we never were able to before but it's still very restrictive the majority of our um districts are finding ways
to spend on that fund balances next page is your community service fund here with revenues about 4.2 million expenditures at about 3.9 million um so you your budget revenues came in over budget about 383,000 expenditures came in under budget about 244,000 so here you budgeted for L about 34 2,000 came
in at a positive 285,000 um So within community service you have quite a few um restricted fund balances in here and if you look at all of those they are all positive um so really operating the programs as you should just continue to monitor you don't want to build up the fund balance too big um I know I was talking with Marcy and some of that is you're you're increasing programming without increasing the cost because you just can't find the re resources that you need right now um so there's
a little bit of balance there but overall um doing as it should operating the way it should what is community service fund what is it our community ed programs so School Readiness Early Childhood family education um uh any of anything you see in the booklet that you get the the GU Community Ed guide all of that is in community ed gotcha thank you so I'm confused will you say that again again um
our you said that our fund balance we need to be more careful about our fund balance because what are we doing right now we're we're increasing it and there's there's rules about same with food service you can't have too much they don't we don't want to be negative but we can't have too much either and how do you spend it down by just offering more programs buying onetime purchases because if you do if we add staff that permanent and we we Whittle it
down then we're going to have to cut that staff right so we have to get creative with some one-time per purchases if possible should we get restrictive for community service right okay so we don't get cut back the following year correct I wish my budget worked like that I know and and like Mary said so it has that line that says restricted fund balance and that's several categories so right for example Early Childhood family Ed is doing well School Readiness we are not making money on
so that one is a zero right now in fact if it was allowed to go negative it would be negative by how much I believe this year it would have been around 10,000 so it would it was the first year that we have went into the negative that's not bad though 10,000 out of a what $120 million budget yeah that's not bad no so you know you're doing what you need to do right you're offering the programs that you need to um your funding them and then you know if
you got the probably resources that you needed at the time um you wouldn't be where you're at but it it's nothing really to be concerned over just continue to monitor it you're in a lot better spot than some districts with their programming being negative and trying to find a way to get out of the hole so the next slide that top is your debt service fund within there is your OPB fund as well um which was paid
off uh in 24 revenues at about 16 million expenditures at 16 so pretty much break even um you do have to Levy 105% of those principal and interest payments the state will then come in and look at your fund balance and if you have too much they will adjust as needed um so you are collecting what you need to in principal in taxes to pay your principal interest payments capital projects fund been going on for a while here um so it's good to start to see that wind
down right about a $4 million balance left there um and as those projects get wrapped up and um additional items get completed you'll see that eventually get down to zero this is 181 yep blueprint yep because I thought all that money was gone spent we're getting there we're getting close that's a lot of money to spend yeah it was a 20 almost
235 million dollar project so we're very close I think we'll both be glad when it's done yes a lot of work Jeff will be happy too perfect so here's the revenues overall for the district obviously just pointing out that the state is your biggest piece of funding there um last year was at 62% again revenues increased in your state a lot due to your food service fund and then um increase overall in
your funding Federal went down you were at 10% last year at 7% this year again you're going to see that come down again for 25 because your um ESF money is going away all of that covid money is being spent down so the next page we just like to show your bar charts right so you can see year over year where you've been um so the state aid you can see increase we talked about that the increase in
funding and then your food service there and then Federal gradually going back down and just wanna go ahead um I'm sorry I didn't get in quick enough but going back to sources of revenue give us an example you of other local what that's uh what is that uh 6% 6% of our revenue is other local so what is that interest um donations
grants Student Activities Student Activities that's which is fundraising um medical assistance Revenue it's it's kind of a whole bunch of hodge podge stuff okay thank you and the one thing I was going to add on this slide was the state that line did go up but I again I want to emphasize that that a lot of that was restricted money so here is
the breakdown of expenditures instructional meaning um expenditures back in the classroom at 52% up from 45% last year but again kind of skewed with your sites and buildings right with all of your capital projects going on last year was 22% this year is down to 10% um I expect that to come back down as well as you spend out the rest of those funds um Debt Service about 15% admin and District support um when
you combine those together you're at about 5% normally I see that between five and 10% so you're actually on the low end for that admin I've got oh good four questions I'll just kind of roll them all into one yeah what is the district support what is pupil support what is instruction support and what is instructional
and how much overlap is there between these four categories as far as duplicity is concerned so instructional support is going to be your direct classroom right um so the state breaks down codes based on these categories um pupil support that has uh for example Food Service as a part of that and I can give you guys more breakdown of each of the categories the uh the other one that you said instructional support so that's support of
the classroom but it's not directly in the classroom what would be an example of that um for example a um uh like our our curriculum Department right they're not directly in the classroom but they support our teachers so that's not District support that right so District support then District support then is business
services you know HR um superintendent office School Board okay what's pupil support pupil support is for example the um counseling Food Service where it's not um how does Food Service get into this good question that's how they break out the category by MBE it's supporting kids yeah exactly it's supporting kids Transportation yep Transportation thank you
yeah transportation is a big piece of that in P support and I I need to correct myself because I said superintendent is in District support that's an admin and director of teaching and learning and all that is part of the instructional stuff right yep that's the small piece instructional support the big piece instructional is is direct classroom um wages and salaries of teachers and things like that going to be that one
yep it's just nice to know what uh a state gets really creative and how they do certain things I can share you the eup fars manual if you'd like only if I'm really really really bored even then not me you not recommend it perfect so this
this slide here just takes all of those categories and puts them over the years for you can so you can see how they've changed year-over-year obviously sites building and equipment we expect that to keep coming down um and then as you look at it right the percentages aren't as skewed on this one um so instructional is going up that's going to be biggest piece of that is going to be your wages and salaries um and benefits
there so next page then is okay now we take those expenditures and we drop them into buckets of what what are their objects right so what does that make it up of so you can see your salaries obviously going to be the biggest piece of this at 47% employee benefits at 22% um your purchase Services anything you're um Contracting out is at 11 % and then your principal and interest is
your bond payments at 15% there purchase Services is what again any type of like contracted service so think of uh snow plowing repairs and maintenance any type of a contracted service would like Northern Pines be in yep that would be so the state um requires us to have 17 digigit account code and the account code tells the story and this is one
part of the story so the first part's what fund and then the site and then the program and then is it restricted by federal money and then what are we buying and that's this part okay that something you got on a spreadsheet I wish I could fit them all on one spreadsheet imagine that okay just a question yeah we have over I think it's almost 27,000 account codes 7,000 yeah oh
goodness if you really want a good read no accounting was not one of my uh strong suits that's crazy so then again here just the same um expenditures by object just giving you a chart you know where youve been and where you're at currently again we talked about your salaries and benefits they did increase from um prior year there if you read the financials it came from your contract settlements there a lot
of that is your increase in salaries it's so then we'll get into your average daily membership um obviously what drives the school's revenues here um again you can see the drop about 5,800 students this year um down from your high from 2020 about 6500 um so kindergarten and others usually I have seen the majority of that that category actually decrease um for this
year for a lot of districts you increased a little bit um basically maintained from last year um Elementary and your secondary are your biggest drops here and the others includes Early Childhood because I know probably thinking but our kindergarten numbers are going down they are but we have Early Childhood in that line as well and I know um d director ederman is new adms are how much we get paid and
it's based on how a kid is attending so if I'm a kid and I'm here all year it's 1 ADM if I'm a high school kid it's 1.2 and if I'm here half the year it's 0.5 or6 if I'm a high school kids so they take how many days that they've attended and convert that to adms then you get paid so much per student being in the district and those numbers get finalized to when I after so we have to do several submissions and
they all talk to other districts so if there's dates overlapping or um data conflicting all that has to be cleared up errors warnings so we don't get data probably until September or October that's clean data from the following y yeah okay yeah we have to know all this we're not going to know it catch up yes sure and that's why I in there obviously is estimates right so we're going to we're going to
book the the best information that we can so then we just like to look at your resident students versus your non-resident students so basically open enrollment right the kids going out versus the kids coming in um so right now dropping in both of those categories residents and non-residents from prior year and then here's your actual gain or loss from your open enrollment
so non-resident students coming in at 347 resident students that you have here that are opting out almost at a thousand there so you're actually gradually um losing more and more students each year 652 this year mam chair yes director Ward Mary could you could you tell us that uh if these numbers um open enrollment and just a minute I got to go back to the other one
average daily membership details uh residential student resident students and non-resident students can you tell us uh with the school districts that you work with um is this how does that how do these numbers compare with other districts that you you work with is it the is it a is it a is it an indicator of a lot of school districts or is it you know just you know what I'm saying yes yes it's actually pretty common um we have seen quite a few districts
losing and dropping in numbers um yes they are opting out either to Charter Schools home schools um you know kind of just those other areas online right so you're you're going online if you're not online with the district you're online with some other district and so they get that count um so no this is not uncommon I have seen it in probably about 90% of the districts that I work with how about uh how about college and
schools or um or postsecondary op um does that does that play a factor into these statistics as well so our PSO kids are they we claim them so they're not um showing up as you know open and rolled out or anything like that thank you do we claim the college and the school students as well okay so then this
is those two categories combined Administration and District support so what we like to do is just provide some um information so the dark blue is going to be the district the blue is going to be your state average so the state puts this out every year obviously a year behind because it takes a while to compile all the data and then we chose to do the orange or the um yellow here districts with 8 M so
um size over 4,000 so somewhat similar now once you get over 4,000 it's pretty vague of of where you're going to end up at um so we like to just do the comparison there again you can see dark blue line pretty consistently under average um of both of those increase in 23 24 just naturally going to happen with your decrease in 8ms there so then the next page is your total instruction support per ADM again
almost each of these years is actually over those averages so really dumping that money back into the classrooms so the district is self-insured so we like to just give a brief update of your self- Insurance Fund here um so all revenues and expenditures coming into this fund and then your fund balance as well um so overall your net position increased a little
bit um from last year again kind of hard to estimate you know what the expenditures are going to be um so you kind of have to base it off of Prior years experience if you go to the next page then we just like to show you kind of where you've lined up um year-over-year with that net position with your revenues and expenditure do you guys track with the insurance do you do
you track whether it's an employee or dependence as far as the money that we spend on insurance we don't track it in my world but I'm sure that we could pull reports from Meda if that was data that you wanted obious just curious if you had the data because it seems like more I read on some of the inance stuff that more and more companies are paying on Plus on employees and they are on dependence in some cases I was
just curious where we sat yeah Madam chair yes director Ward so Mary can you tell us if the uh you know in the district we've gone to a um all preventative kind of program rather than reactive kind of program having our having our employees um be able to um you know call call for help call for insurance help or anything like that um and I know that Mercy is saving us
um I mean I know it's been impactful financially is there any way to um show how finan how impactful it's been financially so they actually provide a report um they do estimates based on the so for example if I go and use that service and then at the end if you fill out the survey that says had I not used the service I would have went to the ER or urgent care and then they take that data and try to give us a number and that typically comes um or is shared at
the benefits committee so we can get you that information John thank you that was all I had um to present I didn't know any followup questions how we s you give us a grade from a to F from a financial standpoint spot yeah financially um you're
I would say you're you're okay right now right but with Marcy's input you know looking into 2020 24 25 you needed that to cover 24 25 right so it's really going to depend upon how you come out this year do you see any Trends moving forward moving forward I we don't know what the state's going to do but I mean right right we don't we see any Trends in our data
correct well we've been seeing growth in the fund balance but it's be been because of cares I mean cares really has saved us right so and so now now it's the balance of okay cares goes away and what you know what expenditures are left that you haven't accounted for for those revenues that were coming in um so if you if you use that cares which I think we had discussions and try not to do fixed costs with those cares money right because you know they're going to go away way now you're not left
with positions that you potentially have unfunded right um so we're hoping you know when it does go away that you're still financially stable but yeah only time will tell right now we heard anything from the state how much they're going to kick in there's been so many things thrown out there I mean proposals and I think if we're lucky we'll we'll get one in one maybe yeah that's what I heard down at the convention a lot of people are talking 2% % maybe but um a lot depends
on what they might do with the unemployment side of things that's a chunk of money for us it's about 400,000 that can make a big swing if they they bail out what if they bail on free food well there you go I mean there's a lot of there's a lot of initiatives that were introduced couple the last couple years that was all because they had money well they don't have money so guess what right um and then the PDF of the financials is
in your board packet but they do give us a couple of paper copies so if you guys would prefer paper just let me know I'm a paper guy I'm a paper guy go too is that the signed financial report okay okay that's the one that that's 120 pages so I I feel like electronic it's this big b here so yes it's the one will put you to
sleep yeah well I appreciate this um presentation it's um it's comprehensive but still simple for my simple brain that's why we like to put it in PowerPoint it's a little bit easier to read and to get acrossed where you where you've been thank you okay so I would like to entertain a motion that we approve the 2023 2024 annual audit report as presented by Marc and Mary so move second
is there any further discussion okay let's have a roll call vote John Ward yes sh Breen yes Stephanie edman yes Randy heidman yes SAR Sarah spear yes okay now next under new business the approval of the third and final reading of MSA msba policy
9906 Community notification of predatory offenders there been any change in that third just uh one line about notification otherwise it's the same move okay is there a second a second any further discussion if no further discussion I'll take a roll call vote Michelle Breen yes Stephanie edman yes Randy Hyman
yes CL spear yes John Ward yes okay now we move on to committee meeting updates we'll start with the policy and community relations committee meeting that happened on January 22nd chair ederman do you have any updates on that no there really wasn't any updates on that meeting we pretty
much just discussed a few few policies but they all remain the same right now okay great thank you um then director Ward the under committee meeting updates you wanted to report on the um the students that have applied to be um student reps on our Schoolboard committees well thank you uh Madam chair and uh you're chime in also Madame chair so
uh get ready um but I'd like to just say thank you to uh principal Rusk and uh superintendent Grant and to ree Glenn uh the a student uh and everybody that has helped uh put this together um when we got the applications um they were unbelievably in my in my opinion impressive with really really quality um insightful um mature um energetic kind
of a response from our from our students so uh I I was really excited um I feel bad that uh you know I'm I'm away and have dumped a lot of stuff back into uh director Breen's lap uh who and she's done an outstanding job of carrying of uh of catching the ball and running with it um and so um director Breen do you want to indicate what else has happened now with that what's going on with that sure
at this point we have six really good applicants um and interestingly enough they were able they came up with a first and a second choice and they're pretty evenly distributed so we will have at least one student on each of those committees um they long range planning one on finance and legislative one on policy and community relations one on curricul and instruction staff development and one on student and
we will have two on student Support Services um I'll be meeting with those students February 25th in the morning to just do a little bit of an interview and um talk with them about sort of their responsibilities as Representatives on these committees and then they will be getting their assignments our first committee meetings that they'll be able to attend will be on February 26 we have a curriculum committee meeting
that day and a student support um Services meeting that day then our intent um once we get them sort of onboarded is to H introduce them at a school board meeting and when we report on those committees um those students can be a part of making that report as well so we'll probably be looking at moving up um our committee report rep earlier in the agenda so those students don't have to
sit until the very end of all of our very quick and efficient Schoolboard meetings so that is my update anything else okay let's move on to informational first we'll start with brainer Public Schools Foundation Sarah do you have anything to report on that I
can just give a quick update to the group that um the big event was this last weekend which is the largest fundraiser of the year for that group and just the generosity of this community is amazing and of that committee to do all of this work for the kids and and um the amount of money that pulls in for that organization and the support so and uh I'll be stepping away from that group regrettably and Stephanie ederman will be stepping in as
EX officio for our board group with that group great that's wonderful um it was a great event I think a lot of administrative people won some pretty big prizes but that's okay Peter being won Ryan being won yeah so it was it was a great a great evening a great way to celebrate Brainard School okay so I'm next um reporting on
the equity task force our last meeting was January 9th and I gave an update on that meeting at our January 13th Schoolboard meeting the next scheduled meeting is February 13th 2025 um but I do want to say that the Minnesota Department of Education mandates that we provide inclusive education and the equity task Force's mission is to ensure that all students have access to inclusive
evidence-based compassionate educational opportunities those important efforts make sure all students regardless of race ethnicity religious practices sexual orientation social emotional status or social economic status feel safe accepted celebrated and feel a sense of belonging okay then I am going to next report
on the wellness task force we had our second meeting on February 3rd lots happening with that particular task force we're actively explor exploring piloting a program called project 11 at Forest View this spring and or in the fall project 11 is a proactive program curriculum that supports students in developing skills and coping strategies that promote Wellness well-being and brain health
should we choose to participate this program and the training and resources that would be offered to BPS would be at no cost because of our partnership with smiles for Jake and the max Marvin Foundation the Marvin family created the max Marvin Foundation after their family member Max who was a hockey player from War Road Minnesota died by Suicide at age 19 a few years ago due to his struggles with mental health their mission is to create funds
to support charitable programs projects and activities that facilitate mental Wellness the max Foundation partnered with project 11 a program tied to the National Hockey League that promotes mental Wellness Ina Canadian Schools project 11 was inspired and created in honor of former NHL player Rick ripan who died by Suicide at age 25 in 2011 shortly after Jo joining the Winnipeg Jets
as a free agent the max Mar Marvin foundation's intent is to bring project 11 into Minnesota schools so we're excited to explore that further the other pretty exciting thing that'll be happening is there is a hope chat bot from Smiles for Jake in Brainard it's a digital tool designed to provide immediate accessible mental health support for students and community members integrated into platforms for
easy access the bot offers resources coping strategies and positive positive affirmations to promote emotional well-being it serves as a confidential space where users can explore mental health topics find encouragement and if needed connect with human Support Services reinforcing Smiles for J mission to spread hope and reduce the stigma around mental health
hope bot will soon be released to brainer Public Schools who will add it to clever thanks to Ryan for his um coordinating all of this with us so it will add it to clever so all students will have access for staff or community members who do not have access to clever we will also have um a link on the district website there are some additional student and family engagement ments planned for the spring and I'll report on those at the next meeting we're still in the process of
solidifying our mission and vision but as we establish our groundwork additional members will be invited to participate in this important work our next meeting is at the end of March so that is the update on um The Wellness task force next is Business Services report Marcy do you want to come up again so in your board packet is the financial
report and I have nothing new to note on that but on the second page I just did just want to note so we did do the audit presentation and when we present budgets you guys are are typically used to more of this format when it comes to fund balance so I did just include that in there as well for your reference if you were wondering what the um fund balances look like in the format as the budget is presented and then the final part of my report is the enrollment report so since the beginning
of the school year we are down 73 K through 12 on average we would be down about 67 compared to the data that we have that goes back to 1819 so kind of tracking similar to previous year's average any questions mam chair yes director Ward so Mars can you give us uh
some indication of the where the 73 are aligned is it Elementary is it uh middle schools high school you know and I know I know this is repetitive but I I just want to give us uh give us in the public you know the uh the results of where we are with that y so I'm must have had ESP from you CU I wrote down we're down about eight in elementary 14 in middle school and 51 at high school
thank you Marcy and um I like your es that's good thank you okay thanks Marcy Y and next we move into superintendence report um last Thursday I was invited over to the high school they had education day um it's a program where um members of the chamber come into the school uh I think there're about people there from all different Employments of the community
and what I liked about it was first of all Andrea did a pretty nice job explaining about the high school what the kids are doing and so forth and then um ask questions of members that came from the um chamber how many graduated from Brainard high school for example and it was very few actually and then at the end of the program excuse me she took them on a tour and that was for a lot of them that was the
first time they've been in the building so they got to see some really cool things about what's going on how different uh the high school is compared to just 10 years ago with the opportunities that kids have compared to before so the idea of them getting some career Pathways is much more accelerated today than it was 10 years ago and I thought that was pretty neat to have that occur so Andrew did a really nice job okay great anything else no okay now we
move on to Future meetings February 13th Equity task force meets at at the Brainard High School February 18th the district advisory Council meets at wesby February 26 student support services and committee meeting now meeting at brainer high school because we are including students um and also that day from 10 to or at 10:00 there'll be the curriculum instruction staff development committee meeting and then on March 3rd we have
a regular school board meeting at 6:00 pm. at wesby okay now moving to item 14 the next item on the agenda is a closed SE session pursuant to Minesota statute section 13d .05 subdivision 2B for preliminary consideration of alleg allegations against an employee my understanding is that employee would like that to be an open meeting so we will continue with
that agenda item in an open meeting format good evening I have spoken with the employee m Mr Tim CET and he has requested this
be an open session uh because it is a verbal communication between him and I I do have a short statement just saying for him to sign that he is requesting that this be an open session as opposed to a closed session
it says that I've been advised that the district's Administration arranged for the school boards to conduct a Clos session for preliminary consideration of allegations against me at the board's February 10 2025 meeting I hereby confirm that I am I am noing and voluntarily exercising my right
under Minnesota statute section 13 d05 subdivision 2B to request that the board's discussion of allegation against me be open to the public thank you Mr KET I'm
going to speak I'm going to speak to the investigation and recommendation regarding Tim klet Tim klet is a full-time staff member of brain public schools and serves as a Performing Arts facility manager at the gei at the gichi zbi Center for the Arts he has been employed with brain new public school since since January 30th
2021 allegations on December 20 2024 John Davis chief of the brainia police department communicated allegations of misconduct against Tim CID to Peter Grant superintendent of schools the allegations are summarized as follows on the evening of December 7 2024 the kiji ZB Center for the Arts
gz was hosting the Lor Line concert brainer Police Department officers conducted a walkth through of the gz as part of their duties Tim catlet allegedly confronted a police officer in an aggressive Manner and escorted the officer out of the building following him to the exit a police Sergeant entered the premises to to speak with Mr catlet and was similarly asked to leave these
are allegations from police chief John Davis investigation reviewers and and recommendation and determination recommenders on January 2025 Mr CET was informed that human resources had received the investigation material including his interview the purpose
of the call was to notify him that krie Ross executive director of schools and Ali shung Director of Human Resources were assigned to review the investigation and make recommendation Mr kellet objected to Carrie Ross's involvement asserting that she could not be neutral and requested her removal in response Carrie Ross was removed and Marcy Lord Director of Business Services was added as
an investigation reviewer and determination recommender analysis the central issue under review is whether Mr K's action confronting and removing a police officer and subsequently a police sergeant from an event at brino high school constitute a violation of brino public schools policies and whether his action aligned with the district's commitment to
maintaining a positive Rel a positive partnership with the brainer Police Department the investigation into this matter included review of two surveillance video capturing the incident finding from an investigation conducted by two independent fact-f finding investigators a post investigation interview with a police officer who was unavailable during the
initial investigation due to Vacation a post investigation interview with Mr catlet providing him an opportunity to present additional information or clarification before recommendation Was Made review of brainer Public Schools policies and procedures findings and determinations upon thorough review of The
Evidence it is determined that Mr Ked did not did confront and on two separate occasions removed two staff of the brain new police department from the premises at brainer High School on December 17 2024 it is also determined that Mr Kelly's actions were not in compliance with brainer public school's policy brainer public school is committed to ensuring a safe learning and working environment for students staff and
Visitors by confronting and expelling law enforcement officers from a school event Mr khed acted contrary to brainer Public Schools policy and procedure furthermore brao public school has established a clear objective of fostering and maintaining a positive partnership with the brainer Police Department brainer Public School highly values the collaborative relationship it maintains with law
enforcement Mr ked's ked's conduct in this instance directly contradict that objective conclusion and recommendation based on the evidence review Mr ked's action constitute just cost for disciplinary action his behavior on December 17 2024 was consistent with the professional was inconsistent with the professional Transportation set forth by Brin new Public Schools accordingly it is
recommended to superintendent grant that the Board of Education proceed with the immediate termination of Mr catlett's employment with Brin new Public School effective immediately okay I would now entertain a a motion to approve the district's decision to terminate the employment of that the employee I'll make a
motion to approve the recommendation do I have a second a second is there any further discussion we call for a roll call vote Stephanie edman yes Randy Hyman yes there spear yes John
Ward yes Breen yes carries okay then I would entation entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting move I'll second any discussion meeting is adjourned gotta aoll oh
oh roll call vote sorry Oney what are we voting ony oh y yes John Ward yes Breen yes