6 o' call this meeting to order all board members are accounted for like you guys all please rise 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 all right anyone have any additions to the agenda Jeff if not I look for a motion to approve
the agenda i'll make a motion i'll second pete on the motion jolyn on the second any other discussion all in favor say I i oppose motion
carries we have no scheduled presenters tonight so we will move on to committee reports anyone have anything they'd like to add to the cause um we had a there was an Ed Foundation meeting on March 20th they're just
continuing to gear up for their um their largest fundraiser of the year is the silent auction it's going to be hosted at the winery this year which is different on April 26 um and so there's um having a little bit of a work session
on that usually they try and fund one bigger project and that this year will be some 3D printers a bank of six printers I believe um assuming funding goes okay for that so they're just working on that we There was also on MSHSL
extracurricular meeting on April 9th um some of the big takeaways from that Redwing came down to our section for few of our sports I think volleyball tennis basketball um and then some of our section placements changed for a few
sports um to section two softball baseball golf and soccer for that's going to be for the 25 26 and 26 27 year so um I don't know Luke do you have anything to add no we um Reed just made
it clear to the to the coaches the continuing education for concussion training for the coaches and whatnot um has always been mandatory but it's been pretty loose as far as when it had to be done um and then here in Canon Falls we will make it mandatory that it's done
before the first game uh or event um that way something happens coaches luckily we have a lot of veteran coaches that can see signs of concussion and that kind of thing but this makes it um official with the high school league that that we'll have it done before we have events um is that for head and
assistant coaches or is it just head coaches all that recommended um talked a little bit about co-ops things seem to be going pretty smoothly there we're in year two of a three-year agreement um with Randolph
um and and things um especially girls soccer went really well with the addition of goodu this last year which was good um and then a little bit on Redwing um just potentially looking at coming to the HVL um which was interesting conversation our coaches
seem to be in favor of it um which was cool um and that makes it even 10 for the conference so I think that's part of why why it makes sense too so that's it i had a GCED meeting um one of the biggest things um takeaway from that
particular meeting was um that all the soups um in our area got together and kind of chatted and voted about how um money should be distributed um to GCD from all the surrounding schools and um counties here um and there's lots of different options they voted over five
different options and kind of tossed around different ideas and so we talked about that and were um really educated on why and how and all that kind of stuff so was helpful informative we we tech we just have negotiations for Erin's contract on Wednesday so this
coming Wednesday goal is have it done before the next meeting in May sure i'll better report that i'll piggy back off of that uh just on the negotiation standpoint here we have uh received a letter of intent uh from
the teachers unit to negotiate so uh not sure what timeline that will be yet uh so whenever they are ready we will proceed with that uh the one thing I just wanted to add on the transportation committee uh we did
cancel that bus that uh we talked about at a previous meeting but I just wanted to let everyone know that there was no fees attached to that at all that's nice that's great if that's it then we'll um we'll move on we'll go to uh
Sorry Abby I told you wrong here we're going to do the consent agenda first here uh consent agenda items under the consent agenda are considered routine and will be enacted under one motion in the event a board member wants to discuss any item it will remove from be removed from the consent agenda for
separate action uh number one will and the only one will just be approval of the personnel items have you guys all had a chance to look at the personnel items and if there's nothing that wants to be
discussed I will look for a motion to approve the personal items i'll make a motion jody on the motion i'll second randy on the second any further discussion yeah I would just um
looking at the hires here right um I want to congratulate Stephen on uh um being named our principal for next year i really um have appreciated what you've done in the interim title um to this point and I think um us and the kids of
Ken Foles are really lucky to have you so I'm glad that that went through and and I'm looking forward to lots of years with you appreciate it truly the amount of emails that we have gotten saying wonderful wonderful things about all the things that you've been doing and all the different new things that have been
happening at that building um the support from the teachers the emails have been endless so yeah great to hear the positivity around looking forward to keep going all right all in favor say I i oppose motion
carries administrative board reports now we'll go with you Abby um so first we'll talk about boys baseball on March 27th the team played their home opener and season debut against Dover Yoda at Johnbridge Park
unfortunately they lost the game 50 um but they've had many games since and their current record is 33 um softball has a new head coach this year Adam Templan who has taken over the program after the departure of longtime um head
coach Tom Langfeld and the Bombers girls softball team lost their season opener to Bell Plane with a score of 4-2 um Maya Mangi hit two solo home runs which accounted for their team's only runs in that game um they currently have a
record of 51 so pretty good start to their season um weightlifting those who qualified for nationals are currently preparing and others are training or trained for a meet that took place on April 12th um
hoping to qualify to also qualify for nationals canon Falls had one lifter Gunner Mackey who successfully qualified so now Canon Falls has a total of nine lifters going to nationals um track the track team has participated in three
track meets so far unfortunately their first meet was affected by poor weather and was cancelled halfway through um they've also traveled to Kenyon and their most recent one they hosted here on April 12th and I've heard positive
things from the individuals um and then speech um headed down to subsections last week they brought 20 participants and 19 of them advanced to sectionals and at sectionals 16 of those 19s made
it to the finals and then yeah they have good numbers and then 10 placed in the top three and will be going to state on the 25th at Jakapi High School that's awesome um golf the golf team has not had any
meets yet um but they've been practicing and preparing for upcoming competitions and on April 8th all the juniors took the ACT so that was last week and then May 3rd Canon Falls will
host their prom and the Grand March will be open to the public it starts at 5 i'm I think I read the doors open around 4:00 for families to go in and sit um and the admission price is $2 per person
yep that's all I have awesome thank you thanks Abby all right permanent Elementary Principal Steen Strauss you have anything to add to your report at all uh just a big thank you to everybody that's subbed in
the elementary we've had just a lot of things going on and there's still some lingering sickness from the winter still carrying over and um just also some other leaves going on so we've had some subs in there for long amounts of time some subs in for half a day and it's all greatly appreciated and also a plea to
anybody who's interested in subbing to uh let me know we've always got a need for people like that and they all do a great job you know we wouldn't be able to do what we do down there consistently without subs coming in and helping whether it's retired teachers but we've got some people in law enforcement that on their days off coming in and sub and
we just got a variety of people that come in and help and they all do a great job thank you middle high school technology tim what Stephen said for substitution the need is real uh I don't
have anything to add that's all in my report thank you all right thanks D community Ed and activities department Reed anything to add two things want to want to just remind of uh our fourth community advisory council meeting on this Wednesday at 11 and one thing that
I did not get in there is the summer flyer is set to launch tomorrow morning so be looking for that head of maintenance stephen anything to add uh I can say uh like Abby said track had the home event here this last
weekend and Zim said everything went great um was able to run it smoothly um Taylor dance event or something then we had Trip S our outside vendor come in um probably one of our bigger outside vendors that comes in and rents our spaces um they came in they were pleased
too everything went off without a flaw and they said they'll be looking at coming back next year so awesome be a good one to keep in the in the pocket so other than that nothing else
all right soups report Jeff yes um so we are looking at having another school board day uh coming up and the dates that we are looking at is May 7th 8th or 9th if you guys want to check your calendars and it kind of works to
group up a little bit and uh if you want to either decide tonight or maybe we can bring this back for the next April meeting and then we can let our principles know when you guys will be around
and you guys can have items to look at during that meeting uh Stephen and Tim does that give enough notice if we wait until the next meeting on the 28th to figure that out yeah you guys are welcome anytime okay that'd be fine that all fine with you guys yeah so
where were you going to add that to the next meeting i was just s I can't remember whether you guys came on a Wednesday last time if you haven't had a chance to see the high school wind time and the way that works it would be a a good thing and we can talk a little bit
about what happens during that time but you said that's on Wednesdays that's on Wednesday okay maybe at 7 that would be better okay so if you guys get time check your schedules or whatever we'll discuss that next uh next meeting
uh the next item is that uh summer food is back uh we were approved lori did a great job of uh getting the application in getting it approved for 2025 this is a one-year approval from MDE and so we
will need to see what happens for 2026 but uh we're all excited to have that program back in uh for summer programming uh the next item is anformational item uh for a later agenda topic on extended
leaves and then my final update here is um there's a lot of uncertainties currently around the federal and the state funding as far as the state funding is concerned uh there is a lot of moving pieces right now on how to deal with their deficit
that they have looming and so I'm a little uneasy right now with that piece of it and the federal upheaval of the Department of Education and so um I'm looking at possibly uh there could be a possibility I need to bring back some
more cuts depending on how this shapes out um either in late April or even into May if we get into May we're still about a week out from where the state is going to end at uh with their legislative session if they end on time um but I
would like to have if it's still uneasiness around that time I just may recommend uh some more cuts just to make sure that we keep our budget in line for the following year so be prepared for that other than that that's all I have
for now except for the agenda items unless you guys have questions ended with something better i know sorry i got should have probably put some more food at the end of All right we'll move on to public input anyone here would like to speak to
the board and I'm afraid of what she would say i'm intrigued buy some ice cream somewhere see what you got got three minutes just let your dad have it yeah you're a
public person all right we will close public input we'll move on to action items there is no old business we will move on to new business consideration to approve the
new 2025 Justice for Jessica scholarship of $500 yes this is um a new scholarship uh Laura Stephanie 1997 CFHS alumni would like to participate in giving an annual scholarship to our graduating seniors this new scholarship will be awarded in
memory of Jessica Swanson and listed as follows justice for Jessica one award for $500 uh Laura Stephanie would like to offer an annual scholarship for $500 to a graduating senior who will be involved in law enforcement EMS or human services in college scholarship will be paid in
December upon proof of passing grades in college and upon approval from you it will be added to other local scholarship being awarded to our graduating seniors i do recommend approval on this i'll make a motion to approve that i'll second the
motion on the second i'll just say thank you to them for organizing this this is agreed all right all in favor say I i oppose motion carries
consideration to approve the updates to the 2425 spring coaching list uh the updates are in red I believe yeah just two updates uh Braden Hardle is going to help with uh volunteer with
tuner baseball and I say Tennyson now is given a dollar amount out of student activity account all right there's no questions i'd look for a motion to approve i'll move to approve second luke on the motion joe
Lynn on the second any other discussion all in favor say I i oppose motion carries consideration to approve a leave request in accordance with teachers master agreement article 10 leaves of
absence section 13 extended leave in accordance with state statute 122A.46 for up to 5 years uh in my report I had the statute listed with the leaves of absence and
schoolboard authority uh in regards to this about we'll say five years ago uh there was a board meeting where one 5-year leave of absence was brought up and I
had a lot of concerns at that time for a lot of different reasons and uh we I was going to bring it back to the next board meeting and the board agreed at that time to bring it back at to the next meeting to discuss this more and um the next meeting we were in CO so we were
out of school and so that and that fell down to the bottom of the priority list at that point and so um we did approve a couple more leaves um my concerns still didn't go away and the further we get into this especially with what Tim and Stephen were talking about tonight with
the lack of subs uh concerns about finding a suitable replacement for teachers that want to go out on these types of leaves um and because we have to we have to
advertise this as a long-term sub and so the thing about this leave is that they can request five years but come back after one year and so then you're putting somebody out or shifting people around there is a small chance of financial risk also for the district
because you that you could put somebody out that would um go out on uh unemployment insurance as well along with this and so um I guess at this time administratively we're not going to recommend this and this the the request is coming from
Laura i would also assume that you you end up with a risk if you do hire someone they end up being here for 3 years and you have to put them back on if we unrequested unrequested leave of
absence at that time yep so then that would add another six years to the unrequested leave piece of it and the tracking of that obviously so just I got a couple questions on points of clarity so it's this subs it says it's at least three years but no more
than five but we can negotiate in one is that what your example is yeah boards can negotiate this and the language in the statute is terrible yes i read it about four times just terrible okay and then to the on section nine so maybe this will help
clarify but on extended leave it says they still should receive health access medical so all insurance benefits and potential retirement would be they're not paid so they're not paid their salary and we haven't paid benefits okay for these leaves but they still are in
line to get um and correct me if I'm wrong on this uh they still they can pay for uh their TRA for retirement and they would get a service year that way but they would come back here on the on the
very next they wouldn't get a service credit here got it okay so I would assume this these become difficult to track and manage and keep I think you know the tracking it's on a spreadsheet but the management of it
sometimes gets a little hairy or if there's turnover within administration you know how do we and then in your past experience at other districts is this something you have experience with is I'
I've never passed one to my knowledge from the time I was a principal all the way through I was superintendent up to now I've we've never I've never had staff use this and schools in the area if they do do it it's rare it's like once every 10 years and it's for
pretty legitimate sure I say is there certain stipulations that would let somebody qualify for this there isn't any stipulations seen as a mobility leave and so they can just go out for three to five years I have reached out to
I think it was five superintendent and uh there was only one that has currently a a one-year one going on where they they it's renewed every single year so but it's on a year-by-year basis for
sure and there's other HBO schools that have just gone away from this over the years just because of what I just mentioned was the concern about finding adequate well I talked to a superintendent that's not in the age and he goes there's no benefit to the
district right there really is so and we would be have to pay the so to the point around subs we'd be forced to pay recruiting dollars to find substitute substitutes long may maintain long-term subs yeah i think the biggest thing is when you're looking at long-term subs
because we can put that out on our where we advertise for teachers but if you have that website that's showing a long-term sub in whatever area that you're trying to find and then another position in another school district that's a full-time position in the same area right probably going to go for the
full position for sure for sure and I would say the quality of applicants that you get sometimes isn't as good yeah yeah program impact to the students right continuity correct well in the unknown um financial piece of unemployment too i'm glad you brought that up because that's something
that you know we don't always Yeah budget for and then Yeah that And would that be subjective so if if we did have a short a sub and they were to leave and we have to go out again if we had a nonrenew Yeah so would we kind of be
circling the drain here with additional we approve this leaves and we substitute leaves the force to fire or hire a new one so additional Okay like yeah like like Jody said um not a benefit to the district i mean if
anything it's actually very hindering to the district um but and with the budgets we have correct doesn't make sense correct financial aid and I'd say the new FMLA that's going to be possibly coming up in 26 years here is already
going to be giving us quite a few issues of subs right definitely so administratively we can't recommend approvals for any more I guess but we do have to consider them
each time right because this is a this is a benefit right they can ask for this correct it's in statute they can ask for it and you said that some schools have just done away with it though well I mean they haven't approved them so they can't do away with it because
it's in the stat and the thing that I read here is uh if they do go out on leave if that was approved and they took a job elsewhere then that could be then that's nullified
correct yeah it nullifies the leave if you take another and what I'm getting at is Lori a question for you um if that does happen are you notified by other districts if
N that's up to that's up to us to find that out perhaps another there might be a report it depends on what time of year that they would take that job mhm that would be a job within education
if they did if they left if it'd have to be within education from another district otherwise they would be able to take a job in another area and then this would still be available they could come back
they could go be a Okay house builder interesting okay and come back any other questions for Jeff on that oh thank you for that it was helpful to get the material ahead of time and take the
time to read through because it was it was wordy and Yeah so if not I would look for a motion for one way or the other i think I would I would take the the recommendation of the
um administration and and look to deny this um and I'll make that my motion i'll second that luke on the motion for denial i'll second the denial and Pete will second that any other
discussion all in favor say I i oppose motion carry 60 for a denial consideration to approve the updated 2526 school calendar jeff are you going
to start doing this we're not going to start the uh the tornado of things here there's just a couple of little things that came up uh one is that we are looking to stop the 1-hour after school professional development that happens
eight times a year and we're going to combine all those and move them back because originally I believe that's part of the initial staff uh workshop days and um we want to move that back up to the beginning of the year and so that's a small change uh for that uh staff will
be working the same amount of time it just looks different and then the other piece is came out of meet and confer actually uh because of um some class sizes that we have in the upper elementary uh we cannot get in all of
our conferences effectively to where like teachers are not being able to go to the restroom or to take a break oh my and so we as a way to solve that problem we are looking at doing an early out once in the fall and once in the spring
for conferences for one night to make sure that we have enough time uh to get uh those adequately done in the elementary where that's conferences and so we would um we would ask that the that the board
approve those dates that were listed on that calendar here yeah and this isn't really anything different that's been that's happened in the past or anything with the early release on conference days back when when I was a lad
back in the day i would say this is rotary still this is a good change i would I would think in um as a parent I really like how they do conferences so to give them time to actually use the restroom and get some food would be if
they're 10 or 15 minute conferences sometimes you have inev inevitably parents that either show up late or want to talk longer and it just you can't have that hard start and stop time that you like to have and so it it helps quite a bit spread those conferences out
a little bit mr strauss anything you want to add to that at all or I'm assuming you're agreeing we I just know in the February conferences we had a couple teachers that basically went from 3:15 to 7:45 and they got their half hour supper break in there but that half
hour if parents were behind or somebody wanted to chop that half hour even turned into 15 or 20 minutes so they had maybe 15 minutes in a 4 and a half hour stretch uh for a little break and I walked around 7:45 8:00 and just tried to politely intervene if anybody was
still in there so they wouldn't be kept forever um so something to give those teachers a break and we are going to do high school both buildings right it' be a full district release and we
will um make sure that we were all on task for that time no one has anything else i had to look for a motion to approve the updates to the 2526 school calendar i'll make a motion jolyn on the motion i'll make a
motion second you'll make a second i'll make a second a second motion all right jody on the second any other discussion all in favor say I i oppose motion carries
consideration to post and hire a new 1.0 FTE special education position for the 2526 school year uh we've been seeing a lot of increase in our case loads for special ed especially in the early elementary
uh with birth to three numbers climbing and the preschool into the early uh primary to help balance out case loads and keep them to what our district policy is we I am asking the board or that we will need to find or to hire a
1.0 special ed position for the elementary yeah it is those sped teachers have a lot on their plate um and like you said the needs have just kind of continue to increase and we're not the only school
in this situation i know there's other districts in the area um that are seeing the same concerns pop up as well yeah I was going to say at our conference early on um I know that there
was a lot of talk about special ed needs increasing around neighboring districts and um we do get some state reimbursement back from that roughly 2/3 it's got to
cash flow so it'll be the year after yeah so we'll cash flow the first year and it is 2/3 that's good but that also works the other way when you make cuts yep that you don't count for full FTV count sure so keep that in mind down the road if we
would ever cut any other questions not i'll look for a motion to approve uh the to post and hire a new 1.0 FTE
special education position for the 2526 school year i'll make a motion randy on the motion second luke on the second any other discussion all in favor say I i
oppose motion carries consideration to approve the 2526 lunch price increase of 10 cents a meal this is one of the oddest things that you'll probably see coming out of this we still get free meals from the state um but we
are still also pretty much required to keep on pace with our lunch pricing if they would ever take that away from school districts and so we just can't all of a sudden we got 50 cent jump a 75 cent jump in our meal price and we need to
keep that um in the background approving it to raise it in case that the thing that I think is crazy is I know you can only increase it by 10 cents every year but the meals increase by more than that yes
they do did you increase it last year 10 10 cents too we did this last year okay is current legislation still looking like they're going to do free meals and free meals hasn't popped up anywhere from what I've seen i know the biggest thing that's popped up probably is
taking away the inflationary increase you know as the like a 2% floor and a 3% ceiling that schools would get no matter what due to inflation and then the increase what we would get for
districts on our formula would be after that so they're talking about taking away the 2% and 3% floor and ceiling which is that's interesting because inflation is typically higher than that right it has been you know and I think
this year it's calmed back down into that too because the next year next year's number is 2.74 yeah so that was the the inflationary cost and so there they were at least giving schools the inflationary cost you still weren't making headway above and beyond that but at least you weren't losing money going
backwards is the 2.74% mhm so it'll be interesting and that's why I'm a little nervous around this uh legislative session because the House has a different plan than the than the Senate and the governors all three of them have different plans and that tells
me that none of them are going to be settled by Yeah may y All right i'll look for a motion to approve uh 2526 lunch price increase of 10 cents a meal i'll make a motion i'll
second jo the motion joel win on the second any other discussion all in favor say I i oppose motion carries informational items for our next
uh board meeting which will be on April 28th right here at 6:00 uh we got a school forest presentation and then also we just wanted to bring up here we do need to start talking about
uh operating levy coming up so uh we'll look at adding that to the next meeting and uh we will need to discuss if we want to look at trying to go well first off go out for one uh go out for the
amount that we tried last time increase decrease one way or another so uh I'd say next meeting we will look to have some discussion on that because I believe there's some timelines coming into play usually by June or at the
latest July um because I think the deadline is before our August meeting so we'd have to have it done in July Yep and pass the resolutions that go along with it starting in May we just have one meeting
a month also so right are there are there any committee meetings that would typically discuss that first and then Yeah we can certainly um you can host the finance committee meeting probably for the revised budgets and the new
budget coming up and then we can probably have that as another agenda item for the wedding and stuff think that' be good all right anything else anyone else wants to add if not I would look for a motion to
adjourn i'll make motion randy on the motion pete I'll second pete on the second any other discussion all in favor say I i i oppose