all right it's 6 o' a good I want to make sure you're awake I'll call this meeting to order all uh board members are accounted for ask you to please stand for the pledge of
heart I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all maybe I just had some
aggression lot of excitement sure sure all right is there any uh additions to the agenda for anyone Jeff you good yep I'm good anyone else no all right I will look for a motion to approve the
agenda as shown make a motion I'll second rep on the motion jool Lynn on the second any other discussion all in favor say I I oppose motion carries schedule presenters we don't
have any here tonight so we will move on to the student School Board representative and School Board committee reports is there anything that anyone would like to add to the committee reports um I had a gced meeting um it
was the first for me so it was um it was lot it's um if everybody thinks learning our budgeting and everything like that and how we run things is challenging now try learning and absorbing how GCE runs their school and their budgeting and everything like that it's just it's a
whole new ball game so um so it's just interesting it's a lot to learn it's a lot to take in um one of the things um one of the big things that we kind of talked about and kind of took away from that meeting was that all six schools that function put into gced are working
to balance their own budgets and keep their own heads above water kind of thing but in turn doing that it is also our job all six of us to help keep gced functioning and running and keep their water as well um so it's just one more thing on all of our school's plates
um that just is super important and um but just one more thing to keep functioning and running financially um so but um so yeah so it was interesting but um then they had Community Ed um ski club was a huge hit this winter um so huge thank you to Bonnie um and the
parents that volunteered to help keep that going uh this winter that was a ton of fun um I think they said 37 participants um so that was super cool yeah it was awesome they did really good all the kids enjoyed it and everybody survives too so there's no casualties
so the preschool registration is out um and the other thing in community we chatted about is facility rental prices continues to kind of be a Hot Topic that we just kind of want to chat about and um just kind of keeping our head on a swivel making sure that we are attempting to make a little bit of a
profit but also not scare away our customers if you will so kind of a happy meeting in that front um and then the Ed Foundation also had a be so the Ed Foundation um they are currently working on their big auction they're live in silent auctions so April 26 so mark your
calendars that's super fun um honestly super fun date night um and all the money obviously goes back to school and the kids which is amazing um and then we have um next week here March 18th we have Joe Beckman coming back so two years ago he was here um will'll be um
his topic his big thing is reclaiming the human connection so super good speaker they usually talk to the kids and staff during the day um and then the community is like 6:00 to 7:00 in the evening so that's always a nice topic um espe in this day and age with all the
technology and stuff uh and then the other thing too is that um last week the Ken Falls Ed Foundation they funded um the orbit Earth program which came to the elementary school last week so the kids got to utilize it during the day and it's they had giant blowup replicas
of the entire solar system in in the gym um which was super super cool um I took the kids to it in the evening um the Earth replica that they had blown up was like I mean it had to be like the size of this room taller than the ceiling it was gigantic it was I've never seen a bigger bouncy ball in my entire life um so it was super cool though kids really
got into it and good learning experience and all Hands-On but all that stuff is funded from the can Falls Ed foundation and it does not work and we don't get to do these things unless we participate and go to their events to help donate money so just a super cool thing So yeah
thank you J anyone else any um I had a staff development meeting this afternoon and it was overwhelming and I haven't had really a chance to go back and re-review everything so I don't really have much of an update I think Stephen was there
and he might have some more updates on that yeah the there's just a lot of conversations surrounding the two buildings and how they're moving through this year and then planning for next year with our staff development days with the react Elementary teachers going through that um with the because a lot
of times build teachers from both buildings will go through um training at the same time whether it's something on culture accommodations whatever it is um but this year with the elementary teachers having staff 21 days filled with Reda training High School teachers are able to get that training elementary
teachers are not so we're going to try to do the same things that secondary teachers are doing next year in the elementary and then eventually get them back on the same cycle so they can be together for the trainings when statto M days are more together then again in the future I appreciate that it was a little
overwhelming trying to understand all the acronyms too so we had our we tech meeting it was our organizational meeting down zto so um really nothing out of that meeting it was just strictly organizational and then we have negotiations for the
gentleman I forgot his name um y to uh his negotiations for his contract coming up so I'll be participating in that okay but yeah it was informative just around we asked I were there and was asked how Canon is supported what do we do what we get out of that they're only canceling
one program which is their is their TV program and Canon doesn't have any participants in that so really no impact to us okay and then I'll just add on the facility side uh met last week uh there is going to be an action item on
faciliity so we'll discuss that a a little bit more but I'll also just add that we're still tweaking with our uh rates for rentals uh just trying to find that happy Sweet Spot so there will be some more adjustments coming to that in the in the future because we want to
make sure that our facilities are full all the time so anyone else all right then we will move on to administrative board reports and Abby we will start out with you okay sounds good
so um I'm just going to be talking a little about Student Life um and the first thing is for weightlifting we were able to host the weightlifting state championship here in Canon Falls everything went smoothly um our team had
eight lifters who competed at the state composition um resulting in seven um Podium appearances with six of those being gold medals and Nationals is just a few months away in Colorado and many of our members um of the team will be
participating there and then student council um it was actually yesterday um some of our members traveled down to Canon River Senior Living and played games with the residents um this is something we do once a month and everyone really just has a good time
doing it and then robotics returned from their trip to duth March 1st Unfortunately they didn't have the performance they wanted um in the competition but I've heard many positive things regarding the whole trip um and
our winter sports have officially wrapped up wrestling concluded on March 1st when both Adam and Owen Parish took third in their weights classes at the state tournament they were the only two wrestlers to advance to the second day
so congratulations to them it's it was a long season and then the boys basketball team headed down to the Mayo Civic Center to play against Lake City in hopes to advance to the section championships on March 8th and
unfortunately they did lose 77 to 81 which did conclude their season um and then today March 10th all the spring Sports began um so this included boys baseball girls softball track and boys
and girls Golf and yeah if you have any questions just please let me know awesome thank you thank you too back to that weightlifting a lot of uh personal records and State records too that's what I was told so awesome
Abby did you attend the career fair I did I think I only went one hour but yeah I'm pretty sure it was ex a success a lot of kids had positive did you enjoy yeah I did I mean I like I think this year it was definitely different for me
because I'm a junior so I was taking it more seriously and definitely trying to talk to more people but yeah liked it if there was something we could do different what would you have liked to have seen um I know personally for me I didn't see a lot of colleges that
interested me it was more just it was typical colleges I think a pretty good variety but I mean if there were even more it would be awesome yeahh all right thank
you uh Elementary School Stephen you got anything that you'd like to add um just adding on said earlier the Thursday night the orbit Earth uh thing and throughout the day too it it was cool it was one of those experiences that is was something different that we haven't really done those bull planets were
really cool um kids walked into the gym and their eyes got big they walked in it was it was a pretty cool site and then um just this Friday is the PTO you know Carnival and Silent op and so two good supporters of the school there between the foundation and PTO helping out the elementary of some of these big events and night so and I'm assuming we're
still looking for volunteers yes if you're able to unteer if you know anybody who's around and alive and wants to volunteer we're always needing more people to help off the different stations and the prize table and all those things seems like that's always a last minute uh finally for get them
filled to get them filled or people picking up doubles triples and quadruples I would just add one thing to Stephen's report um he did a really nice job hosting the kindergarten open house uh last week and and uh I I appreciated what what he went through also the
teachers being there and doing the scavenger hunt I think you know enrollment being so important to us it's our first chance that these new students and maybe new families and and uh the staff and the teachers did an excellent job of making those people feel welcome so I I kudos to you guys do we have a
good turnout there yeah I mean I what did we figur out there was probably around 50 54 that came yep and preliminary numbers shoot for I think Andrea had said around lower 70s does that sound right Jeff I know we were talking either upper 60s lower 70s I
think it was lower 70s for numbers but those numbers will usually change yeah um and but 54 from what uh I've been heard B from the past is a good number for the registration night the open thanks back to that orbit Earth
real quick I think my favorite thing of the entire night that I heard is I overheard the gym teacher say you want to know how far he thought the Earth would go if he kicked it because it was like a big giant like just wonder how far it would bounce if we just tapped
it see all right moving on uh let's see Tim and Reed or Stephen are uh Johnson is not here but I will just add uh hats off to our facilities um Department they've
had some really big events that uh uh that we've hosted here over the last couple weeks and they have been working extra and uh everything seems like has gone quite Flawless from what I've heard so hats off to them we'll move on to
Super report Jeff um I don't really have anything on here other than if you guys have questions that just had the agenda items that are listed there uh for this month um I will be out starting Thursday and be
back well Tuesday so we're going to go on vacation for a few days and if you need to reach me my phone should work my email should work but I don't know how much I'll be get to
that all right sounds good uh moved on to public input uh before I read this is there anyone that would like to speak to the board all right then we will close public input moving on uh action items uh there's no old
business we'll move on to new business consideration to approve the resolution proposing placement on unrequested leave of absence for a continuing contract tenur teacher assistant principal and notied of hearing date if requested at
the close of 24 25 school year due to financial limitations and discontinuance of a position uh yes this one was overlooked for last month and it should have been on last month's but we had to put it on this month uh for the assistant principal position we have do since we are eliminating that we have to
technically put Steven on um Ula which is unrequested leave of absence so we will need to go through this process also any questions for Jeff on
that not I'd look for a motion to approve I'll move to approve luk on the motion I'll second Jody on the second any further discussion all in favor say I I oppose motion carries uh
that is a resolution oh that's right first page I assume yes all right be resolved by the school board of Independence District number 252 as follows there's proposed that stev
Charles continued contract tenure teacher assistant principal of said District be placed on unrequested leave of absence without pay or French benefits at the end of 2024 2025 school year effective June 5th 2025 set action is taken in accordance with the district F agreements and pursu to Minnesota stat
122 a.40 subdivision 10 upon the grounds described in said statute which are specific as follows Financial limitations and discontinuance of AOS um and I will need a yes or no vote so Clinton yes Luke yes Jody yes Ry yes
Pete yes and myself as yes all right number two consideration to approve the resolution placing a continuing contract 10year teacher on unrequested belief of absence upon acquiescence of such placement and yes I
Googled that word make sure I pronounced it correct so for any of my former teachers out there that they're thinking that they were impressed with me Jeff uh this is the final step to place Tom langfeld on uh unrequested leave as
part of the cuts that we had had and um yes we need to to have this approved yeah because that's always a two-part yep to they need to have a certain amount of days
to to contest contest it okay all right I will look for a motion to approve I'll make motion I'll second jolen on the motion Ry on the second Clerk first whereas the school board of
independent District number 252 adopted a resolution proposing placement of Tom langefield on R requested leave of absent on February 25th 2025 on the grounds of financial limitations and whereas said written notice of the proposed placement on unrequested leave of absence was received by Tom linkfield
by personal service on February 25th 2025 um and whereas said written notice of the proposed placement on unrequested leave of absence contained a statement setting forth the reasons for the proposed placement as well as a statement that Tom lafield was entitled to a hearing before the school board
provided they make a request in writing within 14 days of receipt of that notice and that if no hearing was requested said within said 14-day period it constituted a acence acence Thank You by Tom langfield to the yeah I should have
yeah you're right to the school board's proposal action and whereas no written request for a hearing was received by the school board or the superintendent from Tom langefield as of March 10th 20125 and whereas said failure to make written requests for a hearing within 14 days after receipt of notice was
proposed placement on unrequested leave of absence continues acquiescence by Tom lanefield to said placement on unrequested leave of absence I does that feel good do we need a yes or no vote for this one as well yes um so I'll take yes
or no Clinton yes L yes Jody yes Ry yes Kei yes myself as yes all right consideration to approve an intermittent FMLA request and accordance with the teachers Master agreement article 10 leaves of absence Section 8 medical leave from March 3rd
25 to the end of the year uh this is for Lisa O'Brien and I recommend approval if there's no questions for Jeff I will look for a motion to approve motion go ahead Pete with a motion second Luke with the
second any further discussion all in favor say I I oppose motion carries consideration to approve the 2526 licensed school nurse position as a 1.0
FTE so going into Co um we adjusted the nursing positions to accommodate uh the needs of the students and staff during that time and then coming out of Co um Pam wolf asked to go
to to be at8 and then we adjusted other RN positions not the licensed school nurse position but other RN positions to accommodate for her going to a point8 and so with her retiring and leaving the
district we need to move the uh LSN position back to a 1.0 and we will adjust the other nursing uh pieces back to precoded levels if that makes sense so this is just a move to basically move
Pam position back to a full-time position so we can advertise for it I have just one question on this is there a a mandate or a level from the state that we get that says if you have this many students you have this many nurses or is it based on workload that we
believe they have I just like with enrollment going up and down what does it mean for the school are we sure I mean um I thought you were going to go in a different direction with that question um uh a thousand students is the line for requiring a licensed school
nurse and so we're right at that line right and then um we've had uh we've been blessed to have RN nurses to help cover during Co and so right now we'll go back to having an LPN just covering in the building for that day uh what is
a good practice that depends on what people are tolerant of I guess there's nothing saying that we have to have so many nurses sure um but we it's probably a good practice to have at least somebody in the building that that knows that and especially if if a nurse is
going to be gone for a day for whatever reason at least we would more than likely somebody in during that time fory sure how many nurses do we currently have we have well the8 for Pam and then we had
a04 RN and then a 1.0 position LPN do we have so we usually have basically one nurse in each building every day okay do we have to have at least one RN with that LPN or um we have
to have at least one LSN which is school nurse uh because we're over a thousand students okay any other questions for Jeff not I would look for a motion to approve I'll make a motion Joe Lynn on
the motion I'll second Ry on the second any further discussion all in favor say I I I oppose motion carries consideration to approve moving
forward with the roof section in tennis courts project tennis court projects so the facility committee has been talking forever we have a I call it a calander over here section of roof uh
right above Renee Autos Room by The IMC and kind of in that whole section area over there we've been dealing with that since I've been here and I'm guessing it's probably some years before that um and then we have some safety
issues out on the tennis courts if you've been out on the tennis courts you would see cracks out there about this wide enough for kids to get their feet into if they're running after a ball and cause your trip hazards and break your ankle hazards and so the the tennis
courts need to be refinished and that's usually about every five years or so so uh depending on how they wear over those 5 years um this section of roof here is um is original the right word
Josh yes 1950 roof 72 72 it's 50 years old that's what yeah so it's 50 plus years old for this section um it's not currently under the Garland roof name that we have for the
rest of our sections of roof for the for the District the other section that we looked at is over the main gym and into the uh CTE hallway area that's that same um age level of roof as well and a
recommendation after discussing it thoroughly I guess over the past few years um and even this last facility committee meeting the recommendation was to do the section of roof over uh this area here as it is actively
leaking and then also fix the tennis courts and the pricing that we got on that um and of course I can't turn this so you have to use your imagination
but um Josh was this the section that was about 600,000 yeah so that's a document from a putting together what financing would look like closed for doing that section of roof as well as the tennis court the two sections of roof in total of about
1.3 million this section is estimated at $640,000 uh the other one about 715 because this one is actively leaking it's more higher priority um the T Court estimate for the resurfacing uh is
$72,000 um so that gives you that $775,000 Bond estimate that A's put together um this uses ltfm funds so long-term facility maintenance dollars that we Levy for deferred maintenance type items for the district uh they're not dollars
that can be used for operations uh salaries wages classroom types of things um it has to be used for long-term facility items that are you know in need of repair um we have some ltfm debt
falling off currently the district uses about 30 % of its ltfm ability to fund uh debt on ltfm project that is in place that will fall off uh doing this recommendation this section of book just the one section and the Tas cour it will
tie up 24% of our ltfm dollars so I have a little bit more flexibility uh annually for some projects with TFM um but the big thing is and I get perception but uh these are dollars that can have to be used on these types of items Capital type items maintenance items uh not operating classroom so
they're really not tied to the same budget CIB District was going to looking at and there's no tax impact because these are taxes that are already taken out every year we're just bonding forward for the next 10 years um to get this roof such fixed in no tax increase
we're still it's yeah no tax increase yeah that's and then also that you know that the other the other roof section that um is older as well and has leaked or something in the past uh no one
remembers seeing it leaking at all somewhat recently and it's also not over the gym Court when it did so uh I I think Brett said he remembered seeing it like quite a few years ago but yeah there could be some beaching along the
walls uh it's not nearly as very straights as this one uh this section had some was put on during NCO project some of the curbing is a little bit different than the G would maybe done originally um which is probably accting
that problem a little bit um but it is one of the two sections that needs to be handled um the Garland roof pretty good product it comes with a it's a 40-year warranty it's really a 30 plus 10 10 if you do the reconditioning afterwards but
uh 30-year warranty on flat roof is a pretty good deal um it is um I think when we look at it the ltfm the project and doing something like this is generally because um the state
realizes that districts don't really have $600,000 million those sorts of things that do those projects on an annual basis and this is a way for us to get this project done uh the facility committee also use that other section roof rather than tying up you know 50%
of our ltfm dollars for the next 10 years and really kind of being uh hamstrung with what we can do around the buildings in that time uh that that one can be maintained and possibly you know patched if needed at at times at much lower cost and with our current ltfm dollars rather than doing the six figure
re replacement on it um until 2032 when we have some more flexibility with some bigger de fall off uh and we can potentially do different projects without there being a tax increase possibly even a tax decrease and getting something out of it so try to do the of
both you you know responsible stewards of the district's facilities taxpayers dollars and and getting through uh a window of time where we need to just kind of push out to survive till 2032 I will say too on the tennis court portion that we um especially for the
new board members we kind of share that space with the city so I do think we do have somewhat of a liability to the community members that we maintain it take care of it um but they also the city also helps with some of that but um I do think we we need to make sure it's
in good shape for when random City or public people come and use it and that's a good point that I should bring up for the new board members is that we have an agreement with the city for them we have an agreement between us and the city for John bur and we have an agreement between the city and us for the use of
the tenant courts and they uh in that agreement they will maintain 25% of those courts and so whenever we have expenses then we will build them back 25% uh of that as well and for anyone that's wondering pickle ball will be added out
there too pickle ball lines will be added yes to so with the roof is there any chance that if we get into the roof if it's especially if it's been leaking for some time is there going to be is there more damage than maybe what we have
seen by chance is like you know what I mean like more than what they quoted correct correct cuz they can't see until they get in correct if it's been leaking for some time just just curious is there a potential part of the bid on that they'll rip the whole thing off and replace the installation
as well that's in the bid yeah um I mean once you open something up there possibility of other things but at least the installation prob will be included which would mean remove all the old stuff so I if there's a leak there's probably some wet stuff as a matter
what the biggest piece of it I would say once you get inside then can and it's usually a lot smaller any other questions again this is a recommendation from the facilities committee uh I will look for a motion to
approve as shown I move to approve as sh a second Luke on the motion J on the second any other further discussion all in favor say I I I
oppose motion carries consideration to cancel the fiscal year 26 bus purchase previously approved on October 28th 24 as we're going through the budgeting process for FY
26 um and we've obviously already made cuts um we're finding out some little additional items that weren't accounted for when we made the projections one the compensatory formula was not put in the what if scenario for mde is that the
proper way to say that josh yeah well they don't really have the what if yet for fiscal 26 but this wasn't discussed at that point going so the governor came out uh less than a month ago and it sounds
like unless his plan passes which would be more of a hold harmless for districts uh we are going to be another $100,000 short due to the current compensatory formula which is
based on free reduced applications that was not accounted for in the original um budget that we brought to you for cuts uh item number two is we're in the
process of working with gced on their cuts which means that all of our districts are going to have to probably shoulder some of that responsibility also and our best estimate right now is about $50,000 for that
um part of the uh piece and we'll discuss more in Clos session tonight is as part of the litigation and this will make much more sense once we get into close session uh there could be some ongoing cost to
the district moving forward until at least 2040 starting this coming year actually starting on April 1st so we have to eat part of it out of this year um is an additional $5,000 uh for utility costs that's just
for next year that's just for next year per year and that'll well that's going to start escalating okay up uh by about $110,000 a year because by like 2040 that estimate is supposed to be
$140,000 and we'll talk more about that in the PO session so uh the best estimate that we have right now is about $200,000 more and my suggestion is a one-time cost savings so it's not year-over-year
and my hope is that we would have uh some resolve to that compensatory discussion because we won't know that compensatory answer until late May and more than likely realistically June because they're not going to finish the
session on time yeah they'll go into June and possibly even July and so my suggestion is that we don't purchase a bus like we planned on and we're working with the company right now there might be
a a a cancellation which I'm arguing with them that we haven't received our bus yet that we ordered last year so we'll talk about the cancellation next okay and also we're reducing one uh bus
R too so ready could help with that as well yeah so I'm asking the board to unpurchase a bus that they approved on October 28 and the rough cost of that bus is about $143,000
so it'll eat into that $200,000 estimate that we have there any estimates on what a cancellation Fe maybe is a percentage or I have no idea Andy sandstrom is working with him on that I would think that we
kind of have the leverage on agree yeah don't even have well this is year number three in a row that their way behind or four I don't yeah I'm guessing this bus is even
on the production yeah yeah there's no yeah any other questions if not I would look for a motion to approve I'll make motion joen Pete on the
second any further discussion all in favor say I I oppose motion carries want to hold off on he's got to read a statement here I'll read a statement here
first the next item on the agenda is a review of pending litigation in order to consider this litigation the school board must meet with its attorney in a confid confidential setting to obtain advice regarding pending litigation it would be determined to the interest of
the district to hold a public discussion uh sorry it would be detrimental to the interest of the district to hold a public discussion with its attorney regarding its legal positions and strategy the matter to be discussed is joining litigation to
challenge a a change to the bill credit rate to the school dist that the school district receives through its solar garden agreements the specific subjects to be discussed pursuant to Minnesota statute 13 d01 subdivision 3 The District's legal
positions defenses and strategies with respect to the p litigation including potential settlement or resolution of such claims pursuant to Minnesota statutes section 13.05 subdivision 3B and the attorney client privilege I
will entertain a motion that the meeting will now be closed for the purposes stated and before I say that I will say that there will potentially be an action item uh after our Clos session so if anyone did want to stick around when we
do open it you surely are more than welcome to uh we are not quite positive right now on how long this closed session will last I would assume 20 to 30 minutes roughly yeah so right now I would look for a
motion I'll make to move into a closed session I'll make a motion Jody I'll second round e on the second any further discussion all in favor say I I I oppose
motion carries