that we have. But students who fall into that bracket of level four need a different wraparound need a completely different setting than the than the general education setting. And that's that is where I feel that struggle in my
school right now. They they need that support and I I feel like I'm failing them because I can't provide all the needs that they need. That's that's where I'm at right now. They also offered a regional crisis team to come in to to take over for our staff while
planning can be done and in place because the hardest thing has been as we've been all working together here to try and get a plan done while we're trying to intervene as well. >> So, I thought that was really a great
offering. So, and then um just the last thing I wanted to wrap up with was on our last PD day um our fourth grade or fifth grade teachers along with title and sped teachers received CAPY training um and then we'll receive another training on our next PD day in January. And CAPTY is
again just that that Minnesota Read Act requirement that um requires students in grades fourth grade through 12th grade um who are not reading at grade level to be assessed for reading difficulties including characteristics of like dyslexia and that tool that's approved
by the department of education is CAPI. So that is something new again for our fourth and fifth grade teachers along with any other teachers um middle school to senior high. Again that read act requirement that we are learning that program. It's a it's a really good
program. It's a great way to assess where those needs are for students. Um but again it's something new that we are learning and understanding um that that uh program and how to use it. Any other questions? Did they give you any kind of a time frame as far as when we could
possibly have a level four facility for our region? >> They didn't, but I'm following up with them, Matt, at the end of the week. So, hopefully we'll hear more information, but they did send us supports, like I said, right away, like here's something that maybe you can use now.
>> Um, but but they know they heard us loud and clear, right, >> that we need help. >> Sure. >> Yep. And we have a lot of like with those checklists, we have we have everything in place for our students that we possibly can have in place. That's where we're at right now, but
they need more than what we have than what we can provide. The other piece of that that came up was I I had presented on what we had did at South Point in 22 23 and the person whose meeting we were
at Sonia's who Sonia Duffy who's at MDE she said well you guys are doing a lot of good work with MTSS and I said we really are but it's really hard to do when you have a whole level that you need and you don't have so that was kind
of when it was very eye opening for now at MDE. So, I'm hopeful we will just stay on it. >> Y >> and it's ju just so the board's aware, this is not new. I'm going to say outstate like on the northeast region.
They just broke ground last year on a level four. There's one down by Duth. They're fighting and maybe they got approved now. So, I mean, I think it's going to come. It just can't come soon enough is the honest answer. >> Yes.
Yeah, thank you. >> All right. Hello everybody. Um it's been busy at the middle school. Some um actually a lot of good things going on. Um fun things. Uh we had at the end of the quarter happened to follow fall on
Halloween. So, we made sure to kind of have a party in the afternoon to celebrate all of the good work the students had been doing for first quarter. They did pumpkin decorating. They did classroom activities. They got to do bingo. Um, it was silent when
about 150 middle schoolers listening to bingo numbers in the cafeteria. Um, we kind of talked maybe we should play bingo every day. Um they got to do a dance, a 30-minute dance two in the afternoon, which again for middle schoolers is probably long enough for a dance. Um some other things we've been
doing, um again to those celebrations, um quarter 1 grades are done. Um report cards are online. If there are any parents that would like a hard copy, a paper copy, please reach out to the administrative assistants and they will
make sure to get you one. Um with that, I know Mrs. Walter a couple years ago started students of excellence and students in good standing and for the we've had many many students that have met the criteria for that. The students of excellent need to make sure they are
staying out of trouble um not having any office referrals or incidents at school um and then having those A's and attending school um and not missing a lot of days of school. And for the sixth grade we had 26% that qualified. Seventh
grade had 23%, eighth grade had 29%. Um, and then that students in good standing. Um, is then kind of that next tier where students maybe missed an extra day or sitting at that BC level. Um, but really our numbers for that are really good.
Sixth grade 46% were in that group. Seventh grade 43, 8th grade 42. So, it's been a very strong start to the school year at the middle school. Um, students are showing up and they're working hard. It's fun to go into the classrooms and see the students working and doing
projects and all of that good stuff. Um, we tried to push last week some college and career things. Nothing huge, just on the projectors at lunch, we had a slideshow um where students got to guess what a previous job of one of the staff
members was. Um, and some of them got really into it. They got a Google form. They got to guess to see who got the most right. Um, and won a prize. But even today when we finally like were had the answers going on the slideshow, it was the talk at lunch of which teacher
did what. Um and some students asking like what is that job even? So it was really just to get them to start talking and thinking about uh life after high school. Parent teacher conferences happened. Um sixth grade 47% of families showed up. So about half which is good.
Um seventh grade 39% and eighth grade 31%. So, we got to see a lot of parents that and there is a chance. We missed a couple of those there. So, thank you parents for coming out and visiting with our teachers. Uh let's see where winter sports girls
basketball started today and they are still looking for unless that changed in the last eight hours, they're still looking for a some coaches. there's anyone in the community that maybe is interested um please reach out to Scott
with activities um because we're still looking for some coaching help at the middle school. Um last week the eighth graders and the seventh grade AVID elective class attended the T4 summit at Northland. It was a career exploration.
They got to do a lot of neat stuff. I was there with them all day kind of bouncing from room to room. They got to learn everything from like surgical tech where they actually got to use some of the instruments to perform surgery um to mining to safety equipment to
occupational therapy. Um just a lot of opportunities for them in the future. Um and it was it was fun. It was hands-on. It was a good day had by all. Uh tomorrow we have a Veterans Day program at 9:00. So after you're done at South Point, you'll already be at that side of
town and so you can come to the Veterans Day program tomorrow. Um with this, we held a doughnut fundraiser this morning um before school and the students and the couple staff members that helped out raised $600. that's we're going to
present tomorrow to go towards the honor flight for veterans who um get to take part in that honor flight where they get to go to uh Washington DC and see some of those memorials. And so it's just trying to be CMS's contribution to support our veterans in that um
endeavor. Uh last couple things, thank you to the education foundation um and congratulations to Hannah Driscoll, Amanda Adams, Lisa Hansen, and Jenny Lore. Um it's great to have those extras for our classes. Um so thank you education foundation for that. And the
last thing I want to say is now after just being here for a few months and getting acclimated. Uh I've really been enjoying my time working with the administrative team that we have here. I feel like we have a very strong group. I really appreciate all the support that Mr. Grover has given as well. And I do
think that we are giving um we've had a lot of good conversations around curriculum and how do we align it and how do we do PK12 alignment as we continue throughout the next few years talking about different content areas and how we can improve our practices here. Um so thank you everybody. Does
anyone have any questions? >> Thank you. All right. Thank you. So, I'll come up to the podium, but when uh when these guys have been here as long as I have, you get a a chief of staff like I do over here. So, he'll be the one that will be uh giving the report today. So, [clears throat] um if you have any questions for me after he's
done the report or something to answer, but I'll let him speak for me. >> All right. I'd like to start off with a congratulations to Gabby Tac and Tegan Lehan for qualifying for state and swimming. They'll compete this Friday and Saturday uh in West Fargo. Good luck
to them. Our fall musical is coming up next weekend on November 21st, 22nd, and 23rd. This year, we have a total of 1,134 seats available, and over 600 of those seats have already been sold in
pre-sale. You can get your tickets now at egf.ludus.com. Next, November is Native American Heritage Month and advisers. This week we watched or last week we watched a video featuring Ricky White who shared the month's significance, the history,
traditions, and values um among Native Americans. Winter sports is here. Girls basketball and boys hockey start practice today. Boys basketball starts next week. Girls hockey has already started and played
two games with their third game being tomorrow. And I would like to finally say a big thank you to everyone who came to parent teacher conferences last Wednesday. >> That's all I have. The only thing I'll add is we did bring
our sophomores to the uh career expo or down at the uh we brought all 150 or 60 to the to there and they had all sorts of cool different things. So uh sophomores came back with a lot of cool different things and so um very very wellrun and organized by a a lot of
people but obviously Chad Gracal was very instrumental in making sure that happened for us now too for our career stuff. So um they were fired up about it. So, yeah. >> Good. >> And and they'll be watching those videos uh from Ricky White all of um th every Thursday in November. So,
Ricky's done that for I think he's he's done it for grades K through 12. He has different videos for first, second, third all the way along and so he's doing a lot of work for us. So, yeah, pretty cool. Anyway, I'm done. >> Thank you, B. Thank you, East. >> Thank you. Good job, Eston. [clears throat]
>> Okay. Are we Do we have Okay, Erin. Okay, Erin, we're gonna go over to you for our Ellers's update. >> All right, sounds good. Can you hear me? Okay, >> can hear you just fine. >> Perfect. Good. All right. Well, it's uh
great to see everybody uh virtually tonight here. So, um as part of your board packet, you have a pre-sale report that we've provided. So, I'm just going to uh go over a couple of the highlights of the pre-sale report. Again, the the pre-sale report, the intent of that is
usually about a month ahead of uh our planned bond sale. We provide the school board with some information uh regarding some timelines and some processes regarding uh the upcoming bond sale. So, um just a couple of highlights again.
So, this uh potential refunding is to refund uh a portion of your 2016AA school building bonds, and those were issued as a result of your successful November 2015,
uh bond referendum. And so, uh this bond refunding is similar to refinancing a mortgage on your house. Um, so really our goal is to pay uh lower interest costs than what's on the original bonds.
Um, and again the savings from the lower interest costs go directly to the East Grand Forks taxpayers. So you can't use this money for the general fund. You can't use it for any other purpose. This goes directly uh um this is a direct result of a a reduction in your um in
your overall levy. So, uh, it's a little different, uh, from a mortgage in the standpoint that, um, refinancing a mortgage, you can kind of do it anytime. Uh, when you refund bonds, you can only do that 90 days before or anytime after
what's known as the call date. And so, the call date for these bonds is February 1 of 2026. And so that's why um we're looking at this tax exempt refunding right now because uh we're starting to get into that uh 90-day
window um prior to that call date. So uh this would be um what's known as a partial refunding. So each annual maturity, so you make um one principal payment per year. And so each one of those maturities has a different
interest rate. And so we're able to kind of pick and choose um the maturities that are feasible to be refunded. So right now we would refund um the 2027 through 2032 maturities. So this um your
outstanding bonds go out through 2036. So we're just taking kind of that first portion of maturities and looking to refund those as a part of the bond issuance process. uh the district will participate in what's known as the state credit
enhancement program and this was uh included in the resolution the intent resolution that the board has already approved and what this does there's no cost to this program and in essence the state of Minnesota guarantees school district debt service payments so this
is a great program um it's beneficial for the district to take part of because the investors in the bond see this state guarantee um and it provides them um with a little bit more comfort. There's less risk in their eyes in in um in bidding and participating in your bond
issue. Um similar to again I'm going to make this mortgage analogy, right? So when you apply for a mortgage, you get a credit score. Same thing happens for school districts. They get what's known as a bond rating. And so you go through
a a rating call with a bond um rating agency and they'll issue the district a bond rating. And so typically speaking, right, the the higher the better the bond rating, uh the lower the overall interest cost for that uh bond issue.
So just as far as the timeline goes, so um you've already approved the intent resolution. We're doing the pre-sale report tonight. Um we'll continue to work with Kevin and Carla over the course of the next couple weeks. We're going to um we're continuing to gather information. We're going to go through
that bond rating call that I just talked about to get the district's bond rating. And then we're anticipated to uh sell the bonds the morning of December 8th. And then uh we'll be at your board meeting the evening of December 8th to
uh award that bond sale to the lowest overall bidder, the lowest overall interest costs uh as a part of that. So that's just some highlights uh in the pre-sale report. Um, I'm more than happy to to answer any questions you have about the bonds or the process. Um,
otherwise we'll we'll kind of be back in front of you uh in about a month or so. >> Erin, is and I had mentioned [clears throat] that the the I'm going to say the the rate or whatever, you know, has come down a little bit. I mean, is is it possible, you know, now
that the government's back working, do you think it's going to get better or could it get worse and maybe we pull back? Yeah. So, we're gonna um uh so to Kevin's point um we saw uh so we've been talking about this with Kevin and Carla
over the past month or six weeks and um just kind of in the past couple weeks there has been a little bit of an increase in the short-term rates uh due to the uncertainty regarding the government shutdown, the federal government shutdown. So, uh to Kevin's point now that uh hopefully we're we're
kind of on a plan to reopen. We're hoping that uncertainty kind of gets out of the market and we see those short-term rates come down a little bit. So, we've got a couple of bond sales coming up a little bit later this week. So, we're going to have a better idea of kind of where that market is right now.
So, right now we're we're kind of full steam ahead. Um if you know there's any kind of um blip in the market or those rates uh increase a little bit, we might put this uh just hit pause and kind of wait for the markets to settle down a
little bit. Again, we can do this refunding anytime 90 days or anytime prior or I'm sorry, anytime after the call date. So really, we don't have to do this right now if we don't think um that the market's in a in good shape to to try to take advantage of this
refunding. >> Thank you, Erin. Any questions from the board? >> Oh, I appreciate the explanation. Really helps wrap my mind around it. So, thank you. >> Good. Okay. We'll see you in about a month then. >> Yeah. See you. Thank you.
>> All right. Thank you. Lynn, Lynn, just a heads up, Laura and uh preschool have conferences tonight, so that's why she's not here. >> Yeah, no worries. No worries. Okay, moving on to the consent agenda. I'll
make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> I'll second. >> Any questions or discussion on the consent agenda? >> All those in favor of approving the consent agenda say I.
>> I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Um 7.0 is for opportunities for citizens to speak and I don't see any. They've all cleared out. 8.0 is district business. Uh nothing under there tonight either. So 9.0 is
payment of claims and accounts. I'll make the motion to approve the payment of K12 bills3074 through130560 and the electronic fund transfers in the amount of1,568,85985. >> I'll second. >> Any questions or discussion?
All those in favor of paying the claims and accounts say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. board member comments. Amanda, we'll start on with you. >> Well, I was actually really happy to hear about the behavior conference thing
um that makes me happy and optimistic um for our district and I am glad that the state finally heard us that we need a level four. That is amazing. Um and I had other comments, but I'm just very excited for the plan and to see how it
works out. And so now I have nothing. >> Um, just thanks to the foundation for the grants. And that's it. >> Do you have anything you want to add? >> Matt, >> uh, just thanks for everybody who came to talk and present tonight. A lot of
good things happening in the district. >> Josh, >> uh, yeah, thank you for all the grants. Um, if you know somebody that's can drive a bus, was willing to drive a bus, even if it's for one day, uh, please get encourage them to come and help, um, or in desperate need of those. And
especially to like the elementary staff, I know you guys are working really hard. Not that you guys aren't over here at the at the upper level, but it's it's a little it's a little different at that level. And and if you guys need anything, um, just let let us know cuz I know you guys are are are doing the best
that you can. And and I appreciate it. I'm sure all of us do cuz we know the struggles that you're you're dealing with right now. Some of us probably more than others, but um keep it up. >> Yeah. Yeah.
>> My turn. Um yes, thanks to the education foundation. Always exciting and I like to hear what the um teachers and staff and everybody are applying for. It's fun to find out what their plans are. Um end of first quarter, so congrats to everybody for making it through the first one. Um, I'm also excited about
the level four facility being talked about and recognizing that we need that the support and that help. Um, winter sports are starting, so that's exciting. And, um, good luck to the swimmers this weekend. I'm sure you were going to say something similar. >> I I mean, I know one of those swimmers.
>> Yeah, maybe a little. >> Uh, so yes, good luck, Abby. Um, Frozen is coming. Yeah, >> super cool. Buy your tickets. They're 60% sold. Uh, Huddle. What an opportunity. That's a That's pretty cool. People are going to be angry that
they're going to be spending money on Huddle, but I think the um there's more pros than cons. Uh, let's see. Ed Foundation. I agree. I love hearing what they applied for and like what they got. I think that's super cool. So, thank you to the Ed Foundation. Turkey bingo. I
swear when I went to school, Turkey Bingo was four hours long. Now it's 10 games. So, [laughter] not that that's bad. 10 games are good. Hawk system. Use it. Right. Also, drop your kid off in the loop.
What am I missing? Winter activities in full force pretty much. >> Go. >> Great. No, this is good meeting. Pretty informational and level four. Oh my gosh. I think we've been hearing about it for years. So, I really hope that it takes up.
All right. Next next meeting for the board of education November 24th at 5:30. I'll take a motion to adjurnn. >> I'll make a motion. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> That's >> all right. Any questions or discussion
on adjourning the meeting? All those in favor say I. >> I. Any oppose? Motion carries. Thank you everybody. >> Thank you all. Sorry. Sorry for the challenges. Appreciate the flexibility. >> Thanks Kevin. I'm good like