e e e e e e e mean good evening everyone at this time I'll call to order the business meeting in truth and Taxation hearing here on
December 2nd 2024 at the fwal public schools district office for the fal Public Schools School Board um Miss Steve will you determine if we have a quorum present yes Mr chair there is would everyone please stand for the Pledge of
Allegiance I pledge aliance to the plag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible withy and justice for all thank
you again we welcome those who are here in present at the district office and those of you watching online agenda item number two is approval of the agenda uh could I have a motion for approval of the agenda please so move thank you Miss vro we have a
second second thank you Dr robish show any discussion discussion discussion all in favor of that motion signify by saying I I opposed motion passes 60 uh agenda item number three consider
adoption of resolution 25-12 canvasing returns of votes and certifying recount results of school district election could I have a motion for adoption of resolution 25-12 canvasing returns of votes and certifying recount results of school
district election move thank you Miss budo do we have a second second thank you Miss Steves and to begin our discussion here I'm going to on behalf of Mr benty I'll ask uh Denise Anderson the property tax
administrator and elections director to come forward and uh I guess explain the process Etc and we go from there sounds great thank you thank you for this opportunity excuse me for me to explain
you what the process was and how it all went as you recall School District had an election on 115 the school board canvased the results from the general election on November
12 Richard Olen requested a recount according to State Statute 20436 this recount is at no cost to the candidate that requested it expenses will be paid by the school
district the school board met on November 18th to myself as a Recon official on 1119 Rice County myself sent emails to all Schoolboard candidates and the superintendent and
the superintendent's clerk Jean regarding the recount request the email included dates and times of the recount and all the no that's just fine all the details about how the recount would be handled I
am going to go through those items right now so it is clear to all the school board members on how the recount was handled I had planned on the rec to take three days the recount did not take three days but you never know I'd rather had more time than not enough
time plus we had to coordinate with Goodhue County to be able to come over and bring their ballots from Holden Township there is a one Farmhouse that is in the school district of folt so they came over on the recount day as
well the details of that were presented to all cand CES was please plan on five tables we had five counting tables and at each table there was a lead recount judge with two counters one to the right
one to the left and on the other side of the table is where the representatives from each candidate could sit to view the ballot each candidate Mr um Olen and Mr robishaw and I'm pardon if I'm saying
that wrong okay had the um provide me a list of Representatives that could sit and represent each candidate so those lists were given to me prior to the recount starting at 9:00 on
Monday so they had a person sit here or a person sit here on the other side of the table the Recon official took the ballot started on the back of the ballot and flipped it over to where the office was the recount of official held the
ballot and ruled between Jerry or Richard if there was a vote for Jerry it went in the Jerry pile if it was a vote for Richard it went in the Richard pile if it was a vote for Richard and Jerry because Ms vote for three in the office
it went to the pile with Jerry and Richard if there were no votes for the school board for either Jerry or Richard it went to the other pile or if it was a vote for any other candidate it went to the other pile if there was any challenges they
put the challenges in another pile and we addressed it at the precinct at the end of each Precinct and when the challenges were addressed that was my job the the um lead official raised their hand and said okay we're ready to do the challenges we have no challenges
to bring you today because they were all decided at the recount once they were going done going through the ballot they then counted all the Jerry ballots all the Richard ballots and all the Jerry and Richard
ballots okay so those numbers were presented to me or my assistant Jodie and they would say so many votes for Richard so many votes for onward and onward and we balanced those to what
actually happened on Election night if there was any discrepancies we sat down we figured it out why there was any discrepancies voter intent came into effect and we will discuss that as we continue the whole time during the
recount it was very open and transparent and at all times I was available for anybody that had concerns and I kept checking in with both candidates or the candidates representative do you have any concerns do you have any concerns and there were no concerns brought
forward okay also um when the ballots came from the secured storage the ballots were brought to the counting table like this table right here could have been Richland Township the candidates viewed the lock
number that was on the blue lock of each case with what was certified by the election judges when they signed the flap so the candidates could easily see that we weren't able to open the boxes before right there cuz I do not have the
authority to open boxes unless it is a recount so the candidates all looked at that prior to it the first day went until 5:00 we got a lot farther than I thought and the next day third or
Tuesday jeez we went until about 11:00 and we were done before I concluded the recount we had um we talked and we talked about a few things and I asked both candidates or their representative they had any concerns and at that time
there were no concerns okay Rice County had seven staff to assist with this recount and Bryce County hired 20 or no excuse me 11 election judges to come in and assist
with the um recount let me see it was open to the media and was also open to the public there was a public viewing area and let's see what else I just want to make sure I got everything no challenge
ballots all right so now if we could um look at the spreadsheet up here you will see November 5th the First Column is the votes for Jerry that's what you guys um certified on November
12th the second column is the votes for Richard the third column and the fourth column are what the hand count came back to you will see that there wasn't much change
and the ones that have a change are due to voter intent okay so when you have voter intent if they filled in four ovals but crossed off one line when you look at that by hand count
or a recount the one that's cross off the election judges or the recount judges ruled that the cross offline was that voter saying I didn't want that vote for that person but I wanted it for the other
three so that's why there's some changes on line variable P3 sorry maybe I should look at my computer my not here sorry variable at P3 Jerry lost a vote due to vo intent
and then in Warsaw Township he gained a vote no no sorry Wells okay so by voter intent because the machine would have seen um marks in
all four ovals even though one had a line through the name border intent says those three get the vote and you do not it's not an overvote then okay there was one misfiled ballot and you will
see that in oh P3 that's the one in P3 my voter intent I'm sorry I misquoted myself is Warsaw Township Jerry lost a vote and in Wells Township he picked up a vote and that is very common if you pick up one you probably lose one in
another another District okay in P3 we had one ballot that was misplaced and what that means is when it goes through an election machine okay there's many ballots that go through an election machine at the end of the machine
they're paper clip together and then the next one would be a different Precinct because you only do one Precinct at a time so we are assured that one ballot is locked up in a district that I don't have the authority to open and why I
don't have the authority to open it is because it's not part of the 656 School disc recount so you will see on P three folds both candidates lost a vote that is
because we didn't have the physical ballot to actually count we believe it's locked up could be locked up in dundis we have a chart here of everything we have counted and in what order and there are many times that we counted one ballot at a time for a fable at P3
and then we did another District right after it I am very confident in these results I'm very happy in the results and I wasn't expecting anything but so they both lost one vote
each I am open for questions board members questions Mr Olsson yeah it was a um very good recount there was 15 um judges and they were all
professional uh friendly to talk to um I do have some concerns but I've thought that you know it's time to move on the election is over and it's uh time
to uh you know stop this process thank you Mr Olson other board members anything else last call for discussion Dr robish show just uh want to address my comments to Mr Olsen uh Richard I respect your decision to ask
for recount that was your legal right um I respect that you did that and I respect the uh professional way that you've dealt with this over the course of the last several weeks so my um respect and appreciation goes out to you
Richard was very educational never went through recounting you really don't want to okay because you're staring at the ballots one after another and they took their time uh sometimes I'd say hey wait I didn't see that then they would go
back very nice very nice but I'm surprised of how many people didn't vote at all for any candidate whatsoever um to me that's a little disturbing because we spent a lot of
taxpayers money um but again that's you know maybe they just voted president and and then they you know I think we had a senator and then they stopped it I don't know I didn't look at that but uh I'm surprised how many
people did not vote for any candidate whatsoever and there was a lot of them that was the other pile very good last call for a discussion board members he none Miss Steves this is a
resolution I'm G ask you to do a roll call but first for transparency the resolution does state I'm just going to read the first four items here be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District number 656 FAL state of Minnesota as follows one it is hereby found determined and declared
that the election of the voters of District of the district held on November 5 2024 was in all respects duly and legally called and held two the school board previously met on November 12th 2024 to
Canvas the results of the election therefore a timely request for recount was made by the candidate for school board member receiving the the most votes from among the candidates who were not elected three a recount of the votes for district for school district office
was conducted on November 25 and 26 2024 by the recount official designated by the school board and then number four as specified in the attached abstract and return of votes cast and as reported by the recount official voters of the
school district voted at set election on the election of three school board members to terms of four years to begin on Monday January 6 202 2025 as follows and then it lists the votes and then there is item number number five and six within the
resolution so with that Miss Steves will you please do a roll call bro I Linda Moore hi Richard Olson hi Jerry rasa hi gie Steves I John Bellingham I passes 6 Z thank you motion passes 60 thank you
Miss Anderson for attending and describing the process to us Etc there so we appreciate it very much the profession next on the agenda is item number four the truth and Taxation meeting and this meeting will start at six o'clock so I'm
going to I do not want to get into other Schoolboard uh business items on the remainder to interrupt that so I'm going to issue a recess here of the Schoolboard meeting until uh 5:59 which I will call it back into order and uh
we'll go on on with the truth and Taxation so we are in recess e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e I'll call the meeting back to order uh it is six o'clock uh pm and it is we are
on the agenda item now of the truth and Taxation meeting during the truth and Taxation meeting the public will be given a reasonable amount of time to comment and ask questions regarding the proposed tax levy and budget and again
the questions and comments must pertain to the proposed property tax levy and budget and miss did anyone contact you or with questions or whatever for this tonight okay we got thank you so with that I
will turn it over to for a presentation on the truth and Taxation to miss Barbie racler our Director of Finance and operations and once again board members we allow the presentation in its entirety and then we will open it up for questions like that so miss racler it's
all yours thank you for presenting tonight thank you thank you for allowing me to um be here and talk about this super exciting topic of um taxes so um the first item of business is to talk about what the truth and
Taxation laws are um and just so we're aware of that basically um we have to have a public meeting um announcing the date time location all of those good things um the taxpayers have received mailing notices from the county regarding proposed taxes and that
includes the city county and uh School District um oh there's just a little glitch there uh thank you so um the requirements there are only three requirements for a truth and Taxation presentation and they include discussing
the uh 2425 budget discussing the 24 payable 25 tax uh Levy and then we do have to allow for public comment the points to remember are that um the school district is funded by the federal government the state government
local fees and also local taxes with the majority of that coming from our state government other points to remember is that the um that the state legislature determines the revenue formulas except for any voter approved referenda and
that our local Levy and state aid is also determined by the legislature a very important piece is that an increase in taxes does not mean an increase in Revenue per se it it may but um more than likely it does not
unless we're doing something voter approved we have what's called Equalization in Minnesota so we have portions of our uh funding coming from Levy and portions coming from Aid and so a lot of times the if our Levy goes up
our Aid goes down making it uh tax neutral the property tax process um that you're seeing here um there are seven major steps to that process the first one involves the city or county assessor
and they provide what they feel the estimated value of each parcel of land is so the county assessor actually has the uh one of the harder jobs on the um ta property tax process uh the legislature sets the formulas um for tax
capacity and what that means is if you remember in Minnesota we have referendum market value we also have net tax capacity tax capacity is where we have our classifications of different types of property such as Farmland um you know like agriculture commercial home
residential um Green Acres those different pieces the county auditor then uh calculates the tax capacity for each of those Parcels the legislature sets the formula to determine what the school district levy limits will be the
Department of Education calculates what those Levy limits will be based on the formulas approved by the legislature then comes the school board step so the School Board gets to determine um what they will uh propose Levy for in September and if you
remember we proposed the maximum which 99% of school districts will do because they don't want to sell themselves short of what they're able to Levy for and so normally you propose the maximum then in December which we're doing tonight is
where we actually uh adopt the final Levy with a literal dollar amount the last step then is for the county auditor to divide how much each uh property then will pay for tax uh tax capacity and how
much they will um Levy for each parcel land this is a confusing part for a lot of people this is the cycle so in 2024 is when we certify our property taxes those taxes are collected in 25 and then
school districts recognize that Revenue in 26 so what we're doing tonight will be recognized as Revenue in fiscal year 26 so just to kind of keep that in mind this is a chart that I'm sure you've seen for years and years and
years um this is the one that shows us how far behind our general Leed formula allowance is based on inflation so in 2003 is when um when we stopped keeping Pace with inflation as far as the General Ed formula allowance uh this
year that amount is at $728 per pupil when it should actually be 8,640 $45 per pupil based on inflation that we've recognized so we're basically
$1,364 underfunded per pupil and for farble that comes to about $4.6 million annually so that's a big piece to remember we you know the state is doing a great job trying to get us back on track but that is still our
reality now we'll jump into the um we'll jump into the uh budget a bit so here you're seeing the fiscal year 25 Revenue summary and again this is a budget that you approved back uh in June most likely and this is just giving you a snapshot
of all of the different funds that farble Curr uses we have our general fund which is the one that we mostly talk about when we're talking about talking about our um general fund balance in those different pieces we have food service Community Education
construction Debt Service internal which for us is our self-insured insurance plan we have our opab irrevocable trust and we have Student Activities this is uh showing you what our Revenue summaries look like for each
of those those funds you'll notice that our general fund is decreasing in revenue and the vast majority of that is due to Esser we no longer have any of the covid dollars that we had been receiving uh for for quite a few years now so that's what you're seeing in a
decrease um one of the largest decreases of course is in our construction fund we went out for a bond and received that and uh so we will not be receiving much of any revenue for our construction because we uh recognized all of that
last fiscal year here's the obligatory pie chart so this is showing just uh fund one and the the general fund as we talked about and where we are receiving our dollars so again you'll see that the vast majority
of our dollars are received from the state and that's equaling almost 78% of what we uh receive in funding is from the state uh 3.8% or roughly $2 million is received re for uh Federal sources and
that would be things like our title and um different uh areas that we that we get um Federal funding 15.6% comes from our property taxes and then we have another uh 3% or about 1.8
million that comes from local or other revenues like interests or registration fees activity fees those different kinds of things the next slide then shows the information uh for for the expenditure side and so you are seeing again those
same funds um again the general fund is the one that we most often talk about um again you're seeing uh quite a change in um as an example the construction fund we did spend 4 point or we had anticipated spending about 4.4 million
uh last year to start our hbac projects and this year we're anticipating to spend about 3.7 million which most of it we've spent so far this year um based on our uh summer activity that we've done and again the pie chart showing
what uh what the breakout is uh based on object and so where we spend most of our money is in our salaries and benefits for our staff which is our greatest asset that's the best asset that we have going for our school district is our staff and so roughly uh 70 some percent
is is uh spent there 16. 4% is spend on purchase services and that would include things like our transportation any of our contracts Architects those uh type of those type of expenditures we have supplies at about 2.6 million Capital
which would be any type of equipment or Capital um um um repairs and those types of things at about 2 million and then other at just 42 some, or just 7%
when we talk about then the 24 payable 25 Levy there are three funds that we talk about and those three funds are the general fund community service fund and Debt Service fund those are the three funds in which we
um gather taxpayer dollars to support the school district what this particular comparison data is showing is what we levied last year our actual levies versus what we are proposing for um payable in 2025 which will be recognized
in fiscal year 26 so we have things like our voter approved referendum and that is our operating referendum um we also have local optional revenue and that is board approved and that is based on student
count and value of our properties so you'll see an increase there because our our properties did increase in value our equity revenue um transition the operating capital Did increase and that again is
based on uh that's an equalized category which means that portion of it is Levy and a portion of it is Aid um we have building leases um our long-term facilities maintenance um and the list goes on you can see then that uh there is a line for
adjustments and I think it's important for people to understand what adjustments mean um what happens with adjustments is the state will go back at least at least two years to see and recapture how many students you actually had versus how many you're guesstimating
you have because that's one of the main uh factors in any Levy is to tell the state how many um average daily membership you have or pupil units they are two different things based on that then when the year is done you'll find
out your actual figures based on actual figures then the state will either provide more in an adjust adustment or take back in an adjustment so it's always best to you know have your best guesstimate going forward with what your um pupil units what your ADM looks like
so when you're seeing adjustments of like $44,000 in in payable 24 and 26,000 in payable 25 most of that has to do with your student count it also has to do with your actual expenditures so if you thought you would Levy in a
particular area but then didn't have expenditures in that area the state is happy to take that money back so um that's kind of how that works so that we're always balancing what we're seeing in a change for all of the general fund is
2.26% the next slide shows then what we're showing for um Community Service as well as Debt Service uh in community service the item that might be of of most interest uh is coming from like our Early Childhood family education where
we're increasing the levy but you'll notice then that the basic Community Education is decreasing by almost that same amount and again the adjustments here are also taken into account we're actually decreasing in our community ed
uh Levy um and this was uh somewhat purposeful by the Legislative uh session that was in 20123 where um the state actually decreased uh Levy amounts they wanted to get more Aid so what we're seeing is more Aid versus putting a burden on the
taxpayer so again a decrease of 1.12% and then the last category is The Debt Service fund um here we are seeing a decrease and the majority of that decreases coming from our long-term facilities um where our Levy is actually
going down our revenue is about the same but our Levy is going down so we're getting a just a titch more in in Aid there so overall that fund is going down 5.96% when all three of those funds then are tallied um we are seeing a
difference of about 82 thou almost 83,000 which is an increase of 68% so less than 1% increase in our property tax levy so the next slide shows then just based on those three funds in the
cumulative again those same figures so our difference for the general fund is $217,000 increase our community ed is a decrease of about $5,000 and our decrease for Debt Service is about
$130,000 and again that overall difference is $882,000 or 68% again key talking points to remember uh property valuation increases does not mean an increase in revenue for the District necessarily it could be but it
does not necessarily mean so um increasing valuations can lead to less state aid because then the state feels that your property Rich so if our um if our property increases our Aid
decreases because uh the state feels that you can afford then more in a levy um just for your information the um valuations that we have on our referendum market value so that would be
each parcel considered about the same uh increase 99.8% and our net tax capacity values increased 11.6% so people will most likely see an increase in the value of their property that they own um but the school district
will not be a main driver of why taxes went up because our increase is only 68% so a lot of times when we take phone calls calls from tax um uh taxpayers of the community they want to know why
their their amount is going up so much and usually were able to explain it you know look at the value how much did your property um appreciate and value and usually that helps answer their questions so tonight um later on in the
meeting uh what you will be asked to do is approve um the 25 uh proposed property tax level uh with an increase of 68% or 82,83 a29 um and that is the recommendation
that I'll be um providing again later on in the meeting where you um actually approve the total uh Levy amount of 12,338 72.7 and at this time I'm happy to answer any questions regarding the um
the levy or taxes all righty board members you have any questions on presentation on our uh proposed property tax levy and budget questions pretty thorough report there Mr racler
so any further questions on here see I don't see anything so good thank you very much thank you thank you m Mr chair um if people did people send in I I think some people did tell
me they sent in some questions so uh we did re Dr Moore we did receive two I received two emails okay and uh in reviewing those uh we did not feel that um those questions were about the taxes
or um the Le proposed Levy and budget there were they were more operational within within the district Mr benty maybe you could operational District how many do you have this how many do you have that those questions and uh since I was out of town today I have not had time to reply to them and I I will get
to them as as soon as they can so if these people have that you know these are taxpayers if they have questions when how can they get them answered then I guess is my question e email uh M miss racler Mr benty myself and we'll forward that and get back to them as soon as we
can so so their questions will be answered yes definitely yes okay we'll move on to agenda item number five items of information School Board representative Miss Jillian huberty do you have anything for us today after that detailed all the happening at the I
do have one announcement oh great a little bit so uh we have donkey basketball at 7 o'clock on Wednesday night at the high school and we will be selling crumble as well and all proceeds will go to our toys for tots which in student council we use to then buy um
gifts for people in our community but we're selling crumble so tell people and come and watch teachers versus students at donkey basketball Wednesday 7 o' at the high school nomin Jim and donkeys perfect we didn't even
need a paid advertisement for that so very good Julian thank you uh items of information uh school board members anyone Dr Moore go ahead okay I just wanted to mention to I went to the rotary concert the other night and it
was fantastic I came in a little bit late but I did hear most of it and I think we have some fantastic music students uh that participated and I was very impressed by them and I'm also impressed by our three um music directors the vocal and the orchestra on
the band and I think they put a lot of effort forward and so I think we need to you know really recognize them I think we have a good pro music program in fwell middle school and also farbo high school and so I think they need to be recognized so thank you very much I
enjoyed it that night also I would just like and I forgot about I should have mentioned this sooner but um I was invited to um Mrs uh Bri isacson um on Friday at 2:20 p.m. they have What's called the big Falcon little
little Falcon club and I don't know if people are aware of that or not but it's similar to The Big Brother's big sister and what you do is have the older students assist the younger students in their studies and I got to see that firsthand and they looked engaged uh
both I think the older students really benefit but you know uh assisting with the uh younger students and I think the younger students were having were having a good time too not only a good time but they were learning in their studies and I think it's a great program and I think
it's a great idea and uh I just want to commend Mrs isacon for that and I think it's going to continue so if you have a chance to go on a Friday just let them know you know I think it's at 2:20 p.m. and so yeah very good and Dr Moore it
was a good thing we finished the board meeting early enough so we could get you could get to that rotary concert I was a little late but I made it yeah that was a good thing so very good so anything else here board members Mr chair I would just say thank you for letting us get to
the concert because meeting was over enough it was very good and it is also wonderful that our Rotary Club uses this for raising money for their fundraising for scholarships and the students did not
disappoint and they did a wonderful job and I also wanted to mention that our um our Deca group was at setting up for the iris Turkey Trot on Wednesday and we
have never unloaded those trailers as fast as we did that day and so I I just want to thank them for their work they did a wonderful job and did many other things so much to do for that event so
thank you thank you m Buro I just have a couple things first of all just to uh continue with Miss bud said our kids are out there doing great things not only with the iris tricky trat but if you noticed on the uh fairbow Community Thanksgiving we had
the basketball team boys basketball team down there I think they peeled 300 pounds of potatoes or something and they weren't even in the military you know to to do that so had been there but Ju Just great things our kids are out in the community doing uh uh showing what the
quality of kids that we have and and how they link to the community is is really really a great thing also um the board the entire board received an email uh from Sarah fed the Rice County Administrator and when an email
goes to the entire board it's public information and I think for transparency uh I I would like to read that email to out here so to the to the public uh and was regarding the um recount election and this email says as
follows superintendent benty we were made a aware of certain statements that were made at the November 18th school board meeting regarding Rice County elections director Denise Anderson a lawsuit filed in 2022 naming Miss Anderson was
dismissed by the district court and the dismiss dismissal was upheld by the Minnesota court of appeals one remaining issue which does not involve any allegations against Miss Anderson has been appealed to the
Minnesota Supreme Court that remaining issue has to do with service of process under a specific Minnesota statute and is being handled by the Secretary of State and the Minnesota attorney general's office at no point did any Court find any fault on
the part of Miss Anderson and in fact all levels claimed against her were dismissed Rice County has every confidence in M Anderson and her abilities to handle elections in a fair manner and compliance with the law if
you have any questions or concerns during this process please feel to reach out sincerely Sarah fad so again clarification for the public with with that we'll move on to five C which uh items of information
which is superintendent benty thank you Mr chair well I was going to do my best Dave Letterman impersonation because I had the top 10 but then board member drove stole one of them so I only have nine so um so our summer steam program
was recently recognized by commissioner jet as a program of Excellence uh only seven programs in the entire State receive this award this past summer 334 Faro kids participated in summer steam our community ed team does a great job at running that program and
congratulations to them being one of only seven recognized by the commissioner of Education um our uh our Allstaff fundraiser for Dolly Parton's Imagination Library has officially ended we had some money trickle in today I
believe uh that did wrapped it out our preliminary calculations show that we raised a total of $7,295 children with books for a year all right so that was a that was a huge huge uh success for us um as Mr I guess
I have eight because Mr uh our chair talked about this on the boys basketball team peeled over 300 lb of potatoes and deboned 32 turkeys prep and prepared cranberry sauce cups all right um our farbo area Learning Center staff served
a traditional Thanksgiving meal to their students our ALC team did a great job organizing this special event it was a wonderful way to bring our school and Community together Miss Canfield's art class at the middle school participated in a turkey in Disguise competition uh
other classes and staff members had the chance to vote on which disguises were the best I even got to vote as well there were some amazing disguises that they had the turkeys dressed up uh as it was fun to see all the creative designs that they were able to come up
with um our kindergarten classes at jeffon held their annual friendship Feast each student brought a vegetable and as a class they made a soup and shared what they were thankful for I can only imagine what all went into that
soup so uh Jeff and first grade families were invited to listen to a reading of the book turkey trouble and work on an art project together uh the fhss uh fbow High School choir will be putting on a Christmas concert this Thursday at our
Cathedral at 1:30 and then uh as uh Miss huberty alluded to it is snow coming week at ferbo high school which means they're doing a variety of fundraising events including a coin Drive donkey basketball
Bingo a pep Fest and a war winter formal dance to all to raise money for Toys for Tots so Mr chair that concludes my report thank you Mr denty move on to agenda item number six public comment uh we have one person who
signed up for public comment uh Miss Carolyn Treadway Miss Treadway would as you prepare if you would just give a brief thing what you your topic is tonight please so thank you I'm speaking to reorganization of Elementary classes thank
you um good evening board members I earnestly ask you to accept the proposed Elementary reorganization plan as a sub I witness pretty fairly
often the educational challenges that exist with current class sizes in some class classes there is absolutely no research that advises for large class sizes of 29
30 31 even 32 students that currently exist in our Elementary classes there are some key negative effects of large class sizes that
include reduced indiv visual attention increased classroom disruption lower student engagement difficulty addressing diverse learning
needs teacher stress and burnout less opportunity for interaction and collaboration and negative impact on Social Development I could list even more
issues isues with large class sizes yet I'll stop here please do what is best for all elementary students in the Faro public school system and vote for the proposed reorganization plan thank you thank you
Miss Treadway we'll move on to agenda item number seven the consent agenda the con the consent agenda consists of the minutes from the November 20 5th 2024 business meeting employment additional
assignments and other and authorization of payments transfers and investment account so could we have a motion for approval of the consent agenda so move thank you Miss budo do we have a second second thank you Miss Steves uh
no discussion on consent agenda all in favor of the motion signify by saying I I I opposed motion passes moving on to agenda item number eight District advisory committee there is no
report agenda item number nine policy committee no report uh 9A consider approval of new policy 6065 Library materials so I'll entert uh could we have a motion for approval of new policy
66.5 Library materials moved thank you Dr robish show do we have a second second thank you Miss budro and discussion Mr chairman oh miss no Miss buo go ahead um I just want to thank the
policy committee those members on the policy committee on the board here Linda Cassie is John on I forget I'm not on too yes thank you thank you for listening um to some of the concerns that were mentioned and I also want to
thank a couple of our community members Barbara green and Mary hacket for bringing forth written um letters to us um just sharing some of their concerns and those concerns have
been um accepted and amended into this policy and I am grateful that that is what I want to say is thank you thank you policy committee Linda and and
Cassie Dr Moore did you have something um yes on the um minutes and this was from November 19th uh yes we did I just wanted to mention that the change was an uh change from one to two I think we got that all got that
email um and and there was discussion not consensus on 7B and I think I I would like to discuss that a little bit uh would be 7B which is on 66.5 D4 uh this is reconsideration of
specific Library material does everybody find that on there we're discussing it so you certainly may a school district employe so reconsideration of specific Library material would be a school district
employee student or a parent or guard guardian of a School District student uh May request consideration of specific Library material on the basis of appropriateness um I I thought it would be a good idea to include um somebody
from the uh from the uh Community the T one of the taxpayers you might say Community member and that's where we couldn't come to a consensus on that so we were I'd like to discuss it now just the pros and cons uh the fact that you
know we do taxpayers are you know contribute to our school it's obvious you know they're taxpayer money I think it would be important that we included maybe a volunteer from the community or um some member of the community on that
one so I'd just like to open it up discussion okay I think there should be since a taxpayer should you know be represented or Community member okay could be volunteer to for the
discussion well to that point Mr chair we are trying to request community members be part of our reading partner volunteer program um I don't know if you recall that on our joint boards meeting really
promoting trying to get more people in our schools to help students with their reading and um those are volunteers so I'm I'm not saying I'm just saying that we're looking for a couple hundred people so
if we could include uh if if the board wants to include a volunteer I think this would be a good place to insert it so we would have excuse me we would have may include because sometimes you know if you can't get a volunteer
obviously you know we wouldn't be able to do that but I think it would be good to include may include a volunteer if they do wish Mr chair can I ask for a point of clarification you certainly may um 7B talks about who is allowed to make
a request to remove a book so I I wouldn't want to open it up to just volunteers I would say if the board is looking to open it up to the community open it up to the entire Community not just people that volunteer within our oh
with within our District so because that would be confusing on who who has and who has not volunteered and when they volunteered and and that might cause a lot more headache trying to figure out if they're a volunteer or
not or if they're just a Community member so Mr uh Mr benty you're just saying that just open it up to community members if they'd like like to make a request I I think that's a good idea so I would say that school libraries are considered public libraries in a sense
that that that we use public funds we do we do not allow citizens to come off of the streets and and select and check things out of our libraries um so if the district chooses to add that in here um it it could substantially increase the
number of requests that the school district will receive for reconsideration of materials with one thing staying constant the the same number of uh cycles that we would be able to go through per year which would
be a maximum of probably six uh reconsideration cycles per year um the way that this is is currently written so I just want to be clear about that that it could increase the number that are sent to us but it will not increase the
number that we're able to do per year if that makes sense for the discussion just a reminder we do have have a motion and a second for approval of the uh new policy 66.5 in our discussion so at this point I am not
hearing any motion for an amendment or to refer back to committee Mr chair Dr Moore yeah I I do appreciate the fact that uh some we did uh the policy committee we did uh come
to consensus on a couple of things uh where we added in uh section va. A or five change one to two as Miss Pedro said and keep as is but add two
parents or Guardians in 7. d.2 doe um and then we had another one too well this that was a more of a minor one but uh I think we can always go back and change this but I do like the changes that were made so far and I hope at some
point we can uh look at this again and uh maybe can make some alterations on it but right now I'm glad that we did make some concessions to to the public very
good any further discussion be the last call for discussion Miss buo do you have something that's okay sorry no I'm good else okay with that I'm ready for a vote so we do have a motion in a second for
approval of new policy 66.5 Library materials all in favor of the motion signify by saying I I opposed motion passes six0 I'd also like to thank the policy committee for their work on this and Mr
venty and staff Etc so thank you for that uh we'll move on to agenda item number 10 the finance committee uh report fourth coming and normally we do the approved uh minutes
from the previous month but I went over that last month so I think practice will be from now on that I will uh just quickly review the uh minutes uh of the latest um finance
committee and that happened this morning at 7:30 a.m. so this is literally off hot off the Press here so again these minutes are not approved by the finance committee here but uh just some
items uh for us first of all um in some things that we reviewed we approved um a trip to uh London on an ex extended field trip for June of 2025 for our students and World stride is the company that's going to be used
for the for the trip uh we also approved the uh RFP of the banking RFP draft for the uh banking as we know CCF Bank will be closing the feral branch on February 3rd uh Miss racler and uh aers put
together a RFP and the uh committee um reviewed that was very thorough and comprehensive and we passed that um that RFP as well uh we also improve approved the cyber insurance policy uh we are
very fortunate that um our premium increase only went up uh $1 19654 which is 8% so many people were saying we're very fortunate that that policy only went up
that much uh we also approved the pay 25 property taxes increase of 68% or 82,83 a29 there um as far as our finan financial performance our November student counts
as Miss as was said before Miss racler is now going to uh do our student counts as with ADM our average daily membership which I believe is a little more accurate and uh as of November uh with our average daily membership we're down about 36 compared to what we have
budgeted for so we have to take note of that and check that as we go uh our November comparative financial report there is no report due to the early December meeting and our November investment report uh is we do did not
have the bills for yet coming in for November so no new information uh will be presented on our utilities however our self-funded insurance is in the red uh by 202,000 because of a number of high claims come
in but our revenue is stable through is still stable throughout the year we do have a healthy fund balance uh with our self Insurance Fund our November analytics uh Miss racler provided a three-year guideline report showing our expenses compared to budget I really
like that format it really laid out for us exactly what we spent in 2023 2024 and projected in 2025 was very good our general fund is right on track um in all funds included we're up about eight
percentage points from last year but the differen is in our building construction uh fund six and then also I continue to learn things as I'm on the board here but just uh for the general Public's knowledge as well as far as budget uh we
have in the general fund our budget is about $60 million in a year but if you include all funds our budget is $81 million approximate $81 million that's a good uh good number to know and most of the time the board focuses mainly we always look at the just the general fund
but that that was very good information that we that I received this morning and learned from that so uh miss buo anything else I should from this morning that we had with that very thorough okay thank you with that we'll move on to agenda
item number 11 which is other matters 11a consider approval of the 2024 20 20 24 payable 2025 Levy so I'll entertain a motion for
approval of the 2024 payable 2025 Levy do I have that motion please so move thank you Miss budo do we have a second I will second that and discussion so miss R I don't
think you have to come back up I unless you'd like to here but uh there were weren't many questions before board members question questions or discussion on this motion this motion last call all righty uh all in
favor of the motion for approval of the 2024 pable 2025 motion signify by saying I I opposed motion passes 60 11b consider approval of cyber
security insurance policy for Cy 2025 so I'll have a could I entertain a motion for approval of cyber security insurance policy for I think it's fiscal year 2025 calendar year thank you got so many
acronyms or what for calendar year 2025 please I'll move thank you Miss budo in a second please second thank you Miss Steves any discussion as I stand in the finance committee report the uh just the
increase of our cyber insurity cyber security Insurance the tongue twister uh went up marginally so very small so Mr rler anything you want to address on that or questions with that I
didn't know if anybody had discussion items okay I just have some question questions yes thank you um on page three there it talks about subjective it said there is unanswered security question questions present on the C Bear renewal application so we have some unanswered
security questions on that uh yes there there can be some unanswered questions if we were uncertain of um the type of um you know depending on what they were
asking as far as what uh processes we have in place that does not mean that we're not secure and the fact that we had such a low um bid it does tell us that we are that the insurance company feels that we are
quite secure uh and also just for the public would you and for me to on page two would you define regulatory costs and PCI costs please um that would be if we're taking credit cards so if if we take credit cards uh specifically and we
do not we yes um parents can pay for things using their credit cards but everything that we uh accept as credit cards is through a third party so we do not hold any credit card data per se we're using you know some alternate uh
Software System and then uh on page eight it said the insur is an eligible Surplus lines insure but is not otherwise licensed by your state and I'm why aren't they licensed that's on page eight okay
sorry they liced familiarize myself with that piece okay okay and you're on page eight in case of are you talking about well it said wa minute let me look I got a
card uh yeah the second paragraph okay the insurer is eligible Surplus line insure but is not otherwise licensed by your state I would have to get back to you on that to understand the it it probably
should be licensed so right shouldn't they be I'm guessing I don't know that much about life insurance but well this is cyber insurance and I'm not cyber yeah well I said I meant cyber yeah um how many okay how many other bids are submitted for for this um so we use a um
an agency called Marsh mcclinon and they are the ones that provide us the best uh bid that came through okay um and so they they are able to um ask for different bids from various
companies that do provide uh cyber security to specifically to school districts all right uh now did the fairbell public school Tech staff have did they have input in this since it's cber yes the director of Technology how many were how many Tech staff do we have
it how many Tech staff do we have I do not know that off the S I think I'm not sure but um a few other questions too I see this is this is an interet based company correct the one that we're dealing with
now that's Marsh mclennon Marsh mclennon is an insurance agent but it's a internet-based company correct no it's an insurance it's an insurance compan okay all right okay yes because I'm wondering why we can't do something more local with it like State Farm for
instance you know um there in town you can build a relationship with that I'm just wondering why we don't go I think I think it's really important to um ensure that we're getting the best bid and that we are also working with agencies that have dealt with uh
different types of uh School District insurance and that are able to provide you know the the best uh coverage that we can possibly have um I can do we have a kind of did the IT people put together like a plan like what is our goal what
is our risk and then present into the to the company no the companies inquire of us what do you have what do you have for multiactor authentication you answer those questions yes we have to answer all of those different types of questions what thirdparty softwares do we use and what are the protections that
we have um in case of any type of infiltration so we are asked questions we don't propose our plan to them so what is the what is our insurance comp is it's mclen and it's not it's so the
so the agent that we're working with is mclennen y um who we are actually um insured by right that's what I'd like to yeah that's in the recommendation and so that is the same company that we've used
for the last few years and that is uh palamore exess and surplus Insurance okay thank you when I initially looked at this I have to say that I had some concerns about Mar uh is it Marsh and M mclennon
because it said some of the they're they have non- us Affiliates and some of them were in Ukraine and China and so I'm thinking do we have a cyber security with so it's actually the broker yeah Marsh mlon is our agent our broker yes
and they are used heavily in um the state of Minnesota and they were I'm not sure if they still are um um the Minnesota School Board Association actually does recommend them okay any further questions
discussion questions or discussion we do have a motion in a second for approval of the cyber security insurance policy for calendar year 2025 discussion all right we're ready to vote all in favor of the motion signify by
saying I I I opposed no motion passes 51 11 C consider adopting resolution 25-13 establishing combined polling places for multiple precincts and designating hours
during which the polling places will remain open for voting for School District elections not held on the day of a Statewide election motion for approving uh adop I'm sorry adopting resolution 25-13
please so move thank you Dr robish show there the second okay thank you Miss budro and discussion Mr benty Mr benty anything you wish to add anything no this is just a standard we pass this one every year
it's based on if the school district goes out on its own uh to do an election that we're allowed to combine polling sites rather than have was it 15 or 17 different precincts it allows us to have I think four or five um so uh but the
board would have to decide if it was going to go out for something Dr M do you have a question yes I just have a question when it said the polling places for fairb P2 it says Northfield Township I I know Northfield Township for the district 656 they have P1 Northfield Township P1 and Northville
Township P2 does that include both then yes it would it would include all the townships that are part so no one would be left out it would just where they would where they would vote would would uh they wouldn't necessarily vote in the same place that they normally do for say a presidential election well the only
reason I'm asking is because you said they're all included but it just said Northfield Township and I know they have P1 and P2 so I'm assuming Northville Township would have yeah them combined yeah is that right okay thank you good question forther
discussion discussion uh this is a resolution so miss Steves we do a roll call please Linda brro hi Linda Moore hi Richard Olsson hi Jerry Roba hi Cassie Steves I John Bellingham I 6 thank you
agenda item number 12 dates to remember uh December 3rd tomorrow 3:45 p.m. policy committee meeting uh December 19th 2024 5:30 p.m. special meeting and it is on the audit report we're dealing with the audit for
the special meeting January 6 2025 5:30 board organizational meeting January 13 2025 7:30 A.M uh finance committee meeting and January 21st 2025 5:30 p.m. uh business meeting and of course the
January 13th and January 21st meetings will be uh determined or scheduled on the organizational meeting on January 6th with that agenda item number 13 is adjournment motion to adjourn thank you Dr Ro every wants to
stay Dr robish show and Miss Steves II uh discussion discussion discussion all in favor the motion signify by saying I I oppos