##VIDEO ID:Lvbhrder9Lg## [Music] I to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indiv andice for all now'll have reading of the Miss statement by em Commission of fully Public School bring together students parents staff and Community to provide a quality education wall with an emphasis on developing the full potential of an individual thank you very much uh at this time we do have an open forum for uh anyone uh who would like to take this opportunity to speak doesn't look like a large crowd there tonight uh we'll also have an opportunity at the end so if anyone more comes in anyone okay we're going to move on then um next we'll be doing the approval of the agenda but uh I would like to call if you have any additions changes as well as we do have a tabletop item that will need to be added to the agenda which should just be added into the consent agenda as they are resignation we got absence types of of items correct we have one retirement and then um PR for okay so yeah that just the consent agenda please so what I'm going to ask just because I'm new and I would like to know if we want something pulled from the consent agenda is that now or is that the next one that would be now I believe now because when we vote well we'll we'll do the um it's probably best to do it now if we're going to move things I would like to pull from the consent agenda the attorney um bill so we could talk about the attorney fees so I think that would just be all of board bills or can we pull just one from the board bills um you could pull one but again we have paid the bill and that's been typ difficult that we do pay the bills um you would need a motion if you have a motion you need a second is there a second for removing that particular item from the consent agenda second there is a second to remove uh the attorney fees from the bill pay item of the consent agenda we would move that then uh to right after consent agenda and all in favor of this we say I one more time let's he the eyes I'll oppose okay okay motion will carry we will that out and discuss that [Music] Pam Alissa Sharon and Wayne for it and myself against against as well all right thank you yep that's fine um in that case with the agenda so amended are there any other additions we want to or changes to the agenda before we had to take a motion then to approve all right none let's have a motion to approve the agenda please I'll make a motion to approve the agenda motion by Pamela he a second second secondly by Stephanie all in favor I oppose motion carries all right the next thing would be the approval of the routine business items which should board bills approval meeting minutes Etc and the consent agenda which does have the tabletop item now added to it um it does not have the um the bill from our attorney fees that will be the next item after the consent agenda approval any discussion on this I wish we could get away from having tabletops uh yeah these came in sadly in the between time of things being posted and now and given their nature I mean I think we'd rather do it sooner rather than making people wait a month it's pretty we're talking about retirement and a leave of absence those are pretty I mean they're important but you know it's not like we're going to have huge discussion on them it's not like we're adding a large discussion item but yeah I I well I think in a perfect world you know we would like to have everything prior but we all know that that's not realistic that things do come up um in between the time that we get the board book so I think it's perfectly accept for some of these things to come on sadly I think a lot of people doing retirements and leave of abesses and things like that usually hold off until Friday uh to submit and well Friday comes after our our agenda so we just kind of have r with it I mean they're not working on our time Mr sh just as a point of reference to as you had stated that one of our our retirement came in on Thursday evening and it was important for that person to wait because um they value the district and want to make sure that we have enough time for um the replacement um looking at the time frame of the retirement and again um as you just with the Le of absence it's nice to be able to provide person that information and just as a reminder that that was part of the yeah all right uh is there a motion then to uh approve our routine business items was a motion by pamel right and a second by Stephanie so all in favor of this say I I opposed okay uh we are going to move on then to the next item which is the item the board Bui P pulled out of the consent agenda for uh the uh payment to the district's attorneys um I can p anyway uh M misner you are the one wanting to pull this out so I assume you have comment question on it yeah sorry yeah I do have questions on it I questioned the attorney bills that we've gotten the last couple months um clarification hasn't really been something that I've gotten I've gotten I will get it to you I will get it to I have not gotten that at this point I think that we have to look at the amount of money that we are spending on attorneys we could have a part-time attorney in our building at the amount of money that we've spent in since 2024 over1 $150,000 at this point we need to truly look at the reasons we're getting attorneys and how much we're paying for our attorney do we need to look at a different attorney or what do we need to do because we could have a couple more teachers we could have a couple more staff we need to really focus on what we're spending money on and and getting the board involved in what we're spending that attorney money on because that is a lot of money that we've been spending 250 bucks an hour usually an attorney cost maybe more a little bit more that's over $600 um and I get there's difference difference for different things and I understand that but that is a big amount and I've looked at other districts in our area then I've asked them for their information and they have no problem giving it and we are way involed theirs any other comments questions about this topic well I think we have to have some oversight someplace about when it happens in what it's for um you know we've always had an attorney of record and the thing was if we had a major project um we would like court and what always happened with the superintendent was usually it was taken care of with the allotted amount of money I mean like 99% of the time if it if it wasn't maybe once or twice it wasn't um they say we we um need to feel we need to do this it would be explained to us um we think this much money would do and we basically approved that amount of dollars to go forward with that and there's a huge discrepancy between the amount we're spending and what we did let's say for the last 20 20 years I just there has to be be some oversight um it's gotten it's a lot of money I mean it's it's teachers in classrooms well just to add to that um I will tell you that well first of all I'm thank you for bringing that up I think that's a that's a fair question um it is a lot of money um but I will be the first to tell you that Dr Perry walked into a lot of situations that needed to be addressed um from a legal standpoint and I would love nothing more than to sit down and go through all of that and all the things that have actually um costed the district based on just different things that have happened over the last couple of years um we've had we've just we've had a lot and you know I started out with Dr Perry in the beginning and she was hit with a lot of it so yeah I mean to your point Pam we absolutely need like the transparency of exactly how the monies were spent and I am all for that absolutely um so I feel like that should be something that the board should get a copy of let's let's look at it together of hey what is being spent how much are we spending per time that we're paying out 20 $30,000 you know in the last two two months we've spent $50,000 that's pretty close if not so I'm hearing a couple different issues I I think that really can down to there's really no official mechanism for the board in terms of this right there's no set number of and there's no mechanism for the board to provide structured oversight is that soundly a fair summation of what I'm hearing I feel if we're going to spend $20,000 we should probably have some oversight of that because that's a huge um I know in different organizations not schools but different organizations if you know that you're going to be calling an attorney and it's going to cost an AM you before you spend that amount or if you let them know the situation and say okay this is the reason I'm contacting the attorney and we are going to have to it's going to cost us some money regarding this issue so here's what I would propose uh we do have a work session on Wednesday we could we're talking about committee work and whatnot as well on Wednesday maybe what we're going to want to do is have a legal issues committee much like we have a financial committee that could have a regular meeting say hey these are the things this is the spend um you know that would be something I'd say we could work out on Wednesday Dr Perry if you want to to come over and and talk about that at that time with that um some of that information is confidential and as I've stated I'm happy to sit down and review the bill um but I do not feel comfortable sending our legal bill via email I just don't um and again I think it's important that we have to remember what hat we're wearing are we wearing our board member hat or are we wearing our community member hat because if it's a Community member hat that's a different avenue that we're requesting that information and um to Stephan's point there have been some significant issues that have happened and as I pointed out um our last bill I think information um we've had some significant student issues and the point of using attorney is to um to safeguard the district from future liabilities and I think I've explained what future liability is um those issues have been explained but again we do need to be careful because of data practices and data privacy so much like Financial sub is there would a I guess my question is would would a legal subcommittee have would it function would it would would it work would it would it be legal in everything I I think um in terms of the committee structure that's to the board's discretion as make sure there's a committee that can actually get information but in the policy on the superintendent but you know you're new chair so we haven't had these issues together but when Stan this chair there was an issue that call attorney about the chair is in that so they do know the situation and what is occurring all right um so I guess we're at our work session on Wednesday we want to talk about committee work with this but saying it's not there you can't think of a reason not to discuss that possibility okay and I think the biggest is that everybody gets the information that they are looking for the Avenue of that but that's like obviously we can't talk about that kind of stuff in a public meeting but like how can we do that because you're absolutely right like you want to know the information as a board member I want to know where our tax dollars are going and what money is going away from our students that could be going in our classrooms that's it's not because a Community member it's more of hey we need to we need to get control over all right well I guess I Mr Wilson you have a comment question oh I was just going to say if we're okay with deferring them the topic like committee and whatnot on this topic to Wednesday I'm ask for a motion to approve the item that Mr Wills ahead oh I just I want to make sure that to clear your concerns up I totally understand wow that's a lot of money right um I believe Trish clear that out for you also moving forward we have to trust our chair and our superintendent also we don't trust them we don't trust them not not we have to trust our our principles our superintendent I just want us to do both Y no I understand trust is earned and also you have to when you send an email saying you're going to send something out and then 5 2 weeks later you don't get it yet that's not earning trust so that's where I'm at with it and I know we are all busy and we all have jobs to do and I get that but we also need to work on that working together and saying hey come in and she did take say that today at 3:00 in the afternoon or 2:00 whenever I got the email I was already on my way to a different event so I didn't I read the email this this afternoon while I was walking I think we will address this yeah and I think what I'm really hearing is we want some formalized structure yes just like any of the other committees you have a finance question you ask the finance committee members who go you know there's a chain of communication and I think what I'm really hearing is we want to make sure we have a chain communication we know what it is and we use it is that a fair statement yes and we're giving the information and we're get the information well in that case I would like a motion then to uh pay this particular it please it's already no we we we knocked it out down to here was remove the consent agenda not toay well you know I mean approval of of the board Bill mtion to motion to approve by Stephanie do I have a second I'll second second by Wayne all in favor please say I I oppose hey motion carries thank you everyone I appreciate the spirit of discussion I know sometimes it might feel a little but we're getting place who who made a motion Stephanie and second um and you know it's giving us some more direction for how we gr thank you uh we're now going on to the resolution for accepting gifts um we have a donation this month by Audio Video extreme $400 value of items for birthday Bal for the Intermediate School student council and birthday level for cost center um in addition uh Dr Perry has has the late breaking donation you want to mention it um yes we had a meeting today with py logic and I apologize the B Patrick so I apologize um but psychic rather than um donating typically around the holiday season we have a lot of our companies that willing in cookies and candies for um for different buildings rather than doing that they have donated two Cs and then they also donated um two sets of mittens for us as well gloves ands and so we really appreciate it two yeah two two two or 200 two two said 200 it would be wonderful it is too um but we really are thankful for that partnership with psychic and it's a nice way to um support the work that we do with our students and none of us at this time at that time need any more of candy so it's much appreciated we see you the Cs and the hats and now now this takes care of it we don't have added at our next meeting no I'll add yes um beautiful quotes I just thought I thought it was a different just a different way of of doing things that'll be U truly appreciated by um and they're for like Elementary age children you know who definitely want to go outside and run around at recess and everything so it was Winter they were winter wonderful interview all right well then I will take a motion to approve the resolution for motion by Pamela second by Sharon all in favor say I iOS excellent uh next we have an update on the read act everyone please wel the new on if you want a microphone I have one over there for use okay I think we're all kind of forgoing that today all right stand here like I did in the fall can everybody hear me okay all right so thank you for having me back I was here earlier this fall and gave some information about the react and uh the training that the staff has been involved in this year and so I'm honored to be here and provide this update to you um just know that some of the content in my presentation will be reviewed for context for those who maybe wen't here um at that original presentation so to review the Minnesota read Act is a government driven and mandated initi that's designed to support all Learners in the in the path to becoming proficient readers the goal of this initiative is to have every Minnesota child reading on grade level every year beginning in kindergarten One requirement which there are several but One requirement of the read Act is offering high quality professional development training and that's what my presentation will be primarily focused on tonight and that training's purpose is to support our teachers and evidence based reading instruction so this school year as you might recall 75 of our teachers are participating in what we consider phase one of the training those would be 75 teachers across thect that are being trained in course Ola program you can see the list of Educators that are currently participating we have our staff working in two cohorts our cohort one is our Elementary staff with Mr pooper they have their own facilitator our second cold is the FIS and FHS staff and and Dr car and they have their own facilitator so each C has their own facilitator you as well that there are nine learning modules within the Ola program um when I came in the fall we were around 23 and at this point we're wrapping up seven and eight so a majority of our staff have finished module s which is that syntax um sentence level understanding grammatical stuff um and is has buil into comprehension in both the language um and reading Realms and so we'll be wrapping up that and then working through assessment so with um what we know is that we began our training on September 11th wedn we KCK it off together in the auditorium with our read t-shirts and we went afterwards to work on our modules which were being our plan is to wrap up the training on Friday May 20 or March 21st um and we have been using the early dismissal and a teacher Workshop days to do the work so I I had mentioned this previously but i' just like to recognize the board again for amending the schedule to accommodate for the work teach have been doing we've been using that time very wisely and have been producing excellent quality work so our our participants have been using a pacing schedule that was given to them at the beginning of the training and they are really adhering to the timelines a majority of our staff as mentioned are either finishing at module seven um we working within that right now with a goal to finish module 8 by the end of the month here majority of our staff again are there um in the month of February we'll be changing our focus a little bit to be working in our curriculum teams and then reverting back to the ol train again then march to wrap it up but some of our participants may continue working on the training in the background because that will be that ex next work um our ol participants are working to demonstrate Mastery of the learning outcomes through uh delated tasks that are assigned to them on the next sorry first let's a module update so as mentioned um a majority of our staff are through module seven we have St one staff person who's finishing up module six we plan to get that wrapped up um but otherwise um things are on track and um module 8 at 160% right now and actually that's a little bit higher I think I updated this last Thursday and this morning updated to 50 50 out of the 75 with module 8 so the course completion criteria I went over this in the fall but I'll kind of let you know where we're at in comparison to the criteria so all of the staff members are required to participate in Pre and postour surveys obviously the pre-course surveys took place prior to the tree the PO course will take place afterwards they're required to complete the module assignment which include the knowledge Tech um knowledge checks the reflections the checks in practice work um the community chat involvement and for the community chat pieces what they're required to do is to consider um a prompt and they have to reflect on that prompt and then after including their reflection then they have to read the rest of or other U reflection statements for in there and comment on those so kind one layer deeper um into the reflection and so they have to complete that work for each module and then another requirement is that they have to complete three live sessions and at this point we've completed two out of the three or two3 that the state is offering options for staff to make up so if there was a an instance where staff couldn't make a live session um they do have some mixed Cort opportunities that are staff really have put a priority on this and are attending them we just have one person who is um scheduled to do a makeup otherwise everybody else is finished with two all three live sessions in the very end at the completion of all the modules um the participants will pull through and there will be a selection of of um module assignment pieces where they will go through and analyze their work and then submit them for their portfolio and so if you recall from the fall they have to achieve 80% or higher on the knowledge test and then they complete the work that least 80% of that um and then um they have that 80% 80% are higher on the um Knowledge Test the 80% on the work completion and then there's also the work where they're scored on the written response items and so that will be the final component so I had asked the facilitators to share some insight with me about how the participants are doing you know remember we have two two facilitators and so we have uh for the each of the corts one for each c-port and so I had asked them to share you know some general information some observations about their cold workk and so you'll see where it says facilitator comments and then there's a few bus and then facilitator comments so the top section is about one of the bottom section is about the other Cort I just wanted to keep the corts anonymous and that's why I didn't label them and so one of the facilitator said that the great look great with all the knowledge checks at 100% and up to date the conversations in the community chat those are those Reflections that I was referring to are supportive and they show a depth of knowledge and reflection she said to be honest I truly enjoyed their referring to the participants and inial responses as well as their comments to each other it seems like they're getting a lot of of the course content some ofing their current practice and some are refining them and since she's thinkful that we are on the same page in the work which is a really important piece as well the second facilitator has shared that all teachers are progressing through the modules at the suggested case and that 90% of the teachers have scored 100% on the knowledge Texs and remember that the requir is at% to um all of the teachers are providing knowledgeable introspective responses and based on the responses and live session participation many teachers are implementing the knowledge from the course and reflecting on their curriculum and teaching practices so great comments from the facilitators so um in consideration and I've been doing some observing as well and I I participate in the PLC and data meetings across the district and so um what I can tell you is that the treating Concepts are being discussed and talked about during meetings I can hear teachers um using structure literacy language they're talking about the SCH sequence they're talking about their most foundational skills they're talking about how to carefully scaffold things um they're considering the different components of reading instruction what's important and so they're they're using structure literacy talk they're also referring to the Source book an assessment book that came with a train regularly and talking with the teachers you might be looking for a fluency intervention or a um a a phics intervention or something like that and we can go back into the Source book and pinpoint specific examples of things that can do um and those are very um the Source book does a very thorough job in explaining what that intervention would look like and how to carry that into the classroom and why that's important so know that um then the teachers are also using the diagnos assessment piece and and that is actually in module 9 but some are digging in already because they're interested in going to use it and it's also a conversation at some of the PLC meetings and data meetings because that would be a way that we could hone in on what skills student would know or not know at this point to help with instruction so beond the training so we know that the training is going to wrap up here at the end of March but know that we're not done with the learning piece and so I just wanted to just share a little bit with you about some next steps so when we wrap up the training we're going to be working really hard to implement the learning and knowledge into the classroom practices and some of that work is being done right now like I said the class the conversations at meetings have been rich and you're hearing the structur of literacy back but we need time to collaborate collaborate we need time for coaching we need time for reviewing the content that will take place um following the training and we do have a couple early outdates in April where we are looking at how to structure that time to best support the teachers and learning content we're working to look for evidence and structure literacy in our current curriculum um and some of that work as mentioned has already been done during the training but it will'll be diving in a little deeper to that we know that there are new language art standards at the state level that will need to be examined identified and embedded within our curriculum and those are to be implemented next year so kind of coinciding with the training we have the new standards and so there's some work to be done yet um and then I just wanted to let you know that as the district literacy lead and as a local certified facilitator that I am participating in monthly meetings um with the state and Regional leads to help learn about the state mandates that along with the read act and learn how to best um support our teachers and so with the district literacy lead piece there's a lot of conversation about what needs to go into our local literacy plan on what needs to be done standards wise that type of thing um and with the local certified facilitators meetings those ones are focused on making sure that our practices align with the read act and so those are monthly meetings like I said all of the leads kind of around the state are put into their Regional um networking groups and then the state leads the regions the regions the the districts and then those Regional leads serve as a liaison to get information back and forth um between the districts and the state so it does work both ways and that if we're observing something of concern we can report that to the regional leads if you have questions about what we're doing or how we're interpreting the act um law to be we can send something to them and have them analyze it give us feedback and they have been um very very good to work with so I just wanted to let you know that those meetings are happening in the back in the background and that they serve a very important role in this in this practice as well so that's essentially what I have for an update and just wanted to allow you to ask questions if you have questions I can provide if there's something that wasn't C I know some of you here for the district advisory Council so right well if there's nothing further thank you so much come back all right uh our next item will be the audit presentation which is discussion and action so come on down and your name is for the crowd Jon jelle bitson everybody come on over you have the books these are just the the slides that I'm going to go through T if you want of them go ahead and go on up wherever you like if you want the microphone it's there not whatever you're comfortable with okay well thank you for the opportunity to meet with you all tonight um certainly feel free to interject at any time if you have questions I do have the summary for you of your 2024 audit um so first I will cover the reports that we issue as part of the audit process and then we'll go through some of the charts and graphs that show the the trend information um so the first report is the independent auditor report um we did again issue an unmodified opinion this year this is what's considered a clean opinion or the best that we can offer you it states that your financial statements present fairly in all matal respects and then we have three other reports that we issue as part of the audit process um the next one being a report on government auditing standards these standards require us to look at internal controls over financial reporting as well as compliance with various laws regulations contracts and grants when it comes to internal controls we had one item to report a natural lack of segregation of accounting you have seen this in the past just due to the limited sta have within the business office there are some duties that are overlapping um so as I mentioned you've seen this in the past very common with entities of your size to be getting this finding this is our typical fighting I think I've heard it now five years or yeah and we give it honestly probably the 99% of the the government entities we work with because there's just not when you benefit of um adding additional people sometimes it doesn't make sense the district has done a nice job about implementing compensating controls to help limit or reduce risks of um things happening but there is still that possibility so as the board we just recommend that you remain aware of the situation when it comes to compliance we had no instances of non-compliance to report the next report on uniform guidance this relates to the federal funding that you reive um this year we did test the Child Nutrition program so we're looking at compliance with the requirements of this program as well as controls relating to that and we did Issue an unmodified opinion on the compliance with this program um so um all the records seem to be in order rela to that and then the last report is our report on Minnesota legal compliance State auditor's office gives us a list of state statutes to test compliance with each year um this year we did have one finding relating to bid procedures um there's specific procedures that um kind of lay out the plan for public notice and certain verbage that needs to be in the contracts and such and we can't say that it didn't happen but we can't find the documentation that it did happen so with some of the that happened within the district as well some of the documents couldn't be found so it may not have happened it may have happened and the documentation is just filed somewhere else so just be aware of that and kind of implement processes to make sure that that happens and that those records are maintained and then following that we've got some um charts and graphs that show some Trend information got a few um tables and graphs that show student counts because such a large percent of your general fund revenues are based on student accounts we like to include those in here as well so the first table here is your resident ADM numbers for the Last 5 Years for 2024 you did see a decrease of about 23.21% since 2020 the you're presented here and then the graph on the following page is that same information and then the next slide um converts those amm numbers to people numbers and that's what your AIDS are paid based on so the top part of the the page has the The Waiting factors so you can see that those secondary students are weighted a little bit heavier than than the other students getting a little bit more um said to cost a little bit more to educate SCH so with those waiting factors um the bottom part of the table converts to those pupil unit numbers um you did see an overall decrease in 2024 with a decrease in the Resident pup unit numbers um an increase in the residents leaving the district you also had an increase in the nonresidents coming in one thing you can you see on this table is that the the non-residents coming in that number is higher than the residents leading in the district so that's the indicator that you do have a a net gain on the Open Enrollment program being you've got more students coming than in the district and then the is again those same numbers so the blue part of the bar is those nonresident people units in total you're down about 4% from 2020 following that we've got a table that shows the general education formula allowance kind of where that number has been for the last 10 years um where it is in the current year for 2024 you did have a slightly larger than normal increase you that the 4% um kind of the standard has been two historically so that just kind of shows that Trend and then the following table the general fund sources of revenue for 2024 your total revenues were up about $938,000 the largest component of that was in the state sources of revenue again the general education a being the largest component of that with the increase in the formula allowance you did also see some increases in the ltfm AIDS and special education based on your student needs and then partially offsetting that increase you did see a decrease in the other source line item that's your local dollars as well as the federal dollars the federal component was the largest part of that decrease um just as you have used up um the federal Co grants previously and those were one time funds and once you use them up we don't have them to spend and then the next graph shows the those same Revenue numbers the the components of the general fund revenues that blue portion of the the bar is the state sources of revenue that makes up about 86% of your general fund Revenue so again really shows the Reliance that the district has on those State revenues following that we've got a table that shows general fund budget and actual results um the Columns of numbers are the original and final amended budget that you as the board approved kind of a directive to management for where you anticipated the general fund fund balance should come out you were budgeted for a decrease in fund balance of about $537,000 the actual was a decrease of about $825,000 so about $288,000 more of a decrease than what you had anticipated a couple variances going into that your revenues were about $25,000 under budget the bulk of that variance was in the federal federal revenue line items you had budgeted to use some federal allotments and you did not use them this year so some of those dollars we will carry over for future spending and then on the expenditure side you were about $134,000 over budget um some of the larger variances within that um instructional support was over budget salaries and benefits and then pupil support was under budget some Capital items were budgeted for and those purchases were not made so again about a $825,000 decrease in fund balance the pie charts on the next page show the general fund expenditure um the allocation by program um so if you look at the the 24 2024 numbers compared to 2023 overall they are very consistent it shows consistency where you are spending your dollars between the various programs one other thing that we like to point out is the the instructional categories the regular instruction vocational and special education um that makes up about 65% of your your toal expenditures within the general fund and I can say that of all the schools that I work with that is one of the higher percentages so those are again dollars going directly to your students within the classrooms and obviously there's um dollars in the other programs as well but those are harder to split out but these programs are most specifically directly related to the students themselves the table shows revenues per ADM served for 2024 you did see an increase in these numbers with an overall increase in the revenues and then 2023 and prior we do also show averages for similar size districts and the Statewide average and historically you've been below those averages in most every fund except the Food Service fund and the next graph actually add all those more clearly see how you are below those State averages and then following that we've got a similar table but for the expenditures per ADM served so um again this number for 2024 did increase with an overall increase in your expenditures and then historically you've been below the state average here as well you can see that on the next page 2020 you were above those averages that was the year that your District did a boundary funding you had a boundary funding it was almost $14 million so that number does get lped into the expenditures for that year um but if not for that um you've consistently been below the state average and that largely is a factor of because you're bringing in less revenues per ADM have less doll and then we've got a table that summarizes general fund operations for the last five years for 2024 as I mentioned revenues had increased about $938,000 expenditures increased about $1.6 million much of that was attributed to increases in salaries and benefits Transportation cost and repairs and maintenance you did have some other financing sources and uses of about $56,000 so again an overall decrease in fund balance of $825,000 and then the bottom part of that table breaks out the different components of your fund balance um so you do have a large amount about 1.2 million that is restricted fund balance this relates to the state mandated rtion so those are specific dollars the dollars that are set aside for those specific purposes so there might be some operating capital or ltfm dollars those various programs that you can only use those dollars for those purposes so your unassigned fund balance at the end of the year was just under $2.7 million and that makes up about 10% of your 2024 you do have a district policy that says your un assign on balance should be at 12% so slightly where that District policy says you should be then this table or graph is the unrestricted fund balances as a percentage of expenditures um so the unrestricted is the UN the assigned and the nonspendable so this this we have this graph in here because this is how we can get a a Statewide comparison if you're interested in a Statewide average so when it comes to that that unrestricted portion is about 145% um and historically you've been below that Statewide aage for that and then following that we've got a table for the food you did see an increase in both revenues and expenditures for 2024 um this was the first year that the state provided free meals to all students we saw an overall increase in the number of meals served so an increase in the revenues with the state reimb and an increase in cost just with additional meals being served um revenues did exceed expenditures by about $167,000 so you did have an overall in in the fund balance for this fund and then the last table is the community service fund we've had an increase in revenues of about 2.7% expenditures increased about 3 and a half% expenditures did exceed revenues in this fund by about $882,000 we did transfer about $25,000 from the general fund to cover part of that deficit but overall the fund balancing this fund of about $57,000 and then at the bottom part portion of that tail do break out the different programs within within this fund so the ECFE and the School Readiness programs do have a deficit fund balance at the end of the year so that is something that we would recommend you kind of Monitor and and watch um make sure that your fees are set where you want them to be to be covering the cost within those program and then if there's any short calls how those determine how those deficits will be covered that's a summary of our 2024 audit again certainly opens any questions if any of you have [Applause] any any questions comments [Applause] well the I'll say the fund balance at 10% is concerning I mean that is nothing to do your presentation was wonderful um but um I think I think that's really really concerning especially when uh I don't remember any discuss about um spending down the fund balance like in our finance committee don't remember hearing anything regarding that when we cut the well I think we talked about 1.2 starting I think it ended up about maybe 880,000 and then we we could put some things in after those initial Cuts but the we have a policy the fund balance has to increase I mean my understanding was you know we we said well we can deficit spend we we assigned a number for our our cutting um I was in the finance committee last year so um and that's I mean so I guess my recollection would different from yours where we said if we do this we still have the deficit spend it out of our out of our fund so but beyond what our policy said I don't remember any discussion I we we did um end up cutting a little over 900,000 ups I don't have the number off the top of my head but those cuts were made for this year so we didn't have that extra Revenue to come in and we did talk about how we were going to have to deficit spend and it was going to draw down our fund balance a little bit but we're hoping the cuts that we can rebuild our fund balance again this year that's how I that's how I recall it too um I think the thing to really take away from this is our district cannot spend even the average amount across the state of Minnesota because we just don't have the funding and you know when we're talking about strategic plans and whatnot we we're kind of dancing on the idea that there can be an additional referendum voter approved and even a small one they P us up to average would do so much uh for our community and I mean that's not going to happen fall or anything like that I mean that's that's the future but I think this highlights that it's really not a matter of if but it's when and my belief is because our school is a source of Pride for the community that when it comes to that they're going to say yeah we want to be where we're supposed to be for kids and they will do an app that they have to do for that but I think we'll be watching this and be like there it is we can look at the data very easily we just want to thank you again for the opportunity to work with the district and for your staff in the business office they spend a lot of time preparing for us so we appreciate all the work that they into the audit as well unless there's anything else and I would take a motion to accept the audit AC motion by Pamela second by Sharon all in favor say I I oppos thank you everyone uh our next is a resolution relating to our general obligation facilities maintenance Bond um there's a lot more words in that but basically um last time previously at the school board we approved our bond uh going forward on this and whatnot now we're we're basically approving the bond sales and saying this I'm saying this correctly just kind of a simple uh version of it so I just want to make it clear what would happen if this motion failed tonight because you know we talked about making sure everyone kind of knows the same thing so all the stuff that we're doing for the IQ project we've already signed the contract s we've already agreed to do it what this bond does is basically authorizes how we're going to pay for it so if this motion should fail tonight we have to pay for it out of our own pocket our from our our budget that we currently have so u m Nasco is kind of enough to run some numbers for me about what that would actually mean for us so site logic is part of the thing we've already agreed to pay that'd be a little over a mil ion we're going to pay them we are going to pay them um we've already put in purchase orders for equipment that is nearly $1.9 million that we have to pay um then we have a ratings uh from uh Fe for the S&P that we have to pay like there's no options on any of these things we've agreed to pay it we've signed contracts and that's a little that's 235,000 all in all what we have agreed to pay with or without the bond tonight passing is nearly $3 million which is a significant uh chunk of money so that is what we're voting on is using the the bond we agreed to sell the bond now to pay this money for this project that is what we are I know that's like a lot of resolution blah blah blah you know it looks whatever so I wanted to make it very clear on what it is we are doing with this action are there any question questions about that Mr chair I think Shelby is here to present awesome Shelby come on over through the the sing report that you received today the bond sale was at um 10:00 a.m. this morning and like you said this all goes back quite a ways to um the July meeting when you had to submit your ltfm plan which Incorporated the project for the IAQ um and then that went into the summer Levy setting process and then you approved that Levy in um September and that had the first Bond payment in it and then um you also approved then the final ly in December and I you know just in terms of timing because you have a healthy fund balance and we're able to make those initial payments out of your fund balance and being reimbursed later from the bond uh it's advantageous to push off the bond to the extent possible because you're lowering when the interest payment starts so um I think there's a a mo modest savings to taxpayers there in terms of when you can start the clock on on that borrowing of of the debt for this but all of that was previously proved so the um the the motion on the table tonight is to award to the lowest true bidder um to or the lowest bidder and that low bidder was at 3.7% um uh to uh okay Financial out of Milwaukee seven bids came in uh this morning um and uh the bid of 3.7 was below um pre-sale and where we had set the um uh set the initial estimates um um in in SE in July so um a nice presentation tell people what that initial was that was um we used 5% then and we used um 4 4.09 um and you'll see kind of when I get into the numbers where that really effectuates the change for how the sale play out so um the sale results are summarized there and you will as part of being in the credit enhancement program have a a paying agent and then um should interest rates decrease um after approximately eight years you'll be able to refinance for savings it's different from a mortgage right you where you refinance and maybe start the clock over again um when you refinance the bond you generally just stay at the term that you are at refinance for STS which then have to go to the tax um back to the taxpayers so the bid tabulation is on pages one and two of the S day attachments um and then you'll see um be okay out of Milwaukee the national interest in your bonds to um today Cleveland another one out of Milwaukee um New York um a couple of Underwriters there Hilltop out of Dallas and Fidelity out of Boston so national attention on your bonds today and part of that was the um the bond rating was affirmed at the + which was um I know the auditor um gave credit a lot to administration business office and again I would say that that was really um advantageous to have that as part of the rating call it's about an hourong call where they're really trying to dig in to the specifics of your district and get that third party analysis of your District so that when writers go to look at who they're going to buy the bonds from um or who they're investing in they really get um a good perspective and that's what S&P provides and a firm your A+ rating so a nice rating overall for the district so um the bond amount is 3.8 but because of the market conditions and how we sort of got that lower interest rate you got a big premium so that means they paid you more than the face value of the bonds because they wanted to win um so they needed to give you more than the face value so um about a million dollar in premium and that deposit the construction fund is 14 million so you will be able to finance fully or um pay for fully your project and we're not going to you know and manage throughout because though a lot of it is done um ahead of time you will be able to um manage through any of those uncertainties as the project completes itself so then um the results of bond sale on the um on the debt plan is shown there which is pretty much um how we presented it in the first year for the levy and then um had some some of that interest naving throughout the 17 levies then so the levy in 2025 was set and $95,000 of principal was able to be added so really kind of paying that off um right starting to pay that off right away and there um is the visual of that on the next page and then I'll just point to a a couple of things um that we we'd like to kind of point to especially when these things happen in conjunction with an audit um so I I think it's really helpful to summarize or read through the summary of what S&P sees of your district and I would just point out too that while your fund balance policy and I'm looking at the top of page still the attachments page eight um the fund balance policy of 12% where they estimate it and they their back in some of the reserves because they're general education expenses they see that at 12.9% of Revenue so um as as and they try to kind of normalize this across the entire nation um so they see that as 12.9% of your staying above your policy um and then they did point exactly to what Erin had said that the the cuts that you plan to be making this year and then being balanced again in FY 26 so really kind of incorporating all of those factors to be able to really affirm your raing at the A+ um I think it's just a helpful um overview of the district and how Bond investors would look look to fley um because they're not all coming to visit but they need to sit that their under ready des and make sure they're getting a good investment and they are so I think it was overall a good day and you should be able to proceed with confidence um um in your project and uh this again the action today today is to award to the lowest the lowest bid so a good deal for the district thank you are there any questions hearing the questions uh comments or anything else what s it's a roll call vote okay this will be a roll call vote um so take a motion in a second to approve this resolution motion to approve motion by way Wilson to approve the sale of bond do I have a second second by Stephanie this will be a roll call vote so I'll just go down the line cam yes or no yes Alissa Sharon yes a yes I'm a yes yes yes all everyone is a yes thank you the m passes um thank you very much everybody um the next one is a kind of a boiler PL I feel like we we just do this every year it's a resolution that we'll need to pass directly the administration to make recommendations for reductions in progam positions and reasons thereof this has happened every year uh not just when we started doing Cuts this is something that went before that because it's the time of year to be looking at those things so this is a pretty standard boiler plate thing is there any are there any questions about this all right hearing N I would take a motion to approve this resolution directing our Administration to make recommendations for reductions motion to motion by stepne second by Lan all in favor say I I I think this aoll call is this all [Music] okay hey two in a row all right we'll go again Pam yes or no yes yes yes listen yes Shar yes wi I'm a yes is a yes excellent all right uh we now have our policies re required review this is our first public comment this is discussion only no action we have policy 534 our school Neil's policy policy 799 uh post issuance compliance policy and that is all I know that uh policy was supposed to meet the other day I missed it because I was just doing terrible in being places on time um the policy committee did meet and we discussed school meals policy there was a question that arose from the policy committee regarding um School meals policy the reason why we're updating it is due to the audit and suggestion so we'll follow up since it's in the first reading um policy 799 the post assuance compliance policy parents speak to that policy the post issuance uh compliance policy is basically everything we're already doing it's just in policy form it's just making sure that we're complying with federal tax requirements and things like that we just put it into poliy okay all right any other questions or comments on these two policies in that case we will move on to the next round which is policies require review second uh reading for comment and this time is policy Modo two equal education opportunity policy 103 complaints for students employees parents and other persons policy 104 School District mission statement policy 530 immunization requirements policy 619 staff development standards in policy 704 development and maintenance of an inventory of fixed assets and a fixed asset accounting system mat this was also covered at policy the other day no this was covered in policy couple weeks ago or couple mons ago so there was nothing else brought up about it okay um any other comments or questions about any of these tonight great we're going to move on to our budget enrollment report take it away um enrollment still maintain it's still steady to me um looks like in the secondary level is where looks almost like every grade level 12 grade lost a student but um overall still steady and know and then the budget update uh there is not a whole lot to update you on it looks like we are still um actually we're right in line with where we were last year there's no major concerns about any um extra spending or anything like that other than it looks like there's a little bit more expenditure special education we did buy some special Advance um we Special Ed is going up and but other than that everything is uh pretty reasonable pretty consistent with years past any comments or questions from is NASA report okay hearing none we'll move on to administrator information and reports um start there anything to add Mr clber just that today all School District teachers had a PD day and this morning that was spent uh listening to a speaker on uh using Ai and education it was interesting and well received um Mr Gman set that up for the district so thank you to him and for doing that it was a good and interesting morning okay excellent Mr Beerman I'll Echo that sentiment we had a great uh morning of professional development will gy was here who's a leader in AI so it's really good for for our staff to he all best practices in education and be able to deliver those best practices um to our students so I think it's going to be a great tool for um it's going to be a great tool for our teachers I think they're going to be able to convey that to our students all all in all it's going to be I think a time very well spent awesome now I know you're not Eric englist so do you want to for anyone that doesn't know you introduce yourself I'm I'm the do you have anything excellent May thought had something to share I um does n anything to add no okay Dr Perry I just have a few things um just a quick update about logic we've been um busy meeting with them and spending quite a bit of time we reviewed our construction documents and I believe we're in a good place we do have just a couple questions regarding lighting it's a simple question um but it's lighting so that's where we're waiting to get some more additional information back um I will tell you that looking at the project um we have buildings and crowns this week um one ceiling in the building will remain untouched and that is in the media center in the high school but everything else will um be redone for ceing and looking at just some important dates to keep in mind February 13th that's our pre bid walk and I believe that's at 2:30 so we'll meet in the high school media center and at this point um we have sent out invitations for contractor C logic has worked with a number of them and then we also had an internal list that Darwin Fleck had reviewed and so if there was anyone local that we didn't have on the list to make sure that they were included and then um we'll do a pre bid walk through as well well so just looking at the different areas and the components of the project and um there's five different packages that we're going to be bidding and the second really important date that will be happening it seems like it's far away but it's not um March 11th is when we open our bids and that's at 3:00 no I'm sorry I believe that's at 2 o' and what we'll look at doing because of how um once the bids are opened um we'll be calling out the numbers um there's a system that's logic um that they do use and um it'll take about a week or so just to bet out the bids and each bid is gone through to make sure that um the person that is sitting the contractor understands what is part of the project to make sure that we have a legitimate bid and the this Falls um psychologic will make recommendations but the board does have the final say regarding who is the award of the bid and so it looks like we will have to schedule a special board meeting so tentatively we're looking at um March 19th as the special board meeting so we'll email these dates to you as well but just to have that marked check your calendars and if that date won't work for you I want to make sure we have a quum and all that um so if you need an alternative date let me know as soon as possible if I get a bunch of people we'll have to we'll move as close to that as we can right and so we'd like to keep it in that time frame simply because if we're not aving of work it just gets delayed so we just want to make sure that we're on we're on track um one other really important date is that contractors will be on site on June 2nd so if you Rec just on the district calendar we do have um graduation on June 1st so it will be a very quick turn over um internally we know that there's going to be some adjustments because we won't be able to use the high school at all and it's going to us too so once we have a greater plan um we will definitely be communicating that again we're just in those initial stages of how this is all going to work so we're in the proc of just our next meeting with pic for need some extra directors so that we can start to talk a little bit more about how that's going to impact some programming over the summertime um the second thing I I want just to update I want to echo on Mrs R and she was here Christie and and really thank her for her work that she has done with the we back and also to highlight what the board um the commitment that you have made also to position we do use our literacy Aid um funds to pay for the position and we are really ahead I think of other districts because um we wouldn't have to have a literacy we in place until 2026 and for that part that's phase one and so she's really been there to guide in the beginning and she'll continue with the good work and I think the reason why you see the success um up on on the on the board SC in is because of the work that she that she does and that she continues to do on a daily basis um one item that seems that people want to know about is our calendar for next year we did have our first calendar committee meeting and I believe that we'll be able to bring calendar board for the February boarding there was just a couple things that we had to um work out we have a few changes but not anything that isou shadowing so um we did a one year calendar and then the final thing I like to the final person I like to acknowledge is Dar black because that is the retirement that you you heard um tonight and I will tell you that from Mr Fleck and I know whether it was a tabletop or not that took um some time and you could see and hopefully you saw that um in his writing that he has really truly enjoyed his time at FY public schools and it's 48 years and when he gave me um his letter he said I think more um and he sat down on Thursday it was probably around 4:00 or so 4:15 and um he started working at fully Public Schools when he was actually 15 years old and he took a little bit of a break to go to btech school he worked at the Ford garage but there was a position here and he came back to work at the school and he thinks he's been the director of buildings and ground since the '90s but he really wasn't quite sure um from a a personal point of view um I have really enjoyed working with Darwin fle he is a very special man um and I told him in our meeting that uh we can replace the position but we cannot replace the person and so there are some really big shoes to fill with Darwin and we are really going to miss him when he retires so again just a a thoughtful thank you um to Darwin for his over 4 years of employment and dedication toly Public Schools now we'll go to meeting events and notices this is not a complete list um because on it is our regular board meeting uh on the 10th of February at 5:30 p.m. right here all right now we have once again open Forum fors uh let's see we've had Dax meet um who else is in that policy which we've kind of heard about um um yeah and superintendent committee uh for the search so um I'll I'll talk about da either of you would like to but we basically heard the bulk of it tonight with is ROM the other thing that came through was uh High School making a few adjustments um to like they they have a a threshold for their basically their they you can do it again for the for making standards uh they've changed that threshold to make sure they kids are actually you know not just uh oh I can do it and still get this SC you are actually learning and using it appropriately with it um and then they also um they they had an A+ in their system that didn't mean anything in terms of grade point average or anything like that was kind of a more of a feather and cap for students and so they'll be removing that from Infinite Campus in the policy EXC me the committee um approved both both of those things for them we did have one other committee meeting and that was B Sterns and thank you to Stephanie for being present at the meeting was the organizational meeting um and we also have an upcoming facility um Workshop after um following our next board Mee so we should be able to provide the board with some additional information after that me ourain facilities for um anyone else from policy want to make any comments on anything from that meeting superintendent yep that's our last one so you want to talk about the update there okay go for we have four potential um candidates moving forward we also talked about um having reaching out to the staff um this week and setting up a time um Patrick and I are going to work on the evening um staff um me and go to the day in the morning um hopefully we're going to get that set up with you to K to send out an email to all staff that they can meet in the auditorium on either Thursday or Friday we'll we'll let you know just today yes is that U Mr chair I would recommend talking to the building principles because I don't know what is happening in their buildings on those specific days in the morning so that's that's the next step is kind of fig yes Y and so we will meet with the staff um all staff not just student our teachers but all staff that are able to come if they're not able to come hopefully they have a friend that can give them the information or they can come to the evening that's why we had it at two different times we basically want to make the committee accessible to people to people and also to be able to let them know what the process is for our superintendent search um and know that they are invited to come to the the interview process and that there is a survey that's going to be coming up because we want to make sure that they're included in this process of hiring the next Mr chair just one other um meeting that's happening some of you saw officer Kobe come in and we just weren't sure what was happening but um he did come in to invite um the board and um other members that other if me any members that are here we do have an online safety presentation for staff and students and that's um happening in the auditorium so if you have some time we have that and we also have on a double H tonight for basketball so it's a busy night in the building fantastic all right uh now we'll have opportunity for board member uh comments um we'll start on Miss viser please you have any comments to um I want to thank Alysa Stewart ER Eng for the weekend activities this weekend was crazy busy at the school um we had there was archery in the field house there was wrestling little kid wrestling in the gym and there was the onea plate and there was the parking lot was back both Elementary intermediate High School fi house parking lot they were parked all the way down so everything went really smooth I was there volunteering for wrestling and it was people were coming in and out of the doors all day long for people so um congrats to the one who play for their hard work um nth graders who went to State congratulations to the ones that are moving forward to the state tournament next Saturday and then thanks for christe for um being the lead of the lead act and dar I'll see him at br's in the morning for coffee he's the coffee Club guy so um I just want to congratulate all of our archers over the weekend they did a Fant job I also would like to express the congratulations to the surrounding districts who also have archers these kids work really hard and they do really well um just they did all it was amazing to see a lot of the different districts come together and cheer each other on from different schools and just every year I'm Amazed by all of that and the wrestlers um every time I Ram the hallways when I was volunteering my time for archery I saw excited faces happy highes excitement so that was really cool to see as well and then our oneart play sounds like they amazing thank you Sharon well first of all I want to thank um carlen de and Christy ROM for um how she has been presenting the read act um and thanks to all who came came tonight and those are who are checking out our video I want to thank Darwin for his Decades of work for our student staff and Community he's a goat greatest of all time um we've lost two of those this year or we are going to um Darwin and Cheryl um Darwin is our MacGyver that person that seems to make the impossible possible um we haven't for a while night uh a while yet but uh I wanted to know that his and his family I wished everything positive especially good health and um happiness as a district we are INB to him thank you Mr Wilson I have no comment thank you I'll go to Stephanie no uh yes thank you to Darwin congratulations on retirement we're going to call it 50 years because it's there we we'll just assume it's at least 50 years of service and it really was service there are things that he's done for this District I don't think um anyone would would not consider amazing so and and you know I knew him when I was a student you know he's that guy in the H you um you know whatever I'm a done high school kid uh then a few years ago when I first joined the board we had a meeting where it was like there's some students there was some faculty there was the board members we're all kind of getting together we're talking about you know various things the district could do you know potentially the co funds to help people because we were worried about learning L and Darwin was one of the people that came and you know you wouldn't think you know just think of school keeper right buildings facility and whatnot but he was there to talk about what we could do for students and it just kind of like that it's such a holistic view of everything and really uh epitomizes how he put students first in everything right so he had an opportunity to help brainstorm he was there and it was very eye opening you know here's someone with deep institutional knowledge but from like a whole different side you know he's you think he's like going to be talking about facilities and what no he's talking about like support programs and this and that what about you know all these different things and because he's got just this wonderful view of the students that you know no one else is going to have and he doesn't just see the school he sees the students he sees the staff he sees everybody in in just a wonderful way so I want to say thank you to him from the bottom of my heart um and then I would like to little story I guess I'm taking Ken's spot with the little stories but the other night uh my niece who's a few years younger than me she texts me she says hey do you know Mike buer well he's he's one of my daughters teachers by God he said of course I do and she she says well you know he's he's a ball coach and teacher up in full he does you know K he's one of my daughter's favorite teachers and she says he just won the playball Minnesota Terry Ryan Awards now this is a very prestigious award so I want to congratulate Mike ber on that um it's had a big event called di Awards I'm actually reading through her text right now and you know like to give you an idea of like who else is honored that night Ron Gardenhire was honored at that at that event right so he's this is a big deal uh for Mr buyer and for and so I I I want I want to Express gratitude to him as well as congratulations for what he has given our our students all right if there's nothing else I think we'll take a motion to adjourn motion by Sharon second by Wayne yes all right