Great. June 15th one stand for the pledge of allegiance. of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all. I'll make a motion to approve the agenda. I'll second >> all in favor. >> Nobody would like to speak. However, the middle schoolers here. >> Hi mom.
[laughter] >> Thank you for having us. >> So would you introduce who you are? Yeah. So, I am John Shuru, 1993 graduate of GFW. Uh, originally from Winthre. Got many, uh, aunts and uncles that live in the Gibbon area. My dad's originally
from Gibbon. Um, I think Wade, were you in Jenny's grade? My sister's great. >> Uh, I was a 96er. Your sister was in 95. >> Ah, so you're >> And my wonderful wife is >> Oh, are you David's son? >> I am. Yep. David's my dad. So, yes. Uh,
Roger's my uncle. Um, Carol. So, yeah. Yes. >> 93. >> 93. Yes. >> 91 from you. >> Oh, really? Swap. There it is. Right. [laughter] >> Yeah. >> I don't have that great
ring offer school board. Um, yeah. There we are. >> Steve News. New >> Nice. I'm Jen. um graduated from GFW92.
Still here at >> I'm Emily Stair. I graduated from BFW in 2010. I left for a little while and was called back to Winthr and now live right on the home.
>> Mark Turtle. I graduated in 71 from Gibbon farm here locally. So still here. Amy class 91 and I graduated some years before that. >> Thank you.
Um consent agenda action items. A greater board meeting minutes. B. Special board meeting is June 1st. C. Approve finance report register summary.
D. Approve of active activity account review. E. approval of personnel. Um, hired Grace Dragner, fifth grade teacher, and
Elsie Dman, >> police, >> m coordinator, resignation, Thomas Krueger, and retirement of Denise Palmer of 30 years. her years of service
was greatly appreciated and well well done. I have a first and second for consent agenda. >> I make a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> All in favor?
information items. Superintendent report. >> Yeah, absolutely. Good evening and thanks for coming to Elm School Board. We appreciate it. Couple of updates for the board. One of the biggest things that we've been working on the past couple weeks and few months actually is bringing our new strategic plan rooted in community rising together to life.
The plan officially takes effect on July 1st. Um if you remember, it was built with input from nearly uh 900 voices including students, staff, parents, and community members, which is very exciting. Over the next several weeks, our leadership team, we actually met this afternoon as well to continue digging into our work and identifying
action steps that'll help turn the document into a meaningful living, breathing um opportunity for our students and for our community. As we wrapped up the school year, uh we celebrated our first year with all students together in our preK through 12 facility. Even though it was just for a
few short months, it's been exciting to see the connections built across the grade levels and the opportunities that come from having everyone under one roof. We're also really proud to celebrate the accomplishments of the class of 2026. Graduation season was filled with memorable moments. The first
one here in the new facility. Um there were also a lot of really great service projects from National Honor Society, the um and activities and then the evening of excellence and commencement. And then one of the highlights for me personally as superintendent was the evening of excellence and scholarship
awards was happening in the comments and preschool graduation was happening in the gym. So, it's really cool to see our preschoolers graduate and then go across the hall and listen to some of our seniors be recognized for their hard work. And it's a great way to recognize the full spectrum of GFW students. Uh
even though the school year's ended, our work continues through community education and early childhood programming. And um the spring summer play publication has a lot of educational enrichment, child care opportunities, and other recreation opportunities for our families to participate in this summer. As we
continue to look ahead, like every other school district, we're monitoring the financial status of our district. And I'm going to go into depth um later tonight about uh the review and comment action item that you have before you as well as the positive review and comment that we've already listed capital
projects from the state of Minnesota. And then as we close out the school year, I do want to personally thank the board. You were going through listing out when you graduated high school from GFW and stuff. I have been here for 350 days. So, thank you for a great first year to
the staff and the community and the board. It's been really great um to be a part of this. So, that is all I have for the updates. >> Elementary School and Middle School High School. >> Good evening. Um it was a great end to
the school year, especially a very exciting school year, I might add, with all the um changes and being in the new building and coming together then um as a K through2 building. I was able to meet with all of the teachers and pairs of the elementary for our end of year meetings and the teachers all met their
student learning goals and we also met our elementary site goal. Our Firebird Pride team plans to meet in August to make plans for programming for our next school year. at the end of the year um they decided for our end of year celebration to do a track and field day
for the students. Um it was a little bit of a challenge because we had several rainy days and we had to do a lot of scrambling and schedule changes changes to still make that happen. But in the end it was a wonderful time for students who were able to participate in a variety of track activities, games and
relays. And I was just grateful for the help of many staff members and for the flexibility that everyone showed due to the weather changes um that we had to make throughout that time. Summer school will be from July 20th to July 31st. Um
students will be provided lunch and breakfast through the summer foods program. Uh our focus will be on ELA, math, and social skills. Um and I've had several teachers signed up to help with the program. Uh I just completed submitting our local literacy plan to the state and it has
been posted on our website. Um we will move into phase two of our read training requirements this year which mainly involved um readact required professional development for secondary teachers. Um some of our elementary staff will continue on with their letters training for their second year
of that training also this next school year. Um Principal Jacobson and myself are attending Compass Institute in St. Paul over the next few days. is I'm going to be presenting with Andrea Hansen about the mathematics instructional work that she did with our staff this past school year. Um recently
we both also attended a really informative compass mathematics training about the new math standards uh that will go into effect 2027 2828 school year and we're going to continue working with staff on that um this coming school year. We did begin some of that work
this last school year, but we'll need to do some un further unpacking of those standards as we discovered at this uh training that we attended. Um summer activities, there were 34 students who participated in a two-eek TCA and community education sponsored camp. Four
hired staff members worked with students to put on a production of Elephant and Piggy, We Are in a Play. Um the performance was well attended and it was fun for everyone. That camp was free to all students who wish to participate. thanks to a partnership between TCA and GFW Community Education and a grant that
TCA received through Prairie Lakes Regional Arts Council. Um, summer recreation starts tomorrow. Um, students in second through fifth grade will have a variety of rec games available to participate in on Tuesday and Thursdays and on Wednesdays they have field trips scheduled. Uh, rehearsals for Frozen
have begun. Uh, Derek Helgot is directing the musical with assistance from several of TCA's board members. Our rehearsals will go through the summer with it with performances on July 30th through August 2nd. Um we're expecting a really big turnout for that uh production. A lot of families and and
kids, so it should be a lot of fun. >> That's all I have. >> Did you say the dates for Frozen? >> Um yeah, it's July 30th through August 2nd and the tickets are going to be on sale starting July 1st on the um Tri
Community Arts website. >> Okay. business. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, the end of the school year was clearly busy for us, fast and furious. A little painful at times. Um but we made it through as always, but it's filled with many celebrations of our students'
accomplishments. So, on May 15th and 16th, we hosted our 9th through 12 variety show for the community, showcasing the incredible music, talents, and performances of our students. On May 20th, we held our NHS induction ceremony and the evening of
excellence. At the evening of excellence, many seniors were recognized for scholarships awarded through the local dollars for scholars program, as well as scholarships received from colleges, universities, and other organizations. The following week, we celebrated our students' achievements at the
Letterman's Banquet. Students were recognized for their accomplishments in athletics and fine arts, highlighting the well-rounded opportunities available here at GFW. This year, 44 students earned elite awards by receiving Minnesota State High School League letters in three or more
athletic or fine arts activities. Three students earned eight letters during the 2526 school year, and one student earned an impressive 10 letters. We also recognized numerous students for reaching championship milestones. Three
individuals broke historical school records in basketball, track and field, and baseball. We also recognized an athlete who competed at the state wrestling tournament as well as our conference champions at the 4x1 meter relay team in track and field. In
[clears throat] addition, three individuals were inducted into the GFW Hall of Fame. These accomplishments reflect the dedication found and perseverance of our students and the [clears throat] many opportunities they have to excel both inside and outside of the classroom here at GFW.
We ended the year with our annual tradition of our friendly class pitfall tournament which continues to be a highlight for our students and staff alike. We did battle the weather at times but um our day was a little nicer than your days. We also celebrated a successful
graduation ceremony where we honored 49 outstanding seniors as they completed their journey here at GFW. At the conclusion of the school year, I met with all of our teachers. I'm proud to share that every teacher met their future comp student learning goals and
our site goal. Their commitment to student growth and continuous improvement continues to have positive impact on our school and students. In addition, two secondary math teachers and myself along with principal Thompson attended the Compass math training recently on the new math standards. This
professional learning opportunity helped us deepen our understanding of Minnesota's new math standards and it allowed us to thoughtfully start preparing for the new standards implementation. This summer, we will focus on filling our ELA and choir vacancies to ensure we
continue providing the strong academic and extracurricular opportunities for our students. As we look ahead to the next school year, we are excited to build upon this year's successes and continue creating meaningful opportunities for all of our students to learn, grow, and thrive.
>> Thank you. Really busy last couple months. It's impressive. about six months seems like in two weeks. I don't hear a plan. >> Uh student council,
we don't have anybody here for student council name reports. Riverbend Riverbend [clears throat] see the area learning center is a total of 71 students uh 25 online and 46 students in person.
There are 11 students graduating this semester and there's a waiting list of at least five students for next year. So, they're filled up with more. There's the credit recovery and target services uh program, a fairly large group of which is utilizing that to
gather the credits they're lacking for any type of graduation. The imprints and raptor section both had a fishing experience on June 1st at Sleepy Eye Lake. I haven't heard any reports on it, but I assume it went well.
Um, there were a total of 25 graduates from Riverbend School programs this year and other boarded business. We went through the adopted budget. We find that
uh we're probably actually at about 15% of unassigned one balance, but should reach the 16% threshold presently. So that was good news and probably the best news for everyone is the comprehensive
review was minimal or nothing which means that all the member districts had nothing to be concerned about. So that's pretty much all the news that's good to bring for Riverb. We didn't have anything FRP. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah, we did. Well, I guess it's always about finances and school buses trying to make, you know, meet budget. You know, I think we did some more budget cuts, um, all the the crazy mandates that our
great municipal legislature throws at us that we have to try to fund. So that's kind of what we're all trying to figure everything out for the next school year. >> We went over the review and comment about
>> Yep. We met tonight. Um we talked about our Cameron project. Uh received a timeline. um more can come on that in the next couple of weeks. Uh talk about the
status of the auditorium and how that's coming along. And then we talked a lot about class size and future enrollment for GIW what that looks like. Did I miss anything Mark or Ken?
>> No, just that our seats in the auditorium were wrong. We're waiting for the correct seats never ending. Go ahead. Executive committee. >> Can I actually propose something here
really quick? So, right now we do have four committees that in a structure um where there's three members on each of them. Uh, one of the things that's typical is not a lot of policy changes can keep the legislature this time around. Um, and then executive committee has not really met um just based off not
having a week. However, as we go into election season, um, things are going to get a little more like we need to be communicating more regularly. We all need to be on the same page and making sure that we can ask questions um, comfortably as well. So I would actually like to propose we don't need to take
action on it right now, not until our July board meeting when we would do it. Um is merging policy and executive committee together. So that would be George, Russell, and Ken and then engagement in FRP with Jan, Mark, and Emily. Um so that we've got three board
members and we've got two committees that every board member is meeting regularly each month with the superintendent to discuss items and um activities that are happening as we go through the election. So I think that's a better way to keep everyone informed, bring questions forward, um, and then of
course continue our regular committee of the whole meetings as well as that those conversations with the whole board and so that is what I would like to propose at the July meeting. I just want to kind of give you a sneak peek of what I'm thinking.
you say you >> policy and executive which would be George Russell and Ken um and engagement in FFLP which would be in market yeah it's a good thing everybody informed that's the best way keep everybody you know up to date of what's
going on so it kind of blends the four together in a way that's pretty cohesive and I think kind of makes it pretty well level too >> would it make much sense to put policy with FF and Peterson's policy on executive haven't really been meeting at
all. >> Well, we would give we would give them more things to talk about related to the election stuff like the executive committee could really realistically charge the executive committee to have conversations about everything happened
under the umbrella. So, we could kind of break it that way and push it that direction >> and setting the agenda. So this executive is that committee going to meet on our work session nights? >> It could meet on either night. I can
propose that too after July what the structure would be. I'll do my best not to disrupt people's schedules. >> I like the All right. Um action items.
Uh resolution prove and of identified official with authority. This is a standard resolution to approve me as the identified official with authority um through the Minnesota Department of Education. So I can give
people access to the reports and security boards and then the girls know who's in charge of the district second to approve resolution. >> I'll make a motion to approve the identified official with authority.
>> I'll second that. All those in favor >> roll. We got a few of those tonight. >> Emily, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Amy, Ken, >> yes.
>> Next action item, resolution calling for general election school board members. pretty standard at this call election per I'll make a motion for the resolution calling for the general election of school break members
>> I'll second >> yes Yes. >> Action item C, the resolution establishing dates for filing affidavit of comments. >> Yeah. So, this is the resolution that
says from July 14 to July 28th at 5:00 p.m. um interested parties can file for the district office to run for school board. It's the 14th through the 20 14th through the 28th.
>> Yeah. like very clean. They locked it up two weeks because of the primary. >> Yeah, the primary second. >> I'll make a motion to approve the
resolution establishing dates for filing after I'm sorry. Yeah. >> Yes. >> Rosen, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Action item D. Approve. Approve. review
and comment resolutions. >> Yeah. So, I want to talk a little bit um about what's happening with our district and related to election season before we already approve this. Um the first is we are looking um for four questions on the
ballot. We'll start with the first two easiest ones. Number one is you just approved tonight filing for school board um and so we'll have a school board election ballot. The second question is a statewide constitutional amendment to the permanent school um fund. So kind of
a little bit of a overview of that. Um the proposal does not create a new fund. It does not raise taxes. What happened was when Minnesota first became a territory back in 1870 or 1865, hopefully none of our history teachers are watching right now. Um the federal
government gave land in exchange that um they would develop this permanent school fund. Now the permanent school fund has grown from $675 million in 2010 to today it's more than $2.3 billion. And so what
the agreement was is that the money and the interest from that based on threeyear average market value redistributed out to Minnesota schools. Now what does that mean? Right? Let's put dollars and cents to that. So the proposal that the state legislator
is moving forward would be right now we receive approximately $6824 per student. The proposal to raise it up to four and a half per $953 per student. So all told it is an increase of um funding to schools. It's
not a lot of an increase to funding for schools, especially rural school districts. The metros that have, you know, 38,000 kids or so on and so forth, we'll see a very hefty increase in their funding. Um, but for us, it won't. That is a constitutional amendment. Um, every
voter is going to have the opportunity to vote whether uh we raise it to 4 and a half% or not. A yes vote would make that amendment ratified. Leaving it blank would be counted as a no. So, every school district in the state of
Minnesota, whether we like it or not, is going to be some education and self promotion around what this is. And so, the every district's going to be on the ballot as supporting this in some kind of capacity. Now, the third and fourth question are a
little bit more GFW specific and a little bit trickier here. So the first question that just received a positive review and comment from Minnesota Department of Education's commissioner on Friday afternoon um is our capital projects levy proposal. So why are we
doing this is the first is that we're facing pressures from inflation rising operating cost costs enrollment growing unfunded from the state of Minnesota. Over the past two fiscal years, we've reduced expenditures by $850,000.
And yet, we still have needs in transportation, technology, and curriculum that we need to address. A capital project leies designed to increase revenue to a school district without needing to divert funds from classroom operations and instruction programs to pay for things like buses or
Chromebooks or curriculum needs. So, the first question that we submitted to the Department of Education was for a $400,000 annual capital projects levy for 10 years, which would raise approximately $4 million over the life of the levy. Now, the state limits what
the funding of those capital expenditures could be. So, the one thing that's going to be a big misconception out there is we cannot use those funds for teacher salaries, utilities, or operating expenses. What we list on the ballot in the proposed ballot question was for purchasing new buses and vans
for our fleet technology for student and staff devices, network infrastructure and software and then curriculum and instructional materials. So those what the voters see on the ballot that is going to be explicitly listed that that's what we can use that $400,000 for. It's a big difference from an
operating um levy where you know an operating level levy is what is that you know the district really has a lot of say over how we spend those funds and what we spend it on versus the capital projects is this is what the voters approved and this is what moving forward
with. So, for a home with an estimated market value of $175,000, which is the average in our district, would be about $22 per year or $2 per month. Um, for agricultural homestead, it would be a dollar per year per acre.
And then for non-homestead, $2 per year. Now, as a reminder, homestead limited still to the first $3.8 million in value as well. And when we looked at the four county map projections with our farmland, we felt we were pretty confident in that we weren't going to
exponentially increase the non-existent agricultural value. So by the numbers, when we talk about technology, curriculum, and transportation, district technology costs each year is about $396,000. Every single one of our students,
whether we like it or not, in grades K through 12, uses a Chromebook. Um, and until the state tells us that we can't use technology in the classroom, which it seems there's a lot of articles and there's a lot of positive studies about going backwards, um, we still need to plan on providing these devices to our
students because it's educational needs and services that they need to have. Um, however, we don't really have a strong replacement plan. And if you know kindergarteners and first graders, you give them a Chromebook, it it's not going to last very long. And so we need to have a plan in place that we can
continuously update our technology for them. The other piece of this is devices and network infrastructure require regular replacement upgrades. Everything in this building is new. Um but the life of this levy is for the next 10 years and technology is constantly changing.
Part of this as well is that cyber security threats can be real for K12 school districts. Um neighbors just in the northwest in Delmo had to call a school because there was a cyber threat. about 60% of K12 um schools have cyber
threats every single year. We have multiple fishing attempts each year. Um I guess I personally am trying to get rid of a grand piano right now. If you click on the link, you can see pictures. Um we've also had issues where people are spoofing board members emails saying
check out these new policies that are res. Um so investing in our technology helps keep us safe. with curriculum. Um, annually we spend about $188,000 and million on curriculum subscriptions. What we really need to start looking at
is a few years ago when the district received um CO dollars, COVID relief funds, we spent about $532,000 in curriculum subscriptions. Awesome win for our local community. We bought we bought brand new curriculum one time free dollars with these co
dollars. But now we need a plan because over the next two to three years that curriculum is going to start to expire and we need to keep it updated and make sure that we're providing our students with the most relevant information possible. Now the curriculum that we purchased was literally every single
subject. It was math, science, reading, um social studies, etc. So we need to start build building a plan to continue to keep those subscriptions current. The other piece with that too is the minute a history textbook comes out the printing press, it's outdated.
And so the online subscriptions allow us to continuously make sure that we've got the most relevant curriculum at our fingertips. But with that um curriculum providers, it's an online subscription. You don't pay your bill, they shut it off and then that's it.
It's lights out versus a textbook. I think when I was in high school, the textbook I was using was from 1992 and just kept going, right? that doesn't exist anymore. Uh the third piece with this is that our transportation, so annually our
transportation costs about $722,000 like the last three year average. We've got a lot of buses that are more than 20 years old and are not passing Department of Transportation inspection. The average mileage of our bus fleet is over 160,000 miles. as well. We have
purchased two new buses um that are supposed to be delivered here in the next week or sometime this summer. Who knows when they're coming up from Alabama. Um but those replacement buses cost about $130 to $155,000 a year. Can't ignore our possibly breaking down.
So we need to find a way to get our fire burn kids here safely. We did a very very intense in-depth um study on transportation services. We went out to bid with private contractors and we found that switching to a private contracted service would cost us about
32% more annually than if we kept the fleet in house. Uh there are other districts I won't say their names during public board meeting that have ripped up contracts and said it's cheaper for us to buy a brand new set of buses and start our own fleet thinking with a
contracted service as well. So we're not the only ones alone trying to figure out how to navigate the transportation. Um so that is the first question that received a positive review and comment um from the Minnesota Department of Education. It really focuses on those
capital expenditures because right now we have to take them out of our general operating funds which is taking money outside of out of the classroom in order to pay for things like vans and buses and Chromebook replacements. We want to keep our operating dollars in the classroom where they belong um to
continue supporting student learning. Does anyone have any questions on capital project? >> No. All righty. So, the second question which is the resolution to submit a review and comment. Um, this question is contingent on the capital projects levy
passing. So, the district is looking at approximately $3.2 $22 million in bond money to demolish both schools. Um they no longer serve our instructional needs. We spend about $224,000 per year for both of the buildings and
basic utilities. A question that I get asked a lot is why can't the district just shut them down. Well, we still need running water in the facilities for our fire suppression system. In order to have a fire suppression system, we need to make sure that we have electricity to operate it. in order for the fire suppression system to call out. We need
to be able to make sure that our phone lines are still working. Um, we don't want to condemn the buildings because then our property liability insurance will skyrocket higher than it is as well. Um, so there's a lot of interconnected pieces with this. Now,
the $3.2 2 million to take down both the buildings. Um includes demolition, asbestous abainment, the making sure that we're environmentally compliant, the utility disconnection, site restoration, and any other related project costs associated with that. For
the average household AMG GFW um value of $175,000, again, this would raise at about $2 per month. So identical to the capital projects levy. Now, what's nice with this one though is that it's a bond. Um, so the A to School credit
picks up 55% of the cost or $1.7 million for the overall project. Meaning that um Homestead would be 33 cents per year per acre and non Homestead would be 66 cents per year per acre. So, we have an opportunity here to seal the egg to
school credit for something better to happen to it. Um, there's no indication. They talk about it every year, but no one ever says we're getting renovating to school credit. Um, but now it's kind of a good opportunity to put on a ballot and see what our community's engagement is with people, whether they want to
take that or not. Um, I think this is the cheapest they'll ever be at this point. Prices are going up. So now we got to seize this opportunity forward. And if you touch on two things with the age of school credit, if they put the
bond through, it doesn't just go away. It stays the bond. >> The life of the bond for 10 years. >> Yes. For 10 years, right? >> 10 years. Yeah. That's important. >> Yeah. Absolutely. So, both questions are for 10 years. Um, great question. Great
question. Absolutely. >> So, when we were talking about 51% of the project, that's how much the A school credit covers. That isn't the percentage for the egg school just to be clear. >> It would pick up 55% of the overall 3.2,
>> right? But the egg school credit was 70%. >> Right. It just ends up being 55% particular of monies. Just so that we can clarify that. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> That it hasn't changed. It hasn't gone down. >> Good. Yeah, good question. Yeah. Yeah.
>> And we spent a lot of time looking at repurposing these buildings. And if you look at neighboring schools that have been shut down, it doesn't work. They usually end up an empty building, trashed, people living in them. It just
doesn't look like a good fit. So this taking them down is like the best long-term solution. Another piece we've talked about is potentially, you know, a piece of bare land would be better than the building on it because we're responsible for the asbestous
no matter what. So if you sell the building, we have to take care of the asbestous either way. >> So we So what this brings back to is tonight's resolution is B and I have been working on the review and comments. We won't it needs to be submitted by
July 6th. um this resolution directs me that once the review and comments is finalized, which we're really really close, um is to submit it to the Minnesota Department of Education. So, um it's [clears throat] it's not committing us
to anything. Um it's just saying, "Hey, B, you got to submit this to the state of Minnesota so that they can do their account." Moving it off to the next. Yep. Any
other comments or questions? >> Roll call. >> Make a motion. >> I'll make a motion to approve the review and comment resolution. I'll second that. >> Yes. >> Agree. Yes.
Earl, >> yes. >> Rosa, >> yes. >> Sarah, >> yes. Thank you. >> Action. >> We have one that refuel that came to me after the fact. Another
comments or questions? I'll make a motion to call for the public betting for milk, juice, and fuel vendors. I'll start again. >> All those in favor action item F uh donation resolution
where statute 465.03 03 school district is resolution expressed by the donor GFW
our dorm for robotics we have cyber grants >> do I have the first and second to accept the donation I'll make a motion to accept the donation. >> I'll second.
>> All right. Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> And I have a first and a second to adjourn. All right. As much as you
Nothing is so rare as a day in June. I suggest we get to it. >> I'll second in >> favor journ.