e e e e e e all right good evening everyone and I feel like I've been saying this a lot but thank you for braving the cold
um I'd like to call the order the uh business meeting for GF schools Independent School District number 2365 tonight in the G cafeteria a little more room it looks like some special visitors um let's start with the assum
we brought play that's great we can do the pledge of leeders to the flag of the United States of America to the for stands na indivisible andice all right uh can I get a motion
to approve the agenda approve agenda a second I'll second all in favor motion approved Mrs Elmer visitor recognition public
comments nothing tonight all right um can I get a motion uh to approve the consent agenda a second I'll second any discussion look like there's a
s yeah I'll just make a comment if I could on on the last two items on there retirement and resignation carolly Alfred Thank You Came the summer of 93 that I was leaving so um been here ever
since in Angie Edwards um and here for a number of years as well Le has announced her retirement and is resigning she's looking to move voted the area well some long runs by everybody so
we thank them if they're listening any other discussion anybody wants to have vot on all in favor all right down to information items uh superintendent report yes U thanks first
if my phone buzzes tonight that means another District in the area is two hours late tomorrow um and we are two hours late I think everybody right now in about a 35 M hour 35 mile radius is around two hours late tomorrow um and I
would assume beyond that as well so hopefully our last weather change to our schedule but um we'll see where that goes um some things I had on my list um an Adis Grant application uh an atus Grant is an
alternative delivery of specialized instructional Services it's a grant program through Minnesota Department of Education that uh provides funding to districts such as gfw we've been a recipient of this grant for a number of
years um and the intent of this is to take students who are um who are struggling in their core academic areas um language arts and math
in particular and are at risk of being uh identified as having special needs so there is additional funding to hire additional staff to work with those students and um and we have been a
recipient of the Grant in the past our our funding is up this year so we need to file another application and we did get that in on February 7th um that is the early
deadline the later deadline is March 7th we wanted to get it in as early as possible in hopes of hearing whether it is approved before school is out or not uh because it does impact funding for
eight eight and a half of our employees right now um essentially we get to classify those employees as special education staff and therefore we would get the funding uh attributed to those
special head teachers even though they are not licensed in that area so that is a big grant for our district and I want to thank principal Thompson who has done the majority of the work on doing that application which I think the
last time I looked it was like 64 Pages live so it's a it's a lengthy process so thanks to thanks to her for that uh just a quick enrollment update I tried to give that at each board meeting uh we started the year with 548 students in
K12 uh we we were up to 553 in January and to start February we're down a few students were at 5 50 right now so good news is we're still above where we started the year um and uh and that's that's a good spot to be we'd like to
see that number going up obviously um just a note I I think George signed up for negotiation seminar uh next Friday night the 20 28th yeah St
Cloud St Cloud and and I'm signed up for that as well um they snooker me at least on the time it looked like 9 to4 on what I signed up originally that's what it was okay and then we find out it's 2 o'clock till 9 o'clock so uh you want a
good time in St Cloud on Friday night George and I will be go um let's see uh turn lane project just some school updates um we had a bid for the turlan project going into the
new School site um and and into the adjacent Farm field that was part of the purchase agreement there had been an original estimate made about a year ago of $350,000 for that project and
unfortunately it came in well over that um our low bid was $459,000 so we're $9,000 over the estimate and you always wonder when you have a bid like that that's significant L overestimate that
you get a decent decent bid date um we had four biders three of them were with in the 459 to 490 so uh it was competitive um it's just a a function of the market right
now um we we thought perhaps the current contractor for dirt work on site would get the bid um but uh company out who all M&R Paving out of new got the project at
459,000 so they will be doing that work this summer um and then other school updates just uh obviously weather has not been kind to uh work outside so even with
uh uh protection up for bricking on the exterior of the building they have not done much the last few few days with the extreme cold and no body's been on the roof but a lot has been going on inside uh they've been taping and mudding in
the uh in the elementary wing on the Upper Floor finishing the drywall on the lower floor along with electrical and mechanical and in the middle school high school um Wing as well it's a lot of mechanical and electrical and they are
starting drywalling in that area as well and into the lower B section which is the administrative area area um door frames are going in where that sheetrock has been completed
um kitchen and mechanical room are under heat right now and underground plumbing has been going on in those two areas with hopes to pour the slab in the next two weeks and the tile through and that is the floor tile crew is mobilizing
this week we have a large semi coming tomorrow with floor tile and they will start work uh in some of those bathroom areas and uh and other areas on floor tile in the elementary wings so
um yep and then last uh last comment I had uh tomorrow is Minesota recognizes as school BR bus driver appreciation day um and and uh we appreciated them so much we gave them the day off today but
we're going to have them start two hours late tomorrow um but we do want to say thanks much we have a great veteran staff of bus drivers who know our kids and kids know them and that's just a
great benefit to us as a district so want to give thanks to them especially tomorrow and bus driver appreciation and that's uh that's all I have we we provided
350 AB uh well it'd be Bolton mink who been kind of working on the civil engineering side of that project through CR and that was a year ago budget so the was that budget part of the overall
that's part of our overall so where does that other 109 that's contingency fund okay Y and we can ask during the ffrp but we can ask you now to what is the that so I checked here before I came I we're at
just over $1.6 million after that 109 has been still feel we're in pretty good shape there yeah make sure you think you're loc school bus drivers if so okay we
have any questions fori principal Jacobson okay I'm also principal Thompson this evening so I'll be reading her board notes first so she refers to as I in here so that's Mrs Thompson when they say hi so um we love to read month is in full swing we
welcome magician Brian Richards to the elementary as part of our we love to read month he did a presentation for the K2 grade students called Seuss on the loose and three through five grade students called readers and leaders students in prek
5 have committed to reading 20 to 30 minutes a night through February 27th as part of our readathon students who commit to reading collect pledges from relatives and friends who are willing to spons them in support our school as I type this a little over two weeks into
the readathon students have already raised $8,500 from 15 different states our goal is 12,000 which we will put towards technology L re see recess and classroom needs and special events
Mrs Thompson will learn a dance and other staff volunteers will join in if students meet their goal students are able to earn prizes for reading regardless if they participate in the fundraiser or not there is a reading Bingo sheet that can compete or complete
and all students complete a reading blog as well on February 27th we will have a camp in at school in the morning where students spend the morning reading in doing reading related activities students have also participated in dress up days and some classrooms had mystery
surprise readers come in and read to their class second on the list here is kindergarten kickoff we will have kindergarten kickoff March 25th and look forward to meeting our kindergarten families in addition to all the important information about kindergarten we will
be sharing about our dual language immersion program and what a typical day is like for kindergarten students March 10th through 14th is americ Corp appreciation week we have five americ corpse which is reading corpse volunteers at the elementary
school they work in the preschool class and with our K3 grade students Preschool tutors work with all students on early literacy skills and K through thir grade tutors provide research-based interventions to our students who qualify interventions are targeted to
meet students's needs and have been incredibly beneficial for our students and lastly tberg club I'm sorry t-berd Community Arts the group is busy planning for the spaghetti dinner during barle days plans are also underway for
art camp in June in this year's musical Anastasia on to the uh Middle School High School site so as usual we have had an extremely busy month filled with academic and extracurricular activities winter sports have been in full swing keeping our students and Community
engaged as we cheer on the Thunderbirds a special congratulations to a couple of our boys basketball players who reached 1,000 career points and to one of them who also signed play college football at smsu we also have a gfw student who wrestles with new M's team and is
competing in individual sections for a chance to qualify for the state tournament our FFA chapter recently had an outstanding showing at the region 7 proficiency State degree and star interviews with five students earning recognition for their High achievements
gfw will hold our annual CTE fair for students on Friday February 21st from 9: to 1 for students this event was organized by three dedicated teachers Miss Mrs brunes Miss Wood and Mrs goldish who took on the challenge
challenging task of planning the fair while also managing their full-time responsibilities their hard work and commitment have resulted in the event that will feature approximately 50 vendors providing students with valuable insight into various Career and Technical education opportunities we
reached out to numerous vendors and gfw also advertised on social media inviting anyone interested in participating to connect with us this event is a fantastic opportunity for students to explore potential career paths and engage with Professionals in various
Industries all board members are invited to come on Friday if you would like Middle School teachers have been busy preparing for our upcoming mini course day at the end of the month this event gives students the opportunity to build relationships with peers and teachers while engaging in fun Hands-On
activities for their choice options include snow tubing bow bowling basketball baking art painting cooking J's Cafe and even outdoor survival skills I hope that it's not as cold um
then as it is today because that would truly be um survival skills the first semester has officially come to a close and we are proud to announce that several students and grade six through 12 are in spot in the A&B honor rooll congratulations to these students for
their hard work and dedication looking ahead our high school students will begin pre-registration with Miss wood as they start planning for next year's classes registration will follow soon after pre-registration in prior to spring break a group of Honor Band students
recently traveled to mano where they had the opportunity to learn more about being part of a larger musical Ensemble at the college level meanwhile the music fans club has been working hard to support our B inquir students as they prepare for their upcoming trip to Florida over a spring break
lastly we had a fantastic turnout for our winter formal last Saturday it's always great to see our students dressed up having fun and simply enjoying me kids thank you for your continued support of our staff and
students when is what time on Friday uh Friday the 21st um the the vendors will arrive about 8:15 but the actual um CTE part for students won't begin until 9ine um and then um goes from 9:00 to 1 for
students and then the vendors will pick up after that so hopefully they're out by 1:30 so we can continue to have classes afterwards okay yeah you know I'll be down in the gym and then kind of up the hallway and we've been growing um
in the last couple years so we're kind of running out of space in the gym but so some of them might be in the auditor but I don't think so but you L to take in yes and we just finished our registration guide which we'll be approving tonight which is
about like the ads of Scrat like the access application perfect okay thank you uh Dash your update looks like uh they hired a part-time employee that started
beginning of February um worked with suit fire protection to replace three fire exting that uh appar we're not seeing charged up some pling issues that were fixed uh big
one here we took care of all the items that the fire marshall want to taken care of in this inspection and walk through um other just general maintenance items of seat and war frames a couple chains on the picture so
a little bit going on with them but it's nice to see that the fire Rush is happen um student council update so we haven't had a student council representative for about a year was there we know
why I know I inquired the spa and kids that have some interest there typically in so many other things it's just difficult but yeah and so we had thought about having multiple
Representatives so not the students don't have to come every time um due to that so if the board would be open to that then I'm sure we could be able to find someone that at least a student that could be here consistently I think it giv a good exposure
and learn some speaking skills and teach all of us what they got going on soans we certainly talk about more but I think that would be a great IDE okay so you're open to having more than just one representative
okay okay okay well we will see somebody next month then or at least have an update on it but that'd be great okay um we'll move on to board reports so remember Bree are Riverbend District
uh yes M so we had the first board meeting of the year the last two January basically was there organization and as much as I was able to clean in a very short period
financially and educationally things are moving along quite well they're very happy with the redoing the picon W building tour that that evening they have interesting rooms they
have a room to fly up those down had real difficulty fighting down got room where they can burn up energy and these but even more than the building I was really impressed with the director
of riverband and the lady that I take as charge everything else day to day they have uh they have great dedication everything they talked about regardless of the difficulties with the students they were just called and moved
on to what they needed to do and no one was upset by anything that might have happened so they were they were ready for almost any contingency and they hand their well and it showed so that was my biggest take away
from that was the call indivual directing good to hear and it's we do have a fair number fair amount of students that attend there correct and and uh point where they've had to expand into the nichelson buildings there will
be some savings to the our district because they're going from three bildings two so everybody pays their part of that Sor how much that would be but any amount of dollars so it's good and it's kind of
back and forth too so I mean some students uh go there and will probably say their long term depending on what their needs are and to what degree but we also um have some students transitioning back from River B so it's kind of this e and flow um because
ultimately what we want them to do is be back in the um public school system if possible um so that is ultimately our our goal um but some students are really successful they that's they them appropriate place for
them long thank you uh policy committee really it's been a Fast and Furious start to our year so uh superintendant and stuff like that it's kind taking our time away from the
policy commit but I think this coming month we'll be be back in full force um later on here we will talk about one policy but that's one kids don't like but the mandatory these days
um no it's it's oh yeah it's new Jordan yeah um but we have many months of law reading uh ffrp Mr bres well we pretty much heard everything that's going on
lrp diog everything is dedicated the building as we're right now and that my but everything is on schedu pretty much right now and the fact that it's been a fairly
open winter even though it's been cold given them a lot of Advantage I think so yeah it's fairly positive good I've walked through the number of times too and uh I will say the workmanship inside there's Top Notch safe site it's a clean
site that be proud of it or I'm proud of it Carl sanderson's done a good job in all sus um got anything you want to add to it that's that's one thing I would add too is I did hear at the river bend that car
Anderson had done that revamping with the Nicholson and they were extremely pleased so hopefully that will carry over here good good and when when do we usually they meet with us during the business Comm give an update but they're
actually going to be here at our our committee of the whole 3rd of March which will be our first one try to have them every couple months come up the whole group and given up
they're here okay um number 18 um actually I forgot with the policy there's action L on six years the cell pH policy update and then for FFL RP
there's an action item six Act that we're voting on thank you everybody and uh Community engagement just met so that's fresh in U your guys' minds remember Turtle well there were we had a survey for the Open
Enrollment people we've lost and got not 13 out of 60 we didn't get a whole lot I mean response kind of normal and you some of them stated why they left and you know we're trying to get some of these back so I think
there's three four that wanted to have a discussion so our superintendent was going to call them and talk to them um there's also a marketing effort to uh try to get more kids in our school kindergarten registration day
March both in Ed which is a program in Sp Minnesota we don't know if that's going to word we're looking at what it's going to cost us and what benefit it would be to us and then we have a little bit of discussion about kind of a partial open house when
the elementary Wing is open cafeteria and then probably a larger one uh Christmas time when the whole school is put together so yeah we want to make sure that the street communities
are you know showing what we've done and uh make sure we're open to that and so it's a big benefit I think through our school district so we should be very proud of that so and then our new high ER is showed up and we had
some discussion with him on some of the things you we're starting to do so he's on board what we're doing and and kind of help just speak when we he's a full hire so that's kind what we went
through M anything say so to covered it completely right Mr Burke thank you for attending uh it's not like it's in your backyard so uh we appreciate you being here for sure yeah
I have to call school okay and then the executive committee um member girl so yeah we met last week about things
ances board meeting agend items long range planning discussion School bu inspections that were going on see what shape they were in that
inspection forward how did so the day we met they they looked at nine nine buses or n yeah they looked at 11 and two had just very very very very
biner issues but the next day they're going to do some of maybe our stare buses on the the passenger vehicles so end result was we we had three buses that uh that failed um and pretty firm line what causes a
failure if you have a foggy window that's a fail um so two of those buses were fixed within 48 Hours of any deficiencies and they actually were in a neighboring District so they were driven over there and got approved after they
were fixed so uh and then one of them that had failed was one of our older spares and that's essentially become our parts bus where we are checking to see what the cost of of U of the parts
necessary to bring it back into compliance and we'll evaluate but it could be that it's just going to be a so over and our V are are definitely newer and in good shape and no problems good to hear and
then um we want to talk about any of the new bus routs or uh I think we'll wait this a little more yeah um I would make one kind of related
to um we didn't get to it in the uh committee meeting tonight and that also related to the building is a discussion about a u a time capsule of some kind and I just want to put it out there that
we'll be doing a more formal announcement to the public that if people have suggestions on things that would should go in that time to capsu that we would be taking suggestions um you know when you think of time capsule you think of maybe a
little box or a tube or something but uh in the building it it actually is going to be in a fairly good sized area so we may be able to have a number of items in there things like our class registration guide for for the year that the building
opens up um but we just want to have copies of thecal newspapers Etc we will be putting that out to the public probably in April or something people have ideas on what should go in there
um just want that out there now be thinking of that sure there'll be a lot of good ideas M there anything to add to the ex wasn't there my apologies um
okay on to the action items so first one is approve uh superintendent Berg's uh contract that we spent some time
on um so George and Emily and I and the Consultants Dr Smith spent a lot of time and
legal um went through it as well and uh after a few back of force we came up with uh uh a contract that everybody was happy with um I don't if we to go into any of the details just
uh we have copies available public documents so rest wants to see it certainly can ask some extra copies here tonight so yeah you want to have to look might want to just say
what the stud is the s that's 139 is the first year 139 and then up to 1425 for the next year and final year year of the contract is $46,000 standard insurance benefits the
ordinary um anybody have any discussion first I got my can I get a motion to approve superintendent contract with Mr Alber second second now we can open discussion on it excuse me who
seconded thank you okay we move to a vote all in favor Mr Berg you have any any comments you'd like to say before we move on yeah absolutely I just want to say thank you I left the last interview more excited than I've ever been to come to gfw and
when Harold called me I was Casey's getting a pizza because I'm so excited to interview I didn't there day um but I'm really excited to be here and be a part of the team and I want to thank you for the investment that you made personal time as well as the district time run interviews and Harold and Jeff
did a fantastic job working with us thank you overall excited to be here definitely excited to have you the uh it was overwhelming from the cabinet as well so uh look forward to uh uh starting a new
future once again thank you for what's your drive about an hour hour 45 so and how far are you from Richfield now about 40 minutes to the much Nic
okay well thank you again now there's a young lady out in the crowd that she's been waiting very patiently for so um can I get a motion to approve request for early graduation for uh Miss Ashley boss
motion he a second any open discussion just a quick comment then may we can ask pass tell us what are plans plans are here but um this doesn't
happen very often I can say I've been superintendent 25 years now and uh probably had three of these Through The Years so it's a pretty pretty big achievement so congratulations to you Ashley and and to your
parents and it doesn't just happen obviously she put in a lot of work uh she had you know have we have graduation requirements as far as credits she satisfi that um and then it's not just knowing knowing stuff uh we're looking
for a student who's mature to take that Next Step to College um Ashley and her parents came in and interviewed with Mr wman and discussed Life After High School and all that and it's obvious that yes this is a bright young lady and
a mature young lady she's ready to move on so this U an easy decision to recommend her for well I say that's pretty fantastic anything you'd like to say I'm
very glad to have this opportunity it's been a long work throughout years but it's finally and what are your plans I plan to go to aerospace engineering college and then hopefully we're in field of
space exploration the bar future Prett incredible I'd say good for you and congratulations wish you nothing about the best we need a vote to make that official all in favor
congratulations all right it's nice to have H some positive uh conversations and experiences happening here at gfw um next uh can I get a motion to approve achievement and integration fcal year 26
budget we'll have open second okay um Dr Smith can you sure explain yeah and it's sorry about the delay in motions that's probably my fault um this
is another grant that we are currently uh receiving from the Department of Education um we are in the second year of this or next year excuse me will be the the third and
final year of the Grant and uh so we have approval but we need to submit a budget um our budget in the past has been primarily used for funding our dual immersion program there's
$65,500 that goes toward that and then we have $6,200 roughly that goes to summer school programs and shared activities with sidley East who is a partner District in this achievement and
integration Grant um an example one at CL we shared that excuse me the fall musical shared that with SI least students and they um try try to share
other things um but it's a total of$ 71,2 that we're proposing which is essentially the same as this year um and we just have to submit this budget and split out into those two areas and I
need to have it in by March 15 so you said this was year two [Music] majority that [Music] program good question I'm not exactly sure
um would be perhaps hiring like cure um I have not been part of I think um I guess to add to that is there are various things like Dr Smith said um
like a culturally liaison um some districts that um I've worked with before um anyone who can help close the achievement Gap um or work in like identified priority areas like um like
span um or language um deficits or to close the gap between our white students and um nonwhite students so there's a lot of different ways in which it possibly could be
used thank you that help as well so again just to emphasize we're awarded this grant we just have to be telling them for this this coming year how we're using this funding and it essentially needs to stay in the same
areas as we've had in the past so just change dollars based on salary schedules question yeah I know you didn't know much about but we know we get
there okay um all in favor motion passes I get a motion to reaffirm cell phone policy from the student handbook I'll make that motion
second um so this go ahead yeah just comments on that if you're reading any newspapers schools are passing cell phone policies across the state it's a requirement by March 15 so essentially
we're just affirming that we have a cell phone policy in place and I I put student handbook on here but it's also in policy 52 24 and Mr Runner is pulling that one up here as well but our policy
right now essentially says students not to have cell phones during the instructional day um are we perfect in enforcing that no um and we need to continue to work on that with staff because it it varies by staff I would
say um on how well that's enforced but but that is certainly the intent of our Poli and that's um we we agree with the research that says that there a distraction if kids have them all the time during class and they
can uh they they can live through instructional time without that device so I believe we have pass early on for even across the board approach to it schol day one classroom this way one
classroom that way yeah and the expectation is the same across the board it's just the um enforcement of it happening on a day-to-day basis um it is a continuous um battle um however we're
in our second year of it and we do see the the roller coaster ride throughout the year right so at your High Times like around now especially coming off of Christmas and around now where January February really long months um the competition of cell phone and social
media um is is tough um we are working with our students um to really try to make sure that high school students have it in their backpack not on their pockets um middle school students are not allowed to have bags or have it on
their body it's supposed to be in their locker um and so it's just really enforcing that policy that we have and what's in our student handbook we also going to be reaching out to families too to let them know that if your child texts you from school because we have
seen parents sit outside of the building and actually call their child come outside and then the kid is feeling like they need to text them or call them back right so really working with the families um to just say if you need to contact your child at any point in time
please call the office so that we can um get a hold of them like Dr SM said research does show that in case of an emergency event um we really do not want kids to have their cell phones out because then they're distracted by that so if we have if we have a bomb
threat if we have a live shooter or something we want kids to be paying attention to what they're doing what they're supposed to be doing and what we have practice versus calling their parents or trying to contact somebody with their their cell phone because that puts them more at danger than anything um that is the argument that we get from
parents who argue with um our cellone policy so we we're doing good honestly to to kind of update you um other school districts have called me and sent me emails um how have you done this in the
past um even when I went to the secondary principles conferences um people were asking me like how did you start this we're just in our first phase of implementation so like we're actually really worlds ahead of other school districts honestly so we're doing really
well and our students for the most part are pretty good um but we just like I said we just have to continue to enforce it and like Dr Smith said our staff need to enforce it as well thank you I think that's extremely
important just one last comment there um the the age-old argument is local control versus State bandid and there is a bill at the legislature right now that there would be a
Statewide policy and U I know msba is against that because they always mtal control um so I think this law that's currently in place is kind of the compromise yes we everybody has to have
one but you can vary what degree of limitations you put within that policy and I think this is a good middle of the middle of the Rolling policy we'll get better at as
we do they get to use at all like at lunch break if they stop at their office it's soon no they walk in the school by time they walk out actually it's 8:30 so that's when our home room starts so they can have it before 8:30 and they walk in at 8:30 and stick it in their backpack
that's fine we just don't want to see it for the rest of the day um they all then can't take it out until 3:8 when they're dismissed yeah um it works because uh the discipline side works because I've I've
been notified like and they have little lockers and they get locked up and that's it you don't have yeah so we do have a process at school where we have a system we also use campus um where um the kids know right now if you're if you have your cell phone out it's you don't
get to put it in your backpack you don't get to put it in your your pocket like it's going to the office save so um it goes to the office safe first time they can pick it up at the end of the day no questions ask we don't want to see it again if it's the second in to the 100th and 50 time um it goes to the save um
your parent has to come and pick it up if it's a repeated offense then we can have them also bring it to the office for an entire week that's painful um for for students and usually once they've gone through that process once they don't do it again um we have had some angry parents come and I say this is why
we have this policy is because we need your partnership so if you have to drive 45 minutes to come School pick up your kids phone you're likely going to enforce it at home with them as well so we just really need partnership with the parents as well um just to say hey y I support you guys in enforcing that rule
because it's really about safety um honoring kids' learning space they're continuously interrupted with someone videotaping them or taking a picture of them in their learning space it's not a space that makes uh students and our staff feel comfortable or
welcome want that too because want your student to do well at school honestly the biggest um thing that comes up is really like I paid for the cell phone I said well we have this is a public school and we have policies that we need to follow um and so just
like if you would go out and drive um on the road you would have to also follow um the speed limit as well um just because you own a car does not mean that you can drive as fast as you want and so and then also the other safety piece comes up and my counter argument is that it's actually more distracting and can
cause them to more harm than good good job keep after it's a battle but we're doing it everybody will adapt um more discussion on it all in favor
appr on to uh approve contract is service through Southwest what's the West Central service Cooperative can I get a motion to approve Contract Services second where did you get the second
I did not Turtle okay now thank you yeah and uh and this one is my bad I'm not getting enough info out on this in reality this contract is something the district has approved for
years and years but I'm not sure it's always come to school um but I guess in the effort of transparency um this contract provides a school
district with our Smart Finance and our smart HR systems our accounted systems that we are required by state law toie so majority of this contract is for
our smart system and then we have some we pay for our Mars is our Mars coordinator locally but she has support through southwestwest Central service s on any Law changes
with regard to our uh student uh registrations and so forth and then the last piece is an environmental and health and safety component which uh Brian we our director of building around works with um so they come through and
do several BL walk through other buildings um and and write up a report just like an actual investigator would um so hopefully if that person does show up we don't have any anything that's out in
compliance so these are annual contracts the total for this is $ 22,8 39 um and it is through the Southwest West Central service BL um I'm going to
go back in history when f w came together Gibbon and fairf or Gibbon and winr were actually members of the South the South Cent service Coop out of Mano Fairfax was out of Southwest West Central and at the time we evaluated the
services and uh it was felt that we had the best Services out of southwestwest Central and Marshall so when we Consolidated we went that direction and I think that Services stayed at that level um great service from from the the
mar organization so that's the contract that is referred to here for next school so basically since gfw has been School District it's yes yes
and the dollar all those dollar amounts required Yes actually there was one on there that we've had in the past and I talked to Mr wner about this it was the can't remember the title of it student data privacy
program um and in discussions with Mr Warner we we determined we are already having that service through another means and it didn't make any sense for us to spend $2,000 having this program duplicated
service so we dropped that for this year um otherwise our options for getting this type of service would be go to South Central service Co-op right um where and again the fee structures are based on on your
enrollment your the size of your staff for some of the payroll functions Etc uh so the fee is going to be fairly comparable wherever we go just feel we have the best Southwest we have any more questions on
it okay all in favor passes um next item uh can I get a motion to approve resolution directing Administration to review programs and
make recommendations for reductions second okay U Dr SMI yeah just um veteran board members probably recognize this this is resolution that often pass at this time of year I even
potentially when there are no reductions On The Rise is simply directing Administration to look at our current programs and see if there are recommend for potential reductions um that could be in staff
that could be in subscriptions could be in memberships like we just approved here um what this does direct Administration to look at all of that come back to the board with a list of
recommendations um and that would come at future board meetings um and then at that time it would be determined if that would any any staff in any so this is really the first step of potential budg
reductions for the coming so you're going to look at everything evaluated and bring back the recommendations this isn't a document that you get to Billy
and we don't see what happens no um again all it is is um to make recommendations for reduction so that's the list that would come back here here are my recommendations it's up to board nothing
happens until board action would happen yes so yeah in I'll just give you an example from past districts um we may come back with seven items on the list
and or says good with four not five six or seven so that's that's a Bo decision obviously finances will come into play on these reductions that's why you're looking at them um so by the time this
recommendation comes to you we hope to have a a you know an estimated revenue for next year which I don't have Rue compes toist at our many meetings Partners uh
ffrp like we be looking at this list um K mentioned obviously the focus has been on the building so far but really we're going to have to start looking at next year's general fund Bud as well the the issue is this is also kind of
the first legal step in in the event that we would have to lay off in the step and in particular any 10e teachers and I'm not saying that's going to happen but in the event that it does this is kind of the first step and there's a formal process
of that we have to go through in order to lay off staff really it's really the uh the staff's uh due diligence of maintaining the budget part of the budg right and I I've had
preliminary meetings with the principles obviously they're the ones who are overseeing the majority of our programs because it's it's about teachers and programs so um again I'm going to be fous we could come back and say we don't think we need
an egg program that's not going to happen um but just example an example nothing happen ACC the reality is we're pretty beable in school right now so there's not going
to be a lot of things on this list but we we have to be diligent about 18 balance budget as best as we can um you all are familiar with operating debt
know and you end up there by not know what next youti I hope by our next meeting we have that estim ready to and I would tell you what uh the
state has a has a what if worksheet that they put out each spring Unfortunately they don't normally update it until the legisl to Journey which won't do us much good so we're going to be using
this fy2 those numbers for next year so talk Lindsay already and should have that next meeting hopefully by that March
you look at the numbers for this staggered going to the new school I mean that's got to be kind of problem that's going to be difficult to do um I know you know a lot of the discussions on the new school was savings that reality is I
don't know how much savings are going to be there that first year um the good news is we have some money built into the building budget cover some of those operational costs so we're
all in there and can shut some of the operation cost off at some of the other buildings but yeah not all of the savings are going to be there right away because we're transitioning and the same I I will say right now is probably true for some of
the staff and T um we want to step into that new building and have have it run properly and and uh and efficiently um so it may be tough to
make a lot of reductions in staff at this time because of the unknown that we have questions else okay roll call Turtle yes Rome yes stare yes
acre Miller yes Breeze yes thank you great next item can I get a motion to approve the 2526 middle school high school course registration second
second um I'll start um this is really uh principal Jacobson and her team's baby here so they've been working at it for probably the last several weeks updating this essentially it it's a document that
will go out effectively our 9th through 12th grade students where we have electives that will show um our graduation requirements and then what the courses that we are going to offer next school year and we
call this our B Be year so we have an a year and a B- year um and uh so students and families need to pay attention to what is offered in each year so you don't miss out on an opportunity to take
a particular elected different PLS so um and then really 90% of this document which I forget how long it is it is a long Doc it's shorter than when we started so we simplified we triy to do that is is a description of each course
that that is offered for the for the coming year so I apologize for sending it to you late I think I got it to you yesterday um but it's essentially a a finished product there's a few tweaks on
some course numbers that we have to align with the with State Minnesota com course catalog but otherwise it's a finished product and we'll list the various courses that we have and what the requirements for graduation are and
just so you know um I had Kyle make those updates that we talked about or that you sent me in the email so um barring those course codes um we're uh ready to go I do want to let the board know that last year DR Horton and I
really tried to work on offering some college courses also to our Juniors um to try and keep them um in our school from going PSO as a junior because our students are able to take college courses as Juniors and seniors um we do
have a um a few 10th graders who are taking PSO classes but they're only allowed to take one class as a sophomore but Juniors and seniors um can't take PSO courses so to prevent our students from going outside of our school to take
college courses we're trying to build up our courses at gfw so that um we can offer those courses inhouse um so for example we partner with smsu and smsu um allows for us to teach some of
their college courses so we currently are um added this year um Mr B Coco teaches our American for juniors and seniors but it's mostly offered to Juniors and hopefully will only be a junior class moving forward um
and then also World blit um and then we also have college Government College economics College speech College writing um so we have quite a few classes now and we added two more this year three more actually College writing College L and American L this year so we're hoping
to continue to do that however um teachers who have master's degrees um and particular lure are um the requirements or the the the foundational requirements for a colleges to allow for us to teach that so there are some um
barriers that we have to being able to offer those courses but if we can we really want to do that because it eliminates our students from building PSO when they can have it at gfw the difference between um college
now and AP as said AP courses um you have to take an exam in the end to actually get college credit if you take a college now course which is what we offer um you don't have to take a final exam you just have to um do all the requirements for that particular class
so my opinion it's better for students to have that versus take a course and then everything's writing on a final exam so these would come Parts like their general education classes required when they first get in the exactly so if if they decided to take a um American
letter worldwi so I'm just going to use my sub as an example he took American worldwi it will also um me through the graduation requirements it's just that they're taking a college course that is in place of like a a English Al
English the benefit you provide to us why they should do this P because we have to pay for PS we don't pay for college now I would say some
students they fail yeah and then they come back and there's nothing we can do yeah because they're not taking that classroom so here they have that oversight a little bit more so than perhaps
would have that's getting the same end result the college credit that's a great Point um thank you for bringing it up because we have run into that situation and then now the students GPA um is much lower and now it's impacting their college um
registration um because some colleges clearly are based off a certain gpas so um that's really nice for us to have it in-house plus if we're offering it for juniors we're offering a college class for juniors so having it in house they they're taught to understand that we are
teaching Juniors at this developmental stage but teaching college content and how do we help them process that information and be juniors in high school to take a college course so um it is more of a rigorous and and challenging course for them but they do
get the inhal support our academic team every Monday takes a look at all of our failing list and where students are at and so if students are folling in that failing list area or getting too low in the college category our teachers reach out to um the families and students each
week for that so we're able to keep track of it more so than if they take a PSO class and they're kind of kind of on their own was there a Calculus class that is GNA be added for this coming year yeah so thank you for that so um we also have
college algebra and then also we've been connecting with smsu to offer um used to be called intro to calculus but it's actually calculus one smsu so um angle birs uh Dela Cruz is the one who is is
the only one in our district who's qualified to teach um that course and so um we're hoping to offer that as an additional course next year for our students to take an S class
so are you seeing a lot of students taking advantage of this yeah so um we our numbers are up even from last year and um currently the reason why we're offering help this one is because we had students um ask Mr Del Cruz if we were
going to have that because we weren't able to offer it um this year for them but we wanted to bring that back but we'd like to bring it back as a college course so um currently right now we have at least 10 people who are interested in taking calculus one and hopefully um
that just starts to snowball a little bit Yeah and Mr Del Cruz is fantastic at teaching um math and so the kids really um like to take him because he makes it understandable for
them so so getting some of the the grown up R of college uh with the the comfort of teachers in the high school yes yes yes and a principal to kind of bridge the gap and how are we doing this
for the growing pain I guess um anybody have any more question it's amazing on being offered I friends yeah and so this is kind of this is really linked to the syllabus work that
we've been doing because we have to know what we're teaching first before our kids can learn and so I really want the descriptions as much as possible that youve see in the registration guide to match the syllabi um and then have a breakdown and timeline of what's being
taught for students to help students know what they're learning approximately when they're learning um what they need to accomplish in that class and then also to help just the teacher to stay on face because that's also hard to seen students take more taking more of
these classes rather than going we're we're we're in that that zone of how can we how can how can we keep them because we did have an increase in uh PSO students this year but now we're seeing um hey I want to take this course this semester instead
of doing a PSO class um Mr Berg had talked a little bit about um maybe you know some other Pathways one that we would like to consider or I would like to consider in the future is um an educational path for students
because that is one popular thing that students take outside of gfw is um education courses what it's a great way to keep kids here and to help grow the student population you offer something the
school next down the road you know doesn't that's our that's our goal so so we're going to try to continue to build that but again it's based off of degrees in lures as well and so that's the hard part well sounds like you're doing an
amazing thing so uh well the teachers are everybody so good job um well that one we could just vote on if there's a little more conversation on it [Music]
good all right allvor all right uh last item [Music] here um can I get a motion to approve donation
resolution second second um looks like we have to roll call each one individually Julie okay so looks like uh Julie Deming donated
$25 and Lor maesi did I say the first name right Lor L maesi $250 um so we thank them very much um roll call Breeze yes Miller yes hry s you're
awesome teir it up thank you all right um favor thank you everybody