318 School Board shall provide a specific period of time where persons May address school board on any topic subject to the limitations of policy 206 all individual comments shall be less than five minutes any group of five or more persons must appoint one person
to present the group's views to the board depending on the number of persons present the school board chair reserves the right set further time limits to allow participation within the allocated time the board shall not allow negative of comments in public session about individual employees or
students specific factual information or recitation of existing policy may be furnished in response to inquiries but the board shall not deliberate or decide regarding any issue not included on the agenda post with the notice of the
meeting if there are more requests than time available priority will be given to people who reside within the grand R Big Fork School District you have the floor okay thank you uh good evening my name is Kayla scrier I am um a student parent and a
Community member here in Big Fork and I want to welcome you up north and thank you for coming on this really nice summer day uh I've spoken in the past just about um our little community and um what strong support we have for our school and um the different um
activities programs we have here in our area and how we come together to make things happen and um we're very excited to be um actively seeking a music teacher position now and really hoping that will work out and we can welcome some to the area to be part of it we
have a a Boosters club ready to go and so um really hoping that works out but I just also wanted to share a couple things that I'm really proud of that we did this last school year um and you know the absence of you're just trying to piece together some Arts activities
for our students um the community really came together first I want to just really hold up our elementary school teachers um even though we didn't have a a music teaching position they worked with the students organized themselves worked with the students created a
program and um ensured that the uh community and the students had both a WI a Winter concert and a spring concert um which was spectacular and just delightful it was one of the best uh Christmas concerts I've seen in a while and so really proud of their work there
um and then also we had our annual um Elementary Memorial Day Parade I don't know if anyone heard about it but it was pouring down rain was crazy and our students marched all the way through um they did that elementary school teachers make that happen and they do that in
partnership with um our veterans here that live in the community so another thing that we're really proud of um and then the other item is just uh we did our community theater did a one-act Play Festival so we don't have any theater um classes or um activities in our school
right now and you all know what happened with speech but we did um volunteer directors that um did a a one act festival and one of those decided to do a youth musical with students that don't know a lot about music and have never had acting before we had 17 kids try out
and um they were ages seven to 14 we found a part for all of them and then we had um um a core group of parents full-time working parents that worked with these kids to make sure that they could have a really successful performance and and the growth I saw in
the eight weeks that we worked with them was phenomenal they were so proud and did such a great job um doing this musical which in the beginning I was like I don't know how this is going to go but they pulled it off it was incredible and they were just beaming by the end um we had so many volunteers
come together in the community to make that happen and we're lucky to do it in this space so I just wanted to you know share some really great things that happened this year and um make sure that you know that we're still really all pulling together to make sure these kids have access to things that they would in
in a larger Town um with more opportunities and so um we just hope you continue to support it and kind of keep it on your radar so thank you thank you thank you thank you Heidi corad hi everybody thanks for coming the uh um
I love being in the edge Center and see it being used for different things right here now it's a boardroom you know um those of you who haven't looked up as you've sat here you can see the theater light you can see 19 bat you can see the
lights that can control it up there where you can't see I guess because of the legs coming at you are the cat locks this is not an auditorium this is a theater and this community and this area
worked hard to make this happen 20 years ago 20 plus uh and we gave to the school district a $1.2 million theater and we're grateful for the partnership that we have had since that
time um with you and here your students your your District 318 students your National Honor Society kids stand on this stage to deliver their stuff they walk here for prom the kindergarten
graduates here the uh the D kids give their give their little talk here the uh every every Queen that's ever been coronated in the last 20 years has stood on this stage and it makes a difference
to the these kids it's going to make a difference when they go to college and have to do a presentation that makes a difference in boardrooms where they will be when they stand in front of the Timber producers and we're really really glad of this space there've been like Kaya
said some really cool things here this this year but there has been no band concert there has been no fire con and that's because we do not have a music teacher here and a big reason I
think that is is because of the problem with it not being a fulltime position we continue to ask you beg you we need a music teacher here we need a music teacher desperately and it will matter because we have the kids to
perform to be to do to be hiss and it matters for math it matters for them as humans it matters in the lot of Reasons Matt asked me um to update you guys on something really exciting going
on here is that this building is over 20 years old unfortunately that means all of the tech in this building is also over 20 years old our our sound board first of all we have never had anything
vandalized here we have never had anything stolen not a single microphone they for and I think that's pretty phenomenal considering that it's an open door to the community people have access to the key that the the school uses at
all time the time but our stuff wore up and it became obsolete just like things do our sound board is analog it's not digital it doesn't connect with anything anymore our U lightboard
several of the channels don't work at all at this point point and we have no ability to connect the LED lights which are the state of the future our projector runs by a bul very expensive bulb I might add um and and does not
connect at all to Wi-Fi you can't stream a movie in there we also have never had a screen we show our movies on on the curtain behind you which is a cloth curtain and just sucks the it sucks the
image into it um and so we we got a grant to um review this entire building and we had um um people in in uh tech people in lights people in sound come
and look at our own at our entire building that resulted in a $300,000 proposal how to get us from where we are today to something that it's basically workable and state of thee
art that's where the magic happened which always happens in bigport for some reason um we got to work with Blandon with trip RB with Minnesota Power with some amazingly generous donors large and
small and our project is fully funded for $300,000 um that's pretty exciting we uh qualify for a business energy retrofit Grant which was a really big deal I hope the papers are going to be signed for
that on on Friday um and uh Landon came through um Minnesota power came reviewed our entire project and estimate that we should get a $115,000 libate because of
turning this all into LED and you guys the district are going to get 11,000 459 in electricity saving per year 11,000 bucks that's a that's a
that's a good bunch of money um we will um also include replacing all these burnt out um light fixtures I don't know some of you heard the conversation before about how the school district's responsible for the
lights in the house you can see how black it is back there that it's gotten to be a safety issue and we've tried a number of times to figure out how to fix that and it's going to be really expensive so we put it in the vid and we will handle that that will be covered so
that's pretty cool for the district that and that that piece in the bid was $114,000 and we will cover that for the district probably the most exciting part is for the teachers in the community is that we will have a station on the wall
over there that will be a touch B pad and one of the options will be presentation so your teachers can walk in from from uh their classroom push presentation get a microphone get the projector and get some lights on boom
just like that without having to know anything about how to run this building and that's been a problem and that's going to be super cool super cool because we're also hopeful that we'll be able to use this building more for the community because once the community figures out
they can run the joint you know they we can have we can have more meetings like this you know and more more things that will happen here um the uh um we will have a screen I want to be here when the
when the grade school kids see their first movie in here because it will be phenomenal we'll have a laser projector we will have a uh a um a new um board a
PTC um board um light board that will run LED lights and all of our batens will be wired for Led capabilities we will buy a few LED lights with the idea
that we will continue to build on that inventory as as as money comes up the projector will be a laser projector again sharp clear on a screen uh let's see what am I missing the the the
hearing impaired will be amazing that right now we have hearing impaired equipment but you have to have a microphone to to run it so like right now I wouldn't be augmented but the new system will be augmented no matter if
you have a microphone or not and that will be a big deal we our our our texts always have to balance the sound from inside that little bo back there and they don't like it they can't hear a thing um and we will be able to to mix
the sound from inside the house um the list goes on and on and on but basically um we will have you know a state of the art solution um to uh augment this
beautiful building in lie of the $300,000 gift that we'll be giving to the district we have been talking with Matt about you guys um off letting us use the electricians from the district which I think will be doubly cool on the
one hand we don't have to pay for an electrician which would be really helpful for the project um and the electrician also um would be able to know what's going on here and how to run it if you run the wire you know where it goes um I don't know if you guys know
that your Mike Pearson is incred ible your new electrician he has got vast um theater experience he already knows what he's doing so we're really excited to have him aboard and then hopefully Scott who ran wire for us when we did the
first one um um basically that's kind of what I have to say the only thing else I'd like to Ransom Ona for $300,000 as a full-time music teacher turn on the music it's all good
thank you and if anybody ever has any questions about any of this um let me know because I I you know I could go on and on and on and talk to about all the the tech it's gonna be cool thank you thank [Music]
you Andie Starley hello hello my name is Angie I'm with the big school advisor committee and I'm just coming tonight to give you a short update on our last meeting which was June 6 so the committee's top priority continues to be securing a full-time music and Spanish instructor
for Big Fork uh not only the Committees top priority but also the communities as you heard uh we have several committee members that are willing to do whatever needs to be done help with recruitment um I know from personal experience that Heidi is a class A arm twister arms
Twisted it just happened to me before the meeting started you can step in um at our last meeting Matt also discussed the option of using some of the infinity online courses to supplement what we're offering here at Bor High School in our course catalog
the committee was supportive of that idea um Matt's going to do some careful balancing to ensure that we're not undermining any of our current in-person offerings that we have um and just some careful messaging to make sure that everybody in the community is comfortable with and knows that that's going to be a supplement not a
replacement for any kind of person um our next meeting is July 16th I see you already got that on your list of meetings on your agenda so that was all I had thank you thank you you Casey has anybody signed up in the
Grand Rapids boardroom for public input no we don't have anyone okay um Kenda CER can we move you up into the Workshop thank
you um before I start with a principal's update I do want to point out I mean all all three of the speakers that just got done talking um I Kayla Andie um they're
all very active in the school Community as community members and supporters as you heard from them um they're very active in big community at large as well and you know they're part of bigger group but they're part of a group that
just it's how you talk about the magic happening in big Fort that magic happens because of hard work like these three that are doing behind the scenes and stick with things and follow through and build momentum so ladies thank you very
much for being here tonight but also all those other things you're doing just had to point that out because as the principal even though none of them are staff members I get to work with them and know that they're supporting our school and that's pretty
cool um without jumping into things that you know those three talked about um I'm not going to back up into the school year but I did want to talk about how our school year ended a little bit and a little bit about some of our summer
things because often times people kind of wonder what goes on at school during the summer they maybe think it's just cleaning it's I work here even I'm surprised at how much is going on at some time there's there's a lot of traffic in and out um but our graduation
um closed out our school year and I want to you thank you to Mr gross Mr schoger Mr Marty for being here to represent um you know the board in the district at our graduation uh was uh it was a fun ceremony and it's it's always um fun to
send our graduates off on a on a positive winning note and and help celebrate that sense of accomplishment with them uh we also and I I mentioned this at graduation um but uh we also had a young man who was a senior this year
uh make its estate um in shot fooot placed ninth overall in shot foot his name is Chase Jacobson I happen to see him afternoon uh behind the school as he was passing by and um told him that I'd be mentioning him and and that he
represented big Fort School big for Community I 318 um at the state competition and did so admirably so congratulations to chase as well uh construction and maintenance um even though we had major construction
and remodeling going on next year uh some of those contractors continue to be in and out closing things out uh we we also have routine maintenance I've had a number of contractors on site um today right now our our elementary entrances uh are being redone Anderson glasses
here working on those um ICS was here along with P we looking at some stuff from our uh our project that's taking place over the last year um we had a gentleman here looking at gym Flo last week to get ready to um set a course for
for finishing those over the summer and that's always hard to kind of schedule and fin angle because that gym's being used a lot as well we volleyball players this evening uh doing things um we also have a learning academy going on for our elementary age students right now U that
runs in conjunction with 4 so Learning Academy takes place in the morning for takes place in the afternoon kids can be involved in either one or both of those programs our North home staff person that we work with that works in our building all year long runs an art homes Camp right out of here so our local kids
aren't needing to find transportation to get all the way down to uh the north holes Camp down south of Grand Rapids um so we have North holes Camp running and we also have a credit recovery for our high school students um like they have credit recovery at the alc we're basically running a satellite um of the
alc here with with two of our instructors and um you know that's that's allowing our our local kids again get over some of those Transportation issues to get as far down to Grand Rapids but making sure that they're staying on track to graduate by doing that credit
recovery so um um we definitely have M goinging honor custodians are are are pulling rooms apart getting ready to wax and they're cleaning and doing everything else but um there's still quite a bit of traffic com through the doors as well um and then lastly we've been
hiring going on uh this week alone um we'll be looking at um our next steps in the process of hiring a sixth grade teacher and I'm happy to say um we've got some next steps in the process U meeting with some candidates some prospective music candidates um this
week as well so very excited to to meet with them had some conversations with them on the phone and I'm looking forward to meet them in person and show them our facilities including the edge Center um this is this is a wonderful piece of of our building uh we utilize
it for a multitude of things we've got a a history um of a school and Ed partnership that um I got a good history lesson in just last week as I met with Patty phel and went over some of um you know some of the initial documents to
Charters to member member with some understanding those kinds of things and we've exchanged a couple emails since then but um when you stop to think about all of the things that it does get used for that are both Community Based but also school-based um it's just a great
facility and it's it's one of the doors I really enjoy I really enjoy walking people through our school to to give that tour and and show them and I can anticipate some of the things they're going to say as we go through the school especially the murals and some of those kinds of things that they see on the
walls um but there's always a reaction when we walk into this room whether they're local people who just hadn't been in here yet um or uh there's somebody from outside the area and they generally have some questions about how this happened which is a lot of fun to
talk about so it's uh it it is just wonderful partnership and a wonderful facility to use fat is definitely another Community member that's always behind the scenes working in advocating for um for school for education for kids and for the community so that's my
report um any questions appreciate your time thank you Ken thanks Ken thank you thank you at this point we're going to adjourn the workshop and we'll come back into session at 6:30 for the regular meeting Heidi yeah was it Kathleen M was
she part of your group e e e e e e e e e e
ready Julie sure call the meeting to order please stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of Amer America the repblic for it stands one nation under
God indivisible with liy and justice for all first item on the agenda is approval of the agenda I'm looking for a motion moveed by Pat second by Melissa discussion hearing none all in favor say
I I I opposed the agenda is approved next item on the agenda is a facility update Nathan Norton from here he is
here I heard there was a [Laughter] stage I think I've met all you now Nathan Orton with ICS project manager have a a brief update for you guys just
on all the projects ICS is working with or working on so the Grand Rapids High School that's the one that's in bu Steam for this summer U the HVAC project uh we had a facilities meeting a string committee meeting on the 6th uh where we
met uh reviewing some things we meet every week for construction progress meetings so far uh fourth floor is um Dem the whole job has the demo for protection complete so that's good fourth floor we've had some inspections we already have some duct work and
bavs installed the inspections were of the installation the uh we're going to start focusing on third floor which is kind of where the meat and potatoes are um and that's where we're going to try to start once that floor gets done we're going to
work with the city on inspections to try to get staff to move it a little quicker but things are going really well this is a rare a rare project where the rain actually helps us man so tough to to find but when the when it rains all our stuff is inside so other people and other projects were getting were robbing
them uh so they have a brief home so it's uh so far things have been going really well um we're right on schedule I would even say we're a squeak ahead of schedule but um and uh financially the job's in great shape we're sitting
really well with the continency going going into the summer uh big for we were I was here earlier today uh looking at some of the spring punch list items that came up once uh the freeze Tha cycle goes through we' like to walk
and we get a few items so there was a a couple things that came up with some sidewalks that they're going to that construction concrete contractor is going to take care of and there was it's TNT construction they had no bombs or in it like absolutely will take care of it
so they were was a good discussion good walk through that we had today um and then brief update on Southwest the only thing left out there is some testing and balancing of the mechanical system and the reason why that one is lagging out a bit is there
was a there a lot of existing equipment that was tied into and those that exist those existing Babs valuable Air volume units they needed to be calibrated and they're caked with dust on the inside so they're
working with um feeling to go in and and J controls to clean the sensors so they can calibrate them once they're calibrated then the original project scope can finalize balance the system
um I think that's all I have I a little bit on the boring side but I think boring is good good comes to projects boring is always good any any questions or comments from the board Mr chair just uh uh question obviously
we're early on in the project you said we're a week ahead at the high school right correct yeah we well staff was able to move out of the fourth floor early so we got it early start on so right now we're trending we're actually we're going to make sure we meet the deadline note uh everything will be back
in order at the start of school yes yeah that's the did I hear that was a yes yes okay I debated about giving you one of those gray answers like a politician but thank you any other questions thanks Nathan all right thank
you good next item on the agenda is to approve the minutes of the June 3rd 2024 regular school board meeting so move David move by David second second by Pat
discussion hearing none all in favor say I I opposed the minutes for the June 3rd meeting are approved next item on the agenda is to approve the May 2024 claims in the
amount of 9,757 4399 so move by Pat second second by Ben any discussion hearing none all in favor say I I opposed claims are
approved next it item on the agenda is the consent agenda Casey good evening board tonight we have Anderson CET Elementary Administrative Assistant replacement transfer hire
Nicholas Boon music teacher replacement hire Jeffrey Copa bus driver replacement hire rulon Hemsworth hin nutrition resignation Teresa ler resignation Dian
Ley accounts payable clerk replacement hire suany Morgan teacher replacement hire Kobe Morse custodian termination hly Olen Samar replacement higher
sh bus driver replacement higher and Elliot wolson teacher replacement H I'm recommending approval from reminder there's no discussion on the consent agenda I'm looking for a motion moved by Ben second
by Mindy all in favor say I I oppos consent agenda is approved next item on the agenda is to approve the 20242 health insurance premiums
Casey before you you have a recommendation to increase um both of our health insurance plans by 5% the 2425 plan year this is coming from The Fringe benefit committee um just a reminder last year the board approved a
two-year renewal with Health Partners so there's no change in carrier and then this coming year we'll have a shorten plan year beginning 101 through 630 to align with our fiscal year um the 5% increase is about half of the kind of
Standard Market increase right now and it does have a projected increase in our fun balance recommending approval so Mo move by pth second second by
Mindy any discussion uh Mr chair I just want to shout out to the committee and itself um you know this has been a a long process stared about two years ago and we started talking about making a change on the health insurance and the work that the committee has done and
educating our employees and obviously there's still much more to do but I think uh making this change I shouldn't say I think I know making this change has made a difference for us as a district um I think it it's put more ownership back onto the employees on how to manage their health insurance plus
it's saving us some dollars as a district on the whole and I think that's been our objective all along um so I think it came at a right time it came at a good time and it's showing right now that it is making a difference for us going forward so as uh noted by uh Casey on the bottom of her Memo here there's
still education needs to be done with our employees uh and as well as the retirees on how to actually use the plan and uh hopefully there will be future savings as well going forward so again just a big shout out and thank you to the committee as a
whole Mr chair I just kind of piggy back on that and Mr Mur mentioned the savings to the the school district this also represents the savings to our staff as compared to where we would have been and I know that that you know the change was
challenging um and didn't come without some level of resistance but the as Casey said the standard premium increase in the in the kind of across the country is around 8 to 10% that would have been 8 to 10% of a much higher number and
we're talking about 5% of a lower number and so this saves this uh this change is saving our employees money right now uh it's saving the district money right now um and I think that was the goal moving in like Mr M mentioned so just want to
pck back on that and we have employees at the end of this year we have some employees with money in an account that's Theirs to keep forever as long as they want um and that's new and it's not the case for all employees for sure but we have some and and it sounded like that there might be
a way for us to get a total on what that looks like and and I'm hoping to be able to share that with you at some point how much HSA money is sitting in employees counts right now on the aggregate that that's Theirs to keep so I think that's a a benefit too that some of our employees are grateful
for any further discussion Melissa question on that and maybe this is for for you Casey is a lot of HSA programs like once you build up so much money like 10,000 or 12,000 over time you can actually invest that and a do you know
if our plan does that so I mean if employees aren't using it they can do some Investments is that yes investment we have a motion in a second any further discussion note of thanks and
appreciation to all uh board staff and everyone who uh worked together uh for the benefit of our employees and our school district all in favor say I I
opposed the health insurance premium is approved next item on the agenda is information only general election courtesy notice Cara good evening board um just a update
on the timelines for the upcoming election November 5th um we have three candidates on the school board that will be up um board member maduri board Ming and board member Hawkins um the all
their terms expire on January 1st 2025 Julie and I sat through I only sat through four she sat through five and a half hours of training today Clerk's training for the election um so we'll be ready to go from
no thank you cara uh next item on the agenda is to approve the y 25 original budget Cara thank you um we went over the details of the general fund budget at
the the work session last week we're budgeting for a surplus next year of $900,000 that includes 650,000 in the budget set aside to grow our fund balance to a
healthy level all of our funds with the exception of the OPB health insurance trust fund are projected to have a surplus or break even next year um everyone's worked real hard to get to
this point um some of the highlights for next year's budget include um kindergarten is low um right now kindergarten classes are low around the state it's not specific to Grand Rapids
um so that is lower than normal we are getting um money for the energy program um that has to do with closing down Boswell so that would be 400,000 next year and then we will
continue to get that a decrease of 5% each year um until it's at $5,000 for the net tax capacity is what it is now um expenses are increasing but the
biggest part of the increase has to do with throwing that fund balance Savings in there just to have a place holders so we can keep on track with our budget looking for a motion to approve the FY 25 budget move by pth second
second by Ben discussion Mr chair Casey I just uh C I just want to thank you for the document that was put in extras explaining the budget and going through each line and each column very nice right to the point I think it explains it to the community if
they see this document on where budget's at and why the reason behind it so I I appreciate your time and effort by you and your staff of putting that together uh well done thank you thank you any further
discussion all in favor say I I opposed FY 25 original budget is approved next item is for information only arsel 88036 1100 ownership update
Cara thank you we have been trying to reduce the amount of property that the district owns um we have agreements with two individuals to sell two different Parcels um this parcel is out on Highway
2 the one we're talking about um it has the railroad going through it someone was interested in this property um four years ago and when we did research on it it was discovered that someone had tried
to purchase 18 but it is full trust plan um however the county and the state we reporting it as our so um Casey ran works with the DNR and the count to get it classified appropriately to um St so
this is no longer in the district's name thank you cara uh next item on the agenda is to approve the lead and water plan superintendent gross thank you Mr chair in your packet you'll find a lead water plan one of the legislative changes in
2023 was an adjustment of the lead and water limit for 20 Parts billion five uh we that also me we had to update our plan um District staff work with IA who does a lot of our compliance testing
environmental compliance testing to put this together it goes through our testing plan commun how we communicate uh what we do if we find a problematic uh fixture or faucet um
essentially we go through in either discontinu use label replace um sometimes to retest so the plan that that you got today kind of details all of that uh it does require that pictures are tested every five
years and um yeah I think that's kind of a high level a high level view of it um this will be posted on our website our testing schedule will be posted on the website uh any other requirements
notification requirements that you know we have so I'm Rec looking for a motion to approve moved by Ben second second by Melissa any further discussion yes uh Mr
superintendent uh our our uh lead was last tested in 23 yes we had some testing done last year yep and it's due again in 2028 Technic yes that's the next time and do we have any concerns in the
interim um you know we do have some we we've labeled the ones that that were identified as problematic okay we also had some faucets that people were concerned about and we independently
tested those so people could have some peace of mind okay so you know people are concerned uh you know we order tests we have tests done we have sent into Labs just so that people can have some peace of mind perfect thanks that's what I needed to hear you know we have a lot
of Aging infrastructure and and what you know what essentially becomes a large part of the problem is water sitting in pipes uh and so keeping water moving through frequent use so when Summer's over we run those things and but yes we
respond when there's concerns perfect thank you Mr chair uh Matt you talk about this being posted on the website correct y can we send an email out to all staff to let them know that it's posted on the website um I know in the past there were some concerns from the
staff about it at least we can direct them on where it is so they know where to go to look very good y we'll do that thank you and I would assume that's going to be both documents that we have here tonight yeah okay thank you any further discussion all in favor say I I
I opposed but the lead and water plan is approved next item on the agenda is to approve the Minnesota School Board Association membership renewal superintendent gross this is the uh standard
customary uh renewal that we have from msba you can see the dues uh increased by less than 1% uh obviously they do a good job of keeping us a breast of policy items and legislative advocacy and I'd recommend
approving looking for a motion to approve so move David move by David second second by Mindy discussion I would just say we use them a lot for guidance on a lot of the new policies that are coming and last years
there's been a lot of policy changes coming that you really have to lean into msba on so yeah it's worth the money David I would Echo uh what Melissa said uh I use the service a lot we count on them for uh policy
recommendations uh but also uh for training and background information for our board members to keep our board members absolutely up to date further discussion and I would just add to David's comment that the training component when we take in that training
per participate in that training there's actually no cost to the district for it so it's all built into those Association dues and I can just tell you in my previous work we paid a heck of a lot more dues Plus on top of that we have to pay for the training that the association
put on so I think we're getting a good bargain here that includes uh that includes the annual conference yes that's what I mean so yeah it's pretty good all in favor say I I opposed msba membership is
approved next item on the agenda is to approve the m membership renewal superintendent gross yeah similarly uh we also are a member of the Minnesota rural Education Association this this group's unique in that it uh its members
include school board members School dist uh School superintendant principes teachers um again uh they this group is specifically advocating for Rural school districts and the needs that we have and uh I'd say I think I probably say this
every year when we were new but um their influence at the legislature has grown a great deal um and part of that has to do with just the sheer numbers of school districts that are a part of M uh if you look at a map the number of school
districts that are outside of the metro area out of the 330 it's a lot and so there's a lot of benefit to being part of that large group so um again a good value for what we receive and I'd recommend approval looking for a motion to approve so so move David move by
David second second by Pat further discussion I would just Echo Matt's comments about where we're getting good value for what we get in return all in favor say I I opposed MRA membership renewals
approved next item is to accept second reading and approve policy 42 expense reimbursement superintendent gross thank you as I mentioned uh during the first reading uh this policy was updated to tighten up our expense reimbursement
process includes uh uh specificity around receipts that expands the range uh for which we would um or that's required uh in order for us to reimburse uh midday meal um and uh some other some
other language items but the the tightening up the process around reimbursement specific to receipts and then that 45 mile change or two of the bigger ones looking for a motion to approve move by Ben second by second Pat
further discussion hearing none all in favor say I I opposed policy 412 expense reimbursement is approved next item on the agenda is to approve an annual review of the
following policies superintendent gr uh thank you as you know the uh our policy uh host of policies enables the board to approve annual policies through review process uh and policies 506 with uh
referring to student discipline 722 the data request policy and 06 Crisis management policy here in front of you tonight uh 506 had big changes last legislative session and those changes were adopted by the board already uh 722
there were really no changes there and 806 again no substantive changes there so the board's able to if it chooses to approve these uh tonight since they're annual requ looking for a
motion move by Ben second by Melissa discussion all in favor say I I opposed 5 6 722 and 806 are approved next item on the agenda is to
accept the first reading of policy 589 cell phones and other personal electronic devices Angie Carlile hello there good evening my name is Angie carile I teach 7 history and I'm also a Tech coach for um District
technology I'm Troy Gunderson um I'm an English teacher up at the high school there we go um we just want to share some thoughts we have about um are we're hoping for a a policy for cell
phones for district 318 so I'm just going to go through kind of the process that some of us went through to come come up with a policy so the first of all it's a a bell to Bell what we are proposing and hope hope to have the districts adopt um we want to focus on education and really come up with better
strategies for success ISD 3 our process um about the end of April or the beginning of May there was an all call to to all staff anyone interested and even though it it's a pretty busy time in May with staff we had 13 members
who were able to participate in in the month of it was mostly teachers Middle School teachers um we had one administrator and then some elementary teachers were a also on the list but not always able to make meeting
Angie the audio is really tough to understand I'm wondering if there's a different way for us to do that want me to use my microphone maybe I think it's on our speaker your your computer turn your own
computer around better sorry I just I want I want to make I know that a lot of work went into this and I want to make sure that um people on our end could hear hear all about it
okay does this work better now no better that's better can you hear me now okay yeah it seems like they pull the
microphone away it'll be better yeah it's the computer it's the PC computer how is it sounding right now much better that actually sounds better yeah okay so we're good now I okay great yep so we had um four
committee meetings um and we started out talking about really our common beliefs and goals and why we think this this um this policy is so important um the next step we did was we all chose different
schools to contact so we we reached out to other schools to see what their policies were and what was working and what was not and then we had a lot of discussion and debate of the policies and procedures and with our team we came to kind of
consensus or to a consensus for a policy that would increase Student Success so just to add something about the discussion and debate um there was a lot like Angie said there was a lot of good discussion and there
was a lot of um give and take and opposing viewpoints I guess you could say um it wasn't just everybody just agreeing and agreeing and agreeing um there was a lot of bringing up possible situations and and and
circumstances that we may have to that we may find um at different levels in different schools um so there was a lot of good discussion and uh like it says you know we came to a consensus and uh it's increased Student Success was at
the Forefront and then and so then we came up with the proposal and modifications that we sent to um superintendent gr um we understand that this will be a difficult transition for many it definitely will be difficult for
students this is something that you know there's a lot of students that are very much addicted to their cell phones and their personal electronic devices it's going to be difficult there's no question it is going to be difficult for parents want to be able to communicate with their students all day but we all
know that they we have phones and we have other to communicate um it's going to be difficult staff and also for administration so we understand this isn't going to be just easy we're just going to have a policy and it'll be done it's going to take a lot of us that will
you know really understand the consistency and support is what will be needed for this to to work that's the most important thing that we came up with I think at our meeting and I think and Al also with this we all know that maybe at Mid at
mid year um that we would sit uh step back and look at what's working and what's not working um this is going to be a fluid thing until we kind of dial it in and the right spot but um the biggest things that we want success across
the we kind of coming up with um some of the things that we we thought were super important number one is that we need to focus on learning students are more likely to engage in learning when they don't have a distraction with their cell phones they the cell phones divert attention from textbooks lessons and
other activities in doing research you can see that it will take five to 23 minutes to fully regain Focus after an interruption and this is not even when you look at your phone this just you hear it buzz you feel it buzz you feel your watch Buzz and even if you know
you're not going to look for five to 23 minutes you are distracted who it might be what someone might have said is it my mom is it my friend should I look I can't look for five to 23 minutes every person is distracted and can't we also want to be able to improve
academic performance and learning environments without the distraction of cell phones students can better focus on their studies leading to improved academic performance ringing phones message alerts notifications everything is very disruptive in a
classroom we think it's important to also prepare for the work workplace read if we let kids it's acceptable to have a cell phone while they're at school why don't they go to their workplace and think it's just acceptable the entire time they're working I think this is an a really
important work Readiness Habit to help students succeed we want to also promote face Toof face interactions um go into a lunchroom any day with kids with cell phon and or or anyone go go to a restaurant and people don't look at each other they
don't talk to each other and so we want to encourage just you know talk to each other looking at each other and and promote that whole face to face direct communication between peers and teachers and increase you know relationships and social skills of course cheating is always an
option with cell phones um with any type of personal electronic device phones or watches it's easy to cheat so we can reduce the risk of academic dishonesty cyber bullying is is over is
it's just crazy how bad it can be so hoping that we can stop this during school hours at least and help protect victims during school time we want to basically promote all mental and physical health I don't do you guys see it BL box there
sorry um without the without the option to use cell phones uh students are more likely to participate in physical activities during free and break times and basic overall screen time um less screen time will help students health
physical and mental health so we are asking for a policy that is basically Bell to Bell away from the day unplugged for learning phone's off m's on and the policy that we came up with is basically
that all cell phones and all personal electronic devices which does include things like apple watches would be prohibited from Morning Bell till the end of the school so kids will put their devices away no phones no watches and they will just focus on
academics um and they should be powered off not just carried in their pocket powered off and placed in a designated location and that was kind of a point of of discussion where that design location might be in the elementaries they have most I think
they'll have lockers in their classrooms so they would be placing their Lockers in the middle school they will also be in their lockers and powered off and in the high school we are looking to have um a phone pouch in each classroom that when a kid walks in they will put the
phone and their watch or other personal electronic device into that pouch for the duration of the class so to follow with the um kind of the procedural part of the violations we the elementaries already have a pretty solid policy in place and
so they will continue that and that is the first time the student will have to parents pick it up after the belt they will continue that in the secondary U First violation students can retrieve their advice from the office within the school day we kind of have done for
secondary with the three strikes in your outre the second time again the elementaries they have to have parents pick it up the secondary kids will be able to pick it up at the end of the office but we are looking at an additional consequence such as the lunch room
detention where one day a week they will have a a lunch and learn detention they can go and learn about this policy for them it's all about basically just loaning s and then three strikes and you're out and this would be where the parent
will have to pick it up and a parent meeting will be held to discuss some type policy to to have fine success for the student to really get this moving forward in the right way we want to stress that we won't have proactive communication for a successful
implementation of this so we want to right away start preparing students and families for what will happen in the fall and staff family staff and students we will focus on benefits the committee is putting together um informational nice short little um infographics and
things to go on social media that will focus on all the benefits for this policy people realize that this this is a good thing this is a really good thing to have in the schools it is all research based so we're going to show the reasons that that this is going to be successful not
just because we think so but information we will share on the school website social media um I would imagine we could probably get it in the newspaper just to let everyone know ahead of time what's coming I we have an info brochure for
the that goes along with the welcome back letter at the beginning of the school year so every family will understand the policy and then the lunch learn will be something that we'll do to emphasize the reasons we have this policy for students who struggle with the decision
throughout the year just kind of like so we did a lot of research and a book called The anxious in generation and the book and there's also podcast about about this from this person and he had some really good
information that um he said the four foundational reforms for healthier children in a digital age is that number one there should be so no social media until age 16 no smartphones until high school if your child needs to have a phone a
is the way to go for under high school um and he said we have to take phones out of schools and then we need to get free play time back so that's just kind of the the last thought we had for you just four foundational reforms to to get healthier children in this digital
age I'd like to just add to that the high school um committee members will be meeting a week from today on uh June 24th with our Administration to talk about some of the procedures and uh to see
what's feasible and see what we can do how we can make this work at the high school thank you Angie and Troy um this is the first reading by superintendent gross I'm assuming we'll bring it back for a second reading yeah our next meeting is
in July um and just a few a few kind of pieces to add I guess uh this uh legislatively uh a bill was passed that will require school boards to have a cell phone policy uh we're I'd say
getting on ahead of a little bit um I think one of the comments was you know being able to we'll be able to check in mid year to see how we're doing I think Troy mentioned that rather than having a a year until we're able to to get into it um and so that I think there'll be
some model language or best practices that are coming up from some groups that we can kind of align or uh examine along with what we're doing uh this isn't something that we're pioneering uh there are many districts in the state that have already moved forward with this uh
in some cases through a board policy in some cases through their handbooks so delu for instance uh this they just completed their first year of way for the day uh aen similarly uh Lake
Superior will be jumping on this fall like us Robinsdale a couple districts in the cities um and ironically just a Wednesday this past week if you saw the Herald Review uh front page on the bottom there was an article about a school in Minnesota was a NPR article
about uh School in St Anthony that uh made made some of the same decisions uh it's been getting a great deal of attendance or attention and news stories and from across the country really uh and it's been coming up obviously in our district
uh we had a a guest a few board meetings ago that spoke very clearly about his concerns it's come up at I think two meet confers uh and that's really what kicked off this process um so I appreciate the the groups look
at this and kind of looking at those two or three really big questions that have to get wrestled with what happens during the day what happens at lunch what are the consequences and as we know and as the groups talked about uh consistency and enforcement is the key to all
policies and that'll take a team effort um our staff will need to know that the Administration has their back uh when you know when there's conflict in confrontation and administration will need to know that all the classrooms are
handling it the same because the minute there's inconsistency uh the policy will fall apart so um good work by our group this is a first reading like I said it'll come back in July for approval and I think the plan is for a lot of communication between now and
then thank you Melissa yeah I have a I have a couple of questions on this um and I'm guessing that your group talked about it because you said you had diverse voices in here and so as I pull the legislation it's
specifically says cell phones it doesn't overreach into any watches or anything like that and so I do have a little bit of concern that we're getting out ahead like it really just addresses cell phone usage it does not address watches I know that they can use them both ways but that
that for me is a little bit of a concern I it's just one of those it feelings that I get on that I get the cell phone um I don't know if you guys talked about that at all in your in your committee I know you had four
meetings most of the schools where we looked at their policy they did include the peeds personal electronic devices because like you said students can do almost everything with their watch that they can do with the phone and if we just take their phones away they're still going to be able to communicate
and send T and send other things with the phone so we think it's important that if we're going to do a policy that's going to help us Focus you know if you're watching buzzing and you keep looking at it you're still distracted from learning and it's not just the watch it's also
airbud airpods right um because kids lots and lots of students at the high school I'm sure at the middle school have airpods in and that's already just taking away from that Educational Opportunity uh right off the
bat and I'm sure they're going to have to be dealing with those things they'll pair them to their iPad or whatever um but getting those other devices kind of off their body is uh I think GNA be need to be a part of
that and my next question might be is is there a complemental mirrored policy for staff and cell phone usage during teaching hours yeah we did talk about that also said that was just as important we have
to be doing the same thing right right that you know so that was just my question if there was a mirr policy that was that was definitely a part of the discussion and an important thing that we we stressed but also which is why when in that one slide it has to be student staff parents Administration all
in the same policy okay and then just one last question I'll hand it to P but does this also include field trips like so if they're on a bus and they're going out for like I mean because it's it's a teaching time so I'm just curious if you talked a little bit
about that we we did not um it's it's funny because I take a group to DC every year and um that was a policy that some of the other tour guides have talked about with schools is that they have had a no
phone policy because of kids not paying attention on a field trip anymore yeah we didn't just curious those are just things that popped in my head Mr thank you meliss here took one of my questions that I had in regard to staff I think here's a a moment where staff
can be leaders yeah and teaching moment in itself I'm gonna go to the policy itself and it's more so of just I appreciate the words consistency continuity across the board for everybody but under violations of this policy uh Roman numeral a the last uh
sentence there it says subject to the procedure established in each respective building's student handbook it makes me believe that our student handbooks might be different from building to building and that's a little concerned for me I think the more consistency we have in
those student handbooks when it comes to this the better off we are and the reason why I say that we might have a student in elementary and we might have a student in high school and you know how they go home and talk about well that isn't happen the way I was treat it over here and then it comes back to us welome it's different here over there so
again just in a bigger picture we need to make sure that we have more consistency and continuity especially if it's on paper so things mirror one another going forward uh in regards to the field trip just to expand on that when we talk about sporting events in
phones I know a while back one of our hockey coaches a few years back didn't allow sell phones at all when they were out uh doing that is that something we want to look at as well I don't know but uh Now's the Time I Think to throw it on a table and and have that discussion going forward whether or not it lands in
the policy or not I think we can say it was talked about here's the reasons why we do or here's the reasons why we didn't uh so if we get questions from the public uh for it we can say we addressed it one form or another so and my my comment is let's start thinking
out side of the box back to Melissa's comments on things that we're not thinking about because everything is focused right now in the classroom which is great appreciate the work if I was King there wouldn't be cell phones coming into the building period but I get it I understand it uh so I
appreciate your work where you're going so uh let's take the time as as much time as we need up front so we have a better end product going forward sure I appreciate your comments it's kind of fluid as we go but uh let's try to get as much as we can we did talk about the
um we did talk about how to make this the consistency across the board um and that was that was a point of robust discussion um because a senior is very different from a sixth grader
um and being from the high school I see this a lot is I I have a daughter that relies on her phone as far as an app through her that she has for work we have students that are driving we have students that rely on their phones uh to get Communications
uh for their work I had a senior that was living that lived most of the school year with a friend and did not have parents even one of his parents wasn't even in the state and so to hold that senior who's not even who doesn't have
parents in town to the same I guess consequences of policy you know as a as an elementary is is kind of difficult to do and that's why I feel um and that's why some of us on the on this committee
feel that some of those policies may be more uh building specific I guess Mr chair I would I would almost to your point it's almost about uh less about building more about
age uhel it happens to be that it's building I I've had some conversations with Ken here at at the high school or and Elementary here and I think you know they're going to be the elementary kids at Big Fork are going to be treated the
same as the elementary kids at West and East the high school kids at Big Fork High School are going to be traded the same way as the high school kids at gr high school so it really is about this kind of age level thing um I was
wondering Mr chair if I could I think Troy if you could if you wouldn't mind bringing up to your group uh a week from today that activity conversation uh you're sort of in the middle of that as a coach yourself so I think that's a that'd be awesome Angie who chaperon
trips if you wanted to put some thought into that thank you um the other thing that I would make sure and I I that to mention we do have some um uh exceptions in here because we do have students whose blood sugar
monitors uh interact with their phones and so that phone is a medical device for them so we do have uh the ability to make exceptions there we also have the ability to make exceptions if there's uh some sort of an interface with a
student's IEP in their phone and so we have that included in there too just to try and I had a parent not long after I sent out the information uh reach out to me right away about this about the medical piece of it so it's a it's a real concern uh fortunately I mean this
is kind of why you get things out there and get the feedback and here we've heard some of that already and I think Troy's right we're going to get into this and check in and and adapt as we need to adapt but uh that's where we're at I think as of tonight from first
reading good questions for sure nice work thank you any any further discussion note of thanks and appreciation to the uh committee and all the people that have uh met repeatedly uh to sort through all these issues it's
a tough conversation but one that very very much needs to happen thank you for doing that yeah thank you very much next item on the agenda is to approve contract with Karen Lesley for school psychologist Services anoyd good evening um I have contract
here for Karen Lesley she's an independent contractor who provides school psychologist services to us this would be the fifth year of the contract for the upcoming school year um Ken is a r uh former teacher and school
psychologist with ISC 318 and this agreement gets us the school psychologist services that we need um as you know we've had a really hard time in the past tring School psychologists so um this has been a great agreement
between us so I'm looking for approval of the contract for the upcoming school year looking for a motion to approve the contract moved by Pat second second by Mindy discussion all in favor say I I
opposed contract is approved next item on the agenda approve the sale of deart a hearing services to I ask special ed Cooperative analid all right this next contract is for de heart of hearing services this is
a loow incidence area and what that means is that we don't have a high number of students who have this as a need um so it makes sense for us to work with our area districts to partner and share
the cost of the service so how we do that is ISC 318 hires the staff and then we sell a portion of that staff to if um with that portion they serve the um the other six districts in so I'm looking for approval of this contract it will be
the third year we've had this contract in place looking for a motion motion move by Melissa second by Ben discussion hearing none all in favor say I I opposed contract is
approved next item on the agenda approv sale of autism coordinator services do I ask all right yeah so so this is the same thing um we have a need for an Autism coordinator we shifted one of our
special education coordinators last year to an Autism specialist position um and again this was a situation where IAS had the same need that we did and it just made sense for us to share that service to keep our cost down so we sell or
we're looking to sell point4 FTE of ourtism coordinator to I ask and this will be the second year on this contract um last school year was the first year and I'm looking for approval move by Melissa second by Pat
all in faor uh discussion hearing none all in favor say I opposed it's approved uh next item approve the sale of physical impairment services do I
ask so same thing here um physical impairments is another low incidence area so it just makes sense in our um to partner with our neighbors and share the service so I'm looking for approval to sell5 FTE of our physical impairments
teacher to ask motion so move David move by David second second by Mindy discussion note of thanks and appreciation to uh uh Anna and the people that put all these partnership uh
thoughts together uh for the for the uh for the support of our students but also the students of our entire region thank you for doing that work yeah thank you all right any further discussion hearing none all in favor say
I I opposed sale of physical impairment Services is approved next item on the agenda board reports Melissa um I had an I ask negotiations
meeting today we will be meeting again next Monday to finalize a contract uh with the unit there and I'll bring that to the group it's going really smoothly it's just cleaning up kind of language from when it used to be over
overseen by the board versus now there's an executive director so just putting process pieces into place into the contract so uh we had a facility meeting and that was covered by the person from ICS
nothing for me Pat Uh Mark just a health insurance meeting which we approved tonight but uh more so shout out to our activities as U Ken mentioned tonight Big Fork went naked in and track and we had a girl Don Grand Rapids naked in track and on our boys baseball team
making it the state so again I think it was a great spring uh for both schools Big Fork and Grand Rapids for participation at state level with it again uh just a thank you to and Grant and the work that went into that grant
for here at the edge for upgrading our lighting system and work that she and Angie and kayy doing that group up here uh I know that Matt and Mark that you work with up here um it's a true partnership for Big Fork and ISD 318 so
hats off to them and thank them for uh the work next item on the agenda superintendent's report just a couple things I I had a meeting of I asked superintendant and principles to talk about shared courses that's been some
you know a the process that originated out of our work with 319 it expanded to all of I ask um working through some process items now and uh you know we we have a history of doing this but the Landscapes changed and so uh one of the
things we're discussing is how to unify and this is something we haven't ever done is to unify how we are all handling it to the degree we can within the bounds of our contracts to unify how we're handling that uh so that there's some Pari with teachers and plan for
training so more to come on that um been having a lot of one to ones the last couple weeks with uh people both people as part of their evaluative process but also just people that I'm checking in with after the year um circling back to
that land item today uh just you know to put that in context uh We've with within the last I say six months um we had identified a handful of properties that we wanted to eliminate uh we sold the
one in s Lake sold the one in fie um I believe by the next time we meet we'll have a purchase agreement to consider on the old admin building um we've cleaned this title up so this one is no longer on ownership the only one left that the board indicated they were interested in
getting rid of is the one in warbot um we have had some communication with that land owner's not interested uh that's adjacent to that so we've uh We've either eliminated in the process eliminating four out of the five properties that were identified to to
get rid of to reduce our footprint get back on tax rols etc etc so just wanted to make sure that we didn't lose the opportunity to talk about that last thing we talked about it for a second at the work session a week ago but our group got back from uh Europe um their
trip uh it sounded like that Normandy experience was really everything that it was um people expected and more uh so really valuable experience for our kids think about the opportunities we're providing for our students despite challenging times I'm proud of those uh
we had a group of students leave for Italy last week uh again chaper owned by really really quality people they're going to have a great experience um uh that's for for students in Grand Rapids and then uh Josh is up here working on a
trip for a big fork student so um opportunities for kids and uh I think we should be proud of those and you know good things happening everywhere like Pat mentioned Mr Mr chair can I just expand on man's comment about reducing our
footprint and I want to go back to when we did the elementaries and and I know it's been a few years but if you think back what we told the community when we were going to build these elementaries we talked about reducing our footprint of getting rid of properties right Forest Lake Murphy Etc admin in the
process these other buildings so my point is this is what we told the community back then when we built these elementaries we're following through on and have been following through on all the way up to dat tier and reducing that footprint and less liability to the district as well as the residents of the
district as far as tax burden and that so again I think it's important that we go back and just kind of remind ourselves and remind the community and the constitu within the voles of 318 we're doing what we told them we were going to do when we built these
elementaries thanks Pat just to play off that for a minute um grea also sold eight more pieces of the forest lake property to the Housing Authority which means eight more houses are going into that space so I think there'll be I think it's 16 houses that will be on the
rolls tax RS um coming in that Old Forest Lake property there'll be some open houses I think the H is going to do open house tomorrow this week tomorrow um I would encourage folks to go see it there's a few different you know different levels of but everything is is more on the side of affordable for
families so tax roles um it's being repurposed for for families and for the communi so and speaking of open house tomorrow is the open house for the tech Hub uh they're at the Community Education Center too so i' encourage you to check that out our our new uh our new
uh person who's running that mosiah is fired up so uh it's going to be great thank you reminder upcoming Schoolboard committee and meeting dates are posted on each agenda Schoolboard meeting agendas can be found on the district
website and on the designated posting site at the istd 318 Educational Services Center is there any other business to come before the board Julia has anyone else signed up for public input they have not
meeting Jed thank you Mark [Music]