206 all individual comments shall be less than five minutes any group of five or more 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 to set further time limits to
allow participation within the allocated time the board shall not allow negative 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 that is not included on the agenda posted with the notice of the meeting if there are more request and time available priority will be given to persons that reside within the
Grand Rapids Big Fork School District uh with that said Jessica sorry for that uh good evening my name is Jessica flossy I'm a social studies teacher at Grand rits High School I stand before you today with concerns regarding the proposed cuts to our social studies
Department I believe we as a district in some ways have lost their way focusing on students as mere dollar amounts while forgetting something fundamental education is not just about efficiency it should be doing about what's best for our kids I have two key concerns in this proposed budget regarding social studies education when I look at your agenda
today all that is reflected is a point6 cut to social studies at the high school what you may not be aware of is the removal of Economics from the social studies Department to other departments in the building as the primary economics teacher I am devastated as a requirement in the Minnesota Social Studies
standards this decision devalues the subject's importance as a critical component of a student's civic education economics is not simply about balancing budgets or understanding markets it's about understanding the systems that shape our societies the distribution of
resources and the impact of policy decisions on individuals in communities even the decisions being made here tonight are related to economics I tell students that in the end it all comes down to people and the decisions they make it is fundamentally a social
science not all students fit neatly into one of our career Pathways in either business or Agriculture and for that matter where is the humani pathway for students who want a career in the social sciences additionally there is a new law that says government must be taught in 12th grade in our department we had
addressed this law by including government standards in my econom ICS course now we will have teachers who need to cover these standards who are not licensed to teach government and to be clear this district has invested in me you have spent money to support my professional development allowing me to become a more effective economics
teacher in the past 10 years I'm good at what I do I passionate about the importance of Economics education I have spent the last 10 years working hard to be the best at it spending time away from my own family on nights weekends and weeks during the summer to
make sure I've created a class that is beneficial and relevant to students these proposed Cuts leave me feeling defeated it feels as though my expertise my dedication and my years of service in this District are being devalued and
underappreciated sorry this brings me to my second concern we live in an age of unprecedented misinformation where critical thinking and informed decision- making are a necessity if there was ever a time when social studies was important it is now our students need history to understand the present they need Civics
to engage in democracy they need geography to comprehend Global issues and they need economics not as a stray elective in another department but part of a part of a comprehensive social studies education to understand how the world truly operates we are teaching them to be the next generation of
informed engaged and responsible citizens to diminish the importance of social studies is to diminish the potential of our students and the future of our Community I'm not naive enough to think that speaking here today will change anything once we get to this stage the writing is on the wall but I still think
there's value in hearing directly from those of us affected by the decisions you're making teachers and students are more than just numbers on a page not to be dramatic but these decisions can have life-altering consequences budget constraints are real but our responsibility to students is greater if
we truly believe in preparing students for the future we must invest in social studies not cut it thank you Jessica thank you oh we have uh Elise Sperling hi my name is Elise Sperling
Anderson I teach with Jessica fosi in the Grand Rapids High School social studies Department um I'll try to take a deep breath um I teach a lot of nth graders I teach Advanced nth grade and I teach nth grade regular I teach
government and I teach geography and I teach int elective sociology what you're cutting tonight is point six of social studies and I have studied the paper that is in the agenda and it says increased class sizes due to
6 social so I don't know what will specifically be affected by this but what that tells me is that instead of having 27 students in a room I could have 32 um n9th graders the challenges that I see specifically n9th graders
facing are immense in many ways they come into the high school and they have so so many challenges that we try to Shepherd them through so the concept that we would increase our class sizes for regular classes and for ninth grade classes is very hard to Fathom some of
the things that I deal with on a daily basis are a lot of special education needs in my nth grade classes about a third of students have an individual education plan meaning out of 30 students I am individually teaching to 10 of them I am meeting their
accommodations and on a daily basis if I see 140 students anywhere from 30 to 50 of them are on special education we are seeing unprecedented chronic absenteeism mental health needs of
students lack of motivation and devices that are challenging these students and changing them and to Fathom having more students in a classroom is very very challenging for me to process I have three questions I would appreciate you
discussing tonight uh my first question is the people that have made these decisions what amount of time have they spent in the classroom observing teachers whether that's the school board whether that's the superintendent
whether that's the administrators what amount of time have they spent in a classroom I have not had an administrator in my room for any extended period amount of time in years to understand me as a teacher to see my class sizes to see what I deal with so
I'm wondering how much have the decision makers spent time in classrooms my second question is why are these Cuts teacher heavy teacher unit heavy I have added up $315,000 of teacher
uh teacher cuts and I do not see cuts to administrative position so I'm wondering why the focus seems to be on teacher cuts instead of administrative cuts and that is any type of position that is not student fa
facing my third question is if the legislature appropriates more money to our district then expected during this legislative session will you rehire positions or will you add to the fund balance I appreciate your time I know it
is a thankless position I appreciate all that you've put into this and how much we all care about students but I do hope that you can discuss my three questions how much have decision makers spent time in classrooms why do these Cuts seem to affect teachers more than administrative
positions and would you rehire any positions if you get more funding than expected thank you Elise thank you uh want to hear from Troy Gunderson uh good evening superintendent
gross and members of the school board my name is Troy Gunderson I'm an English teacher at Grand Rapids High School and this is my 15th year teaching in District 318 um if Friday's proposed cuts are all adopted that we would be three teaching
positions lighter in the district and according to my math all told we would be down 43.2 teaching positions across ISD 318 since Cuts began I could stand here and talk about the teaching positions we've
lost the amazing and talented people we've lost the support staff we've lost the classes and engaging electives we've lost the resources we've lost the libraries we've lost and the space we've
lost as class sizes have ballooned but the biggest thing that we have lost as Educators during these times is time I coach football here at Grand Rapids and over the years our head football coach Greg span has talked to
our players that time is our most precious resource co-pa impresses upon our players that they need to balance their time in order to get in the work they need to become better football players along with balancing time in their personal lives
their Hobbies jobs and just being teenagers he also says that once time is gone it's gone there's no getting it back the loss of time is felt and seen by district teachers in countless ways
we have lost time to create new and engaging unit UNS lessons and activities for our students we have lost time to give thoughtful and descriptive feedback on essays and projects we have lost time to work with our department members on
issues to improve the subjects we teach we have lost uh prep time in order to attend meetings evaluations and countless trainings like our football players like everybody in this room
teachers have to make decisions about how we spend our time and balance our lives on one hand we want to give everything we have to our students every single day it's our passion on the other hand we are parents we're spouses and we
have lives and passions outside of work like everyone else through all the reductions in what we've lost in our district and the time crunch that we are under teacher burnout has never been more real in May my oldest daughter Noel will be graduating
from austan University in soue Falls with a degree in music education and I could not be more proud that she is following in her grandpa's and her old man's footsteps to become a teacher at the same time I'm extremely worried
about the career she's chosen according to the National Commission on teaching and America's future nearly 50% of new teachers leave the profession within their first five years according to a poll conducted two years
ago by our teacher Union of a hundred out of 190 responses 69.5% of 318 teachers have considered leaving the teaching profession please let that sink in
70% teacher burnout is real so the question is what can be done how do we move forward it's my sincere hope and maybe a little bit of a challenge to the people sitting here tonight to our district and bu building leadership to begin having sincere and
genuine conversations around the topic of time balance and teacher burnout what are things that can be taken off our plates adjusted modified and changed to lighten that time crunch and reduce burnout so teachers can be the best at
what we do in the classroom with who it matters most our students thank you for listening try thank you uh like to hear from kend De Coster
uh on Big Fork advisory committee issues good evening everyone uh here to give an update just on uh what the big fork School advisory committee has been working on one of the one of the charges of that committee is to give regular reports to
the board uh we do have some board representation that's able to be there sometimes Mr Scher Mr gusterson um and we appreciate that superintendent gross is in attendance uh when he's when he's able to as well and that's most of the time um this is a committee that really
is centered around um what we can do for improvements of Big Fork school um in partnership with Big Fork community and without incurring extra cost uh to the district uh a couple of things that were discussed at the last month meeting and and uh Mr gustus Mr gross if I miss
something feel free to jump in but um we're on an update on music chairs um in our band room actual music chairs were um non-existent we had one or two that was it um through networking and um some
good networking from one of the stakeholders in our committee we were able to secure some gently used um but appropriate um band chairs so that we now have um the proper furniture for an actual Band Room which we're very very
happy about another thing that happened at last month's meeting was that um I gave an update on some Project based learning uh superintendent G had arranged for a guest speaker earlier this year this team and committee kind of talked about some of the things that big fork school was already doing that
would fit under that project project based um kind of learning umbrella uh again enhancing part enhancing Partnerships with the community and also trying to um promote different student opportunity without again incurring more cost but making it relevant for our
students um so I gave an update on that we're actually partnering and collaborating a little bit with um a district just over the North Dakota um border called North Cass school district and they've been doing some of this stuff for quite a while so we've
exchanged some emails we've had a virtual meeting and I'm working on securing some funding so that a small team of mine can go out and do a visit to see how else we can get more mileage out of some project-based things that would be relevant to our students um and lastly we worked on priorities earlier
this year we identified several priorities within the school that we felt like the community could have um some impact on as well and and with this committee we've got we've got parents we've got faculty members we've got community members we have a strong partnership with the with the Edge
Performing Arts Center up there and um we identified a number of priorities one of them the first one we tackled was uh a strong and comprehensive K12 music program it's been something that has dwindled and eroded in Big Fork and we've been working hard at getting that
um a little more robust and so at the last meeting uh we divided all into groups um each group had an identified area to do some brainstorming on identify things kind of in two categories what can we do what are some things we can do in the next six months and what are things that we should
really be focusing on achieving in the next like three to five years um each of those committees reported out after that they they identified some very uh relevant some very accomplishable goals to be able to set so at at this next month's meeting when we come back
together my anticipation would be that um my anticipation would be that we'll be doing a little bit more uh discussion about those specific brainstorming ideas and then hopefully doing some action planning around that before we move to our next priority area that was the gist
of our meeting are there any questions questions from the board right thank you Ken thank you very much for that update I just sorry comment quick though that I I have enjoyed the committee I think I really
like what I see going on there um with the community's involvement um he he mentioned the chairs right um CH saved the district a lot of money if we were to go out there and buy those brand new a lot of money um and they're
surprisingly expensive and and and and they've got a ban going because of it right and I really appreciate what I've seen there I guess is what I'm saying so Tom thank you for that thank you Ken thank you again uh with that we have uh a few
minutes yet to hear uh a principal's report from East Rapids Elementary uh Jill wock a few minutes I will be quick well there's so many things to share but I narrowed it down to three
things uh the first thing is PBS is going great at East we are in year one of implementation of our PBIS reward system so students it's an online that the teachers can reward points for being responsible respectful safe and kind
which are the four things work on every day and um model for the students and it's been great to see the staff really engaged in this process and recognizing positive student Behavior Uh our school store is online and we have a volunteer a parent volunteer that comes in and
works with the students which has been very helpful I don't know if we could do it without her and the top things that kids purchase in our store are things that pay it forward they save their own points and they buy things like hat day
for the class pizza party for the class it's it's really cool it's a lot of um classwide things which is really neat to see across the school um of course they like do like to have their candl light lunch with me and it's been fun to sit down with
the different kids as I'm new there and get to know them and have that conversation and 30 usually uninterrupted time to spend time with the kids and they another popular one is game time with Mrs Connelly that's that's a hot item um second thing MCAS this is the first
time in a building it's been all third fourth and fifth graders so all of our kids in Grand Rapids minus kassa and Bigfork are all in one building during testing time so you can imagine um the work the amount of hours that many
people at East have put in for our schedule it is a high high level of detail this year we've never had to do it before um the spreadsheets that the team has made has been incredible it has surpassed my expectations and so I'm very thankful
for Mrs Connelly and the intervention staff that have put in the detail that needs to be there we'll see how it goes also thankful for West all the iPads from West had to be shipped over to East so I think we're negative one for iPads for students so we feel like we're doing
pretty well um and that will take up the entire month of April and we'll go into May so it is a great Endeavor for our whole building to for the first time to have that at elementary so stay tuned on how that goes the third thing is
implementation of our new Ela curriculum went and wisdom we're in year one and it's been great to have the support of Mrs cop um working with PD with our teams unpacking modules and just being there to help if principes have questions or really
anybody um walkthroughs have been incurring on a weekly basis so that's Mr loner myself getting into the classrooms and it's been great to see we can see evidence of implementation um by the staff teaching it and then the kids and just how they've grown and their knowledge of
literacy has been really incredible um our winter screening data this last winter showed an increase in achievement in both reading and math from the fall we'll take small percentage points some grade levels um
had a 2% increase to some had almost up to five which is huge in the elementary we have one more screening period in May after MCAS and we're very hopeful that that increase will continue to grow does
anybody have any questions for me any notes comments for I just want to say thank you um to you and the staff there um especially with PBIS because um you know you you do sometimes notice
uh with the Gen ed kids as opposed to the special education kids you know does everybody get involved in that and they do and it's really nice to see and so I appreciate that everybody is given that opportunity and then also just I
appreciate the Candlelite lunches with you I know my own child has done it twice now and she absolutely loves it and she loves that opportunity to have that personal moment with you and get to know you and and it just makes those kids feel very special so thank you for taking this time to do that yeah thank
you Ashley I've had the opportunity to do walkthroughs uh in the uh in East and I'm just constantly impressed with the positive energy and the engagement uh of
the students there uh hats off to uh your teaching staff and to your students uh they're doing remarkable work with our students much appreciated I I more so than anything just a question regards the BB
PBIS it's a mouthful I guess um with previously they used to have like a Thunderhawk award type thing didn't they is that kind of in lie of that is that my understanding or am I misunderstanding it is um so it's just the way you recognize students can be
done with a paper ticket we have it online so that we notice staff for spending time writing so for ease of them they can click being safe responsible respectful so you tried to automate it basically it sounds like or yep and they can write a comment and
then the other piece is the parents are hooked up and they have an app so there that school Home Connection is stronger because the tickets often would get lost on the bus or somehow disappear so that wasn't always getting home so the parents have really like that they can
see and say oh I noticed you got a point for being responsible tell me about that um and then also lunch staff can give them I can give them just other staff that aren't the classroom teacher and so that's been helpful okay no that that helps clarify I appreciate that y um and
then the other thing um so right now our our uh early indicators are that we've had increases in our reading and math is that what I'm hearing yes pretty much crossboard any um nope we've gone we've slowly gone up all across third fourth
and fifth and this has been shared with the building too um at staff meetings and so we're just hoping for that steady increase okay so we should if we've been doing that so far this year but good news yeah thank you we're we're hopeful and the staff have been working really hard so I I have no doubt in my mind
thank you Tom thank you any other uh uh notes comments questions for Jill thank you very much thank you much appreciate it yes keep up the great work thank
you uh with that we'll take a break uh we'll recess for 4 minutes and call our Schoolboard [Music] meeting e e e e
e e e e I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all uh we uh got notice uh the chair Mark schroer uh is absent with notice today we also note that uh Melissa bar uh is absent from tonight's
meeting uh with that uh we will look at the agenda I need a motion for an approval of the agenda so moved move Dave second second second from
Ashley um all in favor of approving the agenda as presented signify by saying I Hi I hi same sign uh opposed the agenda is approved uh as
presented uh our first action item is on uh Equitable changes uh we were expecting a report from uh Josh Whitmore I don't see Josh do we see
Josh I he hasn't connected to the Google meet yet so we can move on and okay uh we will um uh uh reschedule that for if he shows up later in this meeting we'll
consider here or we will postpone it to our next board meeting there's uh an action item there that we need to U address second under equ Equitable education is to approve the creation of
online learning programs um and directing the superintendent to make necessary agreements and Arrangements this is something we've chatted about uh Matt can you speak to that yes thank you uh in the previous two meetings we've talked about online
learning and I've shared the the why uh and our proposed approach as well as the potential for the program to increase enrollment uh and return some students back to our school district uh while we're going to take a measured approach I've received feedback from number of
parents who have heard about this currently homeschool and um they're looking forward to having an option should we continue to move forward we're in the process currently of putting some handbooks together and ironing out some more details and I've had a number of conversations with teacher Union
leadership and uh continue to stay committed to the priority to have our teachers uh teach the online classes as soon as people are ready have the training they need and we have the students we need to make classes work and have it be a financially um uh
beneficial model so having our teachers teach the classes is the goal whether that's um uh continuing on this process and starting small and growing it or whatever that needs to look like at our last meeting I was asked to prepare some performance indicators that we'd gather
data on in order to measure success I've shared those with you things like academic performance attendance engagement uh student family perception Etc um and and so those were shared with you and included what I'm looking for tonight is a motion to approve the
creation of an online learning program and directing me to make the necessary agreements and arrangements to put that program in place obviously there would be updates as they would continue to come and and we work through the planning this just ensures that while we're working on this uh we can do so
knowing that we have uh organized an official board support I looking for a motion uh uh to accept uh to direct the superintendent to make agreements and
arrangements for online learning so moved a motion from Ashley a second second second from Dave this is something we've uh discussed at some length uh any questions or comments uh in this regard yeah Mr chair I'd like to
just thank superintendant gross for addressing the concerns we had about the metrics that we'll use to gauge the effectiveness of the program I think in the world that we live in we continue to have to meet students where they are and I think this is a great way that we can offer Grand Rapids learning to Grand
Rapids Kids in a way that we haven't been able to to date so thank you for that I look forward to seeing where this program can go Dave thank you other notes or comments before we call for uh a
vote uh Julie we you don't need a Voice vote on this do we uh all in favor of the motion to direct the superintendent to make necessary agreements and arrangements for online learning signify by saying I
I I I all opposed same sign I'm opposed uh noted that uh Tom gson is opposed uh the motion passes uh superintendent gross you are directed to
uh uh make the arrangements as noted we uh uh move on to stewardship of resources we look at the minutes of the March third board meeting need a
motion to uh accept those minutes as presented make a motion Tom made a motion second second second by Dave thank you uh any discussion hearing none all in
favor of the moments minutes as presented uh for March 3rd signify by saying I I I uh oppose same sign uh the minutes stand approved thank you approval for the February 2025
claims in the amount of 5,760 $1,834 16 moved by the treasur Dave second second Ashley uh any questions or comments in that
regard all those in favor of claims as presented signify by saying I I I opposed same sign the claims uh are approved as
presented uh we then have the cons consent agenda uh all matters listed in the consent agenda are staff related or uh considered routine and do not require discussion these items will be acted
upon together in one motion if discussion is desired on any particular item it will be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately by the board board and I will note that one item uh the resolution relating to
probationary teacher non-renewals uh would normally be considered on the consent agenda it has been removed uh so that that can be uh considered separately uh do I have a
motion uh to accept the consent agenda with uh the uh um with one resolution removed so moves I have a motion from Dave second second from Ashley all in
favor no uh uh discussion is allowed uh all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign uh these uh changes are approved uh
and then we uh have a resolution relating to prob probationary teacher non renewals uh Casey may you speak to this please yes thank you so um we do this
annually this process to non-renew those probationary teachers is defined in statute 122 A40 subdivision five we have done this every year um there's a number of people the majority of the people on the list
11 out of the 15 are related to lure and that's very typical for us where we have a number of people that were required to have a posting for for a number of days um by the pby licensing board in order to obtain a license for those
individuals you'll see we do not have any unrequested leave of absences so all the staff are probationary um and I can read the names for you if you'd like yes that would be appropriate please okay we have Brenda
broberg Ryan Christensen Wendy gray Anne hutner mallerie mat Tiffany Morgan Christine neimi summer opic Charmaine cely Sherry
Trombley Kayla was Simon Wilson Elliot wson Rachel Newman is a part-time three non-renewal and Benjamin pantesin as a point2 part-time
non-renewal I'm recommending approval of the non-renewals of the probationary staff and these people have all received uh a notice of termination correct theyve they've received a notice of the
intent to ask the board to approve the non okay do we have any comments or questions for Casey in this regard yeah I have one question Casey um with the folks listed here do you have
any any idea how many you think will still be coming back next year or is there a pathway I believe there's at least one right that's coming back of these that are listed do we see a pathway for some or all of them to come back the majority of them yes we have so
11 out of the 15 are lure related it is very typical that after the posting timelines many of if not all of them will return um and then the part-time ones similarly those are licens as well where we have some posting requirements
for just a portion of their day so I I would estimate 80 to 90% of them will be back in some capacity okay thank you yeah Dave excellent question thank you uh any other questions or comments before we take a vote on
this I think we need a motion don't we uh I need a motion uh uh relating to probationary teacher non-renewal so moved uh moved by Ashley in a second second by Tom
uh this will require a Voice vote uh Julie David Marty yes Tom gustofson yes Ashley Goodman yes and Dave Cowen
yes great thank you uh the probationary teachers are effectively non-renewed and uh we're looking forward to the our future there uh uh we need to approve health
insurance PL premiums and payment plan for 25 2025 to 2026 Casey yeah so before you you have a report from our Fringe benefit committee chair and our benefits coordinator I'm
going to summarize kind of some of the highlights a couple of the changes this year the main one most of you probably remember but we Chang changed our plan year to align with our fiscal year so this will be the first time that we will be able to do open enrollment yet this
spring while our teachers and staff are still in the buildings it also allows us to get these premiums known and into the budget for the new year instead of estimating those so this is a different timeline than normal um the recommendation from the
committee so we're in our 2-year hit a review we went out to the marketplace with help from our consultant one digital we received bids from Health Partners Blue Cross Blue Shield United Healthcare and Peep and based on the
bids and re reviewing our claims data there's two recommendations one is a renewal of Health Partners for a two-year renewal all of the other companies that did bid on our plan came out higher so
we would recommend staying with them we haven't heard a lot of negative comments on on Health Partners itself and just a reminder that we are only bidding our stop-loss premiums and our administrative fees because we are self-insured so there isn't a lot of
cost savings um there by moving but it was bid out and that was the low bid and then the second recommendation is a premium increase of 6.5% for the 2526 plan year that is the standard premium
increase right now is about 8 to 10 so we are below Market there and the cost for employees will be around $7 per month for single and 15 for family so pretty small increase and there will also be a small increase in the
deductibles that is required in order to remain embedded which employees will then see a small increase in their hsas any questions on that Casey thank you we'll need a motion uh to accept the recommendation of The Fringe Benefits
committee for 2-year renewal with Health Partners and a 6.5% increase in premiums for the 2526 school year do I have a motion so moved so moved by Dave
second second second by Ashley any questions comments I have one question um Casey what so we have 6.5% for 25 26 will we then decide an increase for the subsequent year next year correct yep
and some of the stuff we we have caps on so we know there can only be so much of an increase in stop loss and those things but we will wait to see the claims data until we approve rates next year perfect thank you yeah any other
questions uh regarding uh The Fringe Benefits uh we don't need a a voice uh individual vote uh all in favor of recommend of accepting the recommendation of The Fringe committee signify by saying I I
opposed same sign uh the recommendation has been accepted Casey thank you very much for your work uh in this regard thank you we move on to the FY 26 District budget
reductions uh Matt can you speak to this please thank you uh I wanted to run through some budgeting and planning information quickly and then walk through the proposed budget adjustments for the fall tonight as we've stated many times the goal as we work through
this is financial stability and health and the reason that's important is that we want our teaching environment and our learning environment to be stable and consistent we think our staff deserve that our kids deserve that that's important so kids can grow and Thrive
and that can only happen when we're financially stable and healthy as a school district in order to do that I've talked about this quite a bit we need to do three things one is balance the budget I've talked about that numerous times we balanced the budget in fiscal 23 24 and this will uh we're headed
towards fiscal 25 being balanced as well uh the second thing is build our fund balance and we've done that we've um gone from 1.6% in fiscal 22 to 10.2 in fiscal 24 we'll be near that again when we round out this year so that's
important and we need to do these things without cuts and we need to do these things without um Revenue like Co so that's sort of the big factor that third one we need to be in a position where we can do these things without having to make reductions so we don't have to do
this every spring I've also talked about this that in order to balance our budget four things uh are on the table for us more students in enrollment more money from the state which if you're watching the news is uh not an optimistic time
getting more Community Financial support like over 70% of the rest of the districts in the state have done we tried in 2023 and we'll need to try again at some point uh number four and this is the button that we've had to push um often and uh to Great extent
over the last five years and that's to cut expens enses which is difficult when most of our budget is people how are we doing with the money that we do receive um any narrative that the district is
not taking care of the revenue that we have is just not based on evidence uh standard and pores has increased their Outlook from negative to stable for our school district that's an external sign that we're doing what we should do with the money that we do uh have and that our plan is important and we're
executing it our financial audits also indicate that we're doing what we should do with the money that we do get uh we've received the cleanest opinion Auditors can give and we've been classified as a low-risk audity the last two years so external validation indicating that we are doing what we're
supposed to do with the money that we get second uh we did get some uh updated information the profiles report I think I've mentioned this before the upd ated fiscal 24 profiles report indicated that we've continued our Trend in the school
district of earning less per student than Statewide average both locally and from the state we we earn less revenue from from uh from those two sources per student we also spend less and so um our spend was up 3% while the state average
is up almost 6% from fisal 23 so our spend didn't go up as fast as a state we spend less uh we get get less that Trend continues so we're living uh as much as we can within our means even though these times are challenging and and I
would um you know to miss wheelock's point and to the commentary of Staff we have really really good people working really really hard and as a result um despite what we've had to do we haven't seen uh dramatic decreases in our
student achievement and that just goes to speak to um the people we have working here it hasn't come without work and hard decision and sacrifice uh after tonight we'll be looking uh tonight's totals at just under 10 million in
reductions 80 positions eliminated uh we've changed health insurance plan uh all of our employees agreed to do that that was a tough lift um I mentioned the balanced budget I also believe we used our covid funds in a way that preserved
jobs and um delayed or helped eliminate cuts that we would have been able or would have had to make our fund balance history shows uh the work to or is an Evidence of that work you can see in fi School 22 down to 1.6% the reason for the two lines again
mde has a calculation that they use for fund balance percentage uh our fund balance uh graph the green line is based on how we've defined fund balance and our policy it's a simpler calculation that anyone could do with if they had a copy of our off audit um from 1.6% in
fiscal 22 to around 10% here in fiscal 24 that's audited and fiscal 25 obviously is not audited yet um but up to where our our school board set the policy that's so that's a good sign um having a fund balance obviously is
really really important because it enables us to sort of weather some of the changes Miss Burling talked about the state and uncertainty uh without any fund balance we would not be able to have any room for uh or any margin there for Change and so fund balance is really
important for stability and for everybody also got to be a factor for cash flow yeah and cash flow and and uh I live through cares live through having to as a school district borrow money to make payroll and that's a pretty um
terrible place to be um so yeah for a cash flow to it's important to have a fund balance it's positive thanks thanks Tom like we've done previously we reviewed our uh previous situation uh looking at data uh we came up with assumptions the
board approved those earlier in the year based on known and unknown things have changed since January uh we've talked about that at previous meetings and we've reflected some of that in the reductions that uh and adjustments that uh have gone out or that you'll be
considering and then we use that to consider the amount necess Neary or drive that number um while also not sacrificing our stability at the district level the uh this is really about uh Revenue
enhancement and so we talked about enrollment and that being one of the things we need to do if we're going to have some control about what our revenues uh or our balance budget looks like and so um did make an adjustment here between those two numbers kept the
total the same um we adjusted the compensatory assumption um again like uh Miss Burling talked about there's been some changes at the state level around compens story or the feeling about how compensatory might play out and so made
some adjustments there um and if those continue to come in we can have conversations about what that would mean realistically uh and and how that would affect our ability to plan at the high school uh as was
referenced earlier uh a 06 ft cut in Social and that would result in increas increased class sizes uh Mrs velosi talked about also would result in some shift I don't believe in all of Economics going away from social studies so there would still be some uh social
studies economics happening um but changes to Social Studies classes and offerings for sure working on some CTE reimbursement we have the ability to generate revenue or generate reimburse ment and Career Tech Ed and so ensuring
that we're increasing that or maximizing that to the degree that we can and then also a point2 reduction in egg going from 2.2 to 2.0 FTE and egg at the middle school a reduction in math social science and English of
02 uh those will primarily come I believe in the seventh grade or affect seventh grade class sizes and then also in in fied shifting a a point2 regular Ed fied to special education which will increase the class sizes in those fieds
um but improve services to students with disabilities uh special education enables us to generate reimbursement and so that helps in that case east and west and Cohasset 1.0 FTE this is a fourth grade section uh it's
the only remaining grade level at East with eight sections uh grade three and grade five have seven um grade four would see a a class size average up one to two grade five would see a class size average go up of one to two actually
third grade next year would go down one to two because the incoming uh this year's second grade cohorts a little bit smaller so um things would improve there a little bit for third grade but um overall that's how that would play out Big Fork taking advantage of some of
what we've been able to do with collaboration uh a point2 reduction in math and then also again ensuring that we're maximizing reimbursement uh working on the revenue side of the equation to um seeing an increase
there activities we'd be looking at uh uh percentages in line items in uniforms supplies and transportation and amount totaling 20,000 across the district uh that means
an adjustment of 971 by the time we look at uh revenues and expenditures uh with respect to one of the questions that came up um our overall reduction in the last five years uh from our teaching
unit has been approximately 14 to 15% of that unit in our categories labeled other Administration and principles there's been a reduction of around 20% so um that group has seen reductions as a percentage there's fewer people in
that group um so uh those those numbers are difficult to compare but as a percentage uh our teacher group has gone from about 47% of our employees to about 46% of our employees over that time
including this cut for these proposed reductions some other items to note uh looking forward communication uh Casey mentioned last Friday those going out uh the process that we go through there's no one of the things I've learned is there's no good and easy way
to do this and it's challenging when you have 11 uh educational sites when you have 600 employees when you have some employees that would prefer a face-to-face conversation and for some employees the last thing they want to do
is have someone talking to them about it change in their assignment and so we came up with the process with our teachers union that we've been using we've made some modifications to that we've adjusted the language we use and the letters um is it perfect I don't know that there is one because this is
just a tough thing to do no matter what um and we'll continue to work with them to uh refine the process so that is predictable and respectful ongoing conver ations this
week um people with questions communicating with Casey or their building admin um looking forward um I'm anticipating that over the next couple months we'll see some changes come we'll see some people who uh might take a position somewhere else we might
see some people resign uh we'll see some adjustments be made and so those adjustments will be made if opportunities present themselves uh throughout the spring uh and summer so that we're in the best position we can be in the
[Music] future I get asked a lot about the federal impact the Department of Education impact and it's difficult to talk specifics about that um but on a
broad level uh we depend on federal funds um Minnesota depends on federal funds a great deal uh all school districts do special education is a big component of that uh low-income student support is a
big component of that in our district we use Title One funds to support reading interventions and um instructional programs in our state or our district and others uh career and tech ed is a federal program as well through Perkins and so that's a program that supports a
lot of our career and tech ed and um so reductions there would would impact that program it also makes it difficult to do the work we're doing right now um the budget plan for the future uh and think
longterm when there's uncertainty about the Department of Education in general some other things just long term that uh we need to be thinking about our staff need to be thinking about our community needs to be thinking about and knowing uh we have to continue to act
and think conservatively um future reductions will be needed without additional Revenue because our expenses will continue to go up uh our staffing costs go up automatically um inflation goes up automatically and so
uh without infusion of Revenue that at this point is unforeseen um it's going to be challenging to move forward without some reductions now we've seen a drastic reduction in the amount of reductions we've had to make and that's because of the work that's happened and
so um I think that's an indication that we put ourselves in the right path but uh like many if not most of the school districts in the state of Minnesota uh this is a is an ongoing issue if you read the newspaper and uh
listen to the news you'll hear about that especially our neighbors now that are making reductions that maybe haven't in the last few years um school funding hasn't kept fa Pace with increasing costs and and we've talked quite a bit at the board table about the mandates I
think there's an awareness of that um at the legislative level but also some resistance to backing off on some of those so uh a lot to be seen this spring still most districts have gotten additional funding from their
communities and we have not uh there's no way around the fact that over 70% of the school district in the state have gotten additional assistance we don't have access to that that's affecting our budget uh there's just no way around that the last one is I guess my opinion
as much as anything uh I do not believe the state will balance our budget for us I don't believe they're going to fix our problem um I think we need to control the things that we can control locally uh I think that's where the best decisions are made and so uh I think
that leads to a need to Contin to educate work with um and get support from our community questions I uh I guess when do we start talking about 4 day weeks I see 2142 is
taking it on and that's one way we can really control our costs I think that'll be something that we need to look at this upcoming year I don't think for our district there's a ton of savings there but um at the same time if there are any savings there we have to look at it yeah I think I think we need to look at it
yeah so I think that's something that we need to work through the process it'll be it takes some time and um the districts that have done the best job of it have had you know the opportunity to talk to their Community a number of times some of those are required uh it's required to engage the community in that
discussion and so I think that's something we're going to have to look at this up year I think we need to be prepared for that yeah and it might speak to some of the things that uh Mr Gunderson brought up earlier about time I know that's one of the things that yeah is brought up in that area a lot
yeah you you know I I mean it I appreciate the effort for the online schooling right I had other concerns in regards to that ultimately but I appreciate it was looked at for financing and and I appreciate that very
much but you know it's becoming apparent that the the things we can control our costs and unfortunately they're not fun things to control right because they're Cuts right and this would be an easier conversation if this were the first year
we were having a discussion about it but it's not we're the fifth year or sixth year of cuts yeah even though the number is smaller um it's it's very difficult because of how much we've done uh we get to the point where we're talking about things that um maybe aren't things we
would uh would have talked about or discussed just a couple years ago uh at this point Let's uh I look for a motion uh it was on the screen so move I have a motion from Dave
uh to uh uh direct the FY 26 District budget reductions do I have a second second second from Tom um conversation questions concerns
thoughts Beyond what's already been expressed um I my only concern and we've all already said this out loud is that the cuts that we're making are obviously cuts that are necessary but that we
don't want to actually have happen we would love nothing more than to keep every single one of our staff members um we don't to get rid of anything that affects them in a negative light um in a negative manner that affects our
students and I just want that to be known to our staff members that this is not something that we're just doing it weighs heavy on all of us and that you are all important to us and we do very much appreciate all of you
and so when we vote on this it's not something that um I just don't want any of you to feel like this is something that we are voting on because it's a personal it's not it it's just difficult
and I don't really know how to express that enough so I just wanted to let our staff know that we do absolutely support you and this is not something that feels like it but that we do Ashley thank you any other yeah I
would just uh like to Echo a bit of what Ashley was saying but I think that you know when we were all elected to these positions um these were the days that we dread where we have to make the tough choices that have to be made but that
set up our district for the ability to move forward we um are between a rock and a hard place and these are the things we have to do and unfortunately uh year after year after year we continue to get less revenue and we need to find a way um to break this ccle of
cuts because soon there will be no more to cut um and so with thanks to uh superintendent gross for um coming up with a way to move forward even though it is one that um impacts our kids and our staff um
negatively um I see this as a necessary evil that we have to do to move forward thank you Dave other questions or comments note of appreciation Matt and Cara for the
tremendous amount of work you've done uh I know that you've been through this budget many times looking for Alternatives um and this was not taken lightly thank you with that we'll call for a vote all in favor of the uh FY 26
District budget Reduction Program signify by saying I I I opposed same sign Mr superintendent you are directed to move forward with the uh District budget Reduction Program thank
you uh we are looking for a resolution for safe routes to school boost Grant uh Melanie can you speak to that please so this is a grant we have had in the
past and um the we had a safe route to school coordinator grant for four years we did not received funding for this last year and we were able to partner with the county to keep our safe R of school coordinator on which um that
County partnership was able to keep a part-time position in the safe routs of school position who kept um trudging forward and working on safe Rosa School initiatives with County support this past um winter we applied for a boost Grant to keep our coordinator in place
for an additional year so it's a one-year Grant and this position will continue to promote our walk Roll bike to school events and awareness in our community we have the two bike fleets with that are Striders that are in our kindergarten first grade classrooms in
the gym time so this position will keep those moving throughout itasa area not just the Grand Rapids Big Fork schools but across is schools um they'll promote our national walk and bike roll the school days we have two traffic Gardens
at East and West and this um boost Grant will provide additional traffic Gardens at Cohasset and um Big Fork parking lot was not big enough but it will be one will be at Cohasset and the other one will be at the new nashak kiwen um
school that's this boost Grant is a partnership with nashak kiwan as well um we will provide those traffic Gardens and free events at the traffic Gardens and then the most exciting part not that it's not all exciting but we were able to within this grant will be were able
to purchase eight adaptive bikes for a program that c that's called all abilities bike so it is an um more adults siiz Strider bike that we can um incorporate into our fitness class classes and our schools in our middle
school and high school age levels of um individuals learning to ride a bike or able to ride a two wheel bike in our adapted PE classes but also including them into our regular PE classes when we get the get fit bikes so the get fit
bikes are a trailer of bikes that we bring into the middle school gym classes and kids are able to bike during the day and learn how to bike or safety around biking these all abilities by will be brought into that program as well to um have all kids being able to bike dur in
the school day and we'll use them in our summer programs and across the is schools as well so that boost Grant is $27,800 for a oneyear grant questions for
Melanie and that that able to cover our entire costs for the that yeah the position is a part-time 10 hours a week position under the Community ad umbrella we're looking for a
motion uh to approve uh the safe routes to schools boost Grant so moved move by Ashley in a second second second by Dave uh any other questions comments or concerns
related to this hearing none we'll call for a vote all in favor of uh the resolution to for the safe routes to school booster Grant signify by saying I I I I opposed same
sign thank you thank you Melanie and uh go forward and make the routes to school safe uh we have uh still in the safe routes to school
World um a contract bid uh for uh safe routes to school parking lot construction at our gems uh Casey can or I'm sorry Cara can you yeah good evening board um and you know what a great lead
into this um positions Limited hours um an Campbell was able to get us a grant for $469,000 to read do um the rjems parking lot to make it safer um so we did get a grant in that amount we went out for
bids um we had an engineer estimate of $445,000 to redo that parking lot um our bids came in above that the lowest bid was $497,000 um we got bids from TNT PGM contractors and William J Schwarz and
Sun William J Schwarz was the lowest bidder at $497,000 um which is above our grant amount by $28,000 so um Matt and I have looked at our budget um we have restricted funds we have long-term
facilities maintenance um fund balance from the prior year that we can put towards this grant so um if the board approves this we would make up that Delta that $28,000 from this ltfm funding that can't be used you know for
Staffing or other areas so um I'm recommending the approval of the lowest bidder um William J schwarzen son looking for a motion uh to approve can I ask some question we'll take a motion and uh discuss it please uh uh
we're looking for uh uh safe routes to school parking lot construction grant for rjems I need a motion so Move Motion by Dave in a second uh second second by Ashley
questions or comments Tom I apologize because I meant to get a couple questions out this weekend and I didn't but um when when we talk about the $28,000 Delta here um do do we know what kind of class
estimate the engineering service provide winth provided on their first I guess I guess where my concern comes in ultimately is they were 40,000 below our lowest bid on their Engineers
estimate okay anytime you go out to construction to your lowest bid oftentimes there's a chance that they're going to have extras coming in because they underbid it and under misunderstood it right you know um so what I want to
do is make sure that first of all I'm questioning winth why they were off on that you know especially when we start talking about public we you know there they should have been somewhere in the middle of those bids not not below the
lowest right if we get a good estimate I mean we need to be budget and and my second thing is is I'm very concerned that we're already making up 28 I don't want it to grow to 78 that we're trying to make up out of B
funds that we don't know somewhere um so do we have construction support right now with engineering as part of their contract on this are they monitoring the construction at all or is that going to be us doing it completely yeah we us and
um with Seth would monitor it mainly us yeah um I can um tell you um when um would Seth put together their engineering estimate um mind do because they oversee this Grant and the city of Grand Rapids Matt wegworth went over it
um mot had a lot of concerns with the initial um engineer estimate and it had to be cleaned up to their approval so this has gone through mot's um approval the engineer estimate um so I'm not a
construction I understand I am you know I'm coming from the engineering site so I'm trying to ask the and and don't take this as I'm trying to cover ourselves because I can see I don't want this to grow I mean like I say I don't want it
to be 78 or 100,000 were trying to make up for because we took the lowest bid and they misunderstood what this involved and come back for extras right which is what you see a lot of times out of that lowest bid
um um so you know and again I apologize I meant to get these out this weekend and and have some more discussion on this um I'm kind of curious you commented
that the that the state really pushed them on that initial estimate was theirs lower before wiseth that their initial one or how how did that kind of change yeah so I um and Matt feel free to jump in at any time what I remember is the
state looking at how WTH had some of the um items on this um estimate listed out like for instance they had some stuff as lump sum whereas the state was like no you need to break that out into units so that the pricing was more clear with the
individuals that were bidding on it okay yeah that was their biggest hangup uh dos was you know should something be unit priced per truck for instance or is there a flat dollar amount per you know for the aggregate or whatever the you
know Tous so they they had some back and forth about that what approach was the best approach for this project which obviously anytime you get a unit cost like that if it goes over you have something to compare to right which is
important right um otherwise you're just throwing one lump sum in there they could throw some ungodly overage in there pull numbers out of anywhere um okay okay that that's all the questions I
guess I had initially here and I have a question Mr shair yes pleas uh car um what type of contract is this is this a time and materials or a guaranteed maximum price or do we know what type of contract it is I appreciate your
question um it is just a Construction contract for the services and the materials listed in it okay I don't know if I'm answering your question Dave uh no but that's okay we can look later just curious because I think that would address Tom's question if it's a GMP
there's not a risk to the district that we go over but if it's not there is so I just maybe we can look at that later well and even even in other on they say it wasn't clear in the scope right you know but it's but I I agree I agree
right just to clarify too and reiterate while we're talking about this Delta here Cara mentioned that Delta being covered by long-term facilities maintenance those are funds that we would use for something like resurfacing the parking lot somewhere so since we're
not going to need to resurface the parking lot at the middle school because the bit the bid would cover the tumus that sort of part of what enables us to do things even seal coating um uh or replacing curb that we maybe would
replace with ltfm funds again that can't be used on people has to be used on projects um we would need to do that because curb would be part of the project so kind of enables us to to do some of that other questions concerns where did
our engineering costs from this come out and they really aren't kind of considered in our overall budget here are they right now they're not because they weren't they weren't allowed to be included in the grant so the grant said we had to pay for the engineering fees
ourselves okay so uh do you remember no remember what they were okay but I can provide you with the documentation that I have on that I get I guess where I'm at is I I would really like to be able to look at
a couple of these questions and again I apologize that I didn't get those out this weekend um but I but I I would really like to know what that contract is before we say approve it myself but that's where I
sit but is there a uh time constraint here if we tabled this I think the you know the the big thing is getting through the bidding process I Schwarz knows that they're the low bidder they were at the bidding the bid opening right so I think in terms of scheduling
having it on their calendar I think that's the big thing right so I think if we were to table this get some of those questions answered uh I think that you know our next meeting is in two weeks Julie um yeah so I think that's probably
fine and And in regards to the the grant does it have any effect on that or you know the the funds from that the time I don't not that I'm aware of okay we have we have time we have it I we have at
least a year on that okay okay so there's a motion in a second I think we would need uh a we need to withdraw that motion and have that second I think we can just uh move to uh tabless and leave the motion I don't think we have to
withdraw okay we move to table it one more comment I'd like to just make is regardless uh of where this goes I just want to say thank you to an Campbell for the support uh of getting this grant what an incredible um thing for our
district so thank you to her I I'm glad you brought that up because I know since my arrival here the pickup and drop off and parking situation and whatever at R gems has been something that I've heard complaints at complaints about forever
and ever so the fact that you know almost half million dollar Grant came in to help us paay for that you're right thanks for bringing that up good is there a motion to table so moved uh I have a motion to table the
motion uh Ashley Ashley uh how long do we want to table I have no problem looking at month our next Bo meeting information we have to 2 April I have a
second a work session right is that no is that a work session or meeing Tom would you prefer next month oh mean that's probably still enough time yeah as as long as I can see that I'm just there were some questions there that I just really would feel com let
let's get that squared away Ashley has a motion to table it do I have a second sth correct yep second I have second from Dave uh discussion on the motion to table hearing none all in favor of the motion to
table uh the um Grant agreement uh for R gems uh signify by saying I I opposed same sign thank you let the minutes reflect
that the motion will be uh is tabled until our April 7th board meeting yes uh we also have a safe routes to school
Grant agreement active Transportation program Grant resolution Cara yeah can we table this until um I need to have the approved prior to this agreement so can we just table this also till the next
board meeting um I if we don't have a motion on it it's uh it will uh we can just move forward is that okay with everyone yep I have General agreement on that we're good car thank you a lot of work on
that Capital assessment listing uh Cara you're still on this theot SE so this is um this is just a procedure in accordance with um our Capital asset policy
704 um once a year I need to provide you with details of our Capital assets these are our Capital assets as of 1231 2024 at the end of our audit last year at June 30th 2024 we had 27 million in
capital assets um and 68 million in Associated ACC accumulated depreciation so um you should have in front of you in that long list our detailed assets there are assets on there that have been disposed of but have not been removed
from the list yet because we typically do that at year end so you may see items on there you will see items on there like our old admin building or the land we have sold in since um July 1 so this
is just um like I said just an FYI for you um and in accordance with our policy so do we need to accept this listing and just note that you got it
okay the listing is here are there any questions related to this Capital it's Pages lot lots of assets yep any questions for Cara uh not a question but just a uh kind of a comment I think that
although these are assets listed for the district um what I think is uh kind of a shout out to our incredible boosters across the different activities that there are assets that the district has here that were provided by fundraising
from boost boosters clubs across the activities range and so a special shout out to all of the booster clubs that have helped um Bridge Gap apps that the district struggled with getting funding for so thank you Dave any other notes
related to our Capital asset list if none car thank you very much appreciate all your work in this regard and we move on to the first reading uh of
704 development maintenance um Matt while we're on the subject of fixed assets yeah um this policy uh uh creates the structure uh around which we inventory
those fixed assets this is first reading policy 704 it's not new it's our customary policy um it aligns with the governmental Accounting Standards Board guidance and includes a threshold of $50,000 for group purchases that's one
of the changes in here and the policy was reviewed by our policy Review Committee on 13th of March uh with car's input and you'll see this again at our next meeting for approval okay so that's first reading
for uh policy 704 um further policies Matt uh policies 412 and five um no 413 and 5 12 do require action tonight or we're asking for
Action tonight uh these two policies are being amended to reflect changes made legislatively you can see in their board report the Minor Adjustments uh that were made and also the review and recommendation by the policy Review Committee to approve uh
these two policies with one reading since the changes are minor we can make these uh changes in one meeting if I have a motion to make the changes so moved move by Ashley and a second by
Dave second uh any discussion around the uh policy for harassment and violence and school sponsored student Publications our new packet hearing none we'll take a vote
all in favor of accepting the uh uh changes in policy 413 and 512 as presented signify by saying I I opposed same sign policies 413 and 512 are accepted
as presented uh and then um that policy 624 thank you this is the second uh your second viewing of policy 624 so um this
one is up for approval tonight as indicated at our previous meeting this policy is in alignment with msba model policy uh 624 as well as Minnesota online learning act which is uh statute 124
do3 uh so quite a bit of quite a bit of change in here that act was updated and this policy aligns with and sets the table for uh us to affect ly Implement online learning in in alignment with the
law okay it's uh been at the table before and discussed uh I'll need a motion to accept uh policy 624 so moves move Dave uh second second second by Ashley uh
questions or comments concerns on 624 online learning option policy hearing none we'll uh vote all in favor of uh accepting policy 624 as presented signify by saying I I I
opposed same sign 624 is adopted oh thank you uh we uh earlier in the meeting uh uh move
past Josh uh whitmore's uh item uh concerning the Big Fork field trip request Josh you there I am thank
you so much I can can you hear me yes uh Josh we have a a an action item indicating there's a change to the Big Fork School field request trip can you uh Enlighten us yes
so uh as far as per our school policy whenever um uh the status of travel internationally um based on uh the US Department of travel scales 1 through for whenever we see an uptick to a level
two uh we are to ask admin to step in and um ask us or or or cover you know how we proceed um and so as a result uh our Italy Greece trip the
country of Italy actually went up to a level two um and was reaching more towards the three level due to an increase in terroristic action uh and that actually was directed uh towards US
citizens according to the US Embassy in Italy and so as a result um we cancelled that trip because of safety concerns um and I I had a lot of great help from uh
you know Mr gross uh as well as uh Mr deer on that so I'm really thankful um what I'm asking for is that is to Pivot to a new trip and it actually still is in Greece we've
uh Greece is still a level one and after discussing with explorica if we change to a domestic which is what I had originally asked for it would end up um costing those people that had
signed up for the Italy Greece trip 25% of their investment where if we were able to Pivot to an international uh trip that was still in a safe Zone um there would be no loss
they simply would just change where we're going and in this case we found a grease only and as I said it was it's a level one right now which is just normal travel but I did ask uh explor what guarantees they can give us that this
isn't going to happen like it did in Italy and they said that what they are offering now first of all they they did assure me that there are many schools that are going through uh this kind of crazy time for travel um but they said
that they now are offering a guarantee that should something go wrong instead of cancellations and losing investment instead um they would simply have a guarantee policy that we paid for a trip
if it means that we have to push it until Things become safe um that safety is their is their number one concern so what I am I am asking and apologize for the long- winded explanation I am looking for permission um to Pivot to this Greece
only trip as Italy is no longer a viable option as per our safety standards good thank you uh to move the discussion along we should take a motion uh in a second to approve
the uh uh to approve the Big Fork field trip request to Greece only is that correct Josh that is correct sir thank you do I have a motion for that we can discuss it
after so moved a motion from Ashley in a second second Tom uh questions comments concerns thoughts did so you you said the domestic only would be 25% but this would be no no additional cost on this
pivot to Greece only it sounded like yep there would be no pivot it they literally would uh switch over the payments that have been made towards Italy and Greece and they would just continue on paying just for a Greece only trip
okay and and and I appreciate you brought up a couple things I it it was clear You' done some research on it I'm glad you asked about you know the concerns about what happens when gree changes right
um I appreciate the foresight of that the only question I would have Josh is uh if something does happen and we Greece goes up to a level two or three or what have you um what happens to those senior kids that don't make it
anymore do we refund them do they what happen do we know what would happen with them excellent question so their money um is they paid for a trip and it's it's locked in at that at that student level
or student rate so um they just they they I asked the same question and they said that they would um be guaranteed a trip if it did uh if they were forced to push for it um and they would still get the student cost rather than normal
travel costs so we would still the our school district policy would still allow them to join the trip with the school is that correct yes yes okay great thank you Josh how many students do we have uh
engaged well now we have to see if if people will want to switch over but uh as of before we did this we had 16 official sign sign up and then we had roughly an additional 10 to 12 that were
committed to uh doing or going on this trip but we unable to make the payments uh like directly um and instead they were going about it as far as putting into a savings account and waiting
until um towards the the end timeline of signing up um just in case something happen so again there was a potential of around 26 to 28 people but 16 official excellent and uh it sounds like you've been in
conversations with the students about their willingness to make the switch yes yep other questions comments concerns thoughts Josh um is is there I I
realized that um I I I thought I'd put this in but um another motion to make is um the way Big Fork does the trips um since I since I got here um we wanted to
make sure that it was uh it wasn't just one teacher um taking all of these trips um and so we divided it up into uh areas of the world um that
that multiple uh staff would be in control of so to take for instance um professora nasara who used to teach Spanish here um was in charge of All American tours uh or or America's uh
tours I I was only uh given uh training to take European tours uh and we've never had anyone that that took over as far as Asian tours the reason why like I said we did this is so that not just one
person would take it um and Miss uh you know misp potential work and that kind of stuff I personally will not take trips during school years uh I I only will do them in summertime um but I know
that in the past there were people that uh based on the trip that they were signing up for did not uh have those options and so they they had to take those trips during the school year um so having said that we do not have an
official person to run the America's tour um since nisara left and so I was uh I I was asked to make a motion to nominate Michelle Hill who was going to be on the meeting unfortunately she had an
emergency uh and was not able to be here tonight um and so um we would we are asking the board permission that she take over um planning for any future America's tours um and and be able to go
under uh or undergo that training from explor KF tours Josh thank you uh that uh that does not relate specifically to this uh trip to Greece is that correct
no um then with the board's permission I would uh I think we need to act on this and we will look for uh that change to come to a future board meeting okay if that's acceptable I'm agree is that something that we can discuss at our
next then April 7th would that be available yeah I we can sort that out uh all in favor uh of uh the motion that's on the table to change the Big Fork
School field trip from Italy and Greece to Greece only uh with uh Josh Whitmore signify by saying I I I I opposed same
sign thank you Josh congratulations um I look forward to hearing from the students uh as they return and we will deal with uh uh the America uh uh issues later thank you so
much I appreciate it thank you thank you and I think there we are on to uh Partnerships and we've got a nest of them and it's Melanie you're on uh we
have leadership of Community Education ISD um uh Hill City and so forth and yeah um I think we probably need to for clarity we probably need to take
individual motions on these uh rather than do them as one okay do you mind if I talk about them all together and then please I think that would be appropriate so um thank you for having me here again tonight um Community Ed is a partnership across itasa area schools collaborative
and currently we have four schools that work together in Partnership to provide aaska Area Community Education for the 255 26 school year we're looking to add Hill City as an additional partner through the community ad collaboration
and what this partnership entails is community ed leadership services for um some of our smaller districts in the area to be able to provide a robust Community Ed program where we all work together across District boundaries to provide what's best for our community so
the first leadership contract is for Hill City that covers leadership contract expenses for um Community aded director licensure and targeted Services programming um the second one is I don't know what order they're in on
Greenway Greenway that is the same Community leadership contract to provide leadership services and the um targeted Services as well as the community aded catalog is provided to all districts that incorporates itaska Area Community
Education the third one is River dear River and that would be the same leadership expenses and then our fourth one is NASA kiwan is the same these expenses for the three that were current Greenway Deer River and nashak have
increased slightly due to the increase of leadership costs that cover the director's time and um mileage and details to provide those leadership services and Hill city was calculated based on their District's overall
District population and that's how we um calculate calculate all the leadership costs 100% of leadership costs get divided between four districts or adding Hill City get divided between five districts so the four districts that currently they had a slight increase but
not as big of an increase as it would have been if we didn't add Hill City so by adding Hill City we're able to bring everyone's down a little bit from where it would be in 2526 if we didn't have a fifth district thank
you uh just hang on a second we'll take these uh one at a time I'm looking for a motion uh to contract for leadership in community ed with isd2 Hill City so moved a motion and a
second from Ashley and Dave any questions or concerns concerning Hill City which is the the new kid on the Block I have a quick question um for Hill City do they seek us out or do we seek them out or
how did this come to be they were seeking us out okay yeah they their new superintendent is from Nash kiwen saw the benefits of it in his district as he came over to Hill City and was eager to explore options um not because their
Community Ed program was suffering but because of the things we can bring with the partnership as far as targeted services and the collaboration and partnership to be able to serve more people sure great thank you and just to clarify then basically
all the costs from these are divided up and split up based on school population right yes so school um District districtwide population yep not their um student population it's their community
population okay any questions about Hill City if not all in favor of contract for leadership with Hill City uh signify by saying I oppose same
sign and we're going to go through these uh and Leadership for community ed for Greenway I have a motion from Ashley and a second from Dave uh questions or comments hearing
none all in favor of the greenway signify by saying I I oppose same sign uh contract for leadership of Community Ed with dear River I have a motion and a second from Ashley and Dave uh any
comments regarding that all in favor signify by saying I I I oppose same sign and finally uh Community Ed leadership contract with nashwah kwat I have a motion at a second
from Ashley and Dave um any questions or comments regarding it all in favor signify by saying I I I anyone opposed say no that also uh is U approved Melanie
thank you for your work in this regard much appreciated um we need to approve an independent provider application from the star of the north figure skating um Matt you're the chief figure
skater here yeah obviously uh so we uh one of the things that we do for programs that are uh adjacent I'd say to the school district um that provide activities for students
uh is to make this available we work in partnership with them this enables students to uh letter in an activity without it running directly through the school district um the club runs the program um we do
this with gymnastics we do this with uh we've done it with Rodeo I think maybe before here crap shooting type things uh fishing um those activities that aren't offered by the school district but provides an opportunity for students to
participate in something that keeps them engaged um and keeps them aligned to the school district so there's a packet in there if you time to look through that that lays out the process for the independent provider what the responsibilities are
that kind of thing uh Dale activities directors reviewed this and REM recommending approval I have a motion uh to accept the application from star of the north figure
skating so moved moved Dave second second second Ashley uh any questions comments concerns in this regard superintendent gross is this something that needs to be approved
every year yes and that's the case with all independent providers yep good question thank you any other questions concerning figure skating all in favor of uh accepting the
application signify by saying I hi hi opposed same sign welcome to Star of the north Figure Skating club delighted to have you aboard uh we'll skip down to board
reports uh at this report and we're Jaden we're gonna start with you because you've been so patient on March 18th we had our first 3v3 March Madness attorney which it was a $5 entry fee for everybody that
entered and we ended up raising $25 and where all the proceeds will go to the wo McDonald house and then we were also able to throw pizza party for the first second third and fourth place winners along with the ra McDonald House
student council is still hosting the poll together with our pop tabs and we are now up to 43,6 189 pop tabs and again this goes until May 3rd our student council
is also completing Jon's Renaissance monthly culture and climate challenges and this month we did the compliment Clos pins so student council members were able to write like positive messages on Clos pins and then we discreetly like clipped them on people's
like backpacks or jackets and then that just went out throughout the day and you could tell like really made people's days better so we're going to do this again in May for mental health awareness month um our band is currently in Hawaii so
they're able to sight see visit Pearl Harbor and play for a new audience our spring musical is coming up that'll be the weekend of April 11th through the 13th tickets are available to purchase and the show is High School Musical and it has a lot of our high school students
in it two teams of grand AIDS high school students put their Global Knowledge to the test at the academic world quest competition in Minneapolis for the second year in a one of our teams was able to secure a top three finish and one of our other teams
was able to go and compete for the first time a some sports updates track and field had the first meet on the 25th at BSU and they also have another meet tomorrow also at BSU girls lacrosse first meet is April 11th and 12th and
they're both home meets so make sure we can go to those boys baseball's first game is April 8th at Superior softball is April 3D home versus bigi and tenative on the weather Boys Tennis
is supposed to be this Thursday at bidi otherwise next Friday home versus achen still to come in April we have the academics academic excellence awards tonight math mca's job fair prom with
purpose and upcoming IB testing Jen thank you busy busy Place yeah um Tom do you have board report sure um
so I uh sat in on the district's half development meeting we had last uh think it was a couple weeks ago already um there was really good discussion there um a lot of discussion about the approval of Staff Development funds also
there was uh some good healthy discussion about some of the issues they've experienced with uh changes in our accounting softwares and really being able to monitor the funds so um we'll do some work and talking with
people on how we can make those uh reports a little little quicker and easier for them to make sure they're they're using their funds and not going over on their budgets with that so um it was a good discussion there uh also sat
in on the Big Fork School advisory which uh we received the report earlier from Mr dooster there and and again that that uh that group I really appreciate what what's going on there uh the community's been very
active in that um teachers and and I think there's good progress being made there in everything I've been involved with there so that's all I have Tom thank you actuallyy um well I was not able to attend the
wellness committee meeting this go around I had a sick child so I apologize that I do not have an update there um and then as you know uh Dave for the policy Review Committee U it was just you and I at that time and so um we did
go ahead and vote on some of the policies because there wasn't um uh there was not a whole lot of discussion that needed to be made so we did vote on some of those uh this evening but other than that that is that is my report it's very short very sweet actually thank you
Dave all right uh on March 13th I uh reached out to our state senators and representatives regarding the mascot bill which was Senate file 1404 um and then a couple days later was asked to testify via Zoom uh at the education finance committee in support
of that bill um I think the um testimony went well got some great questions great support from the senators and representatives on that committee which was great um also the I believe that the media around that was pretty positive
and kind of um standing up for our case for for that um hopefully uh it gets passed um in the Omnibus Bill it was laid over for that um also on the 18th I attended a rarts council meeting where I was appointed to the external Affairs
committee um I think we call it vol unold is what that's called um we had some initial discussions on the grant funds that we received from the blon foundation and that utilization I did attend the wellness committee but I don't recall all of what we talked about
it was a lot of learning and getting to know people so thank you uh for getting to know those folks uh on the 20th um I was able to attend with uh superintendent gross the Cohasset School of Excellence award celebration and let me tell you what an experience that was
um the entire student body sang the national anthem as loud as they possibly could which took I think both of us back um and then they got up on ukulele and played a song um there I really
struggled keeping dry eyes and I normally struggle with that but I really struggled there um incredible Pride from the kids and Staffing communities there principls Wheelock and seagull well done just incredible um I also happened to run into my fourth grade teacher Mr
lavalier who recognized me somehow which was a throwback it was pretty incredible um and then just like uh we said earlier a special shout out to the grandis high school band um who has 141 student staff and chapons in Hawaii right now and just
the logistics of that alone is incredible um they've worked tirelessly fundraising for this for the last three years to join the trip um I was able to watch a video of them performing at the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl
Harbor uh and these kids and staff represented our community incredibly well um a lot of honor and respect just heart goes out to them um thank you to the band directors parents staff and chaperons that came
together to make this incredible opportunity for these kids Mahal that's I got thank you Dave nice report uh very briefly on uh March 7th uh uh
superintendent Ross uh uh chairman schroer and I went to a tribal consultation at uh Fondulac uh it's an annual uh event where uh we meet with tribal leaders to talk about how uh our programs align and
support uh Indian education and uh it was very Illuminating uh very strong presentation uh March 10th was uh our joint day at the capol and several of us were there
to uh Express concerns and hopes uh concerning funding for our schools um the uh boys and girls club met on the 18th uh and again on the 24th uh did a
safety walkth through uh in the building uh the site for the boys and girls club right now is the uh uh Grand Rapids uh rja elkington middle school
and the Highlight for me was on the 28th uh the student of the month presentations last Friday uh the superintendent and I were there to see just some incredible stories about the great work that our students students
that don't always get recognized but are doing some really great work um as people uh as students and as community members it's great uh great opportunity superintendent do you have a
report yeah thank you I some of these things that you mentioned are really good to soak in and be reminded of that in the midst of Challenge and change and difficult decision uh our kids are awesome our staff are
awesome there's great things happening despite that stuff and it can be easy to get uh to forget about that so as much as you can to stay connected to things like School of Excellence celebrations and uh you know keep up with the band as
they're on their trip and representing our our district and schools well and student of the month that's all really really important uh our the the seasonal recreational tax replacement Aid bill is going to be heard in the tax committee tomorrow that's good the I think the
goal is that it will make it make its way into the tax bill I think that's the the path forward um hopefully there is a tax bill that doesn't have to be one and so I I think you know there's momentum there but there's a cost there too to
the state and so depending on how that gets framed whether it's focused on Northeastern Minnesota or more broadly I think that'll could affect that so uh something to keep an eye on uh the last few weeks for me have been occupying a lot of what we talked about tonight with
meetings with staff and um about what's happening and uh you know just a shout out to our administrators um they've been digging deep for years to to you know to come to these meetings
and talk about uh how they're going to run their buildings and uh make reductions and you know work with staff aren't maybe happy or pleased with the results of them and so my hats go off to them a lot of respect for our uh our
leaders in our district or principles and directors so want to mention that um let's see a couple other things were mentioned uh mca's coming up and are in swing um other than that I you know I
mentioned Federal impacts earlier but it's important to watch what what's happening and to keep our eyes open uh for years our country has taken a position that underserved students matter whether they have special needs
or don't speak English or um are who live in poverty and that's not the case in every country uh including many countries that we get compared to those students don't show up uh they're not even counted they don't exist in their
country's eyes and so I just hope that regardless of how these things shake out federally we won't lose sight of that we won't lose sight of these kids um we won't sight of lose sight of the fact that what's made America great is we've tried to keep everybody in mind um
whether they were immigrants from you know uh Eastern Europe a hundred years ago uh or from somewhere else and so um we've intentionally made those decisions as a country I hope we can continue to do that uh We've created programs and
services so those uh kids can contribute um meet their goals for their life and I think it'd be a shame if we got away from that or lost sight of that so hopefully we won't see that happen hopefully we'll continue to to fight for those things that matter most and and
that to me those kids those kids matter a lot that's all I have thank you uh anything else that should come before the board this
evening uh there are meeting announcements uh that are uh the agendas can be found on the district website and on dist designated posting sites at the
ISD 318 Educational Services Center uh all the board meetings and minutes are listed there uh if there's no other business We Stand adjourned thank you [Music]