##VIDEO ID:FT0crL42UN4## e e e e e e e e e e e good evening and welcome to this regular session of the Lake valer Schools Board of Education this meeting is officially called to order please rise and join in the Pledge of Allegiance flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all board members and attendance tonight include director kellerer director David Anderson chair Baker director Carly Anderson director Terry Lind the board is joined by interim superintendent Michael Balman and members of the executive cabinet Bill holgren Brenda alreck and Dr Emily McDonald we'll get started with good news thank you chair Baker good news from Lakeville Area Schools students of the month will start there Lakeville area schools has students of the month recognition program that highlights three students each month students can be nominated by anyone in the Lakeville area schools Community students staff families and our community members we are excited to announce that December student of the month is methun giri fourth grade cherry View Elementary and Chung Lynn uh sixth grader out of Century Middle School and Ava Taylor a ninth grader from Lakeville North High School so congratulations to those students staff of the month Lakeville Area Schools is excited to have a monthly recognition program that also highlights our staff members they can be nominated by anyone in the Lakeville area schools Community we're excited to announce that December's staff are Bethany Lola learning specialist at High View Elementary and Jeff Monson who's a parir professional at Maguire middle school so congratulations to them as well Lakeville South Encore nominated for best rock video If you haven't seen it please do it's worth your time it's not a long time congratulations to Lakeville South High School Encore whose music video The pretend originally performed by Foo Fighters professional group uh has been nominated for best rock video at the 2025 Acappella Video Awards this project was a collaboration between Lakeville South High Schools talented students and Industry professionals with Creative Vision hard work and passion coming together to produce an extraordinary uh production let's celebrate and cheer Encore on as they represent Lakeville South on the national stage to see the full list of nominees visit casa.org or casa.org and you can read more about the amazing things that are happening across our district at isd194.org newws that is good news Madam chair thank you very much oops sorry microphone wasn't on uh for board Communications tonight we have not had any uh participants recently with uh public comment or our stakeholder session so we don't have any information to update from that um do any board members have information from uh committee hearings that they've attended recently committee hearings councils sorry Dr Carly Anderson I will just share I was at the mdcc the multi-district collaborative council is that what those stands for um uh last week and we actually met in Burnsville we collaborate with um District 1 191 for that and it was great just to hear um different things that the two districts are doing with regard to um Equity planning and the AI plan and um just changes that have occurred in both districts so seems like there are some similar issues that um ideas were being generated and it was a great group to be a part of all right thank you very much for that update um at 9917 we just did our big board evaluation so we'll be going over those results in Jan anyway that was a big thing all right thank you very much uh go ahead is your mic on there we go we also had uh the Minnesota School Board Association legislative delegate assembly um last weekend Friday and Saturday and so Friday night the speaker that they had was um Professor David Schultz to talk about kind of an update on um what the future looks like with um the forecast for school funding and so forth and with the state of our legislature they're not expecting us to really know what our funding is um by the time we have to have our budgets approved so that should be interesting superintendent Bowman um and then um Saturday we spent um six or seven hours doing the um um setting the platform and establishing things for our lobbyists to um uh Lobby for on behalf of our school districts around finances and some of the um things support services and stuff that our teachers need so we'll see some of that come out throughout the session thank you for that update director Lind did you have anything nope okay well it is an exciting day today and at the end of our meeting um we will look forward to honoring our outgoing board members and then it's also an exciting week in the district for everyone as we get ready for a winter break I'm sure all their staff and teachers are well aware that the kids are very excited about that um so we'll go ahead and move on to uh the agenda uh we don't have any agenda additions tonight so do I have a motion to approve our agenda for tonight so moved motion by director Lind do we have a second I'll second second by director David Anderson any discussion on the agenda okay hearing none we'll put it to a vote all in favor of approving the agenda say I I I all opposed motion car car 60 or 5 sorry not used to being down a member um do we have uh are there any items that board members would like to remove from the consent agenda for further discussion nope okay do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll make a motion motion by director kellerer do we have a second I'll second second by director Carly Anderson um any discussion on the consent agenda okay hearing none we'll put it to a vote all in favor say I I I all opposed motion carries 5 Z for the consent agenda uh we don't have any items to discuss then for the consent agenda so we'll move on to reports this would be our truth and Taxation hearing pay 25 tax levy and this will be um by Bill and uh Bill hram and interim superintendent Michael Balman my goodness I'm having issues tonight thanks for your patience all right uh can we get the charts up um I just want to introduce the topic uh and um cover down on on just the beginning of this uh we all know that in in our community uh we have this requirement to do truth and Taxation and what it essentially is is sharing about uh our our um what our taxes are within um the community so uh we're required between November 25th and the December 28th to conduct this uh opportunity for our community uh has to happen after 6:m I think uh 1908 708 uh we can uh meet that requirement we may be part of regularly scheduled meeting and that's what we are doing here tonight and must allow for public comments which we in fact will do uh we may adopt the final Levy at this meeting so um we're going to also talk about current year budget and proposed property taxes as part of this uh presentation next chart so this is our agenda some background information District's budget District proposed tax levy for taxes paid in 2025 or pay 25 uh Levy and then uh listen for public comments next chart please so the Minnesota Legislature this is the the uh directive that we have and the requirement that we have that our uniform system of public schools we have to uh we we get from the Minnesota Constitution our funding through taxation and this is just a a quote that identifies that in in our um requirements as a school system in the state of Minnesota so the state sets our formulas which determine revenue and most revenue is based on specif ified amounts per pupil our enrollment drives our funding is the is the basic message there a tax policy for local schools also is set by the state and maximum authorized property tax allowance or authorization is also set by the states and districts can Levy less but not more uh than that uh authorized amount that the state sets so State also authorizes our school board to submit referendums for operating in capital needs to vote voters for approval which is what people classically understand as a referendum or a levy uh vote uh and so that's all part of the process and then uh I'm going to have Bill dive into the the details here but again we take taxes very seriously in this community we as a school system have to uh report to our our constituents uh our our community members and that's what this represents this evening and so uh hopefully we can learn something if not learn something hear something so thank you madam chair members of the school board superintendent bman um yes tonight we're going to talk about the pieces that go into our budget and this is just something we like to remind everybody of that the state of Minnesota really hasn't funded school districts um at least up to the level of inflation since 2003 which has been quite a few years years now this past year the year that we're in right now we had we got a 2% increase from the state of Minnesota which amounted to $143 um per student um but if we would have kept up with inflation over the years we'd have another $1,356 per Pupa unit which would generate um for the school district another $18 million so the Gap there is considerable and that's why you see uh many many school districts go off for operating levies to try to fill that Gap here's a chart over over that period of year of course the Orange is what we've received for the Min state of Minnesota as you know a year ago we had a bigger increase than we've saw for many many years and if you look very close you can see a little tiny blip up on the orange but you see what happened with inflation what happened with the actual cost of what we need to do um was very huge so the Gap actually widened over the last couple years instead of getting any better with the new funding from the state of Minnesota the other area we're really underfunded is special education um in in 22 cost of providing programs were underfunded across the state of Minnesota by $712 million and still now when we look at 2027 even after the recent funding we received new funding for special education I'm still short over $400 million to $48 million so um for for the school district um that Gap is still about $6 million so quite a few bit of funds that we have to sub subsidize from the general fund to cover our costs and special education one thing to keep in mind you know we talk about the levy it goes up it goes down there's all these reasons that it does so but just because that happens it doesn't mean we have less or more money lots of times what we see is a a revenue neutral situation where the state of Minnesota gives us a new Levy dollars but then on the backside and the aid side they actually take dollars away um so I just um want people to understand that um and and again our expend our expenditure budget is limited by state set Revenue formulas of course based on the number of students we have um and then plus the voter approved levies and fund balance of course limits it too um okay ly Cycles a little different when we look at school districts compared to cities and counties the city and counties are going through their their tax um um hearings right now also but those dollars are immediately for their new budget which starts at January 1st um in school districts our fiscal year runs from July through June so that when we talk about the levy tonight none of these dollars are available available to us to weit next July is for the fiscal 26 school year now tonight um you know for for fiscal 26 we don't have our budget in place yet we'll be working on that over the next uh few months uh so that the budget information we talk about tonight is our current budget the budget we're in we're in our fifth month um well actually our sixth month is December I guess um at this point but um when we look at a at a school district we do fund accounting so our general fund is in a fund Food Services in a fund and so on and what's um very important to understand is the general fund can help out all the other funds but we can't take funds from any of the other funds and help in the general fund um it's only a one-way Street when it comes to Dollars being transferred between funds to help out now this is our um current year budget when you look at the more of the pink well red area that's how we ended up last year so you look across that Top Line under general fund you know that we started fiscal 24 with a fund balance about a million dollars and now um through this past year it grew to about 16 million uh so our financial position is better than it was uh the year that we're in you'll see that we're anticipating about a $2 million increase in our fund balance and as we talked last month um we really are seeing our budget performing well and we expect that to be a little bit more and we expect our fund balance uh to be back above 5% um which matches the uh board policy to have 5% of our previous year's expenditures uh you know in the bank when we look at student nutrition you'll see um that fund that's that fund continues to increase um as you know all of breakfast lunch everything is free now and those reimbursement rates that the state is giving us and the federal government is giving us are larger than they were before so as we see a a large increase and actually participation we have a lot more students eating um plus that higher um reimbursement rates you'll see that that we expect that uh fund balance to increase again um this is an area we are trying to use all we can to take care of any type of equipment needs that we need um you know of our buildings a little older and we're replacing everything we keep because the state really is going to come back we expect in about 12 months and tell us that we have to go back to the same funding level or the the amount that we can leave in the bank down to only three months and we're by far over that at this point so we're trying to use those so so we fall within line now Community Service uh you see if you look back back in the beginning of 24 you see that that fund balance was actually in the hole and that's because of the pandemic um all those Pro not all but by far the majority of the programming that happens in in the community service fund um is based on the revenue they get so when the pandemic came and people started coming and stopped coming and using um those programs we lost our Revenue but we still had the payments to go out so that hurt their fund quite a bit but this past year you can see they increased their fund balance by $400,000 um the budget we have in place is to improve a little bit but um this fund now is is behaving in a way that it was before the pandemic and we expect that to be higher than that at the end of this year uh building fund all our funds run through here for any type of building project that we have um including our ltfm funds um so a lot of volume there but of course we see that fund balance coming down quite a bit but that to be expected as we finished up our brand new elementary school um those funds now have been used and now it's really the ltfm running through that um that fund or in the next uh near near term our our debt service fund as you know this fund is only for paying debt so we Levy the all we need to do is to pay bonds that we owe at this time now as I've talked in the past um the school district is allowed to Levy actually 105% um the reason for that is in case someone or a group of people does not pay their taxes in time we don't want to be short funds to make those payments um so what happens as that fund balance builds up a little bit we actually give it back we we you know doesn't just grow and grow and grow so anyway so we we Levy a little extra just to make sure we're safe but you see we have a nice um healthy fund balance there at $5 million uh trust fund all the funds that run through here are all our scholarship funds these are donated funds from community members um and what we what this particular fund does is it it any increase or any interest we receive that is what's used for the scholarship so the the base or the principle stays in that fund for future uh generation the internal service fund what that is is actually our self um insurance program for both health and dental this is something we started about 5 years ago as being self-funded and this fund balance has grown very healthily now that we expect to be about four about $75 million dollar at the end of this year and it's almost to that place where we can really use it to try to subsidize some of our future um premium so very very good news and we'll look at that so overall you see that the this year the budget is just under $300 million um for fiscal 25 I'll just give a little perspective on this on the sizes of the different funds you can see here all here's all our revenues all our funds you see that the general fund is by far uh the biggest portion we have $29 million flowing through the general fund and you can see the second biggest portion is actually our internal service fund or our our health insurance dental insurance um they're at $33 million um and then of course the third is a Debt Service the rest are smaller amounts but you get give you a little bit of perspective on on the volume of the funds when we look at only at the general fund you again you see the state by far gives us the biggest piece of that pie and the local has our taxes invol in included in that and the tax portions about $50 million so about you know about a quarter when you look at the expenditure side you see of course we are a people business and you look at the salaries and wages you look at the benefits by far you know three qus of that budget is just is just for Staffing um for for our students and support of our students um when you look at uh the purchase Services a lot you know H biggest piece of that is our transportation for um transporting our our students this Debt Service piece here is not is not The Debt Service fund we just talked about is just Debt Service that happens in the in the general fund when we look at a by a program level instead of the object level again you see regular instruction you take regular instruction and you take the special education as by far the largest piece of our of our budget when you look at pupil support what that is our is our libraries it's all of our our our um um technology all our devices for our students um things like that that's what fits in there and then uh a district well I guess I want to point out the administration um here is we're running about 2% of our total budget is on 2% is on Administration shifting over um looking at our property taag so what we're going to look at is you know how these numbers determined and we're going to compare from last year to this year any type of changes when we look at the the levy and of course reasons that happen happens and then talk about our taxpayers and how that impacts our our taxpayers when we look at uh property tax background you know every every um owner of property is taxed by by very U different authorities you the city the county and sort of school districts and Special Districts um but any anyway each taxing jurisdiction sets their own tax levy and it's based pretty much always on limits of whatever the law law allows us to do and of course then the county sends out the bills they collect the funds and then they distribute those dollars to those different taxing authorities in November you should have received a tax statement that looked similar to this um that is always sent out between November 11th and 24th and that's going to tell you the different tax taxing jurisdictions that your particular property sits in and it's going to show you last year's taxes and this so you can see the changes um from year to year okay for school district um there's actually 40 different um categories or revenue streams that are taxed on um here in Lakeville we don't have 40 but we do have 30 it's quite a few different revenue streams um that come into the district and again as superintendent bman said earlier the maximum Levy amounts are calculated by mde these these amounts aren't generated by the by the school district they come from mde and they're set in in in statute by the state of Minnesota so it comes from state law and of course there is voter approval pieces which we have some operating levies which we've asked the voters in the past um for some funds and and we'll talk about what those funds are and then we'll talk about key steps here on the next slide of how that works so we are actually a small piece of this process but again the city or county assessor in our in our situation they estimate the market value on every single parcel of property in in their particular um jurisdiction um the legislature sets the formulas for tax capacity and the school district levy limits and then the county auditor calculates what that tax is on each partial of property the Minnesota Department of Education calculates our detailed Levy limits on each of each one of those revenue streams based on formulas approved by the leg legislation and almost almost 100% of all those formuls has a has an enrollment number from us in that of course the school board adopts a proposed uh Levy in September when we first get the first numbers that goes to the county so they can look at what those Levy amounts are going to be on all those different parcels and then they send out those tax statements in in the November and they collect it um next year we look at the uh kind of the timeline of each year um September 8th of each year is when the school district gets information from um the Minnesota Department of Education uh telling us what we're eligible for um I brought that back to the school board here the 24th of September as a preliminary Levy to go through these amounts and these amounts have been saying these dollar amounts we're going to talk about tonight are exactly the same as we had back in September and then of course um that information is used for for the county to send out the property tax statements so everybody can see what they expect to pay and then now tonight December 17th where we have a have a hearing now talking about these taxes and then the it'll follow up with the board um certifying that Levy now overall uh this year um we can say that our our taxes actually are going down they are not going up we're seeing a small decrease in our Levy here up $281,000 which is about a third of 1% and over the last few years the inflation that we've saw we've saw some increases so this is kind of nice to see that we uh bringing forward a levy that does not have an increase um so unless you have a huge change and you did something to your home that really increased its value you will not see an increase from the school district and I can't say the same for all all the counties and cities but from the school district you won't see an increase now I'm going to briefly just walk through these different um streams you an idea of um um the dollars that we do Levy now this first section that says unassigned components these are dollars that school district can use for whatever means they see fit so it's mainly goes into education uh for our students and you can see that number four that's the operating levies that have been passed in the past and that generates about 40 $24 million um the local optional Revenue now that's is a levy that the state of Minnesota has allowed school districts on to Levy it was mainly put in place for school districts that could not get a levy pass they could not get an operating levy pass and they said you're allowed to Levy $724 per pable unit without having to go to the voter in our case since we had operating levies they take $724 out of our operating Levy and put in here so we'll have this um L Levy it's permanent at this point but it's $724 total um the hard part about this is we have inflation figured into operating levies and in this situation there is no inflation figured in that 724 it's just the same amount each year um transition um we have a small here amount here of about 15,000 there was a change in the way they formulated these dollars a few years back and they um they're keeping um schools held harmless so we get that extra $15,000 at this point um equity revenue is also a piece of that Lo so as actually as new operating levies come up for us us and we pass new ones the equity Levy actually goes down if we get to the maximum amount that we could actually Levy we would not get any Equity Levy at all okay assigned components of course these are components that uh are restricted they can only be used um for these particular uh programs so you see the achievement integration here we're leving about $560,000 and there is a a Aid component to this where we have 1/3 here levied and 2/3 is comes from the state of Minnesota so it's about $1.6 million that we have for that program our safe schools these are the dollars that we are allowed to Levy for our SRO officers when you see District 9917 that's an intermediate District that we are a member of we have several members other districts around us that are members of District 97 but they don't have any Levy Authority so we all Levy a small amount from all of those different uh member districts and then that those funds are transferred to District 917 for that same purpose that save schools in this in this situation vocational there is a small reimbursement piece vocational this doesn't come close to covering our actual cost but it does helps you see we get about a half million dollars through Levy for our vocational program uh Reemployment these are this is really a reimbursement um for us these are dollars that we had to pay out to to to the state of Minnesota uh for employees that uh were eligible for unemployment uh Q comp this is a uh staff development training um piece of our budget and again two-thirds of these dollars actually come from the state of Minnesota a third of it um here is levied so we get about $3 million a year for qcom opab other post employment benefits these are really health benefits that go to our retired employ es um lots of our contracts have they're eligible for a certain period of time after they retired to help with their health um costs and that's what this that's what these dollars go for uh lease Levy this is a these are leases that we have for different pieces of property where we have education going on so uh for an example the office building for our community education is leased and we're we're able to Levy the dollars here to make those payments the building that we're in there's a small piece in here that's actually technical technically um education based and is mainly the um classroom for the online program and so forth so we're able to to lease and make those payments um these other the other areas here we can see it's you know it's $2.8 million it gets to be kind of a big number um but these are also the additions on our elementaries that we put on the last few years um the payments um on those additions are included here in the lease Levy and Lease Levy again for district 9917 again they don't own their buildings their building builds are leased and then we make these payments um help them make those payments I'm moving on to the last portion of the general fund uh again these are assigned on components also but it's all capital related um our operating capital is based on how old our buildings are so every single year that we go down the road all our buildings get a year older we get a little bit more to help maintain those buildings uh so that's what you're seeing here small increase our ltfm or long-term facil maintenance dollars um these this is the portion that runs through the general fund again these dollars are used um 100% for just maintenance of our buildings and keep them going capital projects Levy this is the only area of the of the levy where there's a flat rate tax rate so this is one area where actually if if we see our next tax net tax capacity growing that re Remains the Same so we see small increase here you there are 300,000 but if you look back up on top you look I mean you're seeing here we have a decrease here $2.3 million um really this is a lot to do with the change in our enrollment where we know we saw about a two to two and a half% increase over the last few years and now this the year that we're in has slowed immensely um so that's why you're seeing a negative $887,000 on under prior adjustments on top so this is primarily the change in the general fund a decrease of 2.3 million million when we go move on to community service um this is a lot smaller piece of the levy but um community service has a small Levy to take care of the programming um mainly their U their staffing needs so you see there are about $400,000 for the basic Levy and you see the youth service after school these are so many dollars per capita and that's um you see we have a small increase in those two areas because we have our our population growth continues here in Lakeville Early Childhood this is an area where you really you see an increase here of 34,000 but on the backside there is a decrease on the on the uh on the aid so this is one place we really see that fluctuating on a year on a yearly basis but overall we get about the same amount um home home visits and the disabled adults these are just actual reimbursements of the actual dollars that we spent in these areas school age care this uh Levy is for special ed school special education students who participate in the before and after school uh program uh so overall you're seeing a small increase here um in the community service and this is primarily due to the um the negative adjustment we had last year and that had to do during the pandemic where we spent a lot less money than we anticipated so we had to give that money back now this year went back to the regular amount so it looks like an increase but it's really back to where we were on debt service um again the first line these are the actual bonds we're paying on our buildings and the second line are bonds that we've borrowed to do our ltfm uh program um so again we're making payments here at $22.6 million um for next year in in 26 so overall we see a a levy of 78 million where last year we had 78 285 so a decrease of 281 which is just about a third of 1% de increase now I just want to briefly just talk about you know how does this affect different Property Owners um because the only time you really see a change in your your property is if you actually do something to make the value more especially in this District where we've saw our net tax capacity growing and growing a lot of new housing a lot of new U properties coming on the roles that L lots of times will tell you an increase but your actual increase is smaller because that it's getting spread out for over more and more and more uh buildings but again for the school district that doesn't generate us more funds when we have more property because we're still based on how many students we have little different than the counties and the and the cities okay so the the only increas is that you know we would see like this year we you know we went out for a levy but it did not pass it would have pass then we would have saw an increase here in our operating portion of the of the levy so everybody gets to pay a piece gets to pay a piece of the pie so I hope you all like looks like we have some pumpkin pie here so um we got through Thanksgiving so far anyway so if you have a higher market value you pay bigger piece of the pie lower of course is less a quick example if we had two properties in the particular um uh District each of them was valued at $100,000 and we have a levy of $500 well that's going to be split right down the middle um because they're both valued at the exact same amount so each would pay $250 but say the next year the orange house increased by 10% but the blue house increased by 25% then you would actually see a decrease in taxes for the orange house because their portion of the pie is smaller than the blue house okay now we're going to look at some comparisons now I did leave some handouts I should have no I should have mentioned that earlier the the detail of the different funding streams was on a sheet now by the door but we also have um this chart there too so you can see what's happened over taxes over the last last few years and this is taking consideration of if your value remained the same so you can see change in taxes from 24 to 25 which is the Year we're talking about right now um you see that a house valued there at 250,000 is going to drop about $103 our uh median um valued home in in this districts right around 450,000 um so our you know the the middle of the road there we're seeing about $153 less in taxes going into um calendar year 25 so overall you know we haven't saw huge increases you saw a small Inc decrease last year and of course again this year here to break it down and look at a little different way um you can see we broke the we have the values here a 350 and 400,00 ,000 so you can see here um so 24 we saw and for a value of 350 we're seeing about $2,000 tax um um liability where this year is dropping down to $1850 so it's that 100 about that $150 decrease here you can see a little higher values of the homes you see of course a higher higher valued home pays a little more tax you see in 24 at that median level that 450,000 um this past year was about $ 2580 where next year looks like 24 26 just to give you an idea What's happen to your taxes if you sit on pretty close to those values now if we do look at what's happened with our net tax capacity um over the last few years we definitely see some growth um again though when you look at calendar year 25 we're seeing decreases in the taxes paid again 350 and four and we move ahead to uh here the medium value here of $450,000 there that decrease of over $100 I always like to um just make some mention of the of the um credits if you're eligible for them um there is a for everybody that's got homesteaded property um you might be eligible for a refund up to a maximum of uh $3,140 um or renters up to 2400 but it is based on your income so as you have higher income it gets harder to get these refunds there's a special property tax refund that everybody's available for so if you have a six at least a 6% increase in your taxes and over $100 you can get up to 60% of that back up to a maximum of $2,500 now in this case from the school district we don't see that increase this year but I'm not sure what the county county and City have for you now there is a senior citizen property tax deferral um for some of our senior citizens who want to help help with their taxes they can defer some of their taxes over a period of years but your income has to be under $96,000 on a yearly basis um but the the caveat here is when that property gets sold or the or the homeowner passes away then that taxes due at that time plus any interest but not but this is something that some people have have taken advantage of okay now at this time we'll take any any comments from the um from the community and then uh we'll go on and look at certifying the the levy after that um we ask anybody that comes up this evening to give their name and their address um and open go ahead and come forward hi my name is Ben Pierce I live at 18142 Headwaters Drive in Lakeville um wanted to go over a few things that were discussed so the last two meetings that I've gone to for truth and Taxation I've noticed there's some hidden assumptions that are built into these projections one of them is that if the district population is increasing therefore the school district enrollment is increasing I didn't see any slides with enrollment this year so I'm curious if enrollment increased this year the other thing I wanted to bring up is there's another big hidden assumption which is that if we're not getting enough money from the state or the federal government the only way we can get that revenue is to just raise the property taxes but we've got a lot of Assets in the district I've seen in the community ed guides there's a few open gym sessions they had this fall where people pay a few bucks bring their kids when it's cold and they can Bounce Around the gym I think that's something that the district should do way more turn it into a business basically make it so that maybe they do a revenue split of 50/50 or 6040 with the company that has bouncy houses and stuff bring them in the gym have parents come in in wintertime I take my kid to one of those places um but the school district could easily convert their gym into something like that and if there's a concern about having District residents get a chance to use the space they would get first dibs if they want to book the place two weeks ahead of time otherwise it should be used for maybe like a business split where someone has like a contractor comes in with the bouncy houses I think that would be a great way to do things um I'm also curious where the district's parking its Cash Money Market funds you know if you go to like Vanguard or Fidelity they'll pay you 5% I don't think the district has to pay taxes on the interest it gets so where are we parking the cash are we getting 5% interest or are we just leaving it with the bank like Wells Fargo to take care of and then they collect the difference thank you are there any other citizens that would like to participate in public comment related to the tax levy no bill for that enrollment question I thought we were short like 250 students this year is that correct yeah we we we actually had a report we actually had a report last meeting on our enrollment our enrollment has slowed as I mentioned earlier uh tonight we saw two 2 and a half% increase on a yearly basis for a few years um we are seeing that much smaller this year and our projection going forward is at about a 1% increase um for future years okay thank you and I would just ask the board uh tonight to um um certify the levy um I should the amount can I ask one more question before you do all that did you wish to address the for public comment yeah am I able to do sure I'll allow it I try not to bang the gavl no just a question uh J Olson 9 280 Overland Drive how much what's the cost per student we got so many students we got so many dollars going what what's like an enrollment figure what's the cost per student that was thank you I'm just I guess to reference that question um the exact amount is in our annual report which is on our website we just brought forward the annual report here this last month um we receive like we talked about earlier about $7,200 in the state of Minnesota and we look at our operating levies um we get about $ 13 more100 uh per student but when you look through all those other pieces of revenue streams it is about $10,000 that is spent on a student on a yearly basis thank you and then the what I like the board to um certify tonight is a total Levy of $78 mil3 I mean $3,251 do board members have any questions or comments I will make a recommendation to certify the pay 25 tax levy with the amount as indicated by Mr hram okay so we have a recommendation um to certify the levy um making a motion for that correct director Keller yes um is there a second for that a second second by director Carly Anderson any further discussion go ahead Carly can I just ask one clarifying question based on what you said if I'm doing my math right we're getting $99,000 per student but they but the cost is $10,000 per student is that what you just said that's no when you add the other revenue streams in we're getting 10,000 oh okay yeah I and we're spending we're spending the same amount as we're bringing in when you look at our our budget we're looking at our fund balance of increasing about $2 million but that's about a 1% difference from revenue to expenditures thank you director Lind I think a point should be made that's an average 10,000 we're spending more on secondary than we are on Elementary and we're getting more money for secondary than we get for elementary that is correct um students who are seventh grade and higher and in age um get a a waiting factor of 1.2 so yes the the amount that we actually receive for a high school student is around $8500 for the elementaries at the 71 thank you that's Revenue per student mind is that the same as a cost for student or is a different I it's so much revenue yeah our our our budget right now is we are spending almost the same amount as we're bringing in um but there is less expenditures than Revenue by about 1% any further questions from the board okay so hearing that we have a first and a second we will put it to a vote all in favor of passing the um the pay 25 tax levy say I I all opposed motion carries 5 thank you certifying the levy sorry our next item on the agenda for discussion is the um Lassa contract settlement and Brenda will be um sharing some information on that with the board good evening Madam chair superintendent Bowman and members of the school board you have before you this evening approval of the Lassa contract this is our uh principals and other administrators um the district has reached a tentative agreement with Lassa for the 2426 collective bargaining agreement highlights of the negotiated agreement include longevity at years 10 and 15 of continued service and an increase to the salary schedule of 2.25% year 1 of the contract and 4.75% year 2 of the contract the total package cost of the settlement is within board parameters at 8.36% and the settlement is is recommended for approval okay do you have any comments or questions from board members no do we have a motion to approve the last of contract settlement I'll make a motion have a motion by director David Anderson second second by director Lind any further questions okay hearing none we'll put it to a vote all in favor say I I I all opposed motion carries 5 Z thank you the last item that we have for discussion tonight is the superintendent contract um I will go ahead and open up the floor for the board to discuss director kellerer so thank you um um it's uh um one of the things that I see um with the evaluation or the um I'm sorry the contract that we have here is under the evaluation section um and you um I would like to see that uh edited it says right now that the school board shall oversee direct and evaluate the superintendent's performance as the school board sees fit and in um the superintendent's prior contract and um in what I would like to propose is that we be a little bit more specific about the school board will evaluate the superintendent's performance following each contract year I think that's important to make sure that we commit to reviewing him on an annual or the the superintendent on an annual basis and I would also like to add that the evaluation tool and timeline will be developed by the school board with input from the superintendent um I think it's important that we maintain our managerial rights but I think it's also important to indicate that we want um input from the superintendent on the process and the timeline to make sure that it is aligned with what our systems are the rest of our system is aligned doing and um they are aligning to the Strategic plan and to the board goals so in the end I would prefer that section two under the evaluation state that the school board will evaluate the superintendent performance each contract year the evaluation tool and timeline will be developed by the school board with input from the superintendent and again that's statements was in his prior contract and so that's what I would like that to read and if um the board is comfortable with that and the rest of the contract um I would be comfortable moving forward with this agreement I I agree with that addition there any other additions from the board or questions I know I did have um we move the February 1 I was just going to mention that uh director Thompson had um asked if we would move up the date I think it is it February 1st right now yes um what I'm referring to is the date on the contract that states when uh the superintendent would let the board know um that they would not be seeking an additional um three-year term and the contract date is uh February 1st and director Thompson had brought up a very valid point that the Board needs to start are early in the process to to look for a search firm and and kind of start that process if the superintendent is not wishing to extend um or seek another contract so he was asking if we could move that date up to January 1st or I said December 1 you said December 1st but he said January 1st I think December would be good thoughts um I would agree that that could be moved up and should be moved up um I think um I believe now that I'm thinking about it um the prior contract that we had in place with superintendent Balman was in January sometime janary near mid to end of January so I think it was like prior to like what our work session would have been so that if that whatever that notification was we would be have have time in that January session to discuss it so moving that date up to like January 15th or something like that I think might be fair and viable if that's agreeable with superintendent Balman director Carly Anderson yeah the only I mean I don't know what is fair in terms of and Mr Bowman feel free to weigh in here but um I feel like we had said we really wanted to get things going this year you know in October November um we DEC like January feels like we would really be behind the eightball if we had to go out and do a search so I'm not sure that necessarily would most of our prior superintendence and process it's a little bit of a little bit of a different timeline than when we're doing Staffing Staffing we like to start to be able to do for our teachers and our staff early in February so that we can get out above or before the group and I know we're work looking to try move that into January but with the superintendence if that notification comes in January the employment of a search firm or whatever that process is can almost start immediately and can be completed um within easily within 30 days and um and most superintendant usually come on on board and J July 1st so that gives you plenty of time to be able to do that and still be seeking superintendence before they get taken up by other districts that seems to be a viable timeline and if we put our date as like we would like to know by January 1st then i' obviously they would let us know before that so um that would get that would put us within the same time frame that we I think you have to actually make the date a non holiday though so I so I think you got to go like you know into the first Monday of January type of thing um after July January first well I don't know that there technically is but that would be the fair thing to do is to Monday of January after the first Monday after January 1st you say something like that first Monday or whenever is VI like the when a sitting superintendent is aware that they won't be going for another contract just to like some terminology just to reflect like when they've made that decision you can say no later then yes so they don't wait till then okay that makes sense to me any further comments or questions I'll second Judy's motion I don't think she made a motion yet did you I said I would I would move forward if everybody else was in agreement with that all right so um and do we need to amend that motion to add the date on there because we change that after the motion um I I suppose we could but yes so that we have um the change that I had as well as the change and I'm sorry how do you have that worded um which one January the January 1st I put the um no later than uh the first Monday of January or the first Monday after January 1st yep yes no later than the first Monday after January 1st y does that make sense yes okay yes all right so I do make a motion to accept those edits to this contract and I make a motion to then move the contract forward with those edits and I'll second so we have a motion by director kellerer and a second by director David Anderson any further disc discussion on uh the superintendent contract okay hearing none we'll put it to a vote all in favor say I I I I all opposed motion carries 5 Z all right uh we do not have any additions to the agenda tonight um so we'll move on to the superintendent's report and outgoing board member appreciation um I'll go ahead and start that off if you don't mind um we have a a little bit different um award ceremony than than we have done in the past I I had reached out to someone within the district to U make the board member um appreciation plaques this year so I'm thrilled to recognize the incredible work of Kevin bass and his student Joshua steinhardt who have crafted these beautiful personalized plaques for our retiring Lakeville area school board members these plaques are more than just a thought ful gift they works of art that showcase Cutting Edge skills and tools handcrafted at Lakeville North they were cut with a waterjet cutter for pres Precision a UV printer for detailed Graphics welders for structural elements and more each plaque is a testament to The Innovation and crafts craftsmanship fostered in our stem classrooms this project is a perfect example of what makes Lakeville stem programs Exceptional from Advanced Equipment to Hands-On learning our students aren't just sitting in classrooms they're actively solving problems creating real world projects and gaining skills that prepare them for high demand careers whether it's designing engineering programming or collaborating these experiences set our students apart as we celebrate our retiring board members tonight let these plaques also remind us of the amazing opportunities Lakeville students have to grow innovate and lead the future is bright because of programs like these um and I I think is a wonderful Testament to um the board members that are going out it's one thing that uh director Lind and director kellerer and director David Anderson have always said um is that we need to to focus our discussion around students and make sure that we're talking about what's best for students and what a better way to do that than to have the students help make their Awards pass it on to you thank you do you wanna I will uh I'm going to go up up to the regular Podium go for it [Music] we're still in session is that correct that is correct all right I want to say to uh director Anderson uh director kellerer and director Lynn um got a lot years um that we can go back and and share so I apologize I'm I'm trying to stay a little composed here but um I think director kellerer you've been here forever close to 28 years I think is is what the math is yes um and director Lynn um I know you're more than 50 years in this District in some capacity um and director Anderson before you came on the board the years of support and service and your um dedication to the community and and and then coming on the school board just it's hard to say goodbye farewells are always difficult and I know you're just going off off of the board and you'll still be in the community and I do also want to say director Lewis is sitting right here and many years with you as well and I know she wanted to be here for you um and thank you for coming we appreciate that um from Administration we I just want to say um beyond the words of thank you the gratitude that we have for your service and um to our our listening public and and those that are here this evening um service to the community is one of the most important things I think we can do um In Our Lifetime and you all have stepped up and done that in a magnificent manner I know it's there's all kinds of challenges and and we all know what they are um but your heart and your commitment um is is a is exemplary beyond the words that I can really muster and say because they're they're in my heart I think in our administrators across the the system our staff even though it's bumpy ride it's a heartfelt uh thank you and congratulations uh on your service um service to the community is is just beyond anything that I can I could ever ask of a of a fellow Community member so so thank you for that and those of you that are sitting on the board now and Dr Anderson and uh and uh Kim Baker our board chair I share that sentiment with you as well um service over self is a is a really important example to set for all of our young people and so thank you for setting that example and and doing that um as well as you have and uh I also know there's a lot of personal sacrifice that's involved in this um if nothing more nothing else there's there's an incredible amount of time what what we see on on board nights and work sessions there's committees and there's all kinds of other community events that you have to be engaged in and um so there's a a personal sacrifice that each of you give um and and we are very appreciative um these these uh Minnesota state um gifts from from uh your board colleagues are uh they speak for themselves um we have a card to give each of you uh that's that's our saying thank you um to you but again from our heart thank you so much for everything you tell thanks foring back you g to present it to them can hand it to heavy I Judy first she's been really I think it says on here 27.5 years 27.5 years so that gets in the record thank you thank [Applause] you Lyn I know it only says 12 but we know it's like 70 right feels [Applause] like and then director Anderson it says four but we know it's more like 20 right thank [Applause] you before we um go to adjournment I would like to give um an opportunity for each board me member outgoing board member to um say something at this time if they would like to uh director kellerer is there anything that you would like to say I'll let Terry Lynn start thank you or Dave oh thanks a lot or Dave all right um I've been here for a long long long time picture 1968 I got hired as a seventh grade English and social studies teacher it was it was a block program I had the same kids for English and for social studies that was Innovative back then um there were three buildings in the district Maguire Middle School I hate to interrupt I was going to ask if that was the one room schoolhouse what McGuire Middle School was a was Lakeville Junior Senior High and the board officers were in there the D was in there and the midle the junior high and the high school was in there Orchard Lake was a there were two two elementaries one was Orchard Lake without the media center and the other one was JFK half of JFK because the north half was being built in ' 68 the southern south half was already built so anyway um going to be short what it is going to be short it's enjoyable sorry I had around 50% all the seventh graders in the district that's how big the school was um that year I was drafted in December the school board got an extension for me until the end of the school year I then joined the US Air Force for four years as a Chinese linguist and the board gave me a military leave so I had a guaranteed job when I came back uh I returned roughly to the same position in 1973 and stayed there till the middle 80s where I became a media specialist at Orchard Lake then in 1994 I was principal at JFK that was for four years in 98 I moved over to Lake View and retired from there in 11 and then lucky me got elected to school board in 2012 for 12 years as a teacher principal and School Board member over 50 years I've learned a few things that I want to share especially with new board members number one teachers principles support staff parents and district office Personnel all want what's best for kids I believe this common theme is what's made this District so great and this needs to continue number two as I've said many times politics has no place in schools political agendas most often do not take into consideration what's best for kids but what's best for the political organization this may be poana or naive approach on my part since especially now since political groups are centering on electing their supporters to school boards Across the Nation However I truly believe that politics and schools divides communities and has a negative impact on our students three remember there's always two sides to every problem or challenge seek out both sides before making any decisions my experience has shown me that both sides have valid points which needs to be considered and used to find common ground for consensus also all sides need to feel that they have ownership in the final decision four all of us need to remember that school boards are different than other elected governmental entities like city council or state legislature School boards deal with only with governance and not with administrative actions when I was first elected to the school board I came with approaches I was going to solve everybody's problems you know whether it was a concern with the staff member or concerns with curriculum or class sizes I learned very quickly it's not my job to intervene and disrupt the established process for dealing with challenges stakeholders need to go through the chain of command which the school board is final level to deal with their concerns the chain of command should never be short circuited by a board member five most important of all as well uh is that the well-being of our students need to be focused of all decisions throughout the district we all have a common goal to take each child to their maximum potential at times it's hard to do especially during budget cuts budget cuts usually impact our students negatively but it's our responsibility to make choices that have the least impact on students if at all possible if decisions are made without keeping the needs of students in mind then we're doing a disservice to them in summary these are the things I've learned over the many years I've been here and I hope they have some benefit for you finally it's been an honor for me to be associated with the Lakeville area public schools for 50 plus years and I truly appreciate all the support I have had from everyone thank you so [Applause] much David all mik's be a lot shorter Mike um Mike Mike [Music] what can you actually speak into the mic so what did Terry I say it never this never happened this has never happened before this has never happened before that was Terry's line when I first started this has never happened before so um it's been challenging but an honor and a privilege to serve the students and teachers and citizens of Lakeville so I thank you very much um the reason I got involved I have two adopted Sons but main reason I got involved is because my younger son had a cardiac arrest when he was two months old and almost died and um the Lakeville School District started servicing him before he even um entered school at three months old they started coming to the hospital our home sending teachers pts and OTS so I felt a real commitment to that and that's why I became involved with seak and the chair of seak for many years and then apparently aison so um yes so I'm getting emotional I didn't think I would it's been really hard but uh I'm actually going to miss you guys so thank you all right so I going to need eight minutes of your time to recap my reflection of 28 years on the school board so bear with me but um this is probably one of the most rewarding things I've ever done other than having my four children so it's been a great honor so preparing students for Success after graduation is created by working together advocating for Education requires an open mind and a commitment to listen to All perspectives representing the community at large we have a district to be so proud of and it's not possible without the voice the involvement and the support of all of our stakeholders so Solutions and educational outcomes reflect our entire School community Lakefield area school district is 86 square miles touching two counties five cities and one Township board members work on behalf of the district at large no matter where you live in the district what specific needs your child has or what school your child attends education is a collaborative effort among the student family school and Community it's important to continue to seek student parent and Community participation in making significant District decisions our district is only a third developed so as we continue to grow and become one of the top largest districts in the state the support and engagement is critical as the district builds and manages facilities and operational costs Minnesota statute requires school districts to ask for funding asking for funding is not because of poor planning or poor budgeting it is because the laws are written for active Community engagement to have the ultimate say in the direction of the district excellent requires ongoing evaluation and accountability School members are accountable to the public our school Community expects us to achieve positive results for our district and we should expect the community and each other to hold us accountable even though this may lead to some uncomfortable conversations we have always been committed to cultivating trust by maintaining transparency and open communication with the public we were one of the first districts to video record our board meetings followed by live streaming and having them available on demand for later viewing holding others and myself accountable to our words and our actions personally and as a board is critical for our system to be sustainable and successful treating the public and each other with respect and remaining transparent Fosters the trust between our school board and the school Community parents seek options to best serve the educational needs for their children for the last few decades the schools are the number number one reason people move to Lakeville according to the city of Lakeville surveys our district has been committed to Partnerships with businesses the trades higher education to provide opportunities and creative ways to enhance our educational programs it has been so rewarding to work in collaboration with our teachers and our parents empowering them to develop learning options for our students our K12 online program was implemented as the first fully accredited K12 online program in the state some highly Innovative teachers and one of our former superintendant researched and developed a skill-based program rather than the traditional grade level program to become impact Academy our teachers who oversaw the gifted Learners were able to implement the ignite program opening one of the first learning Alternative Learning Centers south of the river gave our students a place to learn when the large traditional setting did not work for them families move here for the schools and this strengths of all of our programs co-curricular activities in our schools develop well-rounded students beyond the classroom these activities keep our students involved in safe and healthy Endeavors again empowering students parents and community members to lead and change and help them navigate the process has been extremely rewarding a few personal highlights are when my sons were traveling all over the metro area to play this new sport called lacrosse in researching it I learned many of our students were playing the sport traveling to other cities so a group of parents took the lead and as I helped them navigate the process to bring lacrosse to our district I was also honored to serve as the board representative as we initiated our special advisory our special education advisory Council in conversations with our special education director at the time her and I discussed how some of the districts around us were considering adaptive sports for students with disabilities we brought the idea to our advisory Council and they supported it and prepared us for presenting the concept to the board and since then our adaptive sports teams have soared to success the Hockey Association leaders reached out to board members when they were looking for district and City support to build ice a local ice arena the president of the ice of the Hockey Association at that time and I developed a great working relationship and as I helped him navigate the process and overcome roadblocks together the Hockey Association School District and City Lakeville realized the successful build of Ames Arena the strength of our co-curricular programs along with the quality of our facilities not only benefit our students but they generate activity for our businesses and bolstering our local economy I've had the pleasure with working with six superintendents Dr walstrom Who asked me to run back in 1996 Jim Bach who served as superintendent when the Lakeville area schools was the first allw women School Board in the state Dr Gary amaroso Dr Lisa Snider retired lieutenant colonel Michael Bowman and now I guess back for round two and uh Dr Doug vanz serving as chair for nine of my 28 years allowed me to develop wonderful Partnerships with each of them under their student focused leadership past boards have been able to prioritize funding educational programs to meet the needs of our students in a safe and secure learning environment developing the skills character traits and knowledge needed for the success after graduation and as a board member Community involvement and volunteering played an important role in keeping us connected to the students the parents businesses trades legislators and Community leaders as board members we can and should leverage our network of business and personal relationships across Industries to benefit our students our programs and our district as I complete my time on this board I fortunate to be able to stay involved in areas that are of passion to me I'm now serving on the 360 communities board I've joined a group of former superintendents and board members as a consultant for board development and chair leadership and I will be part of the team with 3D response which is the patented multi-layered security system that we have in our buildings across the district I must acknowledge all the District employees past and present from the superintendents to the administration and building leaders to The District staff and building staff to the custo and Food Service staff to our teachers substitutes Paras student resource officers and all of those who help out in the classrooms to every single District employee your passion and your care for our children is remarkable every person matters every position has an impact on the learning environment our district is what it is today because of you thank you for your dedication to our students I have seen the district grow from 3,900 students to over 12,000 students by working together we have managed through challenges and addressed the needs of our students we have built upon the success of past boards to keep the momentum moving forward and upward thank you for the trust you have placed in me over the years and it's been my honor to represent the Lakeville Area School over the past 28 years thank you for your service each and every one of you um and congratulations to superintendent Michael Balman we are thrilled to have you on and I look forward to the next two years um so having completed all of our items on the agenda tonight I will I will make a motion to adjourn I'll second a motion to adjourn from director kellerer a second by director David Anderson and a third by director Terry Lyn uh any further discussion on adjournment all right we'll put it to a vote all in favor of adjourning this meeting say I I I all opposed motion carries thank you and have a wonderful [Applause] evening e for