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e e e e e welcome to this regular meeting of the Lakeville Area Schools Board of Education this meeting is officially called to order please rise and join in the Pledge of
Allegiance I pledge of aliance to flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands under God indivisible withy andice for all board members in attendance tonight
include director kellerer director David Anderson chair Baker director Lind director Dr Carly Anderson uh the board is joined by superintendent Dr Doug vanz and members of the executive cabinet Bill holgren Brenda albrech Dr Emily
McDonald and Stephanie Cass we'll hand over to the superintendent for good news thank you and good evening couple of items for you just to elaborate on for good news our last day of school was June 5th for elementary students and June 7th was the last day for students
in grades 6 through 12 congratulations on another amazing year to our staff and students and hope that uh everyone has a safe relaxing and fun summer enjoy some fun on these last days of if if you wanted to see some of the fun that was enjoyed on the last days of school visit
the district District's Facebook page congratulations to our graduating class of 2024 we had 1,28 Lakeville area school seniors celebrate commencement on June 6th at maruchi Arena at the University of Minnesota including 500
students from Lakeville North and 528 students from Lakeville South 24 Lakeville Pathways Academy seniors celebrated commencement on June 5th at bracket's Crossing Country Club congratulations and best luck in your future endeavors to the class of
2024 Lakeville North students take home best of show at a visual arts exhibition we had four Lakeville North students that took home best of show award did an art Award of the 2024 Minnesota state visual art exhibition on May 11th at pit
center of the Arts education in Golden Valley Minnesota congratulations to the following best and show artists Kiona Crawford Tate Balman Riley Scher and Nolla Hayman uh Kona was portraits of film Tate was moment of impact which was
digital photography Riley was for sculpture called life expectancy ego goes no knows no love and Nolla was in Ceramics Ready Set achieve is set to to Back to School Readiness event is designed to ensure every student is
ready for a successful school year this includes school supplies immunizations books snack packs and vision screening all free of charge this year's event will take place on August 20th from 12: to 4 at Lakeville North School Commons
learn more about ready set achieve and or how you can help support by donating supplies or by volunteering at isd194.org back Ready Set achieve the June community print newsletter will be landing in our
mailboxes this edition of the print news includes year endend highlights summer resources Schoolboard opportunities and up coming High View Elementary School opening and more so be looking for that we also want to congratulate our Lakeville South Lacrosse team girls
lacrosse team for their state championship they secured the state championship title by defeating Prior Lake Lakers on Saturday June 15th the Cougars completed an impressive 19-0 undefeated season in 2024 earning their
second championship in three years also in case you haven't heard we had a world record broken by one of our Alum congratulations to Lakeville North Alum rean Smith for breaking the world record in the 100 meter backstroke at the 2024 US Olympic trials on June 18th we're
incredibly proud of her amazing achievement and look forward to cheering her on during the 2024 Summer Olympics we have been contacted by the city as well I know at least one of our bands will be part of a pep rally for her I don't know the exact date but as we get that information we'll share that with
you as well so that is our good news for this evening I watched that it was very exciting was very exciting thank you for sharing that good news we'll move on to board Communications uh we did have one person for public comment tonight kind of
talking about building up our staff morale and U making Lakeville a great district for all of us so um that would be all that I have for that unless any other board members have anything to add to board Communications okay hearing none we'll keep moving on um
do I have a motion to approve the agenda tonight so moved of a motion by director Lind do we have a second I'll second second by director Carly Anderson um any discussion on the agenda okay hearing none we'll put it to a vote all in favor
say I I I all opposed motion carries do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I'll make the motion we have a motion by director David Anderson do we have a second a second a
second by director Carly Anderson any discussion on the consent agenda okay heing none will put it to a vote all in favor say I I all opposed motion carries so the consent agenda is approved all right so we have some
reports with recommended actions tonight the first one will be the long-term facilities maintenance plan bill hren Madam chair directors of school board superintendent van Z yeah tonight we get
to talk about exciting budget information um I like to say it's exciting but um we'll start with our long-term facility maintenance plan um in order for us to get um Levy Authority um to do these projects I need to review it with the school board we did talk
about it a couple weeks ago at the work session but I'll um go over it again now um see I'm figure out the the first two years we put in here pretty much detail uh for the board you can see where these projects are taking
place um so you can see we have uh big projects um at cleck that's one building we really haven't done a lot of work on when it comes to our um heating plant again um 25 we've already put in place last year so this is 26 so it's a year
from now before these projects will will be um worked on um cve again the um the part of the building that's not an addition we have a lot of um interior remodeling um going on in that building I me a lot of Plumbing across the
buildings as they continue to age and then um just kind of notable some of the bigger projects here a mechanical system the KTMs of course that's one of our older buildings but we are putting all new Air Handlers on that building starting next next
year moving on to the the next year now here's um this would be um 27 uh again in CLE we'll be finishing up that we usually when we go into a building U we don't rip the whole building out at once it's usually a two or three um phase um projects you see
there's still be some work and um click um quite a bit of health and safety in um work um going on but that's kind of a districtwide piece and then um EV and actually we're doing some of that
work um in this year but we will be replacing it's getting that age already where we have to replace their boilers so that's what's going on in E and then again some more work at KTMs and uh um mgu M now mgu of course
is really one of our older buildings and if you've gone in there lately though we've done a lot of work on there the last two years and this year too if you go in you'll see it's kind of ripped apart right now if you go into um JFK again one of our older elementaries right now all the ceilings are down I mean we really given it an overhaul so
it's going to be in really good shape when we get to to next fall overall then what we're looking at in our ltfm trying to keep the expenditures relatively stable on a year-to year we don't want to see our Levy jumping up and down so you see that
overall um in 26 you see that goes to 17 million as it goes forward it's about a 2 2 3% increase even though some of our construction costs are actually increasing a a little more than two but we've kept that cost down as much as we can so this is what we would what we're planning to send to the state of
Minnesota to get approval for future future Levy Authority so with that said is there any questions on our ltfm plan could you go back to the slide that had the buildings on it wrong way which
year I was just curious what was what you're actually doing at cleck cleck cleck is a little different building they we actually are us use um we actually pump water out of the ground pull heat out of the groundw and put it back in so those pumps are all being
replaced you real big big pumps and they call call many many thousands of dollars for each one perfect thank you I I wasn't quite understanding what was going on there okay thank you do we have any questions on the plan you no no I was going to make a
motion to approve it okay do we have a motion to approve the I'll make the motion long-term facilities maintenance plan we have a motion by director David Anderson do I have a second second second by director Lind any further discussion okay hearing none we'll put
it to a vote all in favor say I I I all opposed motion carries thank you all right our next report is the uh budget for 2025 you're still up again what we're going to do is we're going to run through the fisal year budget for 25 um
like I said earlier we did run through this at our works um um session at this we have not changed anything from that day um so it's final as of uh two weeks ago but we'll go back through and highlight uh the budget at this time um again as we move into the fall um the
business office we really start to work in about three different fiscal years at once um so it gets um anyway the business office does a great job they get a lot of work done for an example the going into the fall we're we're cleaning we're uh closing the books for for 2 four of course we're putting the
25 budget in place and we start working on the budget for 26 especially as we talk about our Levy right away in September when we look at the projections for our enrollment um these have put to these enrollment projections have been put together um by Teamworks
our last three years I believe it is and uh we're coming out right on pretty close right on to what what they've projected so we continue to use these numbers as we uh look for our Revenue numbers uh going forward because as you know most of the revenue that we receive is based on how many students we have in our in our building so this is a very
important number as we build our budget when we look at at revenues in the general fund um we split them out of course by state the state of Minnesota gives us a formula allowance um so many so many dollars per student so back to
Counting students and then multiplying by the amount um for next year the state has given us 2% new money and the and the other the reason you're seeing 3.66% there is because our enrollment is growing and of course we get um we get revenue on those new students that we're
seeing and we're seeing about 179 new students for next year so our total State sources um increase about 3.6% at $5.2 million now our property taxes you see a little larger number as an increase there at 10% remember that
last fall we uh we passed a levy an operating Levy to generate funds to put Staffing into our High View Elementary our new elementary school that's going online in September uh that so 1 Point
1.3 million of that 5.6 is just the new operating Levy the other pieces are some um some ltfm and it's also of course we have a uh inflation Factor built into our operating levies um and that was running close to 5% after the big
increase we the big inflation we saw over the last couple years so actually that's helping us right now but here with a little extra uh funds Federal sources you're seeing that fall mainly that's our Co dollars running out we are down to only just a few dollars we're spending next year I think it's
about 149 I believe isn't that what it is yeah 149,000 for next year and that will be the end of our our covid funds uh our local other uh the biggest piece really here is when we look at
actually our fund balance starting to come back up and our our interest that we're receiving on funds we can invest those interest rates are higher than they have been and that's really what that biggest change there is we're going to look at our expenditures two different ways we'll
start with the uh program so we look at our Administration you see maybe a little higher percentage than you'd expect there remember though we're bringing on a new principal for a new building in there so besides the increases on salaries there is a brand new principal there our district Support Services there we're seeing a very
reasonable increase our elementary and secondary education you see in a little larger there mainly that is again because of our increase enrollment is the increase Staffing we're putting in place um in the um Elementary and secondary education area uh special
education r at 4% um instructional support you're seeing a decrease here and it what it really um is is a change in the way that we are buying our devices if you remember we had a large lease go in place last year for new devic everybody
received new devices in the last year and now of course that's not there so that's going down our P support uh Services uh what's sitting in here of course is our um transportation sits in here and of
course that's always a big a big increase every year for us because not only is it an increase to the to the transportation we need more buses we got more no students and then um what's left here we got you look at a little bigger piece on the bottom that f school and fixed cost
program area that's mainly Insurance um and if you know the the trend right now in Insurance you've seen it on your own car insurance your own house insurance running about 20% we're a little bit over that now I'm going to shift over and look at the expenditures in a little different way U we look at it on an
object level so let's look at just the salaries and wages there we're seeing a 5.3% uh change when we look at the employee benefits there's a few pieces that have been added um that haven't been there
before number one there's an increase to our TR the cost that the district is responsible for our TR for our for our teachers so besides the increased teachers and the increased cost that's there we have um increased uh health insurance
cost and the other piece there is the uh um the new Family Leave Act if you remember the state put that in place so that you know employees across the state of Minnesota are eligible for family leave if their particular company doesn't cover it of course we do cover
it for our employees but we all hit we all get to pay in the cost so that's that's about $350,000 cost all by itself is a new cost that we have no way to pay for talking back back about one of those until it goes It goes in effect January 1 January 1st okay um any any type of
employee who wants to pull on that it's a year later but this way the state builds up some funds um available to administer that that program purchase Services um supplies and materials all are within what we projected about 4% uh total again the
capital expenditures that is the decrease in the devices that $1.8 million is almost entirely the payment we had to pay last year for devices um and then um the 160 th
16900 100,000 that are increasing in this other expenditure area is our scholarships our scholarships all ran through used to all run through our trust and agency fund but now um anything that comes in and goes out the same year has to run through the f um general fund so that's why you're seeing
an increase here so when we look at our fund balances what's going to happen to our fund balances at the end of the year you see our restricted fund balance dropping a little bit uh mainly we're using up uh lot of our ltfm funds but the unassigned is really our one that we really watch we look at the health of the of the
district uh again that's moving up about $2 million or at least over about 1% so this is good news um from where we were so we seen an increase in 24 we'll get the results here in a few months um but again in 25 moving up
again so here's what our fund balance is is looking like you can see that it's improving we have a ways to go of course but we'll continue to work on it and get it back up to the 5% level again like I said earlier we expect the year that we're just finishing in4 for to actually be a little better than that 2% um
because of the way that we finished the contract with the teachers but we don't have any you know details for sure so we'll we'll wait and give you the numbers as they come I want to touch based on the other funds student nutrition you see a fund
balance increasing here about $660,000 again this is due really to all of our meals are free again um and these reimbursement rates are higher than we had um in the past so very it's making a very healthy fund balance for us I think
it might give us a little bit of a problem in the future depending on what the state of Minnesota does for many many years we were limited to three months use in our fund balance and they allow that to increase as most school districts saw increases in their fund balance especially during the pandemic
as we the reimbursement rates from the federal government were were very good very good um so they changed it to 6 months now they're talking about changing that back to three and of course we're over three so we can't keep that much in there so we're looking at what we can do to use these funds and we don't want the state to take them away from us so we're looking at coolers
freezers and so forth that we can spend this money on and we'll do the best we can to um make sure we have done what we need done for that may just want to remind them that it's a restricted fund the the general fund we just talked about is the only Fund in in our
district that we can use funds pretty much across the board anywhere we feel like we want to use it right but when we get to fund two we get to fund four which is our Community Education um um the building fund debt fund we can never take any funds out of those funds and
use it in the general fund it's only a one way one-way street so to speak so what you're saying is for the Food Service fund we have too much money in there and we're trying to find things that we can spend it on but you're limited on what you can spend it on um
correct would this be able to would we able to be would we be able to use funds from Food Service to um have like summer meal programs for families like is is that something that would be possible or is that restricted and you can't use it for something like that it is restricted now there are programs through the state
of Minnesota for feeding kids in the summer um our problem is we don't qualify our free and reduced lunch count is not high enough so we're not allowed to use these funds for those programs at this point in time interesting
okay so again very healthy fund balance um in the student student nutrition fund moving on to Community Education just a quick reminder you see some you know some negative numbers here on the on the bottom during the pandemic we this um fund had a lot of a lot of trouble I
don't say trouble it wasn't necessarily their fault but when the pandemic came and everybody went home we still had staff to pay and we had no re no uh Revenue so so the all almost every program in community ed is is run on how
much revenue we bring in they're all they all pay for themselves there's a small Levy um well actually you can see it up there under property taxes you can see that we do we do Levy about $1.2 million but that's all we get that's not Revenue driven by some type of uh
program um another issue they have which you seeing not a large increase into their fund balance this year during the pandemic also of course we Levy certain amount in dollars for their for their daycare program and their daycare program of course didn't have the
students there so there's aund about $150,000 that they've got to give back to the state of Minnesota because we didn't use it at the time so that's one reason you see the last couple years they didn't improve their fund balance but you know 170 100 um this year will pretty be pretty
flat building construction now this is One Fund that we will be dropping our fund balance in of course this is on purpose we're we're spending now the last funds on our new building um a lot of retainage out there yet so there'll be quite a bit of volume still actually going out the door uh for that building
and also any of the bonded funds that we have for ltfm also run through here so there's about there's about $10 million just an ltf that runs through this fund so when you see it um dropping 17 million that's normal last year of
course you know we sold some bonds so it we didn't see that that drop but this one tends to go up and down up and down depending on what we're doing and as we look at Future facility projects um again Bond we sell bonds will go up and then we'll spend it down um that's kind of the what happens in this particular
fund Debt Service again we can Levy um on a yearly basis 105% of what we actually need to make our bond payments which we do every year uh in case we have a group of people who don't pay their taxes we don't want to be short on the funds we need to make our bond payments but what happens over time
is we really don't need that full 5% so the fund balance builds up and then we turn around and give those funds back so when you see a decrease there of 800,000 that's actually funds that were under levying um in the levy and those actually just go back to our taxpayer as a lower tax
increase agency and trust fund this has changed over the years they really the only thing left running through here um is our scholarships where we've received permanent dollars we've had um scholarship money coming in where the donor wants to only give away what the
interest that that particular amount of money generates so that's why you see the fund balance the last three years being the same because we get the revenue we give it away to the students and then we start over the next year again internal service fund that's really our our
insurance we're self-insured both with our dental and our health um this we started about five years ago you can see how the fund balance has been growing very nicely once we get up to about 25% in that fund balance we're going to feel pretty good about trying to buy down
some of those um premium increases but um actually last couple years have been pretty good markets running close to 9% and our increases over the last two years have been 5% um so you see that fund balance being expected to be about 7.8 once we get a little over eight um we'll be up to the
25% uh level so this again very good news when we look at this fund slowly in that fund balance now just take a look at the all the all the funds in one place you can see that now um for lakevi schools our
total expenditure budget here is almost $300 million so you know we are a relatively large school district in the metro area and uh those numbers are starting to get some pretty big numbers um but when you look at the fund balances way on the right what we expect those fund balances will be we're seeing increases of course in the general fund
we're seeing um increases in student nutrition and a small increase of course and uh Community Education and then building fund coming down to S um Debt Service down a little bit down to three um so it gives you I think a good
picture of the whole you know the whole budget in one place now just a just a reminder I just we saw this already but I just want to kind of circle around and talk about a general fund one more time before we get to the end tonight um we're expecting a
$2 million increase in our unassigned fund balance is almost almost 1% so as we talked way last February we when we looked at a our projection on what's going to happen here you know we're looking at probably about a 1% increase in our fund balance on a yearly basis
till we get up to that 5% so we're looking at two more years uh before we can get up to that 5% where the um of course where the uh school board's fund B policy is at can I ask a question yeah with that with that said is there any questions
yeah is there anything oh sorry is that okay go for it is there anything um still left with the legislature that we don't know about the funding that might change that picture for us well I I I do apologize there one piece I didn't I didn't bring up we did get some um some
money this spring during the legislative session that we know we can use for the the read act and that about $950,000 so that at least we know now what we're going to receive for that and we're trying to balance that training best we can so that uh we don't run out of those
funds and we don't have to use general fund dollars for some of these new uh costs before we ask any more questions just for attendance purposes uh at 7:26 p.m director Thompson um did arrive at the meeting so he is present thank you I flew in from Colorado my arms are
tired such a great dad joke uh director Carly Anderson did you have more questions on that I don't think so so I mean I know we've talked in the past about unemployment and you talked about paid family leave so it sounds like unemployment sure we can touch base on unemployment at this
point in time uh in 24 and we know in 25 we've budgeted the uh unemployment we know that we're going to pay but we've also budgeted Revenue to cover it because the state of Minnesota has set aside money to reimburse us um but at this point we know that that's going to run out in
26 um so we're hoping that the legisl will do something about that in their in their in their uh budget um session next spring but at this so at this point we're covered so the only real cost that we're having to put out of course is for that Family Leave Act piece was about
$350,000 we know that we have to pay will come out of the general fund but the read act at this point in time what's come forward so far um is covered with funds and so is the unemployment okay um so I just have a question um as a board like we've been talking a lot
about um our procedures around the budget and making sure that we have the right checks and balances in place um to maintain our budget so my question would be like what what checks and balances do we have in place to keep us on track for our spending for the year so for example
um for classrooms like we look at classroom sizes before we would hire another teacher um what who's the person in place for like administrative positions or um paper supplies or I mean because we can't just keep saying oh we'll just bring it back to the board
and have them you know change the budget and approve more money like what's what seems to be the thing in place that helps us stay on track for spending for the year okay well first of all we do allocate funds directly to the buildings for like we talked about paper um it's their responsibility to stay within the
budgets they get so any type of Supply piece or um even on the staff development there's funds that go directly to the buildings and the principals manage those budgets and weos expect them to uh stay within those budgets and
we we give them a we report out to them every single month where they're at so they there's no surprises at the end okay um that we have when we talk about Staffing specifically there is a Formula put in place um for all of our staffing and our buildings so there does that
include the district office the district the district office I would say yes okay if there's a change needed or not I'm not going to say needed there's a change that some particular department wants that's that's a that's something that comes together as a group and we discuss
that and first of all is is there money even there to do it so does it come through you like if so say like in our district office staff someone comes to you and says I want to add this position in the tech department like are you the the like the last man standing as far as saying yep we can do that based on our
budget or or no we can't like I guess I'm just trying to understand the difference between the buildings and the principles and then how the district office manages that too because that's part of our budget too oh AB absolutely yeah yeah so no yeah I guess you know I'm kind of The Last Man Standing where I say nope there's not enough money or
we can make that work but it goes through a process first on the need before it ever ever comes to meet okay we we've made some adjustments in in the last couple of years where before a department maybe would come to Bill and say hey I need this now we've got
Finance Department HR department if it's special needs Department the the directors have to be a part of that conversation so it's multiple people having to explain the situation that they're in take a look at their budget are they're able to adjust dollars someplace else to cover some other particular need where before it was
probably somebody had an issue they'd go to Bill it would either be yes or no now there's multiple people involved in that process myself our executive cabinet the director in that team as well would come and have to be able to explain where that is but really for the most part the
things that have happened in district office over the last are last couple years are restructuring it's not necessarily additions positions from district office administration there may be some other things that may be part of teaching and learning an instructional coach or something like that but they still have to work within the budget
parameters that they were given when we developed the budget because our stance is you were given a budget you have to try to live within that budget we don't have additional dollars to be able to give the only the only except ception to that would probably be in bill you can correct me if I'm wrong we get rapid
growth in a school and we need another staff member another teacher to cover that then we're going to air on the side of trying to bring that staff member in if we can unless there's a way to readjust a staff member someplace else across the district right I I guess what I'm looking at is when we have uh we
have well not really policy but like idea we do have kind of a policy but I'm looking at like class sizes that we know like these are the parameters that we've set so we know we're going to have to add a teacher it's black and white like it's there in print but we don't seem to have the same parameters around all of
this besides a group of people getting together and say oh we've got some extra money so we're going to add some positions because when I'm looking at Staffing compared to like the past 5 years and where we're at now like I expect an increase in all of our buildings as far as like teaching staff because we're growing enrollment wise
but I also see the same kind of increase going through at the district office level staff when we were in budget cuts and we're wanting to go the opposite direction so I just want to know like what are the parameters and what are the discussions that have happened around that to keep us in
check I guess you'd have to clarify because district offic is more than just administrators youve got tech department you've got special Leed Department you have teaching and learning department so those are aren't necessarily district office administrators those are folks who are supports and resources to
buildings yeah I I didn't say administrators I said District well sometimes when people say District office that's what right no so I was just clarifying I was just clarifying that for people so I think like the the question and again bill can chime in on this I think you asked at the work session some of those particular staff
increases and I think Bill forwarded that email and some of that was due to the tech Levy that was there that was some departments that the tech department increased because there was a need from the tech Levy so there's not necessarily at least in my two years here there hasn't been extra money to add extra positions any positions that
have been added over the last 5 years I think were associated with an increase in a levy of some sort like the tech department and Bill can correct me again if I'm wrong on that cuz I don't want to assume anything in that process you're AB you're absolutely correct and in the tech department we definitely had the
the new capital projects Levy and when we went out to the public to ask for that money we definitely listed positions that we were going to fill at that time so that's where those positions came from correct because we didn't we didn't hire we didn't even have a director in that in that uh
Department till after um that particular Levy um and another good example you know we have a new operating level he just put in place this year well that was for new staff at a particular building so it's always earmarked for something specific same if you look back to 19 remember at the middle schools we
added 25 staff members um in the in the teaching ranks in that area when you look back at the district office itself there really haven't been any major changes you you've seen a little shift from maybe some tosas to some to non-affiliated but really the tech department is really the only place we
saw any increase in any type of FTE I think teaching and learning went from 3 to S one year same thing same thing y if you look back at the tosas they went down yep and and it's just it's a shift it's a reorganization of that and and yeah I understand that and I appreciate you taking the time to explain it
because I think people need to hear that and understand how those shifts occurred um I guess what I'm still looking for is like what's the black and white that we know like we need to add more staff or not at this level in the district office
like what's what parameters are you putting in place for that because I also have to think like yep we've got pretty set numbers for buildings because we're going off a classroom sizes but I also know that there's turnover that happens within the district office and I have to
wonder are people overloaded like what are we doing like what are our parameters around that we we have to be mindful of the fact that we don't want to just hire people without looking at our budget and making sure that we're doing that having the right conversations about it but we also need to be able to hire someone if we need
someone because the job's too big so I guess that's what I'm looking for like I want us to be mindful of the budget but I also want to know like at the district office level like what are you doing to know when you need to hire someone or not yeah my my only other respon and
like for example I'll use Dave Haven's position that position's open and so you have to take a look at what what that job description is and have conversations with either the person who's in that position or leaving that position to be able to say does this accomplish what we need to accomplish is there something else that's been added
to your plate I would tell you job descriptions or something I know Brenda and her Department are taking a look at because they haven't been Revisited in a while and so there's been multiple job descriptions that have had additional things added I'll I'll I'll use Dave's position it kind of became a catchall
position in student services that had counselors and nurses and SRO and special education and 50 so it became kind of a laundry list of things so the conversation that we have to have in that position is is that a doable job is it not a doable job if it's not then we
have to figure out how can we make that adjustment but we also have to live within the reality of the dollars that we have uh in doing that I'd use Bill's Department as another one you know we had a person that was in charge of facilities and that position went away
and so with what he has to do with that's been one of the questions I've asked him is with ltfm dollars or anything else do we have the ability to bring some a position back to help with facilities knowing that we've got that list that you saw earlier possible Bond levies and stuff so we do have those
conversations I can't say that there's black and white parameters in that because sometimes the needs of the district change depending on what happens within the district right but I think like when we look at we look at surrounding districts you know to what they're doing as far as like our
classroom sies are we doing the same thing with our district office staff and and what we're asking them to do like you know there are other districts that are that have way more administrators than Lille does and so then I'm looking at it going do do we need stuff like that or are we just like divvying out
and and piling it all on one person or you know what I mean like I'm just asking it's probably more I would say it's probably more of the lad just based off of the numbers of the if you're taking a look at Administrative Office not just District office there's some of that I think as well is that the numbers of of the
people that we have and I think bill has shared that in the past as part of the budget the numbers of folks as well and so sorry I think another board member had a question director Keller so um just a comment in that in this uh draft on the very last page page 40 it does
show the comparisons of um our uh per pupil expenditures per program and it does show the admin the um admin Administration which is extremely low as you pointed out compared to several of the surrounding districts and stuff
around us um so you know I think that that's in all my time on the board our district office has always been run real lean and every time we have the opportunity because of a person leaving
or it becomes a budget issue there's a relooking at job descriptions and revamping departments to make them effective and making sure that the people are we have the right people in place doing the necessary jobs and um I
if I remember in the past too there's been some tasks that have been taken off people's plates because it's not at the right place or we didn't need them so I mean I think it's I don't want to say it's easier but when you have the guidelines the classroom
guidelines that makes it very black and white but when you're talking Administration and constantly restructuring the role and the tasks and the jobs to keep that budget expense down that's not quite as black and white
and it's more about the Strategic plan and the discussion that I know our Administration constantly has is what do we need to support the classroom and the students and it all comes back to the need and that's where the discussion is
had so um and I just haven't ever known it to be any other way in the district office and the administration so um I this this chart that you have here at the end is very telling for how we operate and how much we support our
students with the dollars that we use bill would it be possible for like at a a working session um for maybe you and Brenda to do like a like a presentation for the board on the the district office like organizational layout or or chart or something just so we can understand
that better and um because that I mean the thing is um we we just went through like our teacher contracts right and we're we're listening to all of our staff come forward and a lot of things that I hear are are supports for staff members well a lot of the administration
in the district office is there to support staff members so I would like to see that and understand that more um because it all filters down to kids eventually I I I don't know if other board members are interested in that too but it I think it would be worthwhile to you know kind of understand that organizational
layout we can certainly do that that's not a problem and and I think I we shared there was an ask not too long ago for the organizational chart and I forwarded that on to you that showed so I think the board members have that so we can touch base on it again yeah yeah I just I guess I just want to hear
people are doing yep yep yeah I've seen the chart um do any other board members have questions director Carly Anderson Just it might also help to if we look at just couple districts that are similar in size what what their structure looks like and what they're doing just because
um I think we want to make sure that that support is there like you're saying it does trickle down so I know there's I mean not like tons of districts but like a couple it would be helpful to know I agree okay director Brian Thompson yeah C so can you walk me
through you know last year we spent $197 million and this year we're projected to spend 207 obviously the the um uh as we look at the revenues and expected expenditures we're going to end up saving about 1.8 million out of that entire bucket which is the equivalent of
like not even 1% it's like 0.8% that's it or 0.8% whatever yeah yeah 08 it's very low it's like the equivalent of having $10,000 a month in expenditures and you're saving 80 bucks like that's what it is and so with that in mind uh the
goal for us is try to have that 10% number of our total expend expend CH which is roughly $20 million and we're currently projected to be at 5.7 at the end of next year getting to 5% is $10 million is like I mean as I'm calculating this if we're continuing to
save 8% every year this going to take us like eight years to get there is that is that my understanding or I mean do you have a plan to get there faster because I'm like that that doesn't make sense to me okay well at at this point unless the board wants to do something different
there isn't a plan to do that faster we were just talking about um kind of the restraints on the funds that we have and and the supports that we need um pretty much every dollar that we have is spoken for except for that very small piece that's building that fund balance so in order to fill that build that fund
balance faster the only thing is to do is to cut programming somewhere that's the only way we can do it or of course to go up for more new operating Levy or you know something of that effect there's only two ways to increase that fund balance to spend less or bring in more Revenue that's that's it and only
only way we get new revenue is to ask a community for it okay director Carly Anderson I guess I'm wondering about the history of you know when we get additional funding from the state and I know the last year was the biggest and didn't expect that kind of
thing um if we have an operating Levy that allows us to increase teacher other staff salaries um does that allow us to potentially save more of that Revenue that we expect as an increase from the state or is that generally negotiated
with contract settlements oh no any new funds that we reive from the state of Minnesota whether you know whether it's a formul allowance or it's a new operating Levy I mean the board's got the decision of how much of that money is going to be spent you know on teachers or supports or whatever we're going to do or if we're going to set it
aside um you know what happens lots of times we get new money of course and then there's there's pressures to have more support and that's kind of where the money goes on a yearly basis so that's why it's hard again to build that fund balance because we do have a lot of Need for our students and you know we're not
Bank we're not here just to bank money we need to use it where where it's needed for our students Dr Van I think I think the other answer to kind of director Thompson and maybe director Anderson's questions is you you have to be able to live within the means that you have you
can't overexp uh the the dollars that you have so if the state gives us 2% we give out 3% where do that come from it comes from the fund balance where you have to make a reduction so there as you saw over the
last five years prior to the last two you know there were some dollars that came from the state roughly 2% every year but then there was expenditures some of them were planned that were above that and that created the the downfall of the fund
balance so the only way to do that is do the reverse is you have to get two% and only spend 1% if you want your fund balance to be able to grow or as Bill said uh do something in order to do some type of budget reduction so uh that
that's a process you know the state can give give us 4% but we've all seen the chart from Ellers as well that shows that even if when they give 4% we're still willfully underfunded from what they've done as a state over over the past however many years at one point when I was in school in Minnesota
Minnesota was the number one state in the nation as far as what it paid for education and now what are we 38th or 40th something like that so there's been a decline in that so we just have to be mindful that as we put a budget together
that hopefully shows that that we are trying to be cognizant of of not overspending well and some of that decline that you see in the unassigned fund balance is because we were deficit spending they were spending it down um because it was over the the 5% we just
didn't stop it soon enough had Co in there didn't help out a lot that that was that planned and then you had Co and other things into that mix absolutely right director Thompson while it may not be for this discussion I think there would be value to see what would the
district propose for an additional two to three if not $4 million in additional cuts to get us to at least a 5% uh minimum fund balance which is I believe what is stated in our policies and so need not not need to have that discussion right now but it is something that the board we may want to entertain
at the next working session to discuss hey is that something that you guys want the administration to go look into but that that's where it's at so okay okay any other comments or
questions okay uh do I have a motion to approve um the fiscal year 2025 budget I'll make a motion to approve the FY 2025 budget we have a motion by director kellerer do I have a second
I'll second second by director Lind any further discussion from board members okay hearing none we'll put it to a vote all in favor say I I all opposed no okay motion carries uh one
no four yeses five sorry can't count tonight all right so we don't have any additions to the agenda tonight superintendent do you have a report just very quickly just a reminder that next week with the 4th of July district office and several of other buildings are uh closed as part of
the the reduction plan that we had last year our folks will be able to be reach several of them are working from home or they're taking off vacation days or whatever during that week the other thing I'd like to do is Samantha our new Orchard Lake Elementary principal is over here and if she wants to come
forward she can say something if she wants she doesn't have to but I wanted to at least introduce her to you put her on the spot like we did Brett Lin when he was the introduced because you approved her uh tonight in the consent agenda so this is Samantha with that I'll turn it over to you I am sad that
uh Brett got such a such a turnout but maybe I should maybe not be no um I just want to say I am just uh thrilled to be joining this team I have been um with Lakeville last year as an assistant principal and so moving into this principal role this year is really
phenomenal I'm looking forward to building really strong relationships with um my staff and my families and uh my students and continue to do all the wonderful work we do here in Lakeville so thank you um I just want to say hi and tell you how excited I am and uh and
uh say thank you for all of that so welcome to welcome welcome all right do I have a motion from a board member to adjourn this meeting so moved right so I have a motion by director Carly Anderson do I
have a second I'll second second by director David Anderson I just have to say I can always count count on you Dave for motion to adjourn any further discussion hearing none we'll put it to a vote all in favor say I I all opposed
motion carries this meeting is officially a adjourned thank you for joining us e