welcome to the April 14th Little Falls School Board meeting Uh at this time I would like everybody to rise and join me in the pledge of allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all All right The district mission statement is that Little Falls Community Schools work together for each learner to achieve academic and personal growth in a collaborative safe and engaging
environment Kelly do we have public comments tonight All right Um thank you Okay So um Little Falls Community Schools welcomes you to the meeting of the Little Falls Board of Education This
portion of the agenda will be limited to a total of not more than 30 minutes Individual speakers are asked to limit their comments to not more than three minutes The board asks that all comments be in keeping with contribute to an atmosphere of civil courteous thoughtful
and respectful discourse Um I have one other thing too Kelly will have a um a note They're three minutes So if you're getting close to your time she'll just hold it up so you know So uh looks like I have Renee Krowy Okay Why don't you come on up to the
table Okay So I don't know I kind of have a few different things I don't know if it'll go over three minutes but anyway I have two granddaughters that have been attending the Randall School and recently the third grade granddaughter was pulled out of Randall and sent to Lindberg I don't totally
know why but last week there was a singing program at Lindberg School and um when I got there there was no parking space in the parking lot And I got there about 15 minutes early and um anyway I
found a place and then when I got inside there was no place to sit and there were people lined up all around the gym and other people were sitting There were a few people where there you could see in the middle there was a seat you know that people didn't get together but anyway there was no sitting space and no
parking space that it was announced before the play started that there were 168 third graders And so I just had thought in the back of my head when the schools banded together I probably figured there was
like 40 kids in each grade So maybe there'd be 80 to 100 kids when the schools banded together but there's 168 kids And that's not counting the Randall kids that are you guys may probably plan on sending there Um when the play was
over with we were told to meet the kids in the gym or someplace Well my granddaughter's in a new school I want to know who her teacher is I want to know I had a couple questions So in Randall she was learning cursive And I did find out at the Randall School they
say the pledge of allegiance every day And those are two very important things to me So when I got to her grade after going through a neverending hallway to get to her classroom and I remember back in the day I don't remember when that
addition was put on Lindberg School but I remember parents back then complaining about the expense of the windows and the addition but my kids didn't get go there so I don't know anything about that Um but anyway it seemed like there was a lot of wasted space for a big building
So anyway I get to my granddaughter's classroom and I'm told by a couple teachers I wasn't supposed to be down there for everyone's safety So I don't know if they think you're going to trip and fall or what but whatever I had a couple questions to ask the teacher So I
asked about cursive handwriting and she said she introduced it to them about a month ago but that the fourth grade teachers would teach it And when I asked about saying the pledge of allegiance she said it comes over the
microphone or the loudspeaker or something And then she said to my granddaughter like "Right we say that every day." Well my granddaughter doesn't know that they say it every day So I don't know how it's being said there Do they get to do whatever they want while it's being said over the
intercom I don't know Um so then um so that's kind of like one complaint then Uh thank you Rene Okay Is that it That's it Okay Thank you Thank you
Okay that is it for our public comments Um board members you should have an agenda in front of you I'm looking for an approval of tonight's agenda Also move Okay Okay I have a motion by Sharon I have a second A
second Okay a second by Dan We have a motion in the section Any further discussion Okay If not all in favor signify by saying I I oppose Same sign All right Next we have the consent agenda Um I would that's going to cover
personnel approval of prior meeting minutes and approval of financial transactions Assuming you have all had a chance to take a look at that I would look for a motion for approval So moved Okay I have a motion by
Mark Second A second All right And a second by Dan Any further discussion Hearing none All in favor signify by saying I I Oppos Same sign Okay Resolutions This would be you
Sharon Right All right Take it away Okay I have a resolution for the acceptance of the following gifts Whereas the following have generously offered to donate to Little Falls Community Schools Therefore be it resolved by the Little Falls Community School Board of Education to gratefully accept these
gifts Excuse me Zion Evangel Lutheran Church a donation of $150 to the Little Falls Community Schools Dr Knight Social Work Fund Randall Cusheen Lions Club gambling account a donation of $1,000 to the Little Falls Community Schools preschool
program Jim's Electric donation of $33.75 to the Little Falls Community Schools electrical repairs within the district Mid Minnesota Federal Credit Union donation of $1,100 to purchase tumblers for the Little Falls Community
Schools grad bash Dick and Ted excuse me Dick and Pat Tedford donation of $100 to the Little Falls Community Schools Care Closet Five Wings Art Council a donation of $5,000 to the Little Falls Community Schools
High School band program to help with visiting musicians Pay It Forward Foundation the IceFest a donation of $12,500 to the Little Falls Community Schools Care Closet Pay It Forward
Foundation Ice Fest donation of $15,000 to the Little Falls Community Schools Flyer Pride Backpack Program So Lions Club their gambling account a donation of $1,000 to the Little Falls Community Schools Sovieties
Lion Scholarship Fund Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle donation of $935 to Little Falls Community Schools James K I believe it's pronounced witchy scholarship fund Zion Evangel
Evangelical Lutheran Church A donation of $150 to Little Falls Community School Flyer Pride Backs DMS Machine A donation of $100 to Little Falls Community Service Clay Target League Randall State
Bank A donation of $100 to the Little Falls Community Service Clay Target League I will second your resolution Sharon we have a second from Doug It is a roll call vote So Dan yes Julie yes Doug yes Mark yes And myself is yes The
following has passed Okay Next we have flyer pride cards Um I'll give you a break Sharon Dan why don't you lead us off here Okay First one is Cody Pelzer lead custodian at Lindberg He helped us with
all our with our grow tower set up being Thanks for being extra prompt We appreciate it Terara Poly Shannon Vi and Tony B recipient Marcy Hmerson preschool childc care teacher Marcy thank you for
all you do at Little at Little Flyers The preschool age children are doing a rockstar job adjusting to a new setting Your passion and previous child care experience is shining Kayla Gruber Chelsea Robinson human resources
Chelsea goes above and beyond to assist with any concern or question when I do not know who to ask about a matter whether it be healthcare taxes FLA She is there to help and will provide her will provide me with the information needed in a very timely manner Great
asset to the district Nicole Brambrink Ryan Tennold middle school band teacher for students Ryan offers calm firm caring support As a colleague Ryan is the definition of a team player addressing any issues in a collaborative
calm problem-solving manner He's the best Sarah Flippy Bonnie Maro school psychologist Thank you Bonnie for your dedication to students and staff your expertise in special education I appreciate all your help and guidance
over the years Thank you for your leadership in the teachers union as well You will be missed Sarah Pullman Dan Fischer middle school principal I appreciate that Dan truly listens and works together to problem
solve He respects all staff and students He's open to ideas and feedback from everyone Dan trusts us Thank you Dan Sarah Flippy Nate Miller student support and sped coordinator Nate is a dedicated
staff member who consistently supports both students and staff with care and professionalism He works to create positive and supportive environment where everyone can thrive In addition he is always looking for ways to improve our school system for all Little Falls
is lucky to have him Lisa Solver Sandy Rudek second secretary at the middle school Sandy is a shining example of what it means to go above and beyond She almost always has the answer for anyone calling in about events across the district If she doesn't she's
great about tracking down the info Sne is kind committed and knowledgeable We are so grateful for all she does Thank you Sandy Sarah Rusted and Todd Peterson band director Todd helped plan an awesome trip to Nashville for the band and choir
students It was great to witness his connections with students and his calm demeanor Thanks for all your work Todd Anna Gravy All right Liz and Emily lead infant teachers You ladies are rock stars so patient kind personable and
supportive to our students families and other staff Thank you for being part of our team Kayla Gruber Jeff Maderas custodian Jeff has stepped up to take over the head custodian role at Dr Knight He is kind resourceful and dedicated We appreciate you Jeff Lea
Rosski Roxan Ree Lindberg testing coordinator Roxanne has done a great job leading Lindberg Elementary as they get ready for testing Roxanne is a rockstar Leoski Larry Edgarton elementary principal Thank you for your open-minded
approach to new ideas and programs within your school Whether it's opening your building to hall walking or welcoming high school students to engage with your students you always listen with an open ear and a let's try it attitude I truly appreciate your willingness to make a positive difference Thank you Sarah
Rustad Mara Roberts first grade teacher great person to collaborate with to best support our students flexible with student needs and always willing to problem solve together Lauren Martinson Carmen Zair media center at middle school Carmen goes above and
beyond in her role in the media center Besides the duties of the media center she actively searches out students who need help with academics and works with them She is amazing Sarah Phillipy Maggie Ruby sped teacher Maggie is an awesome person and teacher There
is never a time when she is not there for students or staff I am thankful for that that I get to work with her and learn by watching her Pam Hton Darla Thompson Dusty Parker and Jeremy Statam Specialist teachers Wow If you have not had the privilege of
watching a concert at Lmberg Elementary you are missing out Darla does an amazing job with the songs and choreography Dusty makes all the backdrops that are fantastic and Jeremy helps with the setup lights and anything else that is needed These three put on a
spectacular concert Lindberg Elementary Lynn Guast ELA teacher and site assessment coordinator Lynn works hard in everything she does from meeting the needs of her students in the classroom to following testing protocols to ensure test security Her organization and
communication skills bring a sense of calm to students and staff alike Her professionalism and drive to grow as an educator make her a prime role model for others Lisa Sver Kermit Klepsis high school test coordinator Kermit has done an amazing
job setting up MDA testing at the high school Kermit is a hard worker and we appreciate him Leah Rosski Lin Gu and Steph Patnode uh middle school testing coordinators Lynn and Steph have worked very hard to prepare for the MEA testing
season and the middle school I appreciate their hard work They are rock stars Leah Rosski have one for Lisa Lame No matter the question Lisa is quick to respond with help She allows me to ask any and all questions without judgment Great
asset to the sped department Nicole Brambr Anita Tremba Thank you Anita for your always positive attitude and jump right in personality I appreciate you Kayla Guber Megan
Waldock amazing job running and organizing the chocolate bar fundraiser Our school and families appreciate the KA's hard work to support our school Leo Rosski Nick Abbott I want to recognize Nick for his dedication and hard work He
goes above and beyond in everything he does from coaching a phenomenal team of champion lifters to developing the next generation of pitchers on the softball field His nononsense approach not only builds great athletes but also helps shape responsible driven young adults
Thank you for all you do Sarah Rusted Payton Carl quick learner ask questions and great at forming relationships with students Plus you get my movie and music references Lauren Martinson Deb Yelanimi Allen Ya was the
mederson extraordinaire for the band choir trip She put in lots of hours working with Roxy to get things ready She was also an amazing chaperone on the trip What an asset to our district and Gravy the Little Falls Elementary
PTA parent volunteers Thank you Little Falls Elementary PTA for all the fun events you have hosted this year The pool party spring dance book fair book bingo popcorn days once a month field trips and so much more We are so lucky to have such a great group of adults
supporting our students Thank you for the countless hours spent on these events Lindberg Elementary Sandy Rudik Middle School Secretary Sandy is the definition of going above and beyond She is always helpful and incredible and incredibly
supportive Her smile is contagious Sarah Philippy Jordan Carl administrative assistant Jordan has willingly stepped up to run the office at Dr Knight She is hardworking loyal patient and professional We are fortunate to have her
Learoski Kelly contra Conrad pair professional Kelly has been with LFCS for nearly 30 years I've had the pleasure of witnessing her dedication to the students of Lincoln Elementary for the past 27 years Kelly is very insightful in recognizing the needs of
the students she supports in the classroom She sees things that need to be done and does them without being asked Her dedication to Lincoln students will be missed as she moves on to retirement Julie Alholm and Miss Marcy preschool teacher Little Flyers has been a gamecher for
our little guy He loves going each day thanks to the welcoming environment that Miss Marcy creates Thank you Lisa Sber Mara Roberts first grade teacher Thank you for being a great partner I've enjoyed working with you Flexibility
with the students we share Lauren Martinson Camila Larson choir teacher Camila did an amazing job planning and leading the choir band trip to Nashville The
students had amazing opportunities What a gift she is to our district And Gravy Jeremy Statam PE teacher Lindberg for keeping the traditions of Scooterville alive at Lindberg Your hard
work of setting it up does not go unnoticed Tarny and Sharon Bjord Heather Olen school readiness Heather does an amazing job keeping our center running smoothly and efficiently She always has a positive attitude and a
smile on her face and we are so incredibly lucky to have her to blast Jess Jansky counselor Jess thank you for being a calming sounding board for students and
staff I appreciate you Sarah Flippy Joanne Newman professional Joanne is an amazing parah Her relationship with all students is so supportive kind and helps them reach
their potential We are so blessed to have her in our schools and gravy The Lindberg Elementary cooks What does one say about these ladies They are fantastic are nothing short Close the
voice again Nothing short of amazing Everyone is greeted each day with a smile and a hello They do a wonderful job keeping us all fed You ladies are a vital part of our school community and we appreciate your friendly faces and dedication Thank you from the Lindberg
Elementary Mary Bartlett food service director Mary thank you for your leadership of our food service program You have done an amazing job over the past couple months with implementing new procedures to ensure our food service program is operating at its very best
while also coordinating all the required documentation for our review I appreciate all you do for our school Chris Muick Scott Orens and Nate Selby our tech in our technology department Scott
and Nate work tiredlessly to ensure that students and staff technology is online accessible and that the tools needed for daily learning and teaching is working smoothly This is not a small job Mary breath
programs Sheila Goiac a parah Sheila is a fantastic coworker She's definitely keeps us all on our toes She makes sure that all the paras are remembered on their birthdays and definitely keeps our morale up Thank you so much from Pam Hawk Mary Beth Grahams the technology
specialist Mary Beth brings such a positive attitude to any project she's working on She is also willing to help troubleshoot problems to ensure future success Little Falls is very lucky to have Mary Beth in our district Lisa Sver Jamie Fuches music teacher at
Lincoln Jamie thank you for your hard work energy and passion you put into the grade level concerts at L at Lincoln Elementary As a parent of a first grader who loves music it was clear why um he loves it You do an awesome job
Kayla Guber Rusty Gu our assistant principal at the high school Thank you for your generous clothing donation to the Lincoln Nurses Office I was able to keep two boxes at Lincoln and share two boxes with Lindberg Your kindness is
appreciated Nurse Amanda from Lincoln Cindy Beman paraprofessional Cindy is an amazing person She shares her kind personality with students and staff alike She always puts her best foot forward and I like I love getting
to work with her She does a great job Pam Huck Ryan Tennel the band director Ryan was a fellow chaperon on the band choir trip to Nashville His connections with students was awesome to witness His instructions at the middle school band
level help students learn to love making music and they do make great music and grady And I do not have a card but I'd like to just add um a thank you to Molly our student rep who donated her Saturday to help us at the prom dress
exchange Thank you Thank you everyone for the submissions Nice to hear Good stuff going on in the district All right And with that we do have um presentations And looks like Molly you got to kick us off today solo huh Yeah Elliot um she's busy tonight
She's playing in the pit for the musical in May So she's got a full schedule right now but I have a couple things for you guys So uh April and May are really busy for the senior class I was looking at my at my calendar I was looking what I needed to update the board on and I
was like "Oh these are all senior things." Wow Okay So the honor society is tonight Um after this I might sneak out a little bit early just a heads up But um this is where the seniors will get their cords that they wear at graduation Those are GPA indicators And
you are inducted into the Little Falls Honor Society I think it's if you have a 3.75 GPA or above And then coming up here we have the activities banquet on the 5th Um this recognizes students who have been in activities throughout high school and just shows appreciation for
the students that stuck with it Um scholarship night is on the 14th of May Um the students have been applying for scholarships throughout February and March Um a lot of community scholarships We have a really great scholarship program and this is the night to recognize the winners of those
scholarships Um the balorate service the balorate graduation service is held at the high school on the 21st which is two days before actual graduation which is on the 23rd Oh our prom is coming up here soon It's on Saturday April 6th It's going to
be held at uh the Little Falls Ballroom If you guys are interested in going to Grand March that'll be held at the high school and doors open at 4:00 Um the theme is masquerade which is really exciting I'm on the prom committee That's been something that we were trying to do and we finally got enough
support to do it which is exciting Um the band and choir festivals happened um last week I believe Yes Uh the days passed very fast lately
so I was kind of slipping away from me but um that happened last week The band and choir had them on the same day so there's a little chaotic getting the kids who are in both from back and forth from both the sites but it was a lot of fun Um it's not a competition but there's a lot of schools that bring their uh bands here They get um judged
and we get critiques from the judges So we perform our pieces and then they help us make them better And it's a lot of and we get to listen to our other bands We get to critique them and um help them as well And then the spring musical is coming up here also That's where Ellie
is practicing tonight It's a year with Frog and Toad Um I have a lot of friends in the musical It's going to be really fun It's a cute story and uh they're having three shows the first through the third And then it's not on here but I
know it's being voted on tonight and um I wanted to speak on it just a little bit Um this was something that was introduced about the pledge that me and Ellie were excited about because it was kind of what our position was created for was to pro provide that student perspective And so we we took it from
the meeting and then we brought it to our spaces that we're involved in So we brought it to our student council which um incorporates kids 9th through 12th grade We brought it to principal advisory council which also incorporates kids 9th through 12th grade We talked to our calculus class which is seniors We
talked to our comp class which is seniors And then I talked to my psychology class which is juniors through seniors And one two apprehensions that the students have with doing the pledge every day is that it would be just a little bit disruptive
um to plans that have already or like classwork that has already happened So a lot of times the pledge doesn't always happen right away at 8:00 and it once class begins it becomes a little disruptive when we're maybe playing a
game or something and we have to pause instruction or pause what we're doing to do the pledge and then get back on track I know my calculus class can get a little off track sometimes So uh wrangling that kids I don't know what it would be like in a classroom with freshmen but um that's just what my
experience has been this past year And then another um uh apprehension that has been expressed uh through those outlets has been um the fact that we might lose the um
appreciation we have for it right now Right now it's um has a dedicated spot on Monday morning and it's just widely known around the school that this is when we're going to do the pledge I feel like um it's not me but uh the students feel like um we would lo maybe lose as
much participation or it would just become another part of our routine that we do daily and then we lose that kind of respect for that we hold with throughout our day So that has been the two biggest things that students have been um brought to me when we talk about
it So okay thanks Molly appreciate the feedback Yeah Okay next Looks like Cam you are up huh With the choir and band Nashville trip Yes
Awesome Yes Fantastic Um I wanted to um yes tell you a little bit about our trip I'm going to share some photos and maybe some recordings with you of our experience as well So I'll let you kind of go through a little bit Um here we are on our way Uh we went March 19th through the 24th Um that's everybody
just getting off the bus at the airport Um we had 85 of us total that went on the trip So um our first day full day in Nashville was quite busy Um we did the RCA StudioB um tour We also got to record The choir got to record and the
band got to record Um this is a recording studio where Elvis made over 500 of his recordings Um the piano is still the piano that everyone has played on since uh that studio has been Um and so it was pretty exciting to sit at the piano and play in the same keys where
Elvis has played It's pretty cool Um so we got to do some recordings there I do have two If you do the one on the left side this is a little bit of the band I'm sorry I didn't let you introduce No Oh sorry It's the band Um they recorded
the school song So we'll play [Music] I should say [Music]
F O Y E R S O Y E R S C H A R T E [Music] Um so cool experiences We got each uh
each group got to got to uh have about a 30 minute time frame to to record And so they did several takes I got to be in the room with the band when they did theirs Um and it well it wasn't really that much bigger than this room No it was very small Whatever 50 some 60some kids crammed in with their instruments
um in the studio Um so yeah it was it was it was a cool experience Um the other recording is for the choir which I'm hoping and I'm excited that we got this recording It's of the national anthem and I'm hoping now that we have this recording that they can be played at like the basketball games or um in so
that it's when when we can't be there live we have a really good recording of the kids singing it So you don't have to play the whole thing because it's like three and a half minutes but you can play a little bit for sure Oh I had an urge to want to stand during the song I think we
should say by the dawn early so proud we at the twilight last stripes
and brighter [Music] For the ramps we watch were so gallently
stream and the rockets bursting in proof through the night that our flag was still there
Oh [Music] say for the land of the free and the brave It was a really great experience with
the kids Um going through a recording studio and having that u for some of them probably never been in that Um so you have the microphone and we we had several takes that we did and it was like "All right let's move some people around and let's see what this sounds like when we do this and that." And so and there were definitely some changes
and um the kids didn't get to hear it every time we do a take I got to go into the the sound booth room and listen to it and say "Oh yeah no oh we need to fix this or let's do this." And then we come back we try something again And um so it was a really neat process but I'm excited that we have this um recording now and hopefully can use it for for the
school So it's really cool Um we did record one other song as well just for fun We had time so that was good as well Um Country Music Hall of Fame we went to next Um we had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe Then we got a chance to walk around downtown Broadway and explore which is I think the kids had a lot of fun with
that We did spot some celebrities um while we were down there as well And then we ended the night at the Nashville Nightlife Dinner Theater So there's some pictures you can scroll through Here's the pictures in the top row is all of them at the recording studio Um the picture in the middle is
in front of the Country Music Hall of Fame and they're eating lunch there some of them And then the night dinner theater at the end Um Ellie who's not here tonight Mason and LA all got to get up on stage and sing a Taylor Swift song at the at the concert Um and so we had a
lot of fun It was a that was a good good first day Um our second day included a master class at Vanderbilt We also got to take a tour of the campus as well Um for the choir kids at least Um we went to an assembly food hall which is kind of like a high-end kind of like like
food court I guess um with all different kinds of um different things that they could pick from Uh we spent the afternoon at the Nashville Zoo It was a beautiful day And then we went shopping at Opry Mills Mall and ended up at the Grand Old Opry Uh we got to hear Vince Gil and quite a few others It was a great performance night So you can click
to see some pictures Um the top pictures are there at Vanderbilt the band um and the choir working there and then on the tour And then middle one in the zoo They got to pet some kangaroos That was a fun little excursion there Um some of the kids are bending over petting them It's
kind of hard to tell Um and then the Grand Old Opry which was um pretty cool Well if you click the next one you'll see the whole group there in front of the Grand Old Aubrey So good And the next one um our third day was the Belme Plantation and the National Museum of African-American Music And then we also
took a riverboat cruise on the General Jackson Um and they do dinner and then they have a show as well So take a look Um here's at Belme Um the we spent most of the day like the whole morning into part of the afternoon there Um we had
lunch there while we were there and we took two different kinds of tours One was within the the Belme plantation the mansion there which the kids are standing in front of And then the second tour was around the grounds Um the kids got to learn a lot about what life was like for the enslaved um on the
plantation for so many years Um got to learn a lot too about the horses Um because Belmeid was known for um their horse races and and all of that Um and we also got to have a lot of fun Um you can kind of tell that we were having a
little um croquet and playing They had all different kinds of yard games and we had some time um during some breaks between to play some games It was a beautiful day The kids were enjoying the sunshine as well So you can click the next one Um I wanted to share this is a quote I got an email from the head of
education at Belmeat Plantation and she sent me an email said "Our staff has been raving to me about how awesome your students were this past weekend They were thoughtful engaged and we had a great time touring with them." Um they were not the only ones We heard many times on our trip from the staff at our
hotel to parents on the riverboat cruise who spoke with us about how amazing our kids were that um they were so well behaved And um you know when you have that many kids altogether um they said that um we were the best group of students that the hotel has ever had as
a group We were never loud never got complaints They were kind and considerate Um and I just want to again say we have the best kids here in Little Falls and their flyer pride our band and choir kids it was just phenomenal I never worried one time They were just
amazing all the time and I wanted to share that with you too That's great um the National Museum of African-American Music Um here the kids are Gabrielle's at the piano The kids were jamming out and playing and singing um at the end Um just kind of showing a thing a few things We did that for a
little bit It's a brand new museum Um just opened a few years ago Um the kids did some of them had some fun They could go into some studios and do some wrapping and do different things Um Molly did you do part of that too No silly Yeah it was fun It was fun to watch But there was a lot of interaction
hands-on things You could go into with like a green screen and you could sing with the gospel choir and it would record you and then you could go back and watch yourself like singing along with them and you could put on a choir robe and it it had a lot of fun and really cool things Um just a great museum If you ever get there check it
out Um the General Jackson um the showboat that's a picture of all the seniors on our trip standing there Um um big paddle wheel It was a lot of fun There's a picture of the group that was performing It was called Music Nights They did all different um you know '9s country and for me I was like oh my gosh
it just went right back to high school and college days um of listening to all the music but very fun great buffet I think the kids had a great time Would you agree Molly Yeah they had bottomless Shirley Temples for $5 It was great
Yes Yes Well that's a memory Yes And you got to keep the coats Yes Um this is just pictures of every I took a picture of every table so you could see all the kids They were all dressed up so nice and we're having a lot of fun So it was a it was a great evening Um our last big day was um a big
drive to Memphis We went to Graceland and then came back and watched The Lion King with the Nashville um Symphony Orchestra Um probably of all the days we had the most I don't know disruption I guess right Molly We had some issues with the busing um that day and so uh
some of the groups didn't get the full time in Graceland and it was a three-hour drive to Memphis and then Graceland and then we had to three hours back to get back in time for the symphony So that was probably the one the big downer of the trip but at least we all got there eventually Um so we'll
show you a few pictures here There's everybody outside at Graceland picture in Elvis's house and some of all of many many suits There were walls that looked like that Mini walls of all of his um outfits So it's pretty pretty cool Um
and this was at the Lion King This was a really cool I don't know if you've ever done this I know they do this in Minneapolis and I've always wanted to go So it's kind of fun for the kids and for the band kids It was great They had the full live orchestra and they would we watched the movie but while they played all the music live So the vocals like
the singing and the the speaking parts were still from the movie but the orchestra would play along and you could kind of see it Um the conductor had a computer screen up and so it kind of like the bouncing ball of like following and so that would be his cue like when to start and then they would play with
that so he could see how it would fit with the movie and which is kind of what they do when they record for movies when the orchestra is recording um for that So it's a really really cool experience and a great last night Uh just had to throw in a few Um this is kind of a funny but the Tennessee Flaming
Flamingos was our group chat for our texting for all the chaperones on the trip So when we saw the flamingos at the zoo we had to take a picture Um we had a great time Um I want to say and it was really kind of an um to leave so many notes about all the chaperrons but I
also want to say that she also was fabulous Um every single one of those um chaperones did a great job work well together were so kind and caring We had several kids that got sick on the trip So we had a chaperon that stayed back at the hotel every day of our trip um to
stay with us whoever was sick Um and so it was unfortunate but um we had great staff that were willing to do that to take care of the needs of our kids um and help out Um and Debb did a lot with meds We had a lot of things going on we had a student in a wheelchair and
crutches and then by the time we left we had two in a wheelchair Um so um that's a that's another story Um so anyways it was um it was great They were fabulous So thank you very much for the opportunity for allowing us to go Uh for
some of these kids it's the first time they ever flew For some of them it's literally the first time they're out of the state of Minnesota or maybe even out of Morrison County Um and so to be able to go and experience all of these different things Um we had jam-packed days and I know I pack a lot in when I
plan these trips but it is um to give as many opportunities for kids to see other parts of the country and and yeah it's just um it was great and we made some great music We had some wonderful opportunities um doing that as well with
um with the recording and uh with the master classes So thank you very much for the opportunity to allow us to take the kids to do this Yep Sounds like a great trip Yeah Any questions for Tam What's on your wish list for going forward Where would you like to go Oh
gosh Well we did we did survey the kids about things Um I don't you know I am disappointed that COVID never never got us on our New York trip that we were supposed to take So I don't know I maybe maybe beyond the United States I don't
know We'll uh we'll see we'll see where where the next one goes but yeah something something new and different Thank you for putting so much time and it's so well organized Thank you very much Y thank you Thanks Thank you All right next we have Mr Borgi with our
spring update Thank you So before we get started I just have to echo um what Molly and Camela both just said about our students at the high school in Little Falls in general I think they are amazing They're very well behaved And I think it's a
product of this is year 14 of Flyer Pride So every single kid that comes up through our school district understands what Flyer Pride is And I think those expectations of respect responsibility positive attitude and being safe just carry over And when we have a group of
90 kids go to Nashville and I heard it from several people not just Camela and Todd that our kids were complimented all the time about just how they conducted themselves So proud so proud of those kids They just do a great job Speaking of doing a great job you
took the first slide so that's awesome Wally I on my handout I have a list of all the uh upcoming events for the senior class and I just want to highlight two of them One is this is our 15th year of Day of Caring which will be again on it's always on the first
Wednesday of May I can't thank the community enough for their support they have and um we're looking forward to a great day and uh we have about 165 people already signed up with folks on the waiting list and we're really hoping
that we'll get some more adult volunteers otherwise we're not going to be able to uh meet all the needs of the people So the the program grows every year and and we're really looking forward to it I know our seniors are are anticipating having a blast at day of caring And then commencement which to me
is the best day of the year to uh to graduate our seniors Uh again this is the second year now The commencement is on Friday evening It's at 7 o'clock So uh looking forward to uh graduating the senior class of 2025
and then sending them off to Grad Bash for the evening It's uh it's it's a great end of the year So we have uh our senior class has 10 valadictorians all tied for 4.0 So that'll be something that'll be really cool that we'll
highlight tonight at our our reception Does anybody have any questions about the calendar events I know I sent you a document early earlier and you've seen it now a couple different times of the events coming up in the spring One of the things you'll notice is some of the other things I'd just
like to highlight in my few minutes here is everything that we do you know going forward and ever since the strategic plan has been adopted by the door by the board we really try to tie things to the strategic board strategic plan so we can meet the goals and priorities of it And
so um one of the things that so I I included a copy I know you probably have a hundred of them but our curriculum and programming we just completed registration for the 2526 school year We're in the process of putting all of our registrations into the number of
sections And I just want to highlight some of our new classes and some of our classes that are in year two So we have a couple new college in the schools classes next year We have AP American history that we're adding and we're also adding a world history class for college
credits So part of the strategic plan uh you know priority one I think it's goal two is to continue to develop and enhance our curriculum in the school Uh and so we continue to uh try to improve and enhance our curriculum which brings
me to the second two bullet points This will be year two of our CDL and aviation classes that's part of our transportation academy And I believe Eric has 27 kids signed up from Little Falls for the CDL program And then we have
students from Piers Royaltton and Upsula that will be taking the class as well So we offer it really one semester for Little Falls kids another semester for the county kids Um that's year two And also for the aviation class we have 25
kids signed up for aviation year two of that Uh Peter Master John is is teaching that class So those two programs are established The kids love them And Eric if I can put you on the spot how many kids so far have passed the test
Well they all get through the federal ELDT and they all get through the courthouse Minnesota state tests Um the driving gets a little bit more challenging because there's quite a bit of cost that come and go Um as cheap as I've had kids get through is
$1,500 Some of them up to four or 5,000 depending on how much driving time they need Um it's about $200 an hour get drivers So it it adds up real quick So I would say probably at least 25% of our students that actually that complete the
written have actually gone through and completed the driving and have their complete class A CDL so far So and I know I got a lot of them in the pipeline We work really well with Adam Corola at Central Minnesota Truck Academy out of Royaltton and uh he
keeps he keeps me in the loop on when he gets one of my new students come through So I know he's got three or four working on it right now a lot of them try to get it through their employer Um once they get hired the employer's been uh able to finish some of their driving with them
as well and just sign them up for the state test So it's been going really well So you think about getting your CDL think about getting your driver's license You have a classroom component and then you have behind the wheel Eric takes the students all the way through
the classroom component and then we partner with um a couple different companies to help them get their behind the wheel if and their road hours to so they can be uh fully licensed So questions on that That's really a good a good leadin to the next page We are uh
actually in the process of really kind of launching our careermies and pathways We have a lot of pathways in Little Falls High School have talked a lot about our CNA pathway We have transportation pathways Um but we've been working with a group of uh seven or
eight staff members the last two years in developing three differenties I have a handout for you and then a number of different pathways So it's right behind the strategic plan Um we have a stream academy which is science technology natural resources
engineering agriculture and math And then you see the different pathways that are aligned to that academy And then we have health and human services And then our business and communication Every one of ouries our goal is and we're just starting this is to have either uh
college in the schools classes and advanced classes um a certification a job experience um a job shadow potentially an internship So when students are finished with their with their high school
experience they have some real life real world activities experience in in one of themies Um looking forward to really kind of doing a big launch next fall where we'll really enroll all of our students and ask them to to be in one of themies It's not like declaring a major
If students say you know what I want my focus of my high school experience to be in health and human services doesn't mean they can't take a manufacturing class or they can't take a class that's not necessarily in their academy It's just more of a guideline of if you want
to be a veterinarian here are the classes you should take in Little Falls that prepares you to be for a career in veterinarian If you want to be an educator if you want to be a teacher here are the classes in the Health and Human Service Academy that you should take that will help prepare you for
college and being a teacher If you want to be a welder these are the classes you should take So that's how all of our classes going forward are organized bymies and pathways So uh you're going to hear a lot more about that uh you know next
fall when when school starts Okay And again that's all aligned to our strategic plan That's that's I think it's goal two of of strategy one is developing that evidence-based career and college readiness uh plan for every
student The other college and career readiness program that we implement at the high school is called AVID Uh you've heard me talk about AVID before I provided you just a a refresher of some of the things that we're doing with AVID right now as we continue to expand the
AVID experience across the high school Uh and then the last thing I really wanted to highlight is again meeting uh the teaching and learning goals of the strategic plan goals one and three is we've under went begun a a process of a school improvement process at the high
school It's under our MTS umbrella of multi- uh multi-tiered systems and support So we're working with Sourcewell and we have uh developed a school improvement team that's going to really look at our data really excited about a couple of new programs
uh software programs that we have available at the high school across the district actually It's it's prolific and school links And so we're using those two programs a lot to uh help track how we improve um you know both of those are our our uh college and career readiness
and our school improvement So um we're we're doing our best to try to make sure that the work we're doing at the high school aligns with the direction that the uh that the board and the community has has set for us So no
fancy slides but uh I could talk a lot more but I need to get to the honors society But does anybody have any questions Oh that's that's a great update And I like the kind of the the flexibility and
the I guess the new approach Not necessarily new approach but I like the open approach that you know the pathways It's a I think that will help everybody I I think it's uh it's an exciting way to look at your
high school experience where you know having children that have gone through the high school you know they all went to college Um some of them some of my personal children had more direction going out of the gate than others Um but as I've I've tell the kids sometimes
it's just as important to find out what you don't want to do as what you do want to do before you go off into a two-year school or a four-year school and spend a bunch of money Our best example of a of a an internship that we can provide kids is is going into a classroom at the elementary level and finding out if they
really do want to be become a teacher And those kids get to intern for two three hours for a whole quarter sometimes a whole semester And we have some people call it growing your own I think we've hired four or five kids that have been through our personal internship program as a high school
senior in Little Falls and we've turned around and hired them We've really have grown their own So it's been uh it's been pretty neat Okay We want to do more and more of that Any other comments questions for Tim No just thank you
Thank Yes Thank you Appreciate it See you later All right Next we will move on to Mr Johnson the superintendent report Thank you Mr Chair Board members a number of updates First of all I want to say thank you to our presenters tonight
and sharing so many of the positive things that continue to happen in our school district every day And board members I know it's a time commitment but reading the flyer pride cards as well I think is a important thing for us to do We have just so you know April 24th
both at Lincoln and Dr Tonight we have come and see day which is an opportunity for parents to come in and get an experience students as well to see what kindergarten is like It's always been a successful opportunity to be able to give folks that experience prior to the
school year starting Uh we're also working on planning summer school Um to piggy back off of kindergarten we have kinder camp in August August 11th through the 14th where our kindergarters come in for a
half-day experience for 4 days to get a feel for kindergarten and prepare themselves for the start of the school year without anyone else in the building We also have special education extended school year summer school middle school summer school and high school summer
school All starting right away in June And then the elementary grades kindergarten through fifth grade have summer school August 4th through the 14th Mark if you I put you on the spot for a second
Just real quick Mark we've been working with Camp Ripley on a mutual aid agreement to enhance our unification process and procedures If you don't mind talking about that Sure So a long time
ago probably back in the early 2000s the district had a handshake agreement with Camp Ripley that if if there were ever a need for us to mass evacuate buildings whether or whatever kind of a situation
that we could take the students out to to uh camp and and and use that as a reunification site And so um recently there's been changes in leadership out at camp and there's
obviously been changes in leadership through since 2000 early 2000s in in the district as well And so we felt it was time just to sit down and kind of formalize that And so we've uh worked with Camp Ripley and Royaltton schools
and um the Morrison County Sheriff's Department to formalize an agreement um that would allow us to utilize Camp Ripley as a reunification site And so um it's it's gone through all the legal
channels that that's got to go through now And so we're going to we're ready to start signing that agreement We're just waiting for direction on from camp as to who for their purposes who needs to sign first Do they need to sign first or do they need the districts to sign first So
it's a it's been a great partnership Um we meet quarterly with with Morrison County Sheriff the Little Falls Police Little Falls Fire just to talk about emergency man emergency planning So
anything else you want like me to add to that questions you'd have Thank you Martin Thank you In front of you board members there's a handout titled the Albert Toma Family Endowment And maybe Sharon can help me with this as Sharon and I are both board
members of this endowment And it's been around I didn't realize since 1992 And it's an opportunity This endowment for Little Falls Public Schools Community Schools is over a million dollars right now And that those
resources are used to purchase library materials books non-fiction books uh picture books online subscriptions to really enhance our opportunities in our media centers as well as our classrooms I don't know of another district that
has something this unique that we spend anywhere from 40 to $60,000 a year to support media centers and books in our school district Sharing anything The only thing I was going to add was this year I was impressed that um Ann Becker
who's the family member from Toma um asked if we had ever and to my knowledge we haven't if we've ever requested funds to use for our special ed students And so that is something that's going forward we're going to look at that could help us with that budget
Thanks Sharon And then we also received just recently a comprehensive arts planning program grant from the Perpich Center for Arts Education It's $4,500 a year for years
25 through 27 for us to be able to put together a comprehensive arts planning program within our district essentially creating a strategic plan for arts instruction like to share I know board members we've discussed um a little bit about a
listening session for the board with the number of items that we've been talking about related to finance and facilities And quite frankly it could be any information that community members would like to share with the board that I'd propose to you that we on April 30th at
7:00 host a listening session open to the public where people could come in and share information for the board in the district location I believe we'll have that in the high school auditorium And then in front of you board members you have a half sheet of
paper looks like this And this is the information that we will share on our website social media We'll email it to families I'll be sharing this on the radio tomorrow and hopefully
we can depending on timelines get this in the record but it's information about our community survey which will begin sometime this week and it just gives people a heads up that when they see a 651 or a 507 area code don't think it's
spam necessarily it's could be someone calling from our survey company survey will last approximately 15 to 20 minutes and it's gathering insights regarding community's opinions on the delivery of education for our
students financial and facility practices assess public interest in potent a potential levy referendum And so again in advance thanking people for taking the time to participate in that survey I think we've
went through three three drafts to get reach the final draft of the survey It's about 70 questions and again we'll push that out next this week And the goal is at the next board meeting on May 12th the uh Morris Leatherman Company Peter
Leatherman will be here in person to present the results of the survey Any questions about the survey Could we put this survey up on the website and let folks who voluntarily want to do it take it Is that a good
idea or a bad idea for our 500 popes group I don't have the expertise and knowledge that the Leatherman company has in conducting a scientific survey I'm going to guess I know that's not something that they do with their surveys and
there's probably a good reason and certainly post survey obviously will share those questions and people again there's questions related to people just giving their feedback about how the district's doing academically financially There's questions in there
about four day school week There's questions in there about class sizes There's questions in there about closing schools There's questions in there about community's tax tolerance if we were going to move forward with a referendum
So it covers an array of of topics And then lastly not lastly this may take a few minutes but board members you've asked um and there's just been a lot of of information related to our finance and facilities And I I do um give credit
to the amount of questions and obvious interest in big decisions that lie ahead for the school district related related to our budget and uh expenditures These aren't easy decisions Obviously we would I think I don't want to speak for all of
you but we'd prefer not to be in this situation but it obviously needs to be addressed So I do have some additional information to share with you Again reiterating that um we're in the idea stage That's why there's a survey out That's why there'll be a listening
session coming up the end of this month and no decisions have been made Here we go And board members stop me at any point if you have questions This portion of my report I want to talk about Minnesota birth rates
Would like to take a look at our enrollment trends in the school district talk a little bit about the reductions the school district has made the previous two years Um look at staffing costs per student in our district And then like always we're planning ahead
looking at next year 2526 school year staffing scenarios This is information from the CDC and it it reflects birth rate in Minnesota So you can see back in it's not reflected down
below but in this in the narrative on the right by the numbers the state's birth rate fell nearly 21% between 2007 and 2022 dropping from 14.1 births per thousand to 11.2 just the trend that's
happening in our state and I'm assuming many states right now This is an additional comment from someone at the state level the state demographer stating that the data from the last few years and this goes back to 2022 is
likely the result of a pandem pandemic related blip where people who held off on trying to have children soon after CO 19 hit did so the following two years which is why you see a little bit of a
plateau here in 2020 through 22 The expectation by the state demographer is that going forward this little plateau is is just temporary and that we'll see the decline resume within the coming years in our state
This was an article um from the Minnesota Star Tribune less than a year ago with the title reversing Minnesota's declining birth rate is costly and controversial And the subtitle chronic health conditions and decisions to delay
pregnancies mean state may have to rely on methods like immigration to grow But this isn't again pointing out um these declines aren't anything new This is a snapshot of Little Falls I found this interesting If you go back to
2002 2003 and those of you who've been in the district longer than me this is when Little Falls Schools was in statutory operating debt in 2002 2003 And I believe this was a time when media centers were closed Perhaps the pool was
closed for a period of time And the fund balance was almost $600,000 in the hole in the red And if you look at our enrollment in 2002 2003 we had 3,022 students And in
just four years that enrollment dropped to 2530 That's about a 16% decline in four years in the fall schools during that period of time Um and if you look at from 2006
2007 to now enrollment was 2530 we're at 2,300 That's about a 9% decrease but spread out over 18 years So the decline in enrollment although it's been steady has not been drastic And I really
believe it's primarily driven by the birth rate birth rate decline that we see in our state And I could show a lot of information Another important data point I think too is open enrollment And if you look at our open enrollment numbers
when you look at the number of students we gain from other districts based on the ones we lose that number has been consistent over time This is a snapshot a projection of looking at Dr Knight And if you look at
Dr night projected out to school year 26 27 just based on current enrollment that we have Second grade would be our current first grade today at 14 students First grade would be our preschoolers today which again we're
sitting at 14 students And then as we look at projected preschoolers next year that number is at 13 and 14 So again that trend of declining enrollment lower birth rates continues to impact the
district in all parts of our community A point with our budget reduction So fiscal year 23 excuse me 24 and 25 we reduced our budget by $3 million And there were no reductions made at Dr Knight those two years Majority of the reductions that came
through took place at buildings in Little Falls simply because it's a challenge in a one section school to reduce teachers reduce programs It makes it very difficult during that time period of two years of reductions I'm not aware and
was not privy to any discussion about closing Dr Knight Again we tightened the belt and made significant reductions Also during that time at Dr night We added additional nurse hours We had added additional media center hours
and we increased the amount of principal support significantly during that budget reduction process This is the staffing cost per student So what we pay the cost that we have in each of our buildings for the
staff that we have divided by our number of students And you can see those staffing costs by building from Dr Knight to the high school Also looking at our district average and asked to show a scenario
that if if again capital letters and underline if Dr and I closed what those staffing costs would look like with just four buildings You can see that balance also noted up here Currently with all the
buildings in play just just over a $100 difference between Lincoln and Lindberg Um if Dr Knight were to close what with those reductions Because the the biggest impact in closing a building is the impact in staff savings
If you look at from a teaching standpoint anywhere from four to five teaching positions not Dr Knight teachers but teaching positions in the district we would see some savings of $432,000 The principal position
$172,000 These numbers include salary and benefits Interventionist $105,000 Five para professionals including a media center parah 152,000 two custodians two cooks and a
secretary $278,000 which would be a total of just over $1.1 million What that doesn't factor is lost revenue in in student enrollment If we lose potentially how
many students that would impact the saving the savings in the staff reductions obviously if Dr Knight remains open for next school year just to note the following positions would need to be hired yet this spring Two teachers
at Dr Knight an interventionist in reading and math at Dr Knight a transition teacher at the high school a head custodian at Dr Knight secretary at Dr Knight a head cook at Lindberg media center par profofessional at Lindberg
and a custodian at the high school What else has changed since we we asked a task force to come forward and help us look at our budget situation is the state budget forecast has gotten worse projecting a $6 billion deficit in
two years The governor's come out with his proposed budget which is cuts to special education transportation and likely districts taking over unemployment insurance would be which would be significant increases to our budget and
deficit And then just recently finding out our health insurance rates have increased by 18% I'd love to sit here and share positive news I I I wish there were were better scenarios for us to consider and I know we have some difficult decisions
to make I like you am very very interested in what the survey results will will pose to the board and and helping support the district as we make decisions moving forward Any questions board members I am and I'm going
to not to throw cold water on it but if I was just reading this for the first time and I didn't know any of the background I would say yes Dr Knight um is a anchor for us But I wonder how that would
change if students that families that want their kids to go to Randall were allowed to because that's not happening now and it hasn't happened for a number of years Um we are we say we're the Little Falls
Community School District but unless um if you have the Little Falls zip code you're not allowed to go to Randall Randall is supposed to be We say it's part of the Little Falls School District Um I don't agree with what was decided
I'm not really sure who all decided it um on the zip code cuts on it because I know I live 2 miles from the Randall School Three miles from me is the Little Falls um zip code that's cutting into what
could be going into there and maybe keeping a number of students in our district not just Randall but in our district So those numbers I don't think are they're honest but they're not a
clear forecast Just to touch on that I appreciate those comments Sharon and and I know that that's that question has been asked before I think it's common in school districts that have multiple elementary schools to have boundaries and they do
that to be able to best plan and support the needs of students And it's really hard when a district doesn't have boundaries that you have families then that from any given year can choose to be at any particular elementary school in the district We've experienced some
unique situations just this past year at Dr night with trying to best support students with special education support some behavior supports and it's been challenging because we don't have as much support there as we would like If
we had 15 people from Lincoln or Lindberg say they want to transfer to Dr Knight that would significant significantly impact our ability to be able to effectively staff that building And vice versa if we had 15 to 20 people choose to leave Dr night and come in a
little falls That would really tie our hands from a staffing standpoint I'm really concerned though about the the number of students that we potentially could lose from the district not from Randall but from the district
because I have families that are telling me if this goes forward the way they're expecting unfortunately they will also be pulling both the middle school and the high school students And that's a lot of money out of our budget for that too We will be hurting in every
building So I think it's definitely going to be an extremely hard decision but it's something we have to be open-minded and look at for everything Absolutely Well said And I am hearing from both Little
Falls residents and Randall area residents they really feel that a number of the board members have made up their mind way before any of this was made public And I haven't um these type of numbers you know they're I've known about them
for a while but they're an eyeopening deal that the public has to completely be aware of too But they need to know the other facts too not just the numbers on the board Thank you Any other questions The only thing I'd
say to that and I'll say the same thing Shar and I mean I would agree with you 100% The other part I'll ask and I asked up in Randall how many of the people who live in Randall are sending their kids to Dr Knight I know there were two of them and they're hoping that you know in
the community meeting saying we need to keep Dr after night open yet they didn't send their own kids there I have a real hard time listening to somebody and taking that person serious trying to get me to tell me what to do I want to keep this school open but yet I'm not going
to keep my kids there So there is there's there's two sides of that That's what I said on all of these points So I get it And if we lose kids I mean again with that situation we're already losing kids because they're not sending them to
school But if we have kids pulled are we going to lose 1.1 million in kids I don't know I don't know either So but again I just know that a number of families have already visited with with
Swanville I'd heard today Browerville um Pillager and a couple of them have already signed up that are actually in Little Falls area that could be going to Little Falls and are going to Piers next year Sure I just know for me it's it's it's and I hate the fact but I know it
has to be the bottom line and the money I really think we have to look at a lot more than just that I would agree But I will tell you from my standpoint too and I can't speak for anybody else Threatening that you're going to do something to make me make my decision
will not work for me So um it's what it is I' I'd like to go back to what Greg was saying I think that's where the importance of this survey is really going to show because like you said it's covering a wide range of subjects It's covering you know uh
tax availability as far as people whether they be supportive of another referendum you know among other things across the whole district So that's going to have a big those results are going to play a huge part in how we make our decision moving forward because it
is a dollars thing it is you know and and we have to do what's best for the the entire district as a whole We can't look at it just from the Little Falls perspective and we can't look at it just from the random perspective We got to look at it from the district perspective
as a whole And that's where the benefit of this survey is going to come through in my opinion I'd also like hopefully we'll have enough enough people that will come forward to the listening night and actually ask us the questions that you're not just talking
about over coffee someplace Let us know what you're really thinking and if you're serious about like Doug said are you seriously thinking of going someplace else And personally and for my own mind if I have a little one in in Randall and
you say it's too far for them to travel Little Falls well it's no quicker or shorter distance to Swanville or Pillillage or anything too We've got to look at the whole picture Thank you sir The students have to be first
All right Anything else Any other Can I make a comment No you can't This is not an open discussion Okay next we will go on to Are you done Greg I am Oh I'm sorry Thank you On to um new business
Looks like a resolution for non-real for probationary teachers We have three resolutions this evening Our first one is um what Doug just said resolution for non-renewing probationary and this is teachers Whereas the following teachers
I hope I get three names right I apologize if I don't Preschool teacher Cararissa Teser Kindergarten teacher Elizabeth Hansen Fourth grade teacher MN Mickelson Titles fed teacher Jennifer
Bragg Special education teacher Cooper Grasshorn and business education teacher Shannon Larson These are probationary teachers and independent school district 482 Be it resolved by the schoolboard independent district number 482 that
pursuant to the Minnesota statute 122A-40 subdivision 51 and the district master agreement the teaching contract of said teachers listed above probationary teachers in Independent School District 482 shall be non-renewed
at the end of the 2425 school year effective June 30th 2025 Be it further resolved that written notice be sent to said teachers regarding the non-renewal of their teaching teachers teaching contract I do
need a second for this motion I will second your motion Thank you Doug And then we will have roll call vote Dan yes Julie yes Doug yes Mark yes Myself is yes That is the first one Our
second re resolution reducing and discontinuing educational programs and positions Chair Maloo introduced the following resolution and moved its adoption Whereas the school board of independent district 482 adopted a
resolution on January 6 2025 directing the administration to make recommendations regarding the reduction and/or discontinuence of programs and positions And whereas said recommendations have been received and considered by the board of
education be it resolved by the board of education of independent district 482 that the following programs and positions or portions thereof be discontinued 2 full-time E in art and 8
special education teacher I need a second for this motion I'll second Dan Roll call vote Dan Yes Julie Yes Doug Yes Mark Yes myself is yes That one also will pass Resolution number three
resolution proposing placement of a continuing contract tenur teacher on unrequested leave of absence Be a resolved by the school board of independent district 482 as follows It is proposed that Christine
Mson a continuing contract tenur teacher of said district be replaced on unrequested leave of absence without pay or fringe benefits at the end of the 2425 school year This will be effective June 30th 2025 Said action is taken in accordance
with the district master agreement and pursuant to Minnesota statute 122A.40 40 and subdivision 10 upon the grounds described in said statute and which are specifically as followed financial
limitations discontinuization of the position namely a 2 art teacher and point8 special ed teacher your proposed placement on unrequested leave of absent is not the result of imple implementation of an educational
district agreement I need a second I'll Second Thank you Roll call vote Dan yes Julie yes Yes Yes Mark yes Myself yes All three
resolutions have passed this evening Okay Next looks like we have a request for po proposal for school food Um is there Can you lend anything to that Greg or is this just pretty
straightforward I'll turn it over to Chris Chris Okay So our our food service program is large enough in total size that we have to work on the bid process for our major products in the food service department
Um our food service director and I worked on developing these and we decided to break it into three separate categories school food school milk and school bread products to give us some flexibility with vendors in the area Um hoping to keep it
local Um it has I believe a three-year renewal on it so on the fourth year we'll go through this process again Okay All right This is an action item
Um I'm assuming do we need to take these one at a time Probably Yes Okay All right So the first I am looking for a motion for a proposal for RFP for the school food It's moved All right I have
a motion by Dan A second Second A second by Mark Any further discussion Hearing none All in favor signify by saying I I Oppos Same sign All right Motion carries Next we have the proposal for
milk So again looking for a motion So moved A motion by Sharon Second Second Have a second by Mark Any further discussion Okay Hearing none All in favor signify by saying I I Oppose Same
sign All right Motion carries And then finally the last um RFP for school bread products So looking for a motion So move a motion by Dan a second A second by Sharon Any further
discussion Hearing none All in favor signify by saying I I Oppose Same sign All right Motion carries All right Right And then it looks like there is a our wellness policy
533 This would be the first read through this Um this is not an action item but just more information um for the board to take a look and go through the first reading of our wellness policy All right Next we will step into
old or unfinished business Um first item is the approval of a marketing and grant writing position and this is an action item So um you do have a copy of the job description in
there and let's see why don't we go with get it on the table and then we'll get any discussion going So I'd look a mo make a motion for the approval of the marketing and grant writing position Okay So you had first or I I'll I'll
make the motion A second by Sharon Okay Any discussion Everyone's had a chance to look at it I think it's a it was a suggestion I believe from the community group Um it's one that's been discussed for a number of
years Uh the grandfing was part of it I am still a little confused on the how that would be paid Would that be partially on the amount of grant money they bring in Yeah we would have That's a great question Sharon This position would have a flat salary and then built
into this based on uh not only the work in attaining grants but also their work in communications and marketing there would be an incentive component to that salary to encourage additional grants for the district Okay
Okay Any other discussion questions All right we have a motion a second Um all those in favor signify by saying I I Oppos Same sign Motion carries Our next is approval of policy
531 the pledge of allegiance policy Um let's see Looking for a motion I'll make a motion Okay I have a motion by Dan a second by Sharon Any further discussion Yes Okay go ahead Go ahead Sharon Um for
the last couple years this has came up a number of times I would like to see us continue with uh following this the state law of it being once a week over the intercom I've spoke to Molly this
weekend plus some other high school students and a couple middle school students and they pretty much gave me the same information that Molly gave to the board tonight that um they felt it would lose the significance The only
opposite part that I was heard was some of them felt that and I don't know maybe we aren't doing this that they are not being taught um some of the significance of why the pledge is said and the importance of the
flag and the symbolism behind it and they would like that from what I understand from our elementary teachers it is being said every day in the elementary schools so we're talking mainly the middle and high school doing it once a week And like Molly mentioned
earlier it was the same response I got from other people both parents and and students that you say it over and over again it's like some things even in your in your religion you say it so much after a while you're just doing it on
remote and you're not you're not actually thinking about what you're saying or the reason behind it And it I think it would lose its importance if we do that to the students Yeah Okay Thank you Anybody else Dan I kind of wish Molly was still here because I had a
question for her and we didn't get a chance to ask questions when she was done with her brief But it'd be nice to know the number of students that she actually interviewed Like if she did a poll what she did about three different classes but like what percentage of the
actual student body did she actually talk to and did she get those responses from because I mean she may have gotten say 50 of those responses but when you factor in 50 out of 6 through 12 you know we don't know what that
number of I don't think she did middle school I think it was 9 through 12 right but it would it' just be nice to know what that number of responses was frankly we live in probably some of the most polarizing times that we've been in the last 20 years regarding the division among people with everything that's
going on Um and in my short time of just over two years on the board I haven't seen any major issues discipline wise or anything like that in the elementary schools We don't see those issues starting until the middle school and in high school Well the common theme to
that to me is we're doing the pledge daily in grade school and we stop doing it in middle school and high school Um and part of this policy and the way it's been rewrit rewritten includes one of the things you
actually was talking about that you heard students saying they would like to learn the significance and have the understanding That's part of what the policy is getting set up the way it's set the way it's been rewritten and and adjusted u the way it is in front of us
here tonight But um I think I have I personally have the issue and people I've spoke to have the issue of having it be res recited every day I think the point that you're just making
now Dan that we need to make sure the students understand it and why that it's being said I think that is something maybe we need to look into because I don't know if the schools if they have a class or lessons on that right And that's that's literally part of what the
policy is putting in place here But the part of the policy that says recitation required every day is the part I had the problem with No Okay Any other discussion hearing None All in favor
signify by saying I I Opposed I All right Three to two it carries Okay start See we didn't specify it for this school year So I would assume the first beginning of next year will be a new parent go out in the parent handbook
with updates Fall of 25 Fall of 25 Okay All right Reports from board members Um Dan open my phone here Look for some
notes Um okay Trapped Uh spoke with the trap coach and um he's uh got nothing but good things to say about uh the trap program for Little Falls our program over the last
four years since he took over Mike Thompson as the head coach He's seen the interest in the program grow from 47 kids to 53 the following year 57 the year after that Now this year we have 62 Um we also get people from all different
backgrounds in in trap We have regular athletes or some some that are in trap that it's their only sport they're all for It's one of the fastest growing in the state right now with over 400 schools participating This year we actually have
13 female shooters out of 62 so close to 25% Um and Minnesota actually has the highest number of shooters for trap nationwide with over 12,000 So and zero zero injuries over 20
years So it's impressive That's all I got Okay Julie Nothing Nothing Sharon Um yeah I'd like to make sure people are aware that on May 5th through the 9th is
teacher appreciation week and please send a note or just let them know that you do appreciate what they've been doing with the students for the for the year I want to thank both Little Falls and Randall citizens who have been reaching out by email um text phone call
and let giving me your opinions on things like that We need information from everybody from every walk of life on it I'd like to give a special thank you to um Rose Albbrick and the Helping Hands 365 Like I mentioned Molly was
there They did for two Saturdays They had over 200 prom dresses donated for students to come in and look And we had a number of suits And so I think she said we had 13 13 girls that found dresses So they and it wasn't just from
Little Falls It was as far away as Detroit Lakes um Long Lawn Prairie different communities peers and Little Falls that found dresses and um I think there was four young men that found suits ties shirts to go to prom that
there was no cost to them at all So and she does plan on doing this continuously And like I mentioned Molly and I believe there was five other high school students this Saturday that gave up hours and came and helped with it It says a lot more for our students too
that are willing to help out with that And then also the my last thing is April 24th the Initiative Foundation is hosting a Morrison County Family Resource Fair So if anybody has time that day to check it out on social media or contact them and get more information
to find out things that are going on in this county especially that can maybe help you or or give you information or ways you can find to volunteer to help Okay Mark Nothing new to report Nothing Okay I have a couple things Um I like
Sharon would um like to thank everybody for for reaching out Um I know we have some big decisions and I would like to thank you from both from Randall from Little Falls from around the district and stuff Keep them coming I'm more than more than happy to listen to them and
stuff Um one thing I do want to um that one thing I want to address though that I've heard out there a lot is is transparency And what I wanted to do is I looked up the definition of transparency just to make sure that I'm not getting it right or I'm getting it right And the definition I found says
transparency refers to the practice of being open honest and clear in communicating information Transparency involves being open about how decisions are made why they are made and the information that informs those decisions Now I know we've been accused of not
being transparent and what Greg did today and at previous meetings I don't know how you can say we aren't being transparent with this whole thing So um because you may not be aware of it right away doesn't mean that we haven't been transparent with it So I would
appreciate um you know if you have questions certainly reach out Um we have many meetings where we have nobody sitting in the audience so it's good to see people here So um if you have questions all of our contact information is out there So on that anything else to
come before the board If not I would look for a motion to adjurnn So I got a motion by Mark a second by Dan All in favor signify by saying I I Opposed All right Meeting's
over Thank you