##VIDEO ID:tpye1YzRjK0## good evening I'd like to call this meeting to order this is Independent School District 8:32 it's a regular board meeting for the mamei school board it's Monday January 27th 2025 7:00 p.m. please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you roll call of attendance done thank you uh approval of the agenda I'd like to ask for a motion to approve the agenda with flexibility so moved move by director Regan seconded by director Donna any discussion all those in favor say I I I those opposed motion carries uh presentations or none I'm sorry I put it in the wrong oh the consent agenda moving all over thank you uh I'd like to uh ask for a motion to approve the the consent agenda by director doen second second by director Peterson any discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed motion carries okay no presentations and now our the report from our student rep welcome Ma well hello I haven't seen you guys in about two months or so so I just got to hit all the big points and I heard this might be a long meeting so I'll try to keep it a little bit shorter the biggest thing that happened I I got a haircut if you noticed I had to put that out there okay in student council we pack gifts around the holidays for the community kids there in past years we handed them out but the past year and this year we come to the district education center here for a couple hours we pack all the gifts I know some of the elementary middle school kids actually go and buy the gifts and we wrap them and send them out to kids in the community that's always fun right now we're planning for the snowcoming formal which is actually this Saturday so that'll be a blast and the winter Medallion hunt has started so I know Minneapolis kind of has their own but we actually have one in the school where Mr Lane hides in the prize this year is a mini iPad which is actually $5 $600 so it's a it's a competition now in the elementary schools they got to visit the stem fair which is put on by the high school with the NASA hunch group and some of the engineer ing classes engineering 2 and three I believe where they got to go see a bunch of the ru Goldberg machines which if you're not familiar they just put a bunch of Contraptions together that kind of activate each other to do something in the end really complicated and that was hard to put together as I was H as I was told now in February is actually I love to read month at Wildwood and as part of the month they have a bunch of dressup days throughout the month which are Book theme which is pretty cool in the middle school they actually had a spelling be on the 15th and Jonathan Palmquist the winner actually now has a chance to qualify for the regional scripts National Spelling be later this year which is really impressive and also in the Middle School a student Haley par actually performs in New York City for the great Christmas cookie bake off musical which is impressive it's near Broadway now in the high school Mt DEA made it to state which is really awesome so happy to see them there and also in the high school Evan MCG is about to pass the mamei high school pin record all all time which is1 wins I think I could beat him but you know they he's pretty good now the ma scholarships are currently open so if you have kids apply to those I know I did a whole presentation last year in English on that and there's a lot of them so you'll probably get one if you apply and the senior all night party planning meeting is on the 29th for parents that's the first meeting which is in two days and I think I covered everything big now for our superintendent report that haircut just gave you a lot of confidence huh beating Evan McGuire would be quite something all right um okay just an overview uh I'll share some things around the district including Awards and noteworthy news um and just a reminder about our facilities questionnaire and some upcoming events we just had Kinder kindergarten registration in open house um I'm really I just a shout out to our kindergarten teachers and um those who organized nette cow also is a big part of organizing that kindergarten open house it is quite they run a very smooth operation there with getting as many kids and families through um as they did it was really in both informational and a lot of fun so we're looking forward to welcoming those families in the fall we had a couple spelling bees not just the middle school but also OHA and um we had a fifth grade student Kia Evan also who um who was the champion at OA and Max already mentioned Jonathan paulist that's an annual event that is hosted by um our sorry Katherine Marg marget our um Advanced learner coordinator um so we are looking uh for volunteers to support our high school students at the MHS career internship and volunteer Fair on April 11th and there is a Google form that uh where you can submit interest via that that Google form and so this will be linked in the ews and so then you'll be able to access that there so um if you're looking to recruit dedicated interns or um we're also looking for volunteers to just help students re r with reviewing their resumés as well so hopefully um we can get some good interest to support our students at the high school um so the winter and spring catalog is available now the 2025 winter spring catalog for Community Ed is available and the summer catalog registration will launch on March 19th I know once that launches a lot of people Things fill up pretty quickly so pay attention to that to that date um for for some of the summer events you may have heard I think we talked about it already the computer science grants that our schools were awarded at the beginning of this year they've already started working through the grant uh through mde and we are one of 12 districts to receive this and it's um being used to support professional learning some planning and and some resources as well so that um we can um to enhance student learning in areas like logical thinking problem solving and collaboration and so it's partly it'll be a it's a K12 Endeavor so it's not just classes at the high school but also strengthening our K8 curriculum offerings um that support computer science if I don't know if you saw it in on uh on Facebook or in our social media Wyatt tarnowski graduate of 2024 was selected for the AP art and design digital exhibit he's one of 50 students among um 80,000 student portfolios portfolios that were selected for that honor so he submitted his Art and Design exhibit um last year and it was selected just recently so I didn't even know we did this I just learned this recently that he Oscar aotto was recently named the winner of the national Young Writers ridiculous writers contest I hadn't heard of this before is this new this year last year was the first year for our ridiculous writers contest so his uh magical Pizza mini Saga was one of three stories chosen um to win the award so congratulations to Oscar we had some 916 students of the month so 9116 honors uh one student from each of their 20 programs um each month and so three of our students were chosen as 916 students of the month just a reminder of our facilities questionnaire that will be closing uh this at the end of this week this was an opportunity just to get some feedback from uh families staff alumni community members to learn more about support for for fundraising and the idea of a a private public partnership on our facility these projects in the coming years just some upcoming events so you might want to take note uh I know the sweetheart dance is always a is always a popular one it because I happen to see it happening here in the in the district office but there are a number of upcoming events that uh are just highlight here and at that Middle School youth night I think you've talked about that Jenny at the middle school um I think that was one of the things you had mentioned to me that's coming up in February as well right oh you've mentioned it here yeah and Ryan asked if dances are coming back so here's here's a slow start there you go okay that's what I have great thank you okay so now we are going to jump over to number 11 action items uh B and C because uh we want to let our auditor go ahead okay 11 um so 11b is actually the approval of resolution ratifying the award of sale of refunding bonds with Tim Erikson Matthew Hammer from Ellers together I'm going to let Matt talk a little bit about this we've been talking will you come to the mic please yes I will thank you so I'm gonna let Matt talk about this we've been talking um to the board about this for quite some time and uh our results going out to sale day on the bonds were really favorable so um I'm going to let Matt talk a little bit about that we'll get some we're g some savings and position ourselves well for the future so with that Matt yeah thanks Tim good evening uh Matthew Hammer from Ellers District's financial adviser I'm just happy to go in front of uh Jim here tonight we've been following each other around for about the last month here so um I'm here tonight to talk about the results we received last week we we did uh we were able to move forward with the refunding sale the district's 2014 a bonds um so we uh issued new bonds the 2025 a bonds to replace those and we saved about $1.5 million for taxpayers which is outstanding results uh we've been watching this for about the last four months um we're looking at moving forward as the last fall put the sale on hold and now we're able to um capture uh what we typically see in January which was a dip in the market and um our timing I think was was very good for for being in the market to to Garner some savings for taxpayers um in our sale Day Report uh we received a a large number of bids which is indicative of the demand that's out there right now for municipal Securities um as part of that Key Bank was a low bder and they offered a true interest cost of 2.97% so um I'll get into a little bit of the details of that you'll notice that uh the coupon rates or the uh interest rates were the same um but we're in a market right now that offers uh premium bids um so if we look at the overall issue the the the 2014 bonds had about two a little bit north of $22 million of principal left on them you'll see the par amount of the new bonds is uh 22 or 20, 850,000 um so if you think of that right we're we're issuing less principal um to PO pay off principal that was 22 million and we get to that with a premium bid um so in essence the underwriter is offering cash we don't have to issue as much uh principle um and we take that savings and that equates to a true interest cost so what you're seeing there of 2.97% even though those coupon rates are the same on the issue so I think overall we're we're really pleased with the results um the the district had a parameters resolution in place so those uh Bonds were actually um signed off last week with the proposal because it came in underneath the parameter that we had reestablished at the beginning of the month um and we were way underneath that parameter because that parameter was reset at 3.7% and being under three is is an outstanding result as part of the um you the district did go through uh a rating process as part of this which I think is important to point out um The District's rating is uh underlying rating is double A minus which is an outstanding rating for a school district puts you in the um top 20% of districts that have ratings um with S&P um which allows you to get um good rates when you're out in the market um um in this Tye of situation especially when we're trying to create savings for taxpayers so with that I can answer any questions folks have about the sale process or um anything else as you looked at the report that you wanted me to answer director dlman you mentioned the uh doublea minus rating I'm not super familiar with the world that you live in what are the um factors that lead to that rating there's a lot of factor I kind of call it things that you can control and things you can't control right um so there's uh factors that they look at from the standpoint of your economic base um your of uh income in your community all those pieces that are kind of outside your control the pieces that you can control are your financial um performance right as a school district which has been strong um and then kind of your outlook as they look at some of several of the management factors that you uh have in place as a district with your committees and other things that you guys do a good job with so um there's a lot of factors that go into it um but you guys are doing a good job of controlling what you can control is what I say um and that provides that um that rating that when people are looking to purchase your bonds comes with that doublea minus rating director Don I just I just want to thank Tim and Matt team refund thank you for that I think uh this puts us in a really good position and puts the district in a good position right also saving a lot of money for taxpayers as we go forward um I don't have any questions I just wanted to say I feel like we were very well prepared for this and we' had conversations about this we talked about the parameters so um so thank you for making it happen I'll just Echo that we we were very happy with the news and so thank you for being here and um getting us to that point yeah thank you for the opportunity for working with you on this uh project and we're very very pleased with results I think uh this was everything we could have expected and a little bit more with uh the results we got last week so awesome news okay so can I get a motion to for approval of resolution ratifying the award of sale of refunding bonds series 2025a move by director Donna second by director p any discussion all those in favor say I I those opposed motion carries all right now we'll move to the auditor reporton is here from mmkr so please yeah the Jim will yeah Jim will come up and review the results of the of their audit of our books and Records oh sure sorry chair superintendent members of the board uh my name is Jim Ikon I'm forly with mmkr CPAs um I will uh quickly um give a little bit of an update um as of January 1st of this particular Year my firm has actually merged with lb Carlson CPAs uh a little bit larger firm but collectively we will have better resources and and uh uh um Team an increase in our team to help with our particular practice I don't expect my practice to change at all uh most of my team have uh transferred already to the new firm the reason I bring it up tonight is I am representing mmkr this this this report did get issued as mmkr even though I do work for lb Carlson at this particular moment uh um the uh goal of this evening um is to present the audit results for uh the year end of June 30th 2024 it is the role of the auditor to audit the uh financial statements of the the district you are required to complete an annual financial statement the district actually takes that particular financial statement and and enhances it uh to be in compliant with the certificate of excellence and financial reporting program the financial report is about 150 pages long it has a an intense amount of data in it if you're interested in all kinds of data you can find it in that particular financial report uh my my role with the district is to provide an opinion on that particular financial report as well as F follow other audit guidelines that are developed by the office of the state auditor and the state of Minnesota as well as the Department of Education as well as the federal government um uh as you can see on the PowerPoint we do issue an opinions on uh this the district's schedule of federal Awards your CIFA which is required by the uh federal government uh we do audit your internal controls over financial reporting as well as uh your internal controls over Federal awards that you received as well as state laws and regulations there is a list of laws that the office of the state auditor provides to us um that we audit we don't audit all the laws that pertain but just those on the list so as part of my particular audit process I do issue a management report and in that management report we provide uh information that is uh um really in a presentation type format that you can read through and understand the audit results uh in that particular document if you will read it but I'll present some of the highlights uh here this evening um first and foremost um uh we did plan out our audit report our audit procedures to meet the scope and and needs of the district we didn't change that scope as we went through everything was very smooth uh and uh was completed on a timely basis we submitted the data to the office of the state auditor uh and the Department of Education on both November 30th and December 31st on a timely basis um in terms of audit results we were able to issue an unmodified opinion on that comprehensive financial statement that I mentioned uh it is a clean opinion really the opinion you were looking for going into the particular process um uh in that document you'll note that I did Issue what I would call a reportable item which is uh the district does operate under a lack of segregation of Duties environment when it comes to internal controls um you read the documents it is really considered a finding I really report it as a reportable item uh we have a lot of audits that are under this particular framework and and we audit under that understanding and look for what I would call compens controls other controls that are in place to uh make sure that they're compensating for that lack of segregation duties in your accounting systems so um I react to that particular statement and say what what should change I I don't have anything to change really there there's no recommendation there it's just understand that that's the environment that you're under uh continuing on uh in the municipal legal compliance area we did Issue two findings specifically related to two particular statutes that were required to test one on withholding affidavits and one on unclaimed property uh the first one is a requirement that the district receive a withholding Aid affidavit from your vendor verifying that they're they're paying their vendors uh withholdings uh um uh in that particular affidavit is required to be received prior to making the final payment on that contract um what happened here is it happened the other way you you actually made the payment on the contract and then received withholding affidavit so it was more of a lack of timeliness than it was related to not receiving the actual uh report that is necessary in this particular case the same could be said for the unclaimed property report anytime the district has unclaimed property which in this case is most probably the best example is an outstanding check uh you have property that somebody hasn't claimed U and anytime it gets over a third over sitting there for over three years you're required to report that to the Department of Education sorry in this case the Department of Revenue at the state and ultimately pay them or give them the unclaimed property is process that would happen here um what happened there is that particular file report didn't get F filed timely again it was due in November it got and and got reported a couple months after that so um again it's more of a a Timeless of reporting and less a we didn't do what we were supposed to do uh continuing on uh uh you'll see that the single audit of federal Awards as noted there uh we were able to issue a clean opinion on the district's schedule of expenditures of federal Awards the district received about two and a half million uh of of federal Awards this past year um we do audit these Awards on a rotating basis based on federal requirements um so we audited the special education program this year based on rules and regulations um that being said we did not have any findings to report in both the control areas of that testing as well as the compliance areas which are lengthy when it comes to those Federal Awards so all in all the fin the the compliance results that we have here uh uh really are are are exceptional um really are uh have no findings report on the financials we didn't have any findings to report uh in those other areas in terms of controls and the two findings we have really have to do with timeliness of reporting and less uncompliant so really good results when it comes to the audit this this particular year in that in that area continuing on my report does then get into Financial results uh of the year the uh the financial results for the year end of June 30th 2024 um in my report we do provide some information on comparables um this particular graph shows uh um a graphical presentation of uh fund balances uh fund balances is a percentage of expenditures which is a very commonly used percentage by school districts um this particular graph is using the department of education's percentage calculations the district actually has its own separate calculation that I'll show you a little bit why this is an important graph is you can see on the yellow bar that for many years that the state uh fund balance as a percentage of expenditures was about 20% um in that particular percentage went up during the pandemic um mainly due to operational changes at the the building levels uh as well as Federal revenues coming to districts um as a result of some of the covid funding and then once operations kind of post pandemic hit you're seeing fund balances go down and you're seeing districts starting to struggle financially for both the same reasons they're back to normal operations costs are higher than the lack of federal funding is is you know it's dwindling if you will so that yellow bar as you're seeing is going to continue to go down based on my own prognostication I don't have the data here to support that but I anticipate that's going to occur the blue line again is MD's uh uh fund balance percentages calculations and you can see a very stable uh increasing fund balance environment over the last what was that about six years really uh of improving fiscal uh fund balance and as of June of 2024 you're at 2.3% based on again MD's calculations so I really uh U when I look at that it gives me warm fuzzy stly um you like to see fund balances going up like that and creating the right environment for for the kids um in my report we do have information on revenues uh this is governmental funds all your funds collectively showing revenues on a on a per student basis so what that means is the district is receiving about $1,115 per student in in June of 2024 a couple of areas stand out to me in that graph and that you can see in the state aid area there were some there was increases to State AIDS uh both in the general education area as well as the state special education Aid area which are showing up as increases in that particular graph you also see Aid increases to Food Service programming if you remember uh uh the state passed a free meals program which is coming through in state aid revenue on that particular particular graph it went from $516 per student to almost $750 per student on the flip side we talk about uh this graph shows uh expenditures on a per student basis again this is uh stating that uh the district spent about in uh regular instruction some of the instructional areas specifically regular instruction for elementary and secondary kids increased um by about $640 there are some contractual increases there uh employee benefit increases uh Grant spending increased and in particular that area had some curriculum purchases as well um you can see instructional Support also increased um kind of almost stands out as a um prettyy significant increase mostly it was a one-time uh purchase of some instructional equipment that's happening in 2024 um that will probably go back to normal uh given the one- time nature of that you can also see the offset to the Food Service fund you seeing increasing revenues and now you're seeing increasing expenses for similar reasons you have more food service programming going on with that free lunch program as well um lastly I'd like to always point out and uh this particular presentation you can see your debt service fund expenditures there um you're spending about $1,598 in debt service and if you look at the comparables you're almost identical to the comparable debt service costs at your District as well as it compared to the metro and Statewide important really showing good fiscal uh responsibility when it comes to debt so we get into individual uh fund information now um the general fund Financial piter for 2024 uh uh stated a total fund balance increase of about 600,000 uh this compared to a fund balance budget that projected about $100,000 decrease so more or less you're about 800,000 better uh than you projected in your budget um this particular uh um presentation here I think it's probably even better shown here uh uh you can see the general fund Financial picture there showing total fund balances increased about 600,000 as mentioned uh unassigned fund balance went up a couple thousand um one other couple things I want to point out this bridge that are really important to understand the first one is really you look at that restricted fund balance you might ask yourself wow why are we negative what happened there um well there was a a strategic initiative to to get approval to have spending happen in an operating Capital nature uh in advance of the receipt of the fun so you went ahead and made purchases the MD did officially approve this particular transaction and that is what you get is a spending ahead of the revenues showing a negative restriction pretty much uh fully acceptable it's very acceptable transaction um that was probably a positive for the district certainly uh the second item I to point out that particular graph relates to the fund balance policy uh the district does have a fund balance policy the board is fully aware of the policy um the policy states that the the school board will strive to maintain a minimum unassigned fund balance of 8% um that particular 8% is the is comparable to the bottom percentage there in that graph the unassigned fund balance at the end of 2024 is 12.2% certainly above that minimum you can also see that that particular percentage has been very stable over the last uh from 2022 to 2024 um that particular percentage is very important to the board it's used um certainly to understand um where you're at financially as well as it does help um understand when you get future information from the district as to where we at how are we standing at the end of every one year so an important policy to understand and make decisions on so very good Financial picture um we do provide information on general fund revenues general fund expenditures um I will say that uh just when I get into the data points and we look at it from a high level um the the general fund revenues and general fund expenditures were very close to expectations um the the uh why that's important as a board uh you're making decisions on an everyday basis based on this budget and at the end of the day the budget uh Financial audit held true to that budget and uh which what that means for you is you can make informed decisions understanding that that the audit will come true at the end of the day to those decisions that you're making um uh for for instance uh the general fund revenues were about 800,000 excuse me 900,000 over the final budget most of that was in interest um uh interest earnings and really it's difficult to to budget what interest earnings are going to be it's a difficult environment so things like that uh uh really stand out to me that you get that close in terms of um your final budget to actual data uh and really can identify well that was just because of Interest U on the expense side it was had to do with Smart Boards we decided to buy some smart boards we didn't really really but for budget for but it was a good decision and fully transparent to the board so um certainly very very good results when it comes to budget to actual information um continuing on you have uh other governmental funds here which shows this particular presentation the Food Service fund uh did improve uh this past here uh um an increase of about 70,000 most districts are experiencing positive operating operating results in their In Their Food Service funds mainly because of the free Freel lunch program that the state is is providing uh Good Financial Resources um on the community service fund uh you had an increase of about 30,000 uh you can see very solid results the last few years uh that particular fund has um about $836,000 fund balance I would suggest that um that particular fund is doing better than your peers most districts are really struggling within the community ed area to try to financially support those particular programs and when you look at that graph things see seems very stable in that area that's not what I've been saying uh at many of the presentations that Matt has heard so um I think I had some others um I will highlight uh the district has several other funds including the capital project building construction fund you have a Debt Service fund uh an internal service fund for dental as well as a post-employment benefit trust fund the one area I would point out this past year that in the capital project building construction fund there were some significant insurance proceeds that were used to uh uh do some riffing repairs U which are showing up in your financial report as almost extraordinary items if you get into the details but certainly a transactional item that stand stood out to me so that's the end of my presentation so in summer I was able to issue a clean opinion on the financial report we had the one reportable item on segregation of Duties we have the two legal compliance findings for uh timely reporting in those two certificates or two areas certificate of achievement program hopefully uh um with with positive results you'll receive an excellence and financial reporting award you have an improving if not uh stable fund balance in your general fund adherence to the the district's fund balance policy is very important um and then lastly I want to just State uh um um the management of the district is really a a highlight for me when it comes to this audit everybody takes this audit very process very seriously uh they're very dedicated to getting the the audit information to me uh and and uh getting the data and things complete and it doesn't always look like that um in my world and I just want to highlight that uh the district is very supportive of what we're doing here and making sure we're doing it the right way and getting these audit results completed and done properly so with that I'll turn it over to you for any questions um I have one question thank you for this um this this is now multiple years that I've had the opportunity to hear the audit report and the question I've had year-over-year and still not super clear on is exactly what you said of we were given the clean opinion but we have the reportable item of something that the word significant is what worries me right significant deficiency yet you're saying on the other hand nothing we should worry about right so why report it okay well why let's answer to the first question um it is a finding in this audit um in that you have lacker consideration duties you just don't have the size of the business office that is needed to segregate all of the transactional area is um that are needed so uh the best example that I can give is an accounts payable uh there should be three or four people involved in accounts payable process uh to to segregate it properly and you probably have two you know involved in the process so we go into this audit with full understanding that that's the case right we just know that that's uh something that you're limited by right so I'm going in with the understanding that I'm not going to really even audit that I'm going to audit the compensating controls so the first question you have there is what was it significant deficiency right okay so there's two choices I've G I've been giving two choices to report this binding I can either call it a significant deficiency or I can call it a material weakness I get that's all I get those are the two I get they don't give me any any more options um both of those don't sound great but the actually the worst one is material weakness and I'm giving you the lower one which is significant efficiency um I can't get any lower than that the word sounds horrible I agree I agree with you but that is that is the words used in nature so uh your second question is why give the finding right was that your secondary question yeah it's something you're kind of said you said when you explained it that's something we really couldn't control right because of our size uh that that it's great question it is something you can control okay so that the you could choose I'm not suggesting this I'm just giving you the could you could hire more people you could say to yourself well if we needed to eliminate this finding we need to hire two more people in this area and two more people in this area and two more people in this area and that would eliminate the finding right at least in my opinion the district is really choosing not to do that because that's not cost effective the benefits of you gain uh would be more expensive than what you're gaining out of that right the costs outweigh the benefits that's what I'm trying to say so you choose not to you choose to accept the finding in your auto report because it's going to too costly not to right so that is the cost benefit so yes you are choosing and I'm saying well I accept that I think that's okay every district is doing that at your level and and you need to report and so the auditor needs to report this to the board so that you're after year you know that's something we should be watching too I mean like so it has to be reported even though we know it's there it's still something we have to talk about thank you I think you just touched on this but but just to make sure that it didn't get missed this is typical for a district our size to and we've had it for as long as I've been here you we have recommended not to get too off track but if a district were to grow um or get bigger or larger there is a threshold in St in standard that would say would say if you get to this point maybe you should have that segregation duties so we do get to that stage on where we recommend maybe you should get rid of that by hiring more people you're not there and you you work with districts that are quite a bit bigger than we are that has that finding I do yeah I do I don't I mean I'm not naming any I'm just saying I know I know it exists I there is a threshold seriously that you can go down the list and say it's about right about here yep a good question hey any other oh yes do these Auto reports directly impact the bond rating criteria like is is this one of the input items when we being evaluated for Bond issuances I would say yes that could probably answer that too but yes they do get embedded by S&P and the rating agencies yes do they look at the findings probably not but they're looking more at the financial picture and the financial results and the long-term Financial stability in many cases M chair I'd just like to thank Jim for this report um and I think this is really you know the clean opinion is what we seek right and that's a testament to our finance department and our leadership with the superintendent as well so thank you very much I think that's it and I'll Echo that thank you and appreciate all you do and the reports you um continue to provide thank you you need to make a motion to approve yes thank you just about to move on Okay so I would uh appreciate if someone could make a motion for approval of independent auditor report move by director doen second second and by director witson any discussion all those in favor say I I I those opposed motion carries thank you so now we will return to item 10 and this is the discussion of board member calendar do anyone have anything they'd like to call out yes director um so we're talking about the the calendar right yes um so I'm still looking for somebody who has availability to tend attend the curriculum advisory committee meeting next week so if um you are available if you could let Leslie know or Barb know that that would be great how about I just do it yeah great thank you okay yep where does it meet does it say um oh here okay thank you we might have talked about this at the January 6th meeting but I think were you covering me on the February 5th PTO meeting that morning no no is anyone able to cover me at the mimedia PTO meeting on February 5th at what time it's at 9:30 I thought that I thought that um committee met in the evenings it's switches but we can yes uh if no one else can I think I can I'll confirm okay anything else okay thank you uh midyear financial report okay so this is our uh as you said midyear financial report so I'll just run through some of the line items and please feel free to ask any questions as I go through it um so what we do here is we're showing two two years of actual expenditures on that leftand two left-and columns and then the middle section is our current year budget and then uh what we've received year to date is that next column over to the right of that and then you can see the remaining budget and then also as a as kind of a a uh a perspective of what all of that means we look at percentages percentage of budget received and then the other column over is percentage of actuals received and that's compared to the last year actuals so it kind of gives us a good indication um when you're looking at those percentages are we tracking okay so when we look at that that first line uh under the revenue categories a state revenue and so you can see that's 27% 27% so we're tracking right on that one is very consistent because of the way the state meters out our payments so there there's usually not much of a variance there um when we look at um federal revenue of course that one is down significantly so when you look at percentage of budget received is 7.43% versus the 12.24% and part of that is just due to uh those those uh large pandemic relief funds and that last year was our La last fiscal 24 was our last year of that so that's why we'll see that difference there and then when you get to property taxes that's again that's metered out that's it's predictable so we're looking at 91% for each of those years then uh when we get to local fees interest that type of thing um we see a variance a pretty big variance there in the budget compared to last year and that's just a function of we're we're making uh more interest as interest rates rose up we were able to lock in some Investments and we're just seeing a lot more interest there which is good news right um we can't always depend on that because it's it's based on interest rates and those are moving all the time but in this case we're we're in good shape there and then the totals you can see um we're running about 40 45% of the budget received this year versus a 42% last year at that at that same time uh then I'll run into expenditures so I look at salaries and wages and that one normally that's that one is going to vary um depending on timing but normally running in the upper 30s to low 40s in this case we're at 4 3% right now versus 38 and then when we get down to benefits that one that's has a little bit larger variance and one of the biggest impacts is we're we're doing an accounting entry we're doing it earlier so we get more timely financial information and kind of know where we're standing that's a that's a payment into uh an H account so um and that was just reversing that uh that year end entry and reversing that early enough so um it doesn't it doesn't get skewed in this point it is a little bit skewed because of that entry but uh next year you'll look at that and it'll be it'll be more in line the other part we have is we have uh State supported unemployment expense um and that one is uh that one's that newer item over last year and this year we have uh the State Unemployment uh Aid that's coming in uh in this case we've got the expense uh we don't have the aid in yet it's a reimbursable so we have we apply for reimbursement on that uh purchase Services um that one's pretty steady you know 42% versus 46% last year uh that bottom one supplies that's going to be Tech uh actually Tech lease payments in that one and then we had a larger textbook purchase so that drives that number up a little bit um and then equipment other expenses uh that one always varies but expenditures you can see expenditures vary a lot more uh than we look at our revenues because the revenues and the big parts of our revenues are metered out by the state and then by by the the tax levy and the local and the payments and the tax levy so any uh questions on that NOP okay um I won't get into all the bottom part we're going to be bringing a uh we'll be bringing a budget revision update to you um in this this next month so um we'll see those numbers change a little bit so okay uh the only question I have for you Tim on this is at the bottom actually um so what was presented in the auditor report again looking back right so it looked like that unassigned total percent of expense was somewhere around the 12% right but moving forward projected end of this school year will be 88.9% right I just wanted clarification on that right yeah but that and that's you know we're going to bring that budget revision so that numberers that number two will will change a little bit as we go forward thank you thanks okay budget parameters for Budget reductions and adjustments for FY 2526 okay so um this is just a discussion for the so we have been talking about the budget for a little while now and um getting ready for um what we will be doing for Budget reductions and and adjustments for 2526 and you have given me some feedback and we've had some conversation together and individuals have talked to me a little bit as well and what I'm asking for you today is to just kind of talk let's just talk through um the pr parameters that you would or give me some opinions some things you want us to think about as we bring forward budget reduction ideas for you in uh at our next meeting So the plan is again um you you're going to give us some parameters um then on the 10th of February at our study session our Administration is going to put together um based on those parameters our recommendations for reductions you'll give us some feedback again um either affirming things we brought forward or asking questions or asking us to bring you more information so that at the end of the month of February you again so big picture you'll be giving us what you're going to approve the budget U reductions and adjustments that we're going to make and then the administration moves forward with those things um as a reminder these you know we're still early in um the process and things can change as we learn more about what happens at the state level and the legislative session if it ever really gets going so um we'll know more by the end of the school year but this is the process we need to go through now so that we're ready for that okay so again um we've talked about a number of areas I've listed some of them here there may be some others for you um and I my recommendation is we just kind of go through that's okay with you the process okay um so you've gotten a lot of information about our current our budget our audit um as well so hopefully that helps kind of frame things for you one of the conversations we have is about the fund balance and so one of the recommendations we had was to use some of the fund balance to help um help so that the reductions weren't as significant and so I guess one of the things I'd like some feedback on is um use of the fund balance and um we had made the recommendation of about a million [Music] um so if you want to give us some feedback on thator Peterson that projected fund balance Kelly brought up so low taking into account the million missing can you come up and help us with that question so right now we're doing you know we're kind we're in the middle of doing some projections so if we uh if we're looking at that um and I don't have an exact number yet we're going to we're fine-tuning that stuff before we bring it back to you but we'll be above board board policy if we dip into dip into fund balance uh by a million dollars will be above board still be above board policy of the 8% 25 26 but the number Kelly pointed out is that taking into account this that's those are yeah those are older numbers now so unfortunately I I you know when we do that we're doing a projection so they're a little bit older numbers so those numbers too are for the end of this school year we're talking about next year it's it is confusing because you just heard an audit report about at the end of the 20 23 24 school year and now and then you also Kelly pointed out um the budget it was on this one Tim's report was for the end of this school year that we're in is the 8.94% about 9% fund balance we're talking about the 2526 school year and that's the one we're recommending using a million and that and alongside reductions but right so that our fund balance can take a hit of a million dollars at your projected 8.94 and still stay above eight right and and part of that was the the things that we did the actions that we took last year to kind of prepare for that part of it was that using using accessing that uh deficit fund balance in the capital reserve that was 8404 some thousand so that that helped to shore us up you and then interest coming in where that yes and interest earnings been we've been really fortunate there too is that the interest earnings are quite a bit higher so those and those are some those are some of the things that you'll see you know we'll be adjusting in the next budget revision that we bring to you in February as you'll see that you'll see the results of that as well are not things we knew of when we set the budget last June but those were things that we worked through since then the question is there any like I so our rec we're going to be bringing forward recommendation to use fund balance not to go below fund balance policy we're saying it's about a million I guess I'd like to know if there's any objection to that or any other feedback you want to give us on that director Doan it's not an objection from my perspective as much as it is just um a reminder of where we were six months ago when we had the discussion about the fund balance and as a board I think we really were apprehensive about even going below 9% 6 months ago and now we're talking what going towards 8% and again it's not saying that that's not the right solution to the problem it might be part of the solution um I just want us all to be aware of that feeling that we had six nine months ago and how kind of we weren't totally comfortable you know dropping below that I think 99.4% was the one that kind of sticks out in my mind um I I'll try and stick to the one point you're bringing up because it's bringing all of other things my head as well but I mean I would um I don't think that this is going to be easy no matter how we look at it and when we look at the amount of you know the about amount of budget deficit we're in however I think we're going to have to be I think we're going to have to be cognizant of what your what you mentioned Ryan I think we we did talk about that we and I think that that's something that's important I also think that again trying to stick to the question you asked I think we're going to probably have to utilize some of our unassigned fund balance in order to not make the cuts to the classrooms deep and so that gets me to my next point but I'll let you keep going with your other suggestions that because to me that's the most important is that it doesn't impact our teachers and our kids that they feel it the least amount I would just add that I think this is a Time to be using our fund balance this is why we've been holding it so when we hit a time like this where there are a lot of expenses outside of our control um we can weather it but I I do agree with not going below our balance policy director do I mean Donna Madam chair I would just um yeah I I completely agree fund balance is going to be a part of the solution um but I'll just Echo what I mentioned before I hope when we're we go through this process we're just not looking at next year we're looking at the we can't part of that fund balance is not only to get us through the next year but it's also to get us through the following year as well so thank you anything else any other comments Tim is this 8% only is the assigned fund balance as a percent is that only measured once a year or is it measured every month no it's measured once a year at June 30th yeah so we could go below that as to what we talked about in the finance meeting without triggering any of the other policies yes so yeah so it it yeah in reality it's up and down on a monthly basis yeah on a daily basis actually so yeah good question the next one um just for some context we have um used uh something called the bright Works class siiz study and it's a Metro class siiz study that is put together by our service Co-op and prior to the pandemic our Elementary class sizes were about depending on the grade level about one more than the uh the bright work study let me try that again the uh average class size in the metro area in elementary is about one more than it was post pandemic so they all dropped um so we used to use the average Metro the Metro average U we've always used the Metro average and the Metro average used to be higher and we had class sizes at that at that range back before the pandemic we've been running lower class sizes at the elementary because that's the Metro average based because that's how we've always measured it so I mention that because one of our recommendations is to look at increasing Elementary class size by one um which would put us back to what they were prior to the pandemic so that's one of the things that I was looking and we may find that supposed to come out in February that um class siiz study so we'll see what they are now too but um that's one of our recommendations as well this is the one I feel strongest about um do we have to compare ourselves to District Camp can we stay small and not have to follow that I oh 27 um I don't know what what nothing good comes from bigger classes does it except some dollars um I just have always loved that small classes we offer here um we are envied for it it's just something I feel strongly about I know we talked in our meeting one doesn't seem like a lot but when I see it on paper it does so the one uh kindergarten 21 uh first grade 22 2 grade 23 third grade 24 fourth grade 26 fifth grade is the one place that jumps to so if you want me to keep it at 26 then fifth grade fourth and sixth fourth and fifth seem like can you uh quantify what this increase brings so uh every student we talked about earlier the average I'm sorry is it 14 14,000 146 or so in Aid it and it varies a little bit but yeah 14 to 15,000 so by increasing class size it would bring in we have about nine sections in every Elementary so it would bring in that is off hand and would that um you said so grade four right now is 25 students and grade five is 26 well that's the let me just say that that's the number we use um to determine class size caps I guess is what when we're when we're figuring out so currently our fourth grade is small we just didn't have the enrollment in third and fourth grade those are both those are both uh under but what we do and and I'll just say these are average class sizes so when we determine class sizes at the beginning of the year they go up and down during the year depending on ins and outs of Resident enrollment but um yeah quick back of the napkin math it's probably 700 Grand give or take 100 so it's not insignificant and I tend to share Jenny's opinion like that that raises that rises to the top for me of like last thing we'd probably want to consider but again to Stacy's Point like we'll need to what and this applies to all of them like understand like directionally how much money each one of these reductions truly is as we look to figure out a combination that makes sense okay yes and that's it's a good point because again um this is our list of things to choose from and and figure out what to do with so this is one of the options that we're bringing forward okay um I understand the math on the incremental number number of students connected to incremental Revenue what is the offsetting incremental expenses associated with each incremental student because there must be some offsetting can't purely marginal it has to have some offsetting expenses to quantify that educ um and so we could we could figure out some we could well we could use some part of that model that we talked about last time potentially right yeah um you know it wouldn't be adding classrooms it wouldn't be adding staff um necessarily it could be I mean I guess I mean you you look at technology like Chromebooks I mean yeah there' be more or less Chromebooks more or less textbooks but you're not counting it's like the electricity bill is the electricity bill it's not divided by student right so whether you have 22 students or 26 students in a classroom they're not going to count that cost so that I think is why you're not going to capture every cost per student right we would yeah we would call those fixed costs in this in in our world here the utility bills yeah those things are not going to change um you know really when you look at you know incrementally um bringing in students or adding additional students over the course of a year um it doesn't result in any additional uh facilities costs as far as you know custodial that type of thing because we're still cleaning they go on you know we go based on a square footage per per per cleaner uh that case so it doesn't it's not based on students of course there's a little bit of increase traffic but that's it's kind of inconsequential we'll talk about that as an option um but what I'm hearing is the value of there's value and staying small at the elementary mam chair just a um question and I'm not saying that 27 or 21 or 23 is the right number but obviously the numbers increase with the grade I'm [Music] guessing is there more capacity for a fifth grade teacher to handle more kids because of are there underlying reasons why they can typically handle more kids is that okay all right um and you'll see you know just like middle school will be higher and high school okay that's typical and and again we're looking at average across the Metro um as an indicator okay um we also oh sorry oh thank you I just have to get emotional for one more second on this I I know this is about money but I don't think parents the kid in the classroom or the teacher wants more kids in the classroom and it's another behav you know you were talking about Paul what is it more of but we're adding to the teacher another Behavior another portfolio to build another grading another I know I you guys can tell me how much money it brings in but I'm just stuck on these small classes yeah which is why we traditionally keep them below the Metro average I mean like that has been a a commitment this district has had for a long time and when and we're in a we're in a budget situation that requires us to do some things differently otherwise we wouldn't be having that conversation so but I'll just add one thing if I can before we move on to the next one I mean I would agree in the fact that I don't know why my microphone is so much louder than everyone else's maybe I should sit back here um I agree that I you know ideally this would be great to keep them the size that they are and be below that um average class size and I I I think that is one of the things that you know of many things that makes us unique again I'll just State my earlier point that I just really hope to see as few staff and sections and offerings and things I know we're just talking Elementary here but I think that there's just going to have to be in my opinion a little bit of everything for us to figure out how to make this happen so this one is for sure not at the top of my list at all like if we were kind of rank ordering them um but I think that we might just have to think about what that looks like and maybe it's only at certain grades or you know so anyway that's my thought yeah and that's and that's fine um I'll and the reason those two are at the top is those are our biggest places um uh we get fewer savings as in a couple other places so we have athletic and activities um coming up with some ideas about potentially reducing activities that have low enrollment um looking at ways we can be more efficient with transportation and when I say efficient with Transportation some of that might be not having transportation to um we already do some of this where you don't we don't have transportation to very for games that are really close by and rely on families to help so um also not ideal but one of the ways we could look at that we could also look at fee increases and so those are things that um we'd be potentially bringing forward does anyone have any comments on any of those I have one comment on that and I guess I would want to know a little bit on specifics on what low enrollment because maybe that's just a I can't think of one but let's obviously baseball isn't low enrollment it has multiple teams and but what are some examples of that with low enrollment because maybe that Sporter activity or whatever is naturally a small number number and if that means getting rid of that just because that group is small I don't know that's what I'm looking for specific it's a good point because it is the case that um one of the things uh that we pride ourselves of what's going on at the high school is how many opportunities there are for students um and any we you know reduce because it's low enrollment we definitely have activities that have low enrollment um so and that and the the cost savings would be the stien if it's a stien position for a teacher so okay there a way to then help families that that prices them out of playing baseball we do have scholarships for for families and I can have when er here to talk about that I can that's for any activity right would the transportation efficiencies reflect a new policy on Transportation based upon distance from the district like a certain District based upon a sport or a I don't know if it would be a policy I don't know that we have a policy when it comes to activities and transportation I'll have to look at that certainly a practice it would be a change in practice but practice I don't know that it's at the board level I have to look and see if there's a board level policy and just as an example that like you said we would if there was a tennis match that was close by the assumption is there's enough parents that are going to watch that there would be enough parents to bring the kids home so we would save we'd only have to bring them there but not have to pay for the bus to come back that is what some districts do right now are there other trans when you say transfer efficiencies are there other things like that on top of that that you'd have that's one that I have in my head because I know it's a practice in other districts but I do I don't know off hand but I can ask Aaron Aon um foresight is working through some of these things for us okay um we also have districtwide staff um we have do have Physicians that do not work directly with students they work in other ways to support teachers and administrators and other staff um so I have that has um a possible reduction uh for you to comment on as well you have to have a superintendent by law so I just your hand down I'm required all right go on that takes my question that is not what I was gonna say um but I you know I think every school district is having to take a look at what positions were added since covid and covid federal dollars were available and with that not being available it' be I think really um something to maybe consider what has been added since that time and probably many of those things are really important and necessary but I just think that that would be a good thing to think consider okay anything else okay with regard to open enrollment we've we've discussed this um a couple of times now but in depth at a at a study session um so um we have we are continuing to move forward with accepting open enrollment as long as doing so does not require adding additional instructional space and stays within uh class siiz parameters that we've talked about or we will be talking about again are there any comments on that so that kind of ties into the Elementary class size do we have physical capacity because I know we've used to have a lot more students enrolled here do we have capacity to actually add another full section at all do we have we don't have the space no we do not we do not um we had larger class sizes okay and we had um we also had uh at the middle school was one place where we had uh more students at the middle school so that was I'd say that was one of our areas I thought there is a there is a grade that right now we are one section short that grade is in eth grade now they they've made it to e8th grade the small class so then to answer his question they'd be going into n next year and there's not sections really okay yeah but I mean there might be some reductions in that regard if we don't have as much enrollment at high school but and we also don't that's just been a a small class throughout the district for a long time the current nope we do not have one less section the current third and fourth grade are a little are a little smaller than what they have been in the past I'll just add that I think it would be good for you know when we had just talked about Open Enrollment not too long ago and and that being closed to rake a look at again the individual grade levels and where there is capacity obviously with what our infrastructure can sustain yes and I think is that the what you're I just want to confirm that that uh we're so we've open enrollment uh the first window is is done and so typically we let PE we start letting uh families know if they've been um accepted under open enrollment and we used the process that I've talked to you about before um about you know again looking at class sizes current class sizes rolling those up and figuring out estimating what we have in terms of room um and so we would we would start that process shortly right in the next few couple weeks right notifying families and typically again we leave some space um for some we don't fill it completely we leave some space for Resident enrollment and just changes in general to enrollment but we get started okay okay um what I also have on here is one of the things we're going to look at the second the reason we can't really talk about secondary class size very easily is because it just really is you know it's there are so many elective options and so many different ways um students students go with uh how their pathway works out and so we would be looking at reducing um courses that have low enrollment so students at the secondary level are going to Reg register shortly and then based on based on that we would be looking at um not running certain courses that we might otherwise run those with low enrollment um I'd say some of the things that we would um in the with the idea of not being super disruptive one of the things we would be looking at is we would want to run those classes that are kind of the end of a a progression so um Calculus BC um French 4 you know things uh that are at the end of a like students are taking French all the way through they would expect to take um that CIS French 4 at the end and so that would be a course that we would um prioritize over something that maybe could be offered the following year for students so there are some courses that maybe have low enrollment that we could offer the following year and then students could take it then so that would be kind of how we would look at it how does that translate to savings you have to have you have to have at least a certain number of courses in total to eliminate a full headcount is that what we have to do um yes so um let me say so it would it would be pushing up class sizes um at the secondary level um and reducing that's where the savings comes from is if you get rid of four sections across high school you can eliminate one full-time position that's how the saving the idea well here goes my big idea so you're going to probably think this one's crazy but I'm just going to throw it out there to think of I I really don't like the idea of thinking about I don't know what that bottom number is that that what maybe you can tell me what that bottom number is whether a course runs or doesn't run and maybe it depends on the course but I think about in the world that we're living in in 2025 I think about how could we potentially have less courses cut but how could we is there a possibility to think about utilizing the technology we have to have more of a blended learning environment to offer courses differently I don't know I don't have the answer to it I'm not saying just wondering if instead of a bell to bell schedule is there a way to concur well I will I don't know already offer they might have a few different sections of a class running at the same time if it's a class I'll just say engineering and art both do that quite a bit where they might have a couple different levels of students in the lab at the same time um but you're talking about more of a hybrid well I'm just trying to think of how to continue to offer the courses we have for our students today have them not feel it and not lose staff as well but be able to impact the budget so I don't know what the answer is I would look to Jen I guess for what those creative teaching and learning Solutions are if there's a way to do anything like that to not just say it's on the chopping block and it's off I don't know yeah I think out to be honest when I have seen um things like that happen it's come from teachers who had an idea about how they could so we could certainly put it out there for teachers with some ideas um but I yeah we'll see I I don't know sorry I don't know I I am not I think you said I would call you crazy and I'm not I'm not I think it's a great idea I'd be okay if you did though it's a good idea um okay any any other thoughts on that part any other feedback okay um we also know that we have um really high subst or substitute costs have increased quite a bit over the past few years and so that's another um area that we're going to be looking at how we might be able to um curb those curb those costs um we have obl contractually that um you know we need to fulfill but there are also other ways that we can look at that um to some degree so yeah I don't know if you have much of an opinion about that other than please do I would imagine yeah could you just say a little bit more about that what are your ideas to save costs there you have any yet well it might be that we would not be um having um some of our right now we have our um staff come in for some curriculum work for example curriculum alignment work might be during the um school day so that we can get everyone here um that might be something we aren't able to do there are sometimes that teachers uh might go to some professional development we might say that won't be possible um you know it's there are things that we would be missing out on in order to do that um one thing that I talked about a lot so it'll come as no surprise is um I think there are ways that we could um at the high school level in particular um not all teachers need a substitute every time uh they're gone because they would be able to load their sometimes they do need a substitute but they don't need it every time um they could uh students could work independently um with passive supervision and that is something that districts have done but it is one way those are some thoughts teachers may also have some other ideas though um I have two thoughts on this sorry for having so many thoughts but I have a lot of thoughts um this one is um not popular but it's just the reality of what's Happening across schools um so obviously in my day job I work with schools all over and most of the schools that I'm working with have gone to to under well and most of the schools I'm working with are in a much worse budget situation than we are um even though this is never good but in order again to go back to my message of protecting our students and our teachers and the courses we offer um most schools have gone away from substitutes during these really hard times and obviously there's reasons for Subs when staff are ill and things like that but like some being really flexible about the professional development time and what does that look like and I know we approve with the calendar three additional professional learning days or two three sorry two um utilizing those to our the fullest which I'm sure they already are but and then what does that look like to be able to get people together um I don't know I just it's not popular it's nobody's going to like it I just think that that is one that then doesn't impact our students or are losing staff and so substitute teachers um are something if that like if if I'm not saying we're ranking these or anything I know we're going to talk a lot more deeper about that but that's one I would like for us to take a look at as far as what are we doing what what obviously everyone needs to fill their bucket and grow professionally we could wouldn't be in education if we didn't want to do that but I think that's an area we should definitely take a look at says the person who delivers professional development there anything else um that you've thought of through our discussions that you want to make sure that we are considering again in an area not specifics but just sure one idea that might follow Kelly's theme of not being popular and it's potentially a Fool's errand but I'm con I'm curious if we've ever done any kind of analysis on the state unfunded or partially funded mandates that were required to meet and kind of cross referencing how that aligns with our strategic plan and if and where possible could we look at those partially or unfunded mandates that don't align with our strategic plan and look at ways to reduce or remove those from our operations and again I don't know what that means entirely but I'm just trying to think out of the box a little bit okay I will break that down I'm not sure either have a yeah it's this yeah out of the box thinking is what's what it's going to take seminars or where where else are there because well we we'd probably look at any travel budgets that type of thing as a place to reduce again you know it's it's it's a little bit of a double-edged sword because you want you want people to be trained and so you know I you know but it's certainly an area we can look at especially if it's areas that I know Ma provides grants for something that they could also offer and you know just would be a good opportunity and maybe but I don't I guess I just don't know how much that is and savings and again these that there are a number of things that we're talking about that aren't huge savings or huge but are there savings available for districts to invest in more efficient Capital Equipment does the state provide funding for solar panels and LED light conversions and higher efficiency boilers or I mean as as I'm on the I'm on the facilities committee but I haven't had a meeting yet so I'm not sure like are there are there other fixed sort of are there Capital Investments we could make that reduce long-term operating costs that would make sense that would help in the long run done a lot of those over the past few years so you've named you've named a number of things that we um went through over the through as we've been updating yeah LED lighting and that type of thing uh this building will be will be more energy efficient with the heating system that will be uh replaced this summer besides just spinning does that windmill what does a windmill do up at the high school field I I had heard I had heard years ago that it it's broken and we don't we didn't have the money to fix it in order to to use it to its capacity it's it's been it's been repaired and that's working yeah it's it's I don't remember exactly how much is generating it I think it generates enough to okay light a neighborhood roughly okay but I mean I think the the whole idea I don't have the history on that but the whole idea I think was more educational than anything else for it right just a Jews point that just came to mind thank you I don't think Paul that's going to be helping us at all in our hey we got to uncover everything right I think we had adds up I think we had a presentation about that a couple years ago and it was barely covering the cust of it we're gonna we're gonna put up 10 more Kelly that's dor Peterson Ryan your question about mandates at the State School Board convention last week someone in our district 6 I won't mention their school they are repealing they're asking the state to repeal um prek to third grade suspensions due to time money and Staffing is causing their District so you are able to go to the state and plead your case that a mandate they've instilled is detrimental to your school district okay and other areas you want us to be looking into bringing forward no this is a great starting point thank you okay again the idea of this was so that when we come to you with these ideas that none of them surprise you you've heard them all before and now you'll understand the impact when we come we'll actually bring some dollar amounts as well yeah I guess my last question on this is um you know I think it's it's going to be kind of a piece from every I don't know small piece of a lot of different things not just one thing but the question I don't know who asked it earlier but looking at not just this next school year but the year after like I would want see what does this look like in you know one year to two years maybe even up to three to know projected obviously we're not going to have exact but we don't in Mark going to know what we get from the state but at least some idea so that we don't make reactionary decisions that then we regret later the one thing I find myself thinking oh let's just get through this year because we're going out for a levy but we have to be realistic that maybe the doesn't pass I can't I it's hard for me to imagine it but I just so that is that's a hard one to to think that to that yep up thank you okay thank you thank you Tim okay now first reading of policies can you tell me where we're at because I'm losing track I'm sorry now we're on D so we were at the top of page 10 D 10 10 D okay thank you oh I'm sorry 10 D um okay the policy committee met and reviewed a few policies starting with um policy 55 these are all in board books so I'm not quite um 515 um this is based on uh changes at the state level which uh state that we can no longer have um directory information can no longer include students address telephone email and so um with that we are just updating based on stat different between Federal and Minnesota lative and what is considered directory information so that is the primary um change here it does make um make some some points about uh sharing educational data with mde in certain cases and um and then also just the notification that we must make to parents and when certain data is requested so if we are going to send it to mde so that's the idea behind the changes in 5:15 this is the first reading so I'm going to go over them if you have any questions at this time that's fine um but you may need more time to process them and in which case you with that are there any questions about 515 okay policy 6113 graduation requirements these are updates um basically um the main changes table for graduation requirements there are there's a new the personal finance is a requirement um and those are for students who are in nth grade this year so that's been updated we also did some other updates um it used to L health and fed as electives but they actually have some standards and they are required so we updated that as well um and then for science there are some changes with science regarding um Earth and space and um science standards so there's there are a couple different changes in here so we just needed to although we are complying with all of them we also just needed to update the policy with that new table any questions on that I have a question about that one um so this is one I I was looking over ahead of time and was a little confused and is it none of nothing is changing it looks is it changing with number of credits it's just the way they're dispersed because like for example like the electives went from 7 to six and is that because the personal finance was added health because personal finance was added and health and PE were down in electives and now they are listed separately up above or health was listed and P both were I was paying attention Y and and social studies has the new citizenship course or I don't know nothing really changed we it just sort of changed how we were there we were already we were already and Jen could speak to this better than I can but we were already um in compliance with that citizenship being taught in um pad a and Pad b um some districts had it in ninth grade um the Civics classes that I do yeah but we already had it in 11th and 12th so we actually were already compliant with that okay yeah it's just not understanding but now it makes sense thank you who teaches the personal finance course or not who but like how was it taught like what social studies Department okay and it's excuse me but it's this is the second year right that we've offered it yes and it's hugely popular yeah it's huge because it's required um before it was required students a lot of students took it when it was an elective it won't be required until next year it's required for graduation for the nth the nth grade students need to take it by graduation as a requirement got it got it good 11th or 12th grade but we've been offering it for two years to all grades or just 10th the all grades it looks like but I think I don't know how many ninth graders are really fills up right away is that what you're saying like it yes oh yeah I think it it more than one section right why some other courses may be reduced or even went away because there was such popularity for this one which is I would say why our system works so well and that students are you know choosing which direction the courses are Tak all right the next one policy 620 credit for learning um the main are really related to PSO and these were statutory um Lang this was statutory language so um part of it had to do with uh weighted grades and uh there was new uh if if we waited uh a school district waited CIS courses or concurrent enrollment courses they needed to wait PSO courses as well and our conversation had been that um awaited grade is intended to um is intended to align with a rigorous course um and we with PSO courses we don't those aren't taught by us we don't have a an idea of like we can't we can't judge those courses which courses are rigorous and which are not um and so we did change this so that AP courses are weighted only CIS courses are not waited CIS courses however students do get um college credit for those just as they do through PSO um and so that was the reason for the change in that I have a question about that so um I guess I don't understand the reasoning behind why waiting and again I understand the PSU and we don't have control over who teaches that course but when our teachers are teaching the college and the school's course and the AP course how do you differentiator decide that an AP is more rigorous and should be 10% weighted grade but not CIS that's what we used to have we used to have CIS was also waited but if we wait CIS then we have to wait PSO as well there's a yeah so then we would have to say that PSO courses are also rigorous courses which is which would take away the label of rigorous course so then is it probably because of the law change that this is standard practice across all schools are doing this same thing or they're giving weight to CIS yeah so there are courses that there are schools that never waited CIS CIS courses they only waited AP we looked into this so there are some course some districts that only wait AP there are some school districts that decided to wait all there are some school districts that don't wait any courses interesting and what we also talked about is that this is an internal thing it's not a colleges aren't aren't looking at well I saw someone perk up when I said colleges but um colleges aren't when they admit students they they re um they just look at they redo their they do their own waiting of grades because every because every school does thing not every school does there are a lot of different ways to wait grades so they have to determine something consistent anyway but they ask it on a college application what's your cumulative GPA and then what's your weighted GPA they ask it still if your school district Waits and on what yeah so they have to undo it all anyway so like out in the West Coast they might do a five point there are some districts that do it out of five there are some right so it has to be recalibrated regardless what else is GPA used for besides sent to colleges and on applications do we do class rank do we do valedictorians is it is it actually used for anything else besides college applications yes so we do honor rooll um and then we do a we end recognize the senior class um based on top 10% that's weighted I guess one more thing I just wonder if this will influence or hurt our enrollment in CIS courses because students will choose to take just the AP that are weighted um I don't think so um and we talked about this with our CIS teachers as well so um so we don't you know like we have um our world languages our CIS World languages students take World languages because interested in or it does help them in the future um so that's not um I don't think that has that's not a factor in determining whether or not they're going to I don't I don't think that will be the case because again they do get college credit for that and it comes back to our choices now are only we either Wait nothing or we wait AP only or we wait AP CIS and PSO we don't have the choice of just AP and CIS and not PSO which is not our it's not our choice anymore legisl what's the other part of this the other part of this is um has do with communication between PSO colleges that offer PSO and the resident District to make sure that we support our and this was something that we had talked about a while ago as one of something that we wanted to pursue on our legislative platform um and it is it is here that because um we have had challenges with students who have say dropped out of their PSO course and we didn't know about it and then they were credit deficient or students who were not successful and needed support but we didn't know about it and so um now there's um some requirement for communication which is a good thing okay how's everyone doing hang in there all right any other questions about that we're almost there okay uh last one is our our naming policy and this is our this is our own policy um and we were working on updating it in anticipation of the um possible Capital campaign that we're going to do um and so we have a couple a couple things in here that we updated in general we had a a policy that was um kind of ready to go but we had a couple things we wanted to talk about one The Guiding principles part A we had we added generally the school board will not rename a building or facility that has been named through a board approved Community process I have that because we have named some buildings already and I can find a community process in the way that those were named it was a long time ago but um I'm we have that as a general statement that if somebody wanted to rename OH Anderson for example um we're saying that generally that's not something that we're we're looking for um so that was one and then uh we also have um that the and under three MMI school board will designate the superintendent or designate to form a committee to review and make recommendations for naming opportunities so it's just saying that we would have a committee to review this but otherwise the committee felt like or policy committee felt like everything else in here was was okay I would support what we've talked about okay all right and that's it for policies sorry does does the name I haven't read the whole thing does it allow us to have an A entity sponsorship um the Coca-Cola gymnasium or the 3M it could yes but it couldn't be the Barb duffrin Fieldhouse it cannot be the Barb Duffer fieldhouse in case you were worried that that might happen um because I am currently an employee it cannot be named after me so no worries I won't be making the pitch yeah we know that that's what you'd want right we you really want your you really seek that attention I do but if you wrote a check for 50 million we and this is just the first reading so if you all think of more things remember we have to do a second reading and then third reading um okay action items approval of donations and grants from December 2024 for totaling $77,900 a motion moved by director doen seconded by director Regan any discussion all donations and grants are greatly appreciated the use of these funds will be to further the mission of the school district and are used according to the wishes of the donor all those in favor say I I I those opposed motion carries okay and now School Board committee reports amsd oh that's me um I'll be brief um we met a couple weeks ago I I'll call it the legislative meeting there was four legislators there where um kind of the amsd platform part of the platform was discussed um but it was focused on you know all the schools it was focused on budgets and there were really good presentations from Prior Lake Anoka henip and and St Anthony and everyone is singing the same music um everyone's facing budget cuts um all the same issues related to wage increases unfunded or partially funded mandates um enrollment declines um so everyone's under the in the same uh boat um and it was interesting to get to hear some of the positions from the legislators and there was four of them really only one of them answered any questions um and to to director Doan's Point um there is at least one legislator at the capital that would be willing to eliminate mandates on schools so there is that thought process um up in St Paul but it was a good discussion it was good um to get perspective from others um um but yeah that was the essence of the meeting were there was there discussion so different from mandates is the change in employee law so oh that was the other yeah thank you um that was the other item um the cost that's burdening all the schools with with that particular um unemployment requirement yeah funding in the unemployment yeah that's not that's not something we can right we have more than a mandate yeah and I think yeah I came away from it with you know there really there is no money at the state for to increase um um school's budgets so that's it Ma Kelly um so ma met on January 21st um I have a couple of points from the ma meeting I wanted to make sure to share and that is um they reported on the fall fund drive and that the giving was down um fairly substantially from previous years um there's a number of reasons I talked about but the fall fund Drive um participation was not as high as in the past um couple of things though that I the the funded need was approved um that they are going to help with the raising of funds for um new Elementary playground equipment at Wildwood and OH Anderson primarily at OH Anderson because Wildwood has the newest equipment um and so um they got to see some examples of what might be possible for the playground equipment replacing some things that are not very safe not very age appropriate where kids are banging their heads on monkey bars and things like that and not very inclusive so if a student is on crutches or in a wheelchair things like that and he not easily accessible thought a really good question was asked though too about like even thinking about the surfaces of the playground equipment like you know um so it was just it was a good conversation about like making it more inclusive to all so um so that fund a need was approved at the ma meeting um and then which leads me to the next point of the raising of funds for that that this Zephyr Gala I would love for you all to take out your phones and mark your calendars for um April 11th yep April 11th I know tickets go are um on sale I believe now you can get them but I believe the early bird closes February 13th or something somewhere around there anyway they're they're available now so there's early bird pricing um so tell your neighbors your friends family um they'd love to see higher participation at the gala um from people who maybe haven't previously attended in other years or don't really know what Ma is to want to know more about it so um so that is coming up and we will be putting together um a basket from uh the school board to uh auction off at the gala that is not my area of strength so I'm looking for anyone who wants to help um with that basket creation Andor ideas so if you have an idea we've done a couple different things the last few years that I've done this um so if you have any ideas send them my way so um that's coming up because I'm guessing we'll want to get working on that relatively soon because all of a sudden spring break comes around and then it's you know here it's here before you know it so zephra Gala April 11th um and then um two other things ma scholarships are open January 6th to February 28th Max mentioned that and lastly um ma um voted to um offer the class of 2025 yard signs again so they had talked about possibly um not doing the yard signs and um they had a long conversation about that and uh voted to approve the kindergarten kickoff as kindergarten start in our school system and as seniors graduate um to do both both book ends of that sence so thank you to May for that and I know our seniors will be excited and they are in the countdown probably already so that's the ma report for January 21st thank you okay msba update as I mentioned last week was the state school board convention I went on Thursday Barb was there um I went to The District Six meeting which is us for Forest Lake North St Paul Still Water White Bear and white bear was very interested in when we invited our legislators in to have coffee and a doughnut that morning and we got four out of eight to come um someone from White Bear said you know we share so many people would you ever do that again could we do it together so I think that our neighboring districts thought that was great and they'd love to partner up I don't even know if that's a possibility what rules it breaks or doesn't but great so oh just throw that on yeah okay um msba or State School Board day at the capital is on March 10th and this year they are providing the service of they will get your legislators to meet with you they're going to set up the appointments for you so if you want to talk to somebody that represents you you let them know and they're going to get that all um done for you instead of chasing them down emailing phone calls and coming up on Tuesday is another Zoom coffee and conversations for an hour from 800 to 9: in the morning if you want to listen in what the rest of the state is talking about I love them and finally is the noreast Metro 16 I attended my first meeting and I shared the summary that I think Leslie sent to all of you that I think we just need oh other board reports yes I have one more just because the timing was off from when we met before the holidays and organizational meeting and study session so this one goes back ways but I just wanted to make sure we had this on record it goes back to December but December 12th the curriculum advisory um committee met and I and just really quickly three bullet points uh we talked about what does it mean to be College and Career ready and looked at the portrait of a graduate and specifically the six characteristics of portrait of graduate I guess that's it two bullet points next meeting is next week and Jenny's going to attend for me other reports finance committee met met today is there anything to report on that uh it was just a more in depth version of what we kind reviewed tonight as a broad group right I think we got a bunch of positive Financial remarks and started to look a little bit at the um projection uh going forward but we can talk more about that once we know what kinds of decisions we're going to make in terms of reductions and things so that uh would someone like to make a motion to adjourn so moved hi we are adjourned