Good evening, everyone. Just give us a couple moments. We're having some technical difficulty and we're going to go and see if the gym space over here is open for overflow cuz I know there was people still out in the hallway. So, they'll open that up. The only caveat is
people are still in the hallway. So, and you can try to fill in as best you can this way. Maybe sitting room up front. So, crisscross applesauce for those of you that are out of Eastview.
And you got the phones out. Okay, good. I think we're ready to go. Welcome, everyone. It's good to see the boardroom that is full as I call to order the regular school board meeting of Independent School District number 882. It is 5:02 p.m. on Monday, April 6,
2026. I'd like to make note that board member Jeff Hegley is not present this evening. And if everyone can stand and please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.
And to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. And now we are looking for approval of this evening's agenda. So moved. Second. Moved by Melissa Curtis,
seconded by Casey Root. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed, please say no. Motion passes 5-0. We do not have any citizen comments this evening.
Um now we're looking for approval of the consent agenda. So moved. Second. Moved by Melissa Curtis, seconded by Casey Root. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed, please say no. Motion passes 5-0. And before we move on to item C
here, um for staff reductions, I do have something I just want to say. Um I want to take a moment to acknowledge what tonight represents because it's not easy. The decisions being made are incredibly difficult and they impact real people, people in this room
who are part of our schools, our teams, and our community. These are individuals who show up for our students, built relationships, and contributed in many ways, even in a short amount of time that they were here. I want to be very clear this is not about performance or value. This is a
result of financial realities that we face that none of us take lightly up here at the board. Personally, this is hard. There are people in our community and my heart is heavy knowing the impact that it has on them and their families.
We're grateful for the time, energy, and the care that has been given to our district and they deserve to be recognized, all 27 of them. I also want to acknowledge the weight this carries for everyone, those directly impacted, their colleagues, our
leadership team, the students. These moments are never easy, but they are approached with care, respect, and deep understanding of what's at stake here as I with our school district. With that now, we'll have to continue our business as a board, but I want you guys to know that we
recognize the weight of the decisions and the people that are behind them. Through this staff reduction, we will have to read a resolution. Be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District 882 that pursuant to Minnesota Statute 122A.40,
subdivision 5, and the district master agreement, the teaching of those presented probationary teachers in Independent District 882 shall be non-renewed at the end of 2025-2026 school year effective June 5th, 2026.
Be it further resolved that written notice be sent to said teachers regarding the non-renewal of the teachers' teaching contract. So, it's moved by Melissa Curtis. Second. Seconded by Mark Branson. All those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. Opposed, please say no. Motion passes
5-0. We have one more resolution. Be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District 882 that pursuant to Minnesota Statute 122A.40, subdivision 5, and the district master agreement, the teaching contracts of those presented probationary Title 1
teachers in Independent School District 882 shall be non-renewed at the end of 2025-2026 school year effective June 5th, 2026. Be it further resolved that written notice be sent to said teachers regarding the non-renewal of the teachers' teaching contract.
Moved by Melissa Curtis. Second. Seconded by Mark Branson. All those in favor, please say I. I. >> I. Opposed, please say no. Motion passes 5-0 and I just want to note that this is um as I've been on the board, we've made
substantial cuts since I've been here. This is my second term and uh we don't take it lightly. Uh it's a very difficult position for us to be in. All right, moving on to Collaborative Connections. I will pass it over to Superintendent Eric Olson to go over
acceptance of gifts. All right, thank you, Chair Seben. We have uh two donations to bring forward here tonight. Um the first one is uh for 8,500. It's an anonymous donation um and it goes along with um Mr. Evnig's
uh presentation uh from the last board meeting when he talked uh about the championship um dis display case at the um high school um entrance on the east side. And then also 2,500 for the gymnastics program and 2,500 for the
boys uh tennis program. So, um those uh donations equal 8,500. Um also from the NRA, um $1,615 for merchandise uh for the apparel for the trap team. So, uh this is a donation
for our trap team. Uh once again, uh some donations coming forward to really bolster um our programs. Uh in this case, uh both activity program or several activity programs plus a little uh spruce up in the high school uh main street.
All thanks to the community and these two donations um and move forward for you guys to accept them tonight. Absolutely fantastic donations again from our community to help make sure that we're we're looking good at the
high school to display all those championships that our coaches and our students are winning here and then also to make sure our our trap team's looking good. Um this is an action item.
Therefore, be it resolved by the Monticello School Board number 882 to gratefully accept following donations: anonymous donor in the amount of $8,500, where 3,500 is for MS MHS state championship display, 2,500 for the gymnastics program, and 2,500
for boys tennis. Additional from the NRA, amount of $1,615, uh merchandise grant for the for apparel for the trap team. Second. Moved by Casey Root, seconded by Melissa Curtis. All those in favor, please say I. I. Opposed, please say no. Motion
passes 5-0. We're on to item number seven, Innovation and Leadership, and the first item is a Monty Python's robotics team showcase, one of the most exciting things we get to go over this evening that we're excited to hear from. I'd like to welcome to the podium their
advisor, Leanne Gertz, and the Monty Python's team. Awesome. Well, thank you for having us. There's a lot of people in here tonight, so I'm excited to share to all of you what we've been up to. Uh so, formally, we are the uh high school robotics team known as the Monty
Python's. Uh and quickly, I'm just going to have everyone say their first name and what grade they're in. I'm Matt. I'm a senior. I'm Cayden. I'm a senior. I'm Cayden. I'm in 10th grade. I'm Peter. I'm in 9th grade. I'm Chase. I'm also in 9th. I'm Conrad. I'm a freshman. I'm Ben. I'm in 10th grade.
I'm Owen. I'm a sophomore. I'm Piper. I'm a 10th grader. And I'm Jordan. I'm a senior. So, we are here with our robotics team mainly to show off what we've been doing for the last 3 months. And so, I believe we have a slideshow, I
think. And if we do, we'll go over that. Otherwise, we can just talk about our cool robot. You can just talk about the the cool robot. All right, so uh basically, what we go through is every year, we are given a set of
challenges and those are released in January. Then we have a 6-12 week build season to come up with our own design in order to complete that challenge. So, within a set of rules, we can basically
do whatever we want in order to complete the task. This year's task is to take small dodgeballs and to throw them into a hoop. Is that Is that what you guys would say? >> giant funnel. Well, I've pictures to show you guys. Um
but yeah, so for the last 8 weeks, 10 weeks, we've been hard working in our high school shop as a team putting together what we have in front of you today. So, it's been a lot of work and a lot of late nights. We started meeting twice a week after
school for a couple hours at a time and then as our competition got closer, we realized we're going to need to kick it into high gear and so we've been putting in 5-hour, 6-hour practices after a long school day multiple times a week in order to put this thing together.
Do you want to talk about it? You want to talk about it? So, our bot has two roles. The first up here by the handle is two sets of wheels that allow a fuel to get launched out. Because these big wheels need to be rapidly going, we had to make another
set of wheels called our feeder wheels that will act as like a braking system to stop the fuel from going in and shooting in when we can't. And then in the front or on the other side, there's what's known as the intake, so that will suck up the fuel from the ground and
bring it up into our hopper. We had to enact the feeder wheels because you have What? How long between How long are time frames? 25 to 25 seconds. You have 25 seconds to when your hub or the giant
funnel that the fuel goes into to be active, otherwise you don't gain points. So, we had to enact that. Oh, look at that. >> [laughter] >> Thank you, Gavin. >> [snorts] >> Awesome. So, we've covered who's on our team. So, we run through an organization
called FIRST. And what it is it's a uh elementary through high school program that focuses on future engineers. So, through technical experience, teamwork, and leadership, it brings schools together to focus on a set of challenges in order to build a
robot to complete that set of tasks. So, I want to start with community impact. So, our season's only about 3 months long, which means we have nine extra months to still work as a team. So, while we're not actively building robots, we have been out in the
community. Uh listed here, we have pictures of our Riverfest parade and we actually won the float design contest for that, so that was pretty cool. And then also, that's us at our walk and roll event here in town. So, it's important that we do this community impact because a lot of people don't
know what we do. And we're proud of what we are and we want more people to know about the opportunities that students in our district have. And so, being out there showing people what we can do and how excited that we can get about it is super important. Collaboration, we're in what is called
the Central Minnesota Robotics Hub. And what that is, it's a bunch of local schools around us that meet weekly during the season in order to discuss game changes, strategy, design. Uh and if anyone needs help with manufacturing the robot or designing something, they
are here to help. So, specifically, we have been working closely with both the Becker and Big Lake teams. Also, St. Michael and the Rocori schools have been very helpful. And they've been yeah, just doing a great job helping us. We've been able to
help them sharing ideas and materials in order to build what you see in front of us today. Becker has hosted multiple events at their Becker Robotics Innovation Center. And so, there's been lots of teams that have been meeting there. And so, we've had
three so far and then they're actually hosting the main event in St. Cloud this upcoming week and that we will be attending. Nothing that we can do can happen without sponsors. So, we're very proud to work with them and to demonstrate how
we can work together. So, Matt, do you want to turn around? So, not only are they on the slide, but we wear them proudly on our t-shirts. And I've got them on my shirt, too. And it's honestly just because we can't do anything that we do without the help of our sponsors. And so, we just want to thank them and
be, you know, as a walking billboard as one of our sponsors has put it. So, our season. We start in January and we're given a set of tasks in order to complete and build a robot that can do those. They are on a field with six
robots at a time, two teams of three, and they work together to get as many points in a 2 and 1/2 minute time frame. So, we kind of talked about it a little bit before, but I just want to point out some of these pictures. So, in the bottom left, that's during the design phase. So, we were meeting in the
classroom before we were even in the woodshop or the workshop at the high school. And we were just discussing strategy, what we want to tackle, and how are we going to do it. Then in the middle there, uh that's taken at one of the Becker events that we were at. It was a blast and we're so thankful for
the opportunity that they gave us to go. And then on the top right there is a picture of that's the goal that we're shooting the balls, the game pieces, into. And so, that's handmade by the help of our parents and mentors. And
that picture is taken in our high school auditorium using the stage. So, we kind of talked about the robot a little bit, but if you guys just kind of want to demonstrate, we got a a bungee strap if you want to show it actually moves and stuff. We can't drive it around in here today just because of
lack of space and it's super fast. But, uh you can take it off and show them how it moves and stuff, you know? We like moving parts. We worked hard for them. And so, we have been working on this design phase and building phase since yeah,
that second week of January. So, it's been about 3 months and we've been working hard, late hours in the shop. And it it's really come together. Again, nothing that we can do can happen without the teams around us and our sponsors. And so, I also want to thank you to our parent
and mentors that uh help us out. Everything that we do, all the knowledge that we get is passed down from them. And so, everything that you see here is built by students in our school district, which is super cool. And then our competition. So, as I
mentioned before, our big regional competition that we have for our season is coming up this weekend. It is going to be in St. Cloud. And it's really exciting because it's a bunch of our local teams all competing in it. And so, even though it's a competition, it's really just going to feel like a family gathering with a bunch of the people
that we've had connected with over the seasons and years as we uh have done this over and over. So, that's all we got for you guys. We'll we'll get back to our high school to work on this thing. Uh but yeah, we want
to thank you for the opportunity. Also, do you want to give this to Mr. Olson? This is just a little something. Mr. Olson has been with many of our students since we have started our school careers. And so, just the education that he has allowed us to have and put
something together like this, we wanted to give that to you. If you want to open it now, go for it. >> [applause] [applause] [applause] >> All right, don't run away quite yet. Wait 1 second. We'll give the board the opportunity to ask any questions, but I just
Jordan, is this your third year now that we've had a robotics team or So, we've actually had a robotics team in Monticello since 2013. How many guys knew that? No. Couple hands. Yeah, so we've really been doing our best in order to uh do that
community outreach and let people know what we've been doing just because there's a lot of work put in. And we want to open up the opportunity to any student that's interested. So, as our team's growing, uh there'll be a great opportunity. So, if you guys in the classrooms are having students that you think that this is right up their alley,
send them over because we'd love to have them on the team. There's really a spot for everyone. That's fantastic. I didn't know that's how long. For some reason, I I don't only remember you guys coming and presenting for 3 years, which was pretty exciting. And you guys did so well last year. And so, when do you compete this weekend?
So, our load-in is on Wednesday. We have practice matches on Thursday. And then Friday and Saturday are our qualification matches. So, if any of you guys are interested to come watch some robots duke it out on the field, Friday and Saturday are your days. Do
you have a time slot yet? So, there's no guarantee of when we will have our matches. They're kind of randomized, but there will be a live stream through first through the first that we can get to the school if need be. Okay. 2:00 Starts at 2:00 p.m. on
Friday. So, we'll have matches like throughout that period. We have like 20, maybe matches total. I don't remember how many we had last year. Nine. Okay. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, if we do well enough, we might get 20. Yeah. Yeah, we'll have quite a few matches. So, it's an all-day thing. So, we will
be not able to come to school. So, it starts around >> [laughter] >> Very sad thing, I know. It starts early in the morning. So, we'll get there on 8:00-ish. And then it goes to probably around 4:00-ish. So, it's an all-day thing.
At past regionals, there's been up to 70 qualification matches, but we're not in every single one of them. Awesome. And you said it's in St. Cloud. Specifically where? At the River's Edge Convention Center, I believe. That's that one.
It's the Lakeside. All right, board members, do you have any other questions? I do. I want to hear from someone who hasn't talked yet. What is your favorite part of being a part of this team? >> [laughter] >> Jordan, everyone talk at once, please.
So, one of the best things I've actually been able to do in this team is actually make a lot of friends, as you can see. Um the social growth that I have experienced personally, I am actually sped. And I struggled uh social
cues and a lot of other stuff. And it's allowed me to grow as a person socially wise. And allowed me to make more friends throughout my time with them. >> [applause] >> I I just want to add it's it's wonderful to see young students uh working on stuff like this.
It's it's easy to oversimplify how difficult this is what you guys are doing. And it is controlling a robot. It is a control system. Uh as as a engineer myself, it's I appreciate all the work that you're doing. Um and the other point, too, of
the social aspect in learning and building a team, it's it's another great outcome of this. So, it's it's a wonderful program. We'll do whatever we can to help try to motivate other students, get the the team to grow, and maybe even get to Can you have more than one robot? Are you limited to just one per per team?
So, what we did this year and we were luckily able to do by fundraising was have our freshman team build what's known as a kitbot, which does the simplest tasks. And it's They give you all the parts and you just have to assemble it. And then
the upperclassmen were able to build what's known as our swerve swerve bot. It's called a swerve bot. It you guys has four wheels and each one can turn individually. So, you can control your rotation and movement independently.
Yeah. The kitbot has a tank drive, so it drives like a tank. And then or a tractor. The swerve, think of it like an office chair. Allows you to swing in any motion kind of thing. And then are you all doing some Python scripting in the control system or who's
You're using Java. Okay. Sadly, no Python. Okay. I have a question, though. It would be funny, but unfortunately, it's not the best language for this. Well, some teams use it. Some teams do use it. They do. No, it's wonderful to see. It's it's very exciting. You guys report
every year for the last couple years. So, we always look forward to this. So. I just want to add also a comment. As a retired two-year computer two-year college computer instructor myself, I find it very not cool that you guys have included in your pamphlet increased
female teammates to 19% since 2024. For those of you that know computer history, you should know that the first computer program was actually written by a female. And the fact that you guys are understanding that this is an important part. I'm It's not just about computing,
but it's also about the social aspect and stuff. So, thank you. All of our females were each in different things. So, Hayden, she does some programming and building, and I'm a build person myself. And then, we have our media person in the back who thankfully stepped up and did that for us. So,
we're all kind of all spread out. Awesome. Well, this is fantastic. Thank you for coming this evening. We're awfully proud of how much you guys have seen for success-wise the last couple years, and we're looking forward to see how you do this weekend. Um hopefully get to come
see it in person, and I was even bragging about you guys at Easter. So, >> [laughter] >> Yeah, awesome. Thanks for joining us this evening. Awesome. Thank you so much. >> [applause] >> All right. Now, we will move on to item B, which is district shout-outs by
Superintendent Olson. I have a couple shout-outs here. Have a couple shout-outs here tonight. Um first, I am going to say good evening. Um and then, when I think of the definite shout-out, it's about publicly acknowledging someone who
truly deserves recognition, someone whose impact has made a lasting difference in the lives of others. Tonight, it's my honor to recognize Ms. Sarah Welk. There is no one who has taken care of more people in the Monticello School District over the past 25 years than Sarah. She began her
journey as a social worker at the Monticello Middle School, where she made made a difference in the lives of students and families. From there, she stepped into a larger role helping to build a collaborative approach across our district and with three cooperative school districts
in our area, truly living out the belief that we are better together. In her roles as district social worker, community bounce-back liaison, and now as our director of student services, Sarah has continuously expanded her impact. She has quite literally climbed
the leadership ladder not for recognition, but for service, building connections to critical student supports, grant opportunities, and Minnesota Department of Education programs that have strengthened our entire system. Sarah understands the art of hard work. She shows up every day
ready to do whatever it takes to serve others with the care, dignity, and support they deserve. Her commitment is unwavering. Her impact is immeasurable, and her leadership is rooted in compassion. Quite simply, she's a warrior for kids and a champion for people.
Um Ms. Ms. Sarah Welk, thank you for your 25 years of incredible service to Monticello. We are better because of you. That's my first shout-out. And then, I am also going to shout-out I do something called money on the move, and money on the move I getting into the
community one time per month. Um and a lot of people step up to help and support and actually lead these efforts. And so, I'm just going to read a list of the the people over the last year who have supported these efforts. Coach Kudowsky and the Monticello High School
tennis team. Our nature-based teachers opened their spaces for a couple of my sessions and even come and and help me out to show me where things are at. The mayor, Lloyd Hilgart, almost comes to everyone. Melissa
Farnham, bless her heart, she led the kickology, and I knew that she was good at that cuz of our um NWTA. So, I just I've seen her in action, and just she led one for me this year. A parent,
Will Roseberg, helped with fishing and setting up 100 lines. The Holker family, um and uh Hayden was here tonight with her robotics team, but Dan, Aaron, Shelby, and Cade rarely miss, and they help so
much every session. Henry Stebner, a senior, led the last money on the move. He did trivia. Chris Shema, um our admin assist professional at the high school helped with build the the bridge the gap
between our senior citizens and our students in a big huge craft fair in November. Lauren Flom, our editor, comes and takes pictures often. Ms. Gilmore was a special guest judge at the kick cupcake contest. Gavin
Nelson is there putting on taking pictures and then putting on the real for upcoming board meetings. But, he puts these together and and really makes money on the move come alive. And Devany Moore is just a communication specialist and always reaching out to
help connect people to and allow me to be able to have fun with them on the weekends that one time per month. So, money on the move shout-outs and Ms. Sarah Welk are my shout-outs this month. Well, that is fantastic. I know the money on the move is something that also
you should shout yourself out for heading up and orchestrating. It's just been an incredible thing for our community, but like all things we do here in Monticello, it takes um an army of people to make it successful and to really make an impact. So, thank you for all those people that
are involved. And also just want to say thank you to Sarah Welk as well. Her position has evolved over the years since I've even been here, and she's just really always been willing to fill the needs that our district needs. So, I really appreciate all of her hard work
that she's done here for the district. Remember, you guys have anything else to add? Hm? All right. We will move on to item number eight, safe and healthy culture. I'd like to bring to the podium Director of Human Resources, Rob Danaker, to go over the Educational
Support Specialist Master Agreement. Thank you, Chair Steven, members of the board, Superintendent Olson. I'm excited to share with you this evening um our [clears throat] ratified agreement with the Education Support Specialist. This is for board action this evening.
Um a tentative agreement was reached regarding the 25-27 ESS contract on their contract with the union on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026. The agreement was ratified just today, and so we received notice just a short while ago
that the union approved this agreement. And the district administration recommends that the Board of Education approve the agreement this evening. The essential elements of the two-year agreement are as follows. So, for year one, July 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2026, there's an increase on all cells
of 1.5%. However, that is a placeholder number. There is no retroactive pay for year one. Those steps are unfrozen following ratification. There is a one-time lump sum payment to employees holding at the top step, which is step step three in
this contract. Those lump sums vary based on longevity. No lump sums are provided to child care employees, which are a subset of this unit agreement. Um in terms of group insurance, there is no increase in year one. There's also no increase in longevity scale in year one.
In year two, which starts July 1, 2026, there is an increase on step three of 1.5%. There's also a roll-up of remaining steps and equalization of the percentage between those other steps in year two. In In terms of group insurance, there's an
increase of $30 a month on both single and family contributions in year two, but no increase on longevity scale. Language items, we updated the what was formerly called the request for dues check-off language that was amended by
2023 legislation regarding PELRA. And so, we updated the language regarding payroll deduction authorization or remittance to to match. Um in terms of leaves of absences, excuse me, leaves of absence, we amended the current contract language
to provide for earning prorated personal leave for ESS employees who serve 90% or more of summer programming dates. That might be targeted services, ESY, or credit recovery if they're hired for those positions. We also increased the number of personal
leave days eligible for annual rollover, but did not increase the number of personal days as a whole. In terms of holidays, we increased the number of paid holidays from eight to nine per school year beginning with the 26-27 agreement. And that ninth holiday is Christmas Eve Day.
Um in terms of daily rate of pay, this is an example where the unit chose to take dollars that exist in one part of the contract and move them to another part of the contract. So, we actually reduced the amount of professional development hours provided to employees
from up to 24 to up to 16 annually. And we also added language that limits professional development hours to no more than eight hours during the certified workshop week. Um the longevity scale, or excuse me, longevity schedule was amended, which is schedule E in this contract. We added a
fifth year and a 25th year to the current 10, 15, and 20 thresholds for longevity. And then finally, in terms of pay differential, we added the position of intervener, which is a new position within this unit, to the list of individual positions eligible for pay differential. In this case, the
intervener will earn a differential of 5% per hour worked. The total package value over the 2 years of this agreement is 7.17 as cost by MSBA model. And again, district administration recommends this for approval this evening.
This is an action item. So moved. Second. Moved by Casey Root, seconded by Melissa Curtis. All those in favor, please say I. I. Those please say no. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you very much. >> Thank you.
All right, on to our item B at 2025 to 2026 budget revision. Like to welcome up to the podium director of business services Tina Berkholder. Good evening board members. My mic on? Um tonight we have our final budget revision for this school year 25-26.
And on our first slide, you can see a list of the funds that we manage. Not all of them will require a revision tonight. Um but most of them will, so we'll go through each of them. Just to take a look at our budget timeline and where we're at. April is
where we typically take a look at our final revision for the budget and approve it. So we'll start with our general fund. It is our main operating fund. And we do have other funds that close to this account. As the state looks at our
records, we have a capital projects fund and a our special ed cooperative fund that we track internally separate, but I will just talk about our general fund operating account at this moment. Taking a look at our revenues,
um most of our change came from state sources and federal sources. Under state sources, we saw an increase with receiving additional grants from the state. And also seen a favorable adjustment on our prior year state
special ed revenue. Last year the state thought we would be prorated at 95% and when they did all their final calculations and reports, we were actually awarded 100% of our state special ed funds. On the federal side,
we have adjustments with our title funds carryover. In addition, the district adjusted how federal special special education revenue is applied shifting from using it towards tuition expenses and going back to using it for
benefit costs. Mainly, now that we're above the floor with our state special ed calculation, it makes more sense to utilize it this way. Um so overall, our revenue budget is increasing from 61. almost 3 million to
61.9 million, an increase of 643,000. On the expense side, um you can see changes with salaries and benefits. A lot of that is with updated staffing projections using contract estimates on both the salary and benefit
estimates. Looking at current staffing levels and who's in their spots. We added a couple ESS positions during the school year and then also recognizing the leaves of absence to date in our
budget as well. Under purchase services, the majority of that increase is due to our transportation utility estimates increasing those, as well as looking at our 10-year long-term facility maintenance plan and adjusting the projects that are needed for our repairs
and maintenance on the buildings. Under supplies and capital outlay, the increases in there are mainly due to the carryover with our curriculum budget, school building budgets and technology carryover, as well as we were awarded
80,000 cyber grant from the state. So overall, our expenses are going from 60.8 million to 61.3 million, an overall increase of 509,000. Also to note on here, we did have to still contract some
speech services, so we weren't able to hire those positions as employees, so we that kind of switched from the salaries and benefits category to the contracted or purchased services category. So what does that mean for our fund balance?
There is an overall increase of 553,000 going from 6.8 million to 7.4 million. Of that fund balance, there are many different categories that includes in that fund balance. We have reserve fund balances that have restricted funds
designated by the state, so we are only allowed to spend those funds in certain ways. We have a committed fund balance with our severance obligation. And we have an assigned fund balance, which mainly moving forward is with our scoreboard advertising agreements.
And what's left is about 5.2 million in our undesignated unassigned fund balance, and that equates to about 8.6% of our fund balance policy. Any questions on the general fund or move on to food service?
Okay. Well, we can do questions at the end as well. Uh food service, mainly this is our meal projections that were adjusted slightly. And a lot of [snorts] that has to do with how those allocations are estimated and what
categories are they free or reduced or paid status. And depending on how that shakes out determines what the state pays and what the federal government pays. If we have more families that are qualifying for free or reduced, more of the federal government will reimburse
the meals versus the state. So we did see a shift in our free and reduced percentage in our estimates. So overall, not a big change in our revenue fund revenue budget revision of
3.4 million to 3.4 million. On the expense side, we revised our salary and benefit projections based on staffing levels and contract estimates. Um so a little change there, but also the main reason for our decrease
in our expenses is we're delaying some of our equipment purchases for next year in our kitchens. So that expense budget is moving from 3.6 million to 3.5 million or a decrease of 150,000. Overall, our fund balance is still
dropping down about 50,000 cuz we were putting a lot of equipment upgrades, dishwasher upgrades in our kitchens, but our fund balance is still expected to be just over a million dollars in our food service fund. Moving on to community service budget.
Some changes here with state estimate revisions, but a lot of the revenue and expenditure changes are due to adding additional middle school programming under our community ed programs. So you see that on the revenue side of
where that increase is for overall 400 or 246,000. On the expense side, it's in a lot of different categories where we're adding staff or doing transportation or different vendor agreements to have the additional middle school programming.
Also in here, we have ABE adjustments. We increased the rate on the districts that participate in our ABE consortium. That was a higher reimbursement rate, so we're expecting more expenses from the schools.
Overall, the fund balance for the community ed fund is increasing 78,000 for an overall total of 637,000. The community ed department also has many different fund balance categories.
The ECFE is projected to go in the red. A lot of that has to do with a lower 0 to 4 census, so we need to update our programming and kind of right-size that so that we aren't projecting future
deficits on that. Our school readiness program is still running in the red, but has improved with the state awarding us additional VPK slots or voluntary pre-kindergarten slots to help with funding in that program.
Any questions on community ed? The hockey side, just a little bit of change there increasing revenue on the open skate. So about $7,000 change. On the expense side, a similar change, but in different ways.
We had additional sub time that we're trying to um project with some people being gone on leave. We have less repairs than anticipated, so the repair budget went down. And then also with the hockey
arena, the district owns the land, but the Monticello Youth Hockey Association owns the building and they have a loan when they constructed that building. So they refinanced their loan and we're just updating the lease payment schedule to match the new refinance agreement.
Overall, this should be a break-even fund, so no change in our fund balance to end the year at 20,000. Debt service fund. So you approved a lot of activity January, February-ish. We had a bond refunding that we did to take
advantage of a lower interest rate to reduce our property tax impact to the residents in future years. So, the revenue and expense budget is reflecting that activity. So, we have bond refunding money coming in of just over
13.7 million. So, you see that adjustment there as well as the expenses. We're paying part of the 2016 bond. And that's that 13.6 million 13.6 million of new bonds that with the
lower interest rate. Overall, our debt service fund is increasing 70,000 and ending the year just over 1 million again. Our last fund is our OPEB trust fund. And with this account, there's a
government accounting standard board that regulates how we record expenses in this fund. So, we have to recognize all retiree costs or obligations in this fund, including the co-op. It doesn't matter if the trust pays for it. They we
schools have to recognize all the retiree obligations in this fund. So, just a change in this fund to recognize the additional retiree projections that we had after June when this budget was adopted and having the accurate health insurance premiums in
this fund as well. So, that's the main reason for the just over 200,000 increase on the revenue and expense side. Overall, what gets paid from the trust fund are the ones that don't have the sunset language in
the contracts. So, we're dipping into our OPEB trust of 96,000, bringing it down to 816,000. And then the last couple slides just has a summary of all the revenue and expense changes from the
original to the revised budget. And if there are no questions, this is an action item for approval. So moved. Second. Moved by Mary Bartell, seconded by Casey All those in favor, please say I. I.
Opposed, please say no. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Very much, Ms. Birkholz. And I take it no one had any questions. >> [laughter] >> No. It was pretty self-explanatory. So, thank you. Really appreciate your work. Thank you.
All right. Now, we will move on to first reading of policy. I'd like to welcome back up to the podium Director of Human Resources Rob Danenkr. All right. Chair Seeman, members of the board, Superintendent Olson, I have six policies for first read tonight. We have several in
the 400 series. Those are brought to first read this evening via our three-year review procedure. And then we do have policy 908, which is a proposed policy. I'll explain a little bit more on that once we get there. So, policy the first one up is policy
number 405, veterans preference. The purpose of this policy is to comply with the Minnesota Veterans Preference Act, which provides preference points for veterans applying for employment with political subdivisions, including school districts, as well as additional rights for veterans in the discharge process.
No substantial changes, but the last time this was reviewed was 2018. So, there were some organizational pieces within the document itself. Any questions on 405? Okay. Moving to 406,
public and private personnel data. The purpose of this policy is to provide guidance to school district employees as to the data the school district collects and maintains regarding its employees, volunteers, independent contractors, and applicants. Once again,
no major changes um in this policy. There were some legislative changes made in 2023 that were reflected the last time we reviewed this policy in 2024, but again part of our three-year review cycle. Any
questions on 406 at all? Okay. Moving to 407, employee right to know exposure to hazardous substances. The purpose of this policy is to provide school district employees a place of employment and conditions of employment free from recognized hazards that are likely to cause death or serious injury
or harm. We feel like we do a pretty good job of that. And so, no major changes in the draft tonight. The last time this was reviewed by the board was 2013, however, so there were some again some organizational and formatting changes that
do apply. Any questions on 407 at all? Okay. Moving to policy number 408, subpoena of a school district employee. The purpose of this policy is to protect the privacy rights of school district employees and students under both state and federal law when requested to
testify or provide educational records for judicial or administrative proceeding. You know, of note, we always coach our employees to try to avoid entering into situations which they would be called to testify, and that's um relatively infrequently that that does
occur. The last time this was reviewed by the board was 2017. So, again bring this forward through our review process. Any questions on 408? Okay. 409 is employee publications, instructional materials, inventions, and
creations. The purpose of this policy is to identify and reserve the proprietary rights of the school district to certain publications, instructional materials, inventions, and creations which employees may develop or create or assist in developing or creating while employed by the school district. So, in
total, what it defines is you know as an employee, what is created through the work towards the employer. And so, and so that intellectual property remains with the employer versus what they create, which might remain with them after severing employment. This is
brought forward again based on our three-year review cycle. The last time the board reviewed this was 2016. Any questions on policy 409? Yeah, I got a question. Yep. So, if the creation is going to become the property of the employer,
it sounds like in here the time allotted to create is zero on say company time. It's to be all that work is to be done on the personal time? No, actually. So, it's the inverse. So, it defines that um
basically under general statement of policy, unless the employee develops, creates, or assists in developing or creating a publication, instructional material, computer program, invention, or creation entirely on the employee's own time and without the use of any school district
facilities or equipment, the employee shall immediately disclose and on demand of the school district assign any rights to publications, etc. to the school district. So, unless it is created on the employee's personal time and without the use of any employer materials
that could be you know physical materials, could be physical space in a building, etc. It defaults to the employer. Okay. Right. So, they can do it if it's on their own time, with their own computer, with their own stuff, and then they disclose it to the school. So, that way
then they own that. Yeah, I just think it would be so hard to prove that either way. You know what I mean? That there was never a minute spent on school time. There was never a dollar of school money used in the event that
somebody created something they wanted to take with them. So, are we prepared to stand behind this policy in the event that we ever had to address it? And I don't imagine it would become an issue very often, but I just want to make sure that when we
write policy, we can Right. enforce it. Yep. Yeah, and so this is this is an MSBA model policy. So, that means that this is widely adopted across the state. You know, school districts are not required to adopt MSBA model policy, but generally
they do. And as you allude to, the scenarios in which there might be conflict that arises from such scenario are relatively few and far between. I shared with the policy committee earlier this night when we discussed earlier this evening, excuse me, when we discussed this that
in my experience working with school districts, this has really only come up one time, and it was about 15 years ago at the onset of online instruction. And the question that was raised was as teachers create a class for online instruction back then, which was about
20 2012, 2013, so 12 to 15 years ago. Where is that line between the individual creating the course material for the benefit of themselves and again the intellectual property rights versus for the school district. And this
helps define that. So, in that case, you know, development of an online program for a program that the district itself is running falls very clearly within the scope of employer's rights to those intellectual properties. But we do have educators in this district and other districts who do moonlight as a second
career, second endeavor to create materials for you know, there's websites out there where you can buy instructional material, things like that. And so, just I think it's the transparency and the intent
stated in that. It could be up front. It could be you know, when questioned or asked about it. But like you said, hopefully there's a very clear through line in terms of when, why, and how this was created so that there is not such a question if that helps. Any other questions on 409 at all?
And I should pause. I usually before we do first reads, I usually do give a little shout out to the policy committee and talk a little about the work that the policy committee does and just pause here just for a second to to remind everybody that the policy committee meets once a month to review anywhere typically between about five
and 10 policies for first read. The board members participating in that are provided with the materials well ahead of time because there can be extensive reading and contemplation that is required of folks on the committee. And then also on the committee, we do have standing members, the director of
human resources, the superintendent, and then we have ad hoc district employees who participate with the policy committee when when the topic arises. So that could be the director of teaching and learning, director of student services, director of business services,
and others. So just want to put that that out there. Okay, the final policy for first read tonight is in itself currently not a policy. This is a proposed policy. We've numbered it 908 and this is titled outside organization
supporting school district programming. The Missouri School Board Association does have model guidelines for the outside organization supporting school districts and this draft policy was modeled much in line with those
guidelines. Also, there are school districts out there who have similar policies and we've reviewed those as we developed this draft as well. So the purpose of this policy as in again in draft form is to provide a foundation for interactions between the school district and outside organizations or groups
that support school district programs. These guidelines are meant to be a tool used to better relationships, clarify procedures and rules, and set the stage for successful partnerships. Specifically, fundraising and volunteers are necessary parts of public school district programming. The school
district and the student body are very grateful to groups, parents, and community members for the financial and moral support of school district programming. These positive contributions make an invaluable different to the difference to the students of our school district. And so specifically, the intent of
proposing this policy is to help guide those interactions between the school district as an entity and those outside organizations which could take the form of booster clubs, parent teacher organizations, and other similar entities. And again, just kind of guide what those relationship looks like, where the fine
lines are, and where the the gray areas that might exist and how to avoid those as best as possible. In bringing this forward as a first policy tonight or excuse me, first read tonight, the policy committee is not will not be bringing this forward
for a second read at the at the subsequent board meeting. Instead, we want to put this in the public domain, continue to get thoughts and and interest in this and feedback as as necessary. And so they'll the policy committee will be reviewing any of those
thoughts that are shared with them or among the policy committee in one month's time at the May policy committee meeting and that thereafter bring it for second read. Any questions on 908 as it currently is constituted? So again, no action necessary for
tonight. These are first read only. Awesome. Thank you very much, Director Danaker. All right, that brings us to item number nine which is adjournment at 5:58 p.m. of our regular meeting. It will be followed by a work session that we will
start promptly at 6:05. Next school board meeting will be April 20th at 6:00 p.m. Hope to see you all there. Have a great evening.