##VIDEO ID:EYZA-dkYVS0## for what I thought it was you s that's going around yeah it was not fun so and I want to be in the meeting so I just have to I shared the agenda for that you today and hey turn around you yeah I know no but I can go grab no I hear you surprised we don't usually have one right there e e this for I but that's how just this how we doing good [Music] no it's that weird no for I don't have to be there what is it oh no seven minutes I agree any the best is so on my monday.com I have like my each board meeting what I did remember I created a full checklist for me to go A to Z and go that's awesome efficiency I know I've learned took I've learned to love monday. like it over a year but fair enough from an organizational standpoint it's a reworked Monday like over a half dozen times and I reworked again l a week ago that was perfect I'm sure I could better but it's the unexpected my you're like Monday money has been s good how are you I'm just going to try not to like I just don't want to C my as opposed to like how are you are good how are you good how are you good tropical winter huh yeah a little bit7 by THS we have to be at work I'll be at school you'll be at school 9 until 4 presso no I suppose I should assume I yep don't hack way back I'll just step no oh yeah yeah please give back you e e e e e good evening everyone it is officially 6:00 pm on Monday January 27th and I'd like to call the order the regular school board meeting of Independent School District number 882 um before we get started I'd like to officially welcome Mary Bartell to our school board um last meeting we had a very busy organizational meeting so I apologize for not officially welcoming you but we are excited to have you for this next term so welcome um everyone if you could please stand help me um in saying the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge Allegiance to the States of America to the Republic for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all all right and now we're looking for approval of the tenative agenda so move second moved by Melissa Curtis seconded by Casey root all those in favor say I I I all those opposed say no motion passes 60 we have no citizen comments tonight we'll move around to item number five fiscal stability looking for approval of our consent agenda so moved second moved by Melissa Curtis seconded by Casey root all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no motion passes 60 now on to item number six collaborative connections we will have a resolution for acceptance of gifts um superintendent Olson will go through the gifts that we're receiving all right we are bringing forward two uh very nice gifts uh from our Community the first one from the monol Lions Club for $500 um that's going to our Monty pythons robotics team who just got their uh season kicked off here recently um for robot parts and the regional tournament and then also uh going towards um our high school um specifically for Career Technical education um the Northwest area JC's have um donated $55,000 so once again we have a great uh partnership across our community and insur is cool to uh see the support that they give our students in programs for be resolved by the monel school board number 882 to gratefully accept the following donations mono Alliance Club $500 for the Monty Python robotics team in the Northwest area JC's $5,000 for equipment for CTE at MHS second right it was moved by Jeff hegley seconded by Melissa Curtis all those in favor say I I hi all those opposed say no motion passes 60 we are now on to Item B Middle School unified Art Club approval which um will be gone over with superintendent Eric Olson all right so um first just a little um overall uh review of um the last board meeting when we met we had two um clubs that came forward and one of them after listening um it clearly um felt like it was a community education um club and so um I spent time with Mr evick and Mr Mack um and we have started to look at uh the structure of our um our six through uh 12 programming and we'll be ready for um a full um restructure um uh and be able to share that with you uh coming up here um in uh March so we are um right now just bringing forward the one club that was presented by m morl and uh Miss Frick um and this one we still feel like fits at the monol middle school because of the academic nature um and then the continuation of um service so if we remember um the target audience of this um unified Art Club is um helping students both um in uh general education and students in special education and helping them um through uh collaboration and building relationships uh using art as as the medium uh the class will have a one: one or one to2 uh general education to special education um ra show for students but it's really just to um promote um an inclusive environment and be able to give kids the opportunity um to uh recognize the strengths of um of all our all our kids so it's exciting um we do have Miss Morrow here for for any um last questions that might come up but uh we're excited to run this cost neutral program and like I said the reason why we this is one um that is a club that will be here but most of them that you'll see moving forward will all go through Community head of their clubs um but this one just with the academic nature and the special education component um we feel like it's a good one um to um start here at the middle school and then have a Continuum of service up to the high school any discussion from the board we were presented this before and given up opportunity to speak I think it's fantastic personally anybody else have anything we already have other unified programs so it falls in line with it as well so I think it's good definitely edifies what we're already doing all right this is an action item unified Art Club second moved by Jeff hegley seconded by Mark Branson all those in favor say I I all those opposed say no motion passes 60 now we're on to item number c which is our high school Washington DC trip request I'd like to welcome to the podium Mr guyan Mr tki and Miss Lightner who are our high school social studies teachers feel like [Laughter] cheering yeah sorry in my head I was [Music] grades 10 through 12 and we're going to go through a little overview of the trip uh what it all includes uh the dates cost and if you have questions please let us know at the end uh so things that we'll cover just our details a little bit about ourselves uh who we're partnering partnering with safety support what's all included as well so uh I'm Craig gance I've been teaching here since 2009 teach economics uh this will be our fifth travel experience to washingt DC and one of the things I think we're all most excited about is for our students to experience DC history and all it has to offer yep so I'm Katie Lightner I've been teaching in the district since 2004 um I think this is my fourth trip I think you're right five total um and exactly what he said bring history to life bring our subject matter to life Jason to like you have teaching here since you know a little bit more quiet um I teach CIS American history and some regular American history too so uh this is an amazing opportunity it really is uh it comes up in my class all the time we talk about just talking about it last week you know hey standing in Lee's house in his backyard you can see you know DC right across the river like was the head of the you know Army of the South Northern Virginia his backyard waston DC oh yeah yeah I remember that I saw that or I should have paid attention a little bit more but either way uh good experience and just be able to relate that so it's it's awesome so thank you for having us here thank you for taking the time to listen to us because this is uh very important to us so just a quote here the great force of History comes from the fact that we carry it within us uh all that we do controlled by it history is L literally present in all that we do I think that's important with everything that we do with what we teach and for this trip uh so it's a 4-day tour and we'll get into this Jason and Katie are going to get into that what each day and Tails this is just a quick rundown of our first two days our goal is to leave as early as we can on that Monday that first day so we get out there we have four whole days uh we try to hit the ground running right away with everything that we do uh this trip includes lunch it in dinner as well as well as uh breakfast at the hotel every single day it includes our air Fair our travel expenses when we're there for busing um and all of our tour guides and all our ticketing to all of our events as well um same thing with the third and fourth day uh exact same thing we try to get the last flight that we can out of DC so our kids get the full four days and when we're there we walk we go everywhere uh we'd like to go in late April which you'll see part of the reason is weather and we're outside a lot we want good weather for students so they're not freezing and running around we try to go after cherry blossoms cuz it's a little quieter as well for our students and that just uh seems to be a better atmosphere for our trip okay um and so like Craig said we hit the ground running and this is the only time you really see high schoolers exhausted I mean we go in the morning and we go till at night and so when we do like room checks usually they're like we'll be like we'll come around in a half an hour and they're like can we have it early room check like they're tired so the first day we like to go to the National Mall um and so they have options so you have right American history you have AER aeronautical Space Engineering and you have just many choices to get them to just see and explore and kind of they're in awe of all the different opportunities um so we do that we do Spy Museum um looking that was the first time we did that last year and the kids really like liked it looking at um all like the Espionage and and spies dating way back um starting in the Cold War era um and then the first night we do tour of monuments so in this case we go um oh here's the mall so here's all of us on the mall the first day um there's a new a Futures exhibit so if you look right there that's what they say the Ubers are going to look like um it lands on buildings and comes up um so that was in the new fut this kids thought that was really uh cool um and the first night then we do night tours so we start at MLK we walk down to Jefferson right there on the water um we do Abraham Lincoln and then right by the Lincoln Memorial is also the um Vietnam Wall and we do that at night um and that is really impactful at night um so we have the a lincol memorial and then if you look the kids at the um mall we found Roland was his last name and he was a Vietnam vet from monacello that had passed away and so we always bring the kids to his name every year um to kind of bring it home um there's also two mistakes at the Lincoln Memorial on the um wall in the writing of the marble and so we talk about that and let them look for that and kind of walk them through um we also do the Korean memorial at night and World War II um last year at World War II they were they were so tired they asked if we could do World War II the next morning but we usually try to do it at night because it's absolutely beautiful and every and this year when we were at World War II it was especially amazing because there was a um a peace flight an honor flight there and from Alaska so veterans from all wars were there and so they were so open and so the kids sat down and talked to them while we were there so that was a special treat to have an honor flight there while we there and then day two Arlington National Cemetery we leave bright and early we drive to Arlington um this one comes up in class all the time like Mr tki said we just got done with um Civil War and and like my first question was do we know how Arlington National Cemetery started and student in the back was like yeah I was around the house it started around the house right and right Robert El's house um so for them to see The Monuments and experience it before we even talk about it just brings it home then we go U Mount Vernon right George Washington's or George Washington's Home Place um and they find out that a lot of things they thought about George Washington is is usually myth like the the teeth and what have you um Old Town of Alexandria we go we usually eat supper in Oldtown Alexandria um you see the tiniest house I think it's six feet wide um and we just walk around and and take in the history and and usually we do like a night tour there and then um one that we always make sure we do at night and it's one of the most impactful is the 911 memorial at the Pentagon um it's it's little fountains and benches and it's it's at night is especially impactful with the light and one thing is nice is that since we all go and we've all been there so many times um we can really like especially at something like the 911 memorial you don't want to stand and like yell this out and so we each kind of take small groups of kids and walk them through and explain the stuff um so it's not we're we're not shouting to Big groups of people we each kind of and Arlington National Cemetery is the same we're taking groups of kids to you know there's major generals and political figures and every kid has different interests and so we kind of break off within our interest group and also at Arlington National Cemetery we always go to um The Changing of the Guard and the Tomb of the Unknown which is all that right there and there's Robert El's house they started burying the Civil War dead around his house to show him what a traitor he was and then that is where right the cemetery would eventually come from there you go that's all right I get to take over now too um one of the things that's really cool is the amount of symbolism that's obviously embedded into a lot of these different monuments and memorials and we talk about 911 anding obviously it's pretty solemn and and are moment you know they're quiet just kind of walking around and reflecting like you know bench facing a certain direction tells you whether that person was on thee or if it's faced in the opposite direction that person was inside of the building you know and the height wall around it um starts small part of the wall the person and then it works it way up and then it just goes down and around so it has the years uh that they were born all the way around and it goes all the way around and you know in that situation we always have we always have two our tour guys from the bus but in that situation you know like Katie was saying we get in a pretty small group and it's just nice to be a to walk around and be able to take that stuff in and to be able to uh have opportunities to take you know was it four years ago uh had a young man uh and he wanted to see where some Navy Seals were buried in Arlington National Cemetery deal for him um and he went to the registry and he looked where they were and they were nowhere near where our tour so I was like hey if you guys are all right I'll take him and we'll go so we had the opportunity then to go down and it's an active you know military site it's an active Cemetery so there's funerals going on kind of explain to him as we go you know the K's going down and I'm like yeah you know like there's a fun around right now and you really get to see and you know it's very not a postcard it's not a picture it's not always just a tour sometimes it's the things that we get to do uh along on with that as well of course near and dear to my heart we have the Marine Corps Memorial we get to stop at uh every year to see the flag raising a top M sbayi took place in World War II um Admiral Chester nimit said Uncommon Valor was a common virtue the most of awarded in battle to United States Marine Corps took place on pretty cool place there uh every single battle that the Marine Corp participated in the history of the Marine Corps since nov and 1775 is listed all the way around you can just kind of see the gold print on there so we get a good photo there uh this is Mountain Vernon here looking out at the pomac right overhead view there always try to get some group pictures in these cool situations here bringing different people in and you can see Mount Vernon there um just it's very interesting just to hear the overall history even of the buildings that the you know the building is meant to look like it was more expensive it truly was um because Washington did have you know they were successful but they weren't as successful as some of the the upper level Planters there in that time uh really hard for me I don't think we have laser pointer on here but picture in the top left up there middle is one of our former students Sebastian Gardner he's FBI agent and he lives in Alexandria or a little bit on outskirts because you got to have awful lot of money money to live in Oldtown Alexandria super expensive uh but he's come the last two times and met up with our kids last year unfortunately was really really quick just because we were on such a tight time schedule um but this time he had you know probably a couple hours to spend with us uh he works in government fraud and investigates government fraud uh within the FBI right now he's a member of their SWAT team as well he was a football captain here just a great all around kid and talked to our kids for probably about a half hour that year answered all kinds of questions you know get to meet a real life FBI agent uh that was pretty cool and down there's the 911 memorial that we just talked about Oldtown Virginia done the night tour um it's kind of a ghost tour we not necessarily believe in ghosts it's a little bit different but at least you could walk around there uh with a group of guys last year we played a game called how expensive do you think that little house is and so I was just Googling because they weren't really into the the ghost thing and some kids are some kids aren't that's just the way it goes so we just had our own little tour and i' be like almost you think that is 400,000 500,000 2.8 million 2.8 million it's got one bathroom in 6 ft yeah it's pretty it was pretty crazy that they they found that pretty interesting so it is a it's a cool venue just go walk around there uh go to the White House we get this uh it's Lafayette Square right is it Lafia Park Lafia Park then we go out right outside there you stand outside the gate um one of the rules outside of the White House is uh if you're going to protest there the moment you leave you're you're basically out and so what's the oldest protest there is uh is something about nuclear weapons yes it's taken on so there's one tent left and they man it all the time it's now it's like a monument kind of and so it's taken on there's just signs everywhere and the kids so we talked to them about how nobody can they always have to someone in the tent cuz as soon as someone leaves a tent it's gone and it's been there since like 1970 something um and so the kids always get a kick out of that and now you know all the and then there's always right because it's real world so there's always people just standing around taking pictures and tourists and there's always protesting and there's always people like you know with signs and it's just and you you tell the kids to just take it in we don't engage you know and um because one of the things that was going on there there was a huge Supreme Court case when we were there too so world media all over and so just for the kids to see to just see all these different people and all this different stuff um and and our I'm I'm just going to break because our kids always get compliments they do and and a lot of schools bring middle schoolers out there and no thank you um and our kids always are just top-notch and like like Jason said they they just rise to the occasion you know they know when it's time right to joke about stuff and then they just know when it's it's real and so they just we just always get compliments on our kids out there and just the questions I asked you know amazing I don't sometimes I don't even think about it we were walking around irel to National C like why is this one like this why is that one like that I don't know maybe it was a high ranking person we looked at it like it's not a high ranking person you know I don't know I'm like good question let's try to figure that out we'll just do some research out you didn't have to be that high ranking if you had money you could build yourself a pretty big and then they standardized it after that so for a while because it was kind of arbitrary how it was going together before it became a national cemetery so yeah it's just we always I always learn something every time I'm out there and I feel like they're learning too so it's it's pretty cool uh we go to Capitol Hill here we go inside on a tour um you know we get to go around inside uh the Rotunda area you know kind of tour around in there they'll have a little presentation that takes place you know it's a pretty slick organization how they have it all set up little uh earbuds in and you're listening to your tour guy and there's about 400 other tours you know going all at the same time but you get to you know get to experience it a little bit um head over to the Library of Congress these two got Library of Congress cards last time so while we're standing up in the balcony behind the pretty cool yeah for the rest of the trip we'd be like flashing our library con uh after that we head back over to the National Mall again there's so much to see around the mall you know last time we went uh we had an awesome experience because you know one of our students grade aunts is a curator at uh the American history and so she's like yeah I'm free for like 45 minutes I'll take you around and we had maybe handful of kids that were following with us at that time and she was like yeah this is why this is here and this is here and all she's like that Barbie that was actually mine they were putting this together and they were looking for a Barbie and that's mine that's my parents right there at their cabin like they just had so many cool connections uh that she had put together and to be able to ask them like why do you why do you choose the exhibit you choose why is that there you know with the uh who's the uh Chef Julia Child Julia Julia Child like why Julia Childs you know they talk about all that goes into putting it all together and how it's become one of the most popular ones and it you know supposed to be done months or years ago and rotate out but you'll just want to keep seeing it so um give them a chance to go back and look again uh and see what they might have missed every once in a while some things are closed too some days certain places aren't open so it gives them a chance to see that you could spend weeks in one Museum and not see everything so to give them like options to go to see a couple things at a couple couple different museums and when we do that you know they're pretty much so on their own come obviously stay with a friend or stay with a group but go see what you want to see we go see you know we're going to meet back here in two hours or 3 hours whatever it it might be and some of them will want to tag along with us and some will want to go with their friends and go see that and some we just run into each other and end up going see things together uh we go to the Holocaust Museum we go as a group offer that again incredible incredibly powerful experience you know it's just like really no way to describe it other than say it's just a moving experience I've gone through there now what three three or four times with kids and I mean you barely hear a word like it's just quiet and you read and you walk and you see and you hear um so it's it's really powerful uh there's our picture out in front of the white house every once in a while it's kind of weird but you'll see people doing construction on top of the White House no we had a student that was like oh God they must be doing a lot of roofing and we're like those are Secret Service like snipers like those are not roofers they're not they are not roofers so just keeping an eye on you know sometimes you're like okay like we got to get out to the real world here yeah uh this is inside the Rotunda and then this is on the steps outside of Capital Hill I think that's Jefferson on the left M and right and right and right side of it in the day forget to go there in the day you're usually there at MLK Memorial and uh is that on the steps of the link on the link so that's where he gave the I have Dream speech that's where he stood uh this is part of the uh Holocaust Museum uh means work makes free uh in German and then one thing I learned that I didn't realize until this time that the path you walk through the museum those bricks were actually taken from um from the Warsaw polish ghetto so you're literally walking the path that yeah so that like that's what I learned that time I had no idea and then you just yeah that was that was powerful am I doing day too okay uh day four uh Fords theater uh that's a pretty cool experience too to go in there you sit down and you're going to listen to you know they have PR good narrators that go up there and tell the story about what happened to Abraham Lincoln and and how it all kind of transpired and and who John wils Booth uh was and then what happens after that um you know and just kind of how that all comes together you get a chance to see uh where Lincoln was sitting and where Booth jumped uh from the down balcony down to the stage and again we were walking out this was a couple of years ago and someone said hey can we go see where Booth had his horse and he escaped Through the Alley I was like that's a thing I didn't know that was a thing sure enough there's a marker just off to the side he's like yeah I just looked up DC obscure historical things and it showed me it was like 100 yards away how we go that's really cool it's got a little description of this is where the horse was and off that way wow that was kind of cool um go back see the Washington Monument World War III Memorial they're right there uh obviously the memorials typically are a little bit cooler at night with the lighting and stuff like that um and the water in there it's also a benefit of going a little bit later in the year um they're worried if the water's going to freeze they won't have water in them um and the water features are kind of cool with that uh and then we end the day uh at Georgetown before we go back uh and get to the airport so Georgetown give an opportunity to kind of go around and explore uh and see we've gone to the university there um we've walked around to see all the various different things there's some cupcake Georgetown cupcakes that the kids saw on some show so there's always a line at the Georgetown Cupcakes um yeah they just and just really really cool downtown Cobble streets and and you know as social studies teachers were always very aware of current events and things like that so we said hey you know we got a couple hours and we meet back we're going to meet back at that building corner right there and uh you know as we're we're waiting to kind of meet up you know probably about 10 15 Secret Service Vehicles come flying up whole motorcade and Secret Service we told them to meet us at the Ukrainian Embassy and the Ukrainian prime minister was in town and they were coming yes and so Secret Service was everywhere and uh so our kids got pictures with yeah bless her heart Mary Joe jeffson retired history teacher was with us as an extra chaperon she's like I'm just going to ask if they'll take a picture with me she went right up to the Secret Service can I get yeah come on over yeah the other guys like I don't go my I'm out of here but yeah I know it was uh it's always an adventure it is there's always things we're going to see that we just don't know we're going to see and like helicopters flying like the hel like Marine one we tell them right like right if there's three that is the president moving you know and and just stuff like that that's going out shell game all at all times there's always something we're talking about y uh there's the box at Ford's Theater where President Lincoln was assassinated uh then we go across to the mlan house right Peterson Peterson house Peterson house uh go across to the Peterson house and there's an exhibit there you see the kind of the tiny bed that Lincoln was in where he actually passed and then it's got a hole that's kind of been turn into Museum the rest of it you all go through spiral Spiral your way down obviously Washington monuments here kind of a cool thing last year I had never thought of tour guide had us go up there and sit like with our butts on the ground and put our feet up on it and look straight up it's an amazing optical illusion that's created some kind of cool pictures too so a bunch of kids are doing that all right so here's our travel window uh we're looking at April 20th through the 23rd so it's a Monday through a Thursday um for our school dates like we said try to get out there as early as we can on the 20th and then get back as late as we can on the 23rd uh so that's our window that we're looking at for our travel so it's a Monday through a Thursday uh we're using explore America EF is our travel partner uh we've built up a pretty good relationship with them this will be our third time using uh EF they've always come in at the cheapest uh if not we usually go back to them said hey here's the price you have to beat and they've always done that we try to be very cost efficient for our students uh cuz that's important and to get the most out of it as well and safety is a big thing um and so like I'm kind of a a psycho about safety and so like for me this trip is we we've we've felt uh completely safe one of the things that like as a chaperon and as a mom that I like is once we we do we we do room checks we tape the doors and then they provide security guard at every level um that sit posted all night and then in the morning we get a list so and so had to come out and buy Advil at the front desk do you know what I mean escorted them down escorted them back in and then it's like no other usually it's like nothing nobody nobody moved you know but but to me that's just really important we've we've we they take us to nice areas we've always stayed in nice areas when we go places they know right where we're going and and and and just the security thing is is a a big deal and then like the teacher chaperon we've all we all know and trust each other with the kids and and so that's deal and the kids trust us to right like they want to go with our social studies department and with us as teachers and that's what we've always tried for is try to get as many teacher chaperons as we can so uh so support they have a great support system uh we're in contact with them all the time they have an office right in DC in case something would come up or something would go wrong uh which makes a big difference everything's included in this full-time tour directors buses hotels airfare we won't know hotel or airfare till about a month maybe 90 days out you know somewhere between a month to two months maybe three months out uh breakfast lunch and dinner daily overnight security um you know all that Transportation when we're there which is huge to get dropped off right you know on the National Mall we're not driving anywhere or there any gratuiti is also included as well so cost uh 1749 for the 4 days uh just to kind of put that into perspective uh three or two years ago it was 1449 so it's an extra $300 $300 this time around they have monthly payment PL biweekly payment plans as well uh we don't do any fundraising uh we've never done any fundraising so it's up to students there are some scholarships that students can apply for through EF uh to possibly get some of that knocked down one nice thing is it does say it's $300 more but um that first week whenever we roll this out our goal is to hopefully get board approval tonight start to uh really promote this probably the next couple weeks and then we'll have a parent meeting if they sign up within that first week uh they get $100 off so it ends up being $6.49 I know we've had some students that sayy we want to come back uh they're able to give us a repeat traveler discount so for those kids be an extra $150 so I think that's a pretty good deal for everything that's included uh in this trip we're very fortunate for that um and that's our goal to start rolling it out now we find that it's helpful especially for payment plans to help raise money for kids to get it out and as soon as we can plus we lock in the best price possible uh prices continue to rise uh if we wait and wait and wait we want to get it out in front of our kids as soon as we can so uh without anything else uh questions that y all have we appreciate it um if there's questions can you explain a little bit more about you said that the students themselves do some fundraising no uh so like students we we say if you want to reach out to Grandma Grandpa Aunt uncle they can do something like that we don't do any together as a as a school as a Washington DC trip they can try to ask people for some money or maybe it's a birthday Christmas whatever it might be that they can try getting informal yep I than for doing this it's amazing and that they have this opportunity appreciate that thank you yeah no it's it's awesome it really is fun even like um if students have different needs or want to see something else I appreciate that so much that's so good for them like oh I wanted to see this and then you make it happen then yeah we'll when we have that first parent meeting we'll talk about that like obviously you know we're going to be kind of doing some things but there's something on your list you want to see it know again you know we've been there a few times which is helpful because we know where things are located and kind of get there um so I'm missing seen special I will lead you to AA ha's grave yeah know like I we will yeah and we even had one lady young lady whose grandfather was buried out there so we were able to go find where his gra that was that was really cool and Powerful for her some of of her friends that came with her so really cool I I second Melissa's comments I just have two questions uh the first one are the kids providing Transportation they show up at the airport or they shown up here and you guys are all leaving as one group at the high school at the high school at the high school and then we down okay yep and then my second question is on the pricing I'm sure it's at a minimum number of students that you need is there any concern that you would be at a minimum number minimum numberers 40 to 45 last year we had 95 oh okay so we always say we're going with 40 or 45 once we hit that cap we close it but then there's a waiting list yep uh last year we were able to open it up so we try to so we had two full coach buses while we were in DC gotcha okay how do you decide to own back up we have another full yeah so he works full weight yep yep try to get that full weight list otherwise in the pricing you like Casey was saying can change and we try to say hey this is the price we're giving you that's where we're at right now we don't want pricing to go up or anything like that we're not trying to throw any surprises at people and say oh here's an extra 50 bucks at you or whatever it is yeah so once we got that second bus filled up then we knew the price would be so then we added added that whole second bus mhm thank you for the presentation appreciate that oh it was great love the energy thank you for taking time out of your life to do this appreciate thanks for the opportunity and I like the different things that you're going to um we were just there last March during the Vietnam war my husband was assigned there for a year and so we always end up going there every once in a while and I have my Library of Congress card too and that's my priz yes this is this is really a passion project it is yeah absolutely it's just you know when you teach this stuff I can imagine teacher I don't know how you ever class you'd want to be on a field trip all there yeah you teach your stuff and talk about it for most of your adult life to be able to have the opportunity to go show it to them and walk in it and see it immersed in it it's pretty awesome thank you I do have to tell you a Kind of a Funny Story that's a credit to the board we were walking by the Supreme court and there was all these things and and one man yells out and says I bet they don't even have you say the Pledge of Allegiance in school anymore he looks at him and goes and I goes we say it every Monday and I was like yeah yeah we do but it was like yep they were very and he was like oh oh different y it's just about 400 different worldwide media all camped along there there various protesters yeah y for all different every end of the spectrum you know it's just it's just always something out there well it's definitely a powerful trip and I want to thank you guys for doing it because I know it takes a lot of time and energy um not only the trip itself but a lot of pre-planning to make it happen and my son had the opportunity to go this last trip and it was incredible for him in the discussions we got to have when he got home because I've been there multiple times um to just talk about what was most impactful to him what he really enjoyed and um I was just stating earlier he wasn't feeling the best but there was no way he was missing this trip and um his buddies were there and he was like Mom you won't believe like we run and we run and we run like we get back and I'm out like in the bed so um just such a cool experience for them because a lot of people would never get that experience in their entire lifetime so for you guys to be able to give that to them is just absolutely incredible so thank you and then the the cost does that cover your cost on the shaer room part or how how are you guys covered that covers that the 1749 from all the students yep any other questions or discussion well and I don't know if you meant this Casey but I thought the same thing and I would say that's good that's that's how we would want it you know we're not going what you don't have to your own way you're going out it's fine I didn't I didn't no y I think we can technically bring one chaperon for every 10 kids yeah that's how we have it that's how we operate it yeah tried to tried to kind of stick to that last year was tough just because we had 908 95 95 so I think we took eight but and then the other chaperon were those just other adults or were they just are teachers or what's the we try to first social studies is our top priority yep um but then we have some coaches and stuff like that so in the past then we've T tapped retired teachers um so Mary Joe Jepson and um um Brad and Brad and K Hansen both taught here and so um retired teachers have been chapon as well I don't think it'd be a concern trying to find extra shaon yeah case he sounds like he's volunteering I've been there it's it's really impactful it's a it's a good trip on there my wife wants to go the summer so very cool anything else glad you guys use the word passion too um because that's obviously you can feel that from you a three and then that's what exuberates out of our kids which is uh the ultimate so thank you thank you thank you you all right board this is an action item approve second moved by Jeff hegley seconded by Mary Bartell all those in favor say I hi all those opposed say no motion passes 60 thank you again thank you appreciate itks thanks for your time app all right next up on our agenda number item number seven teaching and learning um this past week was paraprofessional recognition week and so um the board sent out on their Friday newsletter uh a letter just um really raising our par professionals are educational support specialists in our district and so um I think you wanted me to read it right okay so I'll quick read that so you guys can all hear what went out to our educational support Specialists on behalf of the monel school board we'd like to take the opportunity to extend our deepest gratitude to you during paraprofessional recognition week your dedication to students staff and the families of our district does not go on notice and this week is an opportunity to honor the impact you have on our schools and the monacello community every day you step into our classrooms hallways and support spaces with a commitment to Foster growth relationships learning and the success of every student whether you assist in academics support social and emotional needs or create an inclusive environment you play a critical role in keeping students helping students overcome challenges and achieve their goals your patient ITI care and resilience are invaluable to our schools and our community you are members you are mentors problem solvers and champions for the children and families we serve as a board we are extremely grateful and want to celebrate you for the work you do to uphold the mission and values of the monell public schools thank you for your tieless service compassion and commitment to Excellence we are proud to have you as an integral part of our district respectfully monello school board and um I just want to say I think this kind of covers it all but this is what our second largest employee group is our educational support staff and um they make such an impact on our community like not just the students that they're working with but also the families and the community and it's huge so we just want to take this opportunity to say thank you does the board have anything else say no all right now we'll move on to safe and healthy culture and we would like to welcome up to the podium our director of Business Services Miss Tina burer all right good evening board we have our um probably greatly anticipated Financial forecast this evening so I'll go over our timeline and then I'll I'll go over our revised budget that I've been working on since uh December look at some budget assumptions and then look at a couple forecast scenarios so right now we are in January where I normally present a financial forecast and right now and even in previous months we're doing some building visits trying to get a handle on needs for the upcoming year talking about where we're at financially and going through possible Staffing changes is um and in this forecast we are only looking at our general fund this doesn't include the special ed Cooperative activity that the state normally sees when they look at our general fund activity but we keep that separate and the forecast is just focusing on our general fund so the revenue uh budget for this year in the first revision as I previously noted in September and November that uh not all the students show up that we thought we were down about 120 kids we had 25 Less in kindergarten 14 less in grades 1- 5 46 Less in 6 through 8 and 35 in 9- 12 so that had an impact in our budget revision that had less Levy that will come in because of that and we'll have less state aid um because of that as well we did have some other state aid budget revision Visions our special ed cross subsidy went down a little bit uh that's based on the cross subsidy Aid is based on prior years expenses so if you're a little high on the budget side on the expenses where you're being more conservative that kind of hits you in the bum if you're on your crft subsidy Aid because then you're not getting 40% of what you of what you spend so it's kind of a balancing act I guess and how you figure out uh special ed costs and funding and then uh on the state side as well we had some new money come in we had our one-time curriculum money with literacy redact and then we also had the redact training mou that's in this budget as well but overall um that Levy in state is a lot of it is the enrollment changes on federal sources we had a couple revisions in our federal AIDS but not much on the title side we did have our cops grant that I thought initially would be mostly recognized last year and half of that ended up happening last year and the rest is coming this year and that is a joint Grant between Becker big lake onell and the co-op and then for other I did adjust our interest revenue and then we also received a wellness credit with uh Meda when we changed providers so that is in there as well so overall our Revenue budget is going down about 300,000 and this is what it looks like in the pie chart again a lot of our Revenue coming in is in the form of state aid on the expense side um our salaries went down we have about 2.6 FTE in uh Speech FTE that we didn't fill and they're actually being contracted out so we see a decrease in our salaries but we'll see an increase in purchase Services because they're being contracted out our benefits went up a little bit uh a lot of that has to do with health insurance people either changing plans or changing from single to family coverage in purchase Services again I mentioned the speech services so that's about half of that the other half are the additional Transportation routes that were added this year so that's mainly our two increases in purchase services on supplies we um had a little bit of overspending last year with technology so I had to revise the budget down this year to make up for that so that is a large part of the decrease and but it's also being offset by that curriculum money coming in for the redact on Capital again that's that cops Grant making up the majority of that with camera purchases between the three districts in that Grant so overall our expense budget is in increasing half a million dollars again P chart on how we spend our money and the largest source is salaries and benefits any question on the first look at the budget revision right so as we move into the forecast um the enrollment projections I do um revise down a little bit because if you remember in my enrollment projection presentation sometimes we see a decrease in our enrollment throughout the year so we will we won't see 100% in all the kids if they're slowly moving out or moving away um so I tend to revise down the estimates for Revenue um depending on um what trends I've been seeing so it's the enrollment is down a little bit from what the actual bodies that show up on October 1st in the revenue assumptions so the 2025 legislative session just started and um we know from mde there was summer unemployment that was passed uh two sessions ago or two um yeah sessions ago and we know that that funding will run out sometime mid FY 26 of next year so in my scenarios I'm assuming um that it's a high priority for the legislators and the governor and they will find ways to fund it for the next year and a half of the bium state special Aid is under still the new law and and with the same structure with the Cooperative the revised compensatory funds are under the new funding formula um I gave you an update in the email that uh we did see a little bit of a drop in our compensatory for next year this year we get about 2 million next year the new report says we'll get about 1.7 million so it's a drop of 300,000 that is another priority for the legislators and Governor to extend the hold harmless that we saw this year into next year so hopefully they can come together and we'll see that 300,000 come back for next year but still it's unknown and then we have our other grants um still in place some are five years some are only a couple years uh which I have mentioned Staffing um I typically guess that we'll have three retirements so we'll see some savings within those three retirements in the year special Edge Staffing we're still working with the special ed coordinators to see what the projections are for next year and what the staffing needs are based on uh population that they're projecting so there's no ads in that regard in this forecast we do have um some programs that we're looking to shift that were in The Cooperative that are monacello um we might um recommend to move one of them to the monacell side because a lot of the students in that program are from monacell and none are really from Becker Big Lake U so it might make sense to move it but it's um it'll we just want to dive a little deeper on the revenue projections and what means when we shipped uh programs on the expense side our salary and benefits will be based on parameters set by the board just as a reminder our Medica health insurance cap for next year is 133% so I'm assuming that we would get that cap of 133% other things in the forecast could increase anywhere from 0 to 10% depending on if it's just supplies utilities Transportation whatnot we won't borrow short term uh for cash flow assuming we still get the 90% during the years and 10% after the year that the state won't borrow against school districts and that our total expenses will end up about 05% under budget our fund balance assumptions we have a policy where we try to be within 8 to 16% that's a gauge of one to two months of expenditures we have a little bit left in our committed s an fund where we spend it Down based on the retirements that are happening and there's not a lot um employees left that have that Severance fund and it's more budgeted on a year-to-year basis with the 403b matches our carryover assign balances will be awarded at 50% after this year and then next year we'll move away from carryover and um have a different uh Supply budget allocation moving forward other forecast assumptions we have our trust that we'll look at um we have some contracts where we did add some more Sunset language where we could look at the levy versus the trust I have a new Actuarial study that Doe um as of employees that are here as of July 1 2024 so that's my next project to work on so I can get that study um uh for the board in the next coming coming months I think that's all the assumptions any questions on the assumptions before I dive into the scenarios all right so scenario one we know with legislation that we will get at a minimum a 2% increase on our general education Aid um there they passed it in the two sessions ago where it would increase based on inflation based on the previous two quarters of CPI but that won't come out probably till mid-February but it wouldn't be above the cap of 3% so somewhere between 2% and 3% is where our general education Aid increases could be so I just did for scenario 1 2% scenario two middle ground 2 and a half% and scenario 3 at 3% most everything else is kind of the same of where I'm trying to get to I'm assuming that we'll get like I said additional funding for summer unemployment our operating referendum is approved for Levy payable 27 that won't really affect us till year three after this year um so I'm just really focusing on years one and two after this year but I'm assuming for year three that that'll happen um we have Staffing adjustments based on enrollment projections so we need to write size so we'll have about 500,000 of Staffing adjustments based on the declining enrollment that we're anticipating after that it'll be a budget alignment of 2 million for next year and 25 million for 2627 and that'll get us around uh just over 8% for year 1 and 8.6 in year two so basically how I came up with those budget targets was what would get us to a balanced budget for year one and that's just where that 2 million kind of got us there we we're just overspending a little bit about about 18,000 and we're Landing about 85% and then again the 2.5 million for 2627 gets us to about the same Mark of 8.64% scenario two like I said uh having the general education Aid increase at 2 and a half% same with Summer unemployment and the referendum being approved the Staffing adjustments that need to happen with declining enrollment and then because of that little extra Aid having a budget alignment of 1.8 million for next year and 2.4 million for 2627 and we get about to the same amounts for the fund balance scenario three uh the general education Aid at 3% um and then after Staffing adjustments all again the same um a budget alignment of 1.7 million per next year and 2.2 million again this does not include if things would align and we got the 300,000 in compensatory money that would help this forecast all three scenarios so cross everything you can and hope that we get that compensatory hold harmless change um and again the same ending Target uh for the fund balance and so just graphically what it looks like that um purplish bar going down is sod statutory operating debt where schools if their if their fund balance is a minus 2.5% that's when the state comes in the reddish is the 8% fund balance minimum and then the three blue yellow and green are the scenaries 1 2 3 where we're kind of at about the same spots for years one and two and a little bit different in year three and lastly I just wanted to you know highlight I go over this with new board members why maintain a fund balance well you never know what's going to happen like this year we didn't have the kids show up we had unexpected things happen with additional Transportation routes um we never know are we I have money built in for utility cost but is it going to be extra cold where you know I didn't put put enough budget in there you just never know and when you're at that 8% we don't really have a lot of cushion for those unknown so it's I think important that we stay as close to 8% as we can then from here I'm not looking for any approval we'll use a lot of these scenarios uh to have deeper discussions at the budget committee so I don't know if there's any thing that you want the budget committee to look at in Greater detail what does it look like if we get the 300,000 what are the targets want so forth so just opening up for questions and discussion from the state of Minnesota for this year we it's on the tables it's 7,281 that we received this year per ADM and grades 7 through 12 they're weighted a little higher we get 1.2 So 20% more on students enrolled 7 through 12 other questions or discuss for Tina I was just going to ask on like on the utility that's uh paid as use we can't contract like or negotiate like a set price or not to exceed dollar amount with the utility company do we even have that option correct no we are on a plan where um for some of our buildings like we could get curtailed where we have to go to a fuel tank so they could ask us at certain points you know to put our heat settings at a certain point Point um like when we don't have kids or at night or whatever so that we can stay uh below a mark and with same in the summer with Excel when it's really hot you know shutting lights and AC down as much as we can to help what's going on in the community can you um confirm the the referendum money that you had on this slide is that that's renewing the 10-year referendum that we've talked about in the past yep okay yeah and like I said that mainly comes into play in year three um but with the forecast you know we just really need to focus on years one and two any other discussion I know this is difficult conversation to have because we're looking at a substantial amount of money that's going to have to be right sized um and accounted for to make sure that we stay in a planned budget but I can tell you that um I know Mr Olen is superintendent Olson has done a lot of work on us trying to um grow our Community increase our um amount of enrollments which will have an impact a significant impact on our budgets um as well as continue to be creative and getting as many grants as we possibly can um to help make sure that the services to each of our students isn't suffering um because of the needs that we have now so I know it's these aren't fun discussions we have to have but we also have to keep our budget balanced so thank you Tina [Music] okay all right and that brings us to um our last item well our next Schoolboard meeting is February 3rd at 5:00 p.m. um that brings us to adjournment at 7:04 p.m. that e for