Welcome and good evening everyone. As I call to order the regular school board meeting of Independent School District number 882, it is Monday, December 1st. It is 6:00 p. p.m. in the evening. I'd like to note that we do not have board
member Jeff Hegley or Mary Bartell here this evening, but we still do have a quorum. So, we are good to continue this meeting. Please stand and join me for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Now looking for approval of tonight's tenative agenda. >> It's all moved. Second.
>> Moved by Melissa Curtis, seconded by Casey Root. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Oppos, please say no. Motion passes 40. Have a count there for a second. Do not have any citizen comments this evening. It'll move us right along to item number
five, fiscal stability. Looking for approval of the consent agenda. >> So moved. Moved by Melissa Curtis, seconded by Casey Root. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. I. Opposed, please say no. Motion
passes for zero. On to item number six, collaborative connections. I will pass it over to Superintendent Eric Olsen. >> As always, we get very excited about uh the huge participation and support that
our community gives uh to our programming across our district. Uh Cheryl Camemer uh brought forward $1,000 for the Monty Python's robotics team and Cargill stopped by the Rally to Read um meeting last uh uh month and gave $5,000
uh for the Rally to Read programming um the early learning um piece of this. As a reminder, there's the early learning piece and then there's the um the book drive um for the high school library. So Cargill $5,000 and Cheryl Camemer 1
um dollars go into our these two fine programs. >> Therefore, be it resolved by the Monaceel School Board 882 to gratefully accept the following donations. Cheryl Cameer, $1,000 for the Monty Pythons
Robotics Team. Cargill 5000 for Rally to Read Early Learning. >> Second >> by Melissa Curtis, seconded by Kroot. All those in favor, please say I. I. Oppos, please say no. Motion passes 40.
Now we're on to item number B, the funnest part of this evening. Help me welcome to the podium director of business services Tina Burke Holder to go over truth and taxation. More fans online just wanting to listen to our truth and taxation hearing tonight.
All right. Uh, so with this agenda and throughout this TNT presentation, I'll go over the meeting requirements, talk about the current year school budget, uh, talk about the proposed levy, and also allow for public comment.
So, with the requirements, we're required to have our truth and taxation hearing anywhere from November 25th through December 26, and it should be at 6 PM or later. We need to talk about our current budget like I uh already mentioned, go over the proposed levy,
talk about significant changes, more of the big increases or changes from the previous year, and then I'll allow for public comment. So unlike cities and counties, our fiscal year goes July 1 to June 30th, where cities and counties, they go from
January to December. So the levy that's approved in December that gets collected in the following year 2026 and that goes towards our budget in the 2627 school year. So a year delayed. So we don't
have that budget adopted or approved or even started. This is the first start in that process. So we're just going to talk about the budget that was approved in 2526. And I already talked about this on this slide. So, our school budget has
different funds that are mandated by state statute where it's divvied out by the revenue sources and purposes. So, we have a general fund which includes our capital projects fund and our special ed cooperative fund. But when the state looks at our finances, they're all
grouped together. Our food service fund is 02, our community service fund which also includes our hockey arena in ' 04, debt service fund in ' 07, an internal trust internal service fund in 20 and a OPED trust fund in 45. And so only the
general fund, community service and debt service funds are the ones that are actually seeing property tax levy uh revenue in those budgets. Another breakdown of our budget by the different categories, but I think a better picture
on the next two slides where you can see the general fund is our main operating fund. So both on the revenue side and on the expense side, it is 83% of our budget. So a lot of the money coming in and going out is in our main operating
fund. And just to dive in a little more on the general fund. Now this these two next charts do not include the capital projects fund or our special ed cooperative fund. It's just the our main general fund. The revenue coming in the largest source of 77% is state aid. So
pro people probably think it's property tax that's funding our budget, but the largest source is state aid where only 18% for this school year was local property tax revenue. On the expense side, we are very labor intens where 80%
of our budget is salary and benefits. So, a lot of people expenses in our budget. So, some property tax levy fundamentals. The state sets the formulas and a lot of those formulas are either driven by enrollment,
um, specific eligible expenses, population, voter approved referendums or valuations. And just because there's a change in our levy, it doesn't mean that we'll see that exact change in our revenue budget. Uh example, I think last year where
operating capital, we saw an increase in operating capital in the levy form but less in the state aid form because when we see um increases in our property values, the state tends to shift more on the levy side and do a reduction on the
aid piece. So, for the most part, our operating capital year-over-year is about a million, but how that comes in, either in the form of state aid or levy, will depend on our property values and what that's doing. This is to take a look at the property
tax line timeline from the school district's perspective. So, in August, the Minnesota Department of Education opens up a levy system where we as school employees enter in information, our enrollments, the eligible expenses, do we have a 10-year
plan? Do we want to access long-term facility revenue? Just different questions of what the school district is doing and what we are accessing. On September 8th, the Minnesota Department has to send out its first levy report to
school districts. for us. The school board approved the proposed tax levy on September 22nd. And then in November, schools can hold uh operating referendum question and we did that in November, November 4th. Mid
November, people will see their proposed tax statements and that does not include if a if a school district had a successful operating referendum. So that what was sent in November is based on what the county received in September from school districts, counties, and the
cities as well that generates that uh tax statement. December 1st is our TNT presentation and December 15th will be when the board approves the levy and then the following year is where we'll see that tax being collected and given
to us. This has our general fund referend or levy components and the biggest change since September is our successful passage of the operating referendum question. So it's increasing 3 million and again a lot of that has to do with
that approved question. The next slide has the community service fund levy and the debt service fund levy. So not as big changes uh that you see here from September. It's basically the same of what you saw in September. And just to dive a little deeper on
those changes um that have happened in the different buckets that are at least a h 100,000 or more either increases or decreases. Our voter approved referendum increased uh 3.4 million compared to prior year is used for general operating expenses. It comes in the form of state
aid and levy. And again that increase is due to a success successful question on November 4th. Um, and it also has an inflation increase and it will be dependent on student enrollment and you'll kind of see that in um some
slides or a handout in the future. Equity went down 192,000. This has a aid and levy component. Um, this went down. When you have a higher increase in operating referendum, equity revenue will decrease.
Uh so that is one of the reasons why it decreased and then also with lower student enrollment local optional revenue decreased 217,000. It's used for general operating expenses. Uh this is also tied to enrollment. So that decreased because of
that other postemployment benefits that increased 254,000. We had a higher OPED liability expense, uh, more retirees, higher health insurance premium, and more contracts that now have that sunset language, uh,
where we're phasing out the retirey contributions. And the last big change that I'll talk about is our long-term facility revenue that went down 109,000. Uh, again, this has a aid and levy component, but it decreased mainly with student enrollment
dropping. So with impact to taxpayers um there are different reasons why your tax bill could change. Uh it could be dependent on the value of your individual individual property. What is happening with all the property valuations within the district and then the changes with
the formulas whether it's based on enrollment or an operating uh referendum that was approved. And so the three key variables and that helps determine the property taxes due. The market value is determined by the
assessor and a lot of us will have experienced that this past fall of the assessor coming to our houses and doing a valuation. The property classification is determined by the state. If you're a residential business or whatnot, that is determined by the state. And then the
levies set by the city, county, and school. Well, all three of those together will figure out what your property tax due. And then to take a look at the timeline based on a property taxpayer perspective.
Um, so in March of 2025, people received evaluation notice of what their property value is valued at. And like I mentioned in this fall, a lot of Monaceel residents had their properties assessed.
So they'll see probably new valuations in this coming March of 2026. In the spring, early summer, the county will hold hearings if people want to challenge their valuation notice. And I have a slide to show an example of that.
Again, November, uh, referendum questions could be posed, and we had that. Mid November, like I mentioned, we have the proposed tax statements that are mailed to all property owners, the truth and taxation hearings, and then in March of 2026, that will have the final
levy notice that will include a successful November question. So again, what was sent in November does not have that. What you will see in March will have that. This is a property tax notice example of
what people received in November. So you see a county line, a city line or township line, and then a school district line. For the school districts, there's a voter approved number and a non- voter approved levy number that determines the school tax levy.
Uh in March, like I mentioned, people will receive a valuation notice. So at the bottom of that notice and on the back side will give you information on where and when you can go to challenge your valuation.
And um hopefully with our levy meetings and other previous TNT meetings, you understand that the district levy is set by VA by uh formulas and the valuations within the school district. And based on
your valuation will determine your piece of the district's levy pie. And so if you have a larger increase of home value or like the Excel power plant, they are a big chunk of our levy pie. And when more uh houses are being developed, that
just cuts up the pie into more slices. But your property value determines how big your slice of the levy pie is. And to show that in a different way, um we have two houses as an example. So, if they made up a school district where our
district levy was $500 and they both had the exact same home values, they would each pay a levy of $250. If one property value, the gray, increased by 10% and the the red one
increased by 25%, that $500 got divvied up differently. So the gray house sees less than 250 where the red house sees more of that increase of their share based on their home value.
Um this had our property value um history over the last eight years and Monaceel did see some increases in property values in 2022 and 23. Um so people probably felt that um in their
tax notices. Our financial advisors Ellers also put together some hypothetical um housing examples for us to see what a tax impact would be for different property values. I'm going to skip over this table just I like the graphs
better. So with this chart or slide, we have $150,000 residential home value and the 250,000 home value. The red bar is uh the proposed levy and the black section there is that voter approved referendum that was approved. So it is
actually on these slides less than what we were telling people we thought the increase would be if the question would pass. Again, a lot of that has to do with that equity revenue offsetting the levy as well. Um, the other two charts have a $350,000
home and a $450,000 home. Again, as examples that people um probably could relate to. Another um chart that I thought was interesting to include was like I mentioned there are two lines on the tax
notice that for the school district that has voter approved levy and non- voter approved levy that are mainly um determined by formulas enrollment and eligible expenses. So you can see where that red voter approved levy is increasing because of that question. Um
but for the most part we're pretty consistent year-over-year on those two categories. And if people do see large increases in their property tax, they can work with their tax professional um to see if they could get a refund or deferral on the
increases. There's a homestead credit refund um for all homestead property that's on a sliding scale. The special property refund um that they could look to or the senior citizen property tax deferral. doesn't
um write off the taxes, but it will defer it until their house is sold. And here just has the levy summarized again where you know the largest increase is in the general fund with the voter approved question that was passed. And then also in your packet there was a
separate handout created by PTMA Financial Solutions. uh they did an awesome job of giving more information about property taxes and our levy. And there was a lot that I wanted to include, but I got overwhelmed by how much information was in there, but I
wanted to highlight um on that handout, page four, which is interesting to me. It showed the levy. It's probably hard to read for the audience, but it showed the levy um in the different buckets based on how they're derived. So, the
levies that are based on pupil units minus the operating referendum, you know, that increased the 3 million and the equity reduced more because of that offset with the approved levy. But since our adjusted pupil units were going down
3.9%, a lot of those levies that are driven by enrollment were going down that same amount. And their summary doesn't match mine exactly because my adjustments I include them with like if there is an operating referendum adjustment, I include that with the
operating referendum where they truly put all the adjustments down um in the adjustment line, but I put them in the category that they are associated with. And then there was levies using expenditures as a basis. So our debt service if there's bonds, our land
leases, um our oped achievement integration, career and technical, uh reemployment insurance. So all those that are based on expenditures are in that category. There's levies based on population. So I thought it was just neat to see the levy based on how it's
derived. Um, so you can see that clear relationship with enrollment on some of those levies. And on page seven, it had our total school tax levy trend
since the pay of 2018. So you can see we haven't seen a lot of changes in our school tax levy. even with operating referendums in place that had that inflation factor for the most part you know we've seen on average a 2% on inflation and so you can see you know we
haven't seen big swings in our tax levy um in 23 there were there was an inflation catchup we did I think everybody saw pressures with inflation and that and that was in that year but we also had a debt service uh reduction
that kind of offset that and then you see the bigger change in pay 26 you where that operating referendum change is there but again a lot of information um that I'll hopefully incorporate into
future truth and taxation hearings but baby steps any questions from the board >> yes ma'am Thank you very much, Tina, for your great work in preparing this to make it
as clear as possible because I don't think it's extremely clear until you dive into it. Can you just explain the equity line item under the general fund one more time so we understand what that means?
>> So equity revenue has to deal with um like land values. not equity as in inclusion equity. So based and it's based on three different I think levels.
Um I don't have it truly memorized, but if we if a school district sees an increase in a voter approved referendum that will lower the equity revenue based on the laws in place.
>> Okay, fair enough. Thank you. >> Any other questions from the board? All right, I'll turn it over if there's public comment or questions. This is the opportunity for the public to come up to the podium. You can come
on up. You'll get three minutes. The timer will be on the board. and questions or comments specifically related to taxation or the levy. >> I'm Lisa Latalo, 9200 92nd Street at Sego. Um, is this levy just for 2026 or
is it does it extend beyond that? Do we know >> 26? >> Okay. And then um I'd like to understand how the school board came um arrived at deciding to double the existing levy. I know you're taking that levy away, but how did you arrive at doubling the
existing levy? >> I'll take a shot at answering your question. I'm Mark Branson, part of the budget committee. We worked with Tina Burkholder, the director of business services, numerous budget meetings, looking at the existing levy that was in place that was due to expire in about a
year that would have not covered all of the existing budget expenses that we had in place to maintain the district as is. So, we were looking at millions of dollars of cuts over the next few years without that uh levy being in place. So,
we knew we needed more money and the goal was to maintain. We didn't want to go to the voters and say, "Hey, we want to add add." Because we knew we were already short at the existing levy in place, which was 2 million and change.
The one thing we decided to do, which was very uncommon in the state of Minnesota, was to decline the opportunity to automatically renew the existing levy that was in place, the 10-year levy that was in place. We could have as a board just voted to say we
want that to continue for 10 more years and we're not going to ask any of you how you feel about that, but we didn't feel good about that because that's not transparent and we think that voters should be allowed to vote on >> I have another question. I also want to
know like where does this levy fall with the limit set by the Minnesota commissioner for operating levies? Like where does this Monaceel School District fall in that range? Do you know >> per the Minnesota operating statute levy
statute >> we're just above the average >> but in relation to the limit that the Minnesota commissioner set where is this levy >> if you don't if you don't know the answer I'd appreciate you getting back to me
>> okay um and then uh so The majority majority of the levy it looks like it's going to the general operating is that school is it classroom education is extracurricular what what is that
is it sports is it uh like I I'd like to understand more >> yeah that's a great question I think as you saw the pie charts that Tina shared in her presentation you can see that some 2/3 plus of our budget goes to
payroll and benefits. And so that's classroom related there. We are we this voter approved operating levy is meant to maintain what we have in place. So it's not going to improve one area
versus another. The one of the options that we were looking at without a without the levy passing was that we were going to have to increase. >> I see my time's up. But I'm just asking you to consider the additional burden it's placing on your taxpayers. We're funding this. Like next year, my taxes
are going up $563 for this levy. It's very unfortunate. >> I wasn't going to stop her even though it kept going. keep asking questions if you want, >> but we do have just a general time
limit, but we there's not even enough people here to hit that. >> So, >> and I'm going to ask one more question. How are you going to determine the benefit to your students with this increased levy? Like, I want to see the output of this. So, how is Monaceel going to measure the benefit that this
levy provides to your students in education? >> So, just a couple things real quick. I'm going to answer a couple questions if that's okay. Your first question was about why is it doubled and so it is >> and how did the board come to >> determining that doubling it was the
right number. >> Right. So we didn't double the what we currently had in place. So but we revoked the current one which brought us to zero. So it looks like the increase. So there was a sheet or a chart that
Tina put up that showed the total increase from what our current operating levy was. So we can go back to that if we can. Gavin, that >> paper I got in the mail said it was going from 750 to 1550 per pupil.
>> Yeah. >> Right. Which is different than your tax. >> I know. But you're But how did you decide to My question is like how did Monaceel decide you need that much per student? >> Right. So you need per student. >> Yep. So like your we I'm sorry you maybe
didn't get all of the information that was sent out to community members on this prior to the vote. But just like your cost of living increases have incurred. Same with the school district. So, we the state hasn't kept up with funding since 2003. We had
a really nice robust presentation done by a third party that came in that's actually available for you online to watch. Um, but hasn't kept up with state of or cost of living increases for funding schools since 2003.
And so all we were looking at doing wasn't to add additional benefits to our students with this increase. It was exactly how much we need as a school district to sustain what we're currently
offering uh offering right now to our students. So and like Mark had explained about 80% of our budget is just salary and benefits. So it would drastically impact the quality of education our
students would be receiving within the classroom. >> Maybe I moved to the wrong district. >> That's how we and if you look at where we're sitting funding wise and this is all available online as well. We are we were losing in terms of how we were
ranked within the state. So you say that but I encourage you to look at other communities surrounding us actually >> how much they pay >> personally and then how much is actually going into the school district compared to ours and we >> I looked at that before I came here
>> we're rated where are we rated in the state I mean we were at 300 and >> I mean we're in the bottom 10% >> bottom 10% in the state and so and even with the levy that doesn't even bring us in the middle of where we're rated in
terms of districts within the entire state. We do have a lot of information on our website if you have time to check that out with a lot of factual information for you. >> I add a little more. >> Mhm. >> And Lisa, thank you for your questions. >> Yeah. Do
Okay. I I just I think it's really important to >> to reiterate the fact that we put this into the voters's hands rather than taking control of it as a board and saying this is this is what we're going to do. We're going to we're going to
reup on that existing levy. And as we know it was very close. Obviously there were some some dissenting views. Um but it was interesting the conversations that we had with the public were related to we know that the state is underfunding
education and I think as a taxpayer if I want to if I want to talk to somebody about why are we paying so much for education I would be talking to the state of Minnesota and we we threw this
back out to the voters as a chance to say a let's preserve a system for our children that we feel like will keep people in Monaceel at as affordable of a rate as possible. And I think it's important to note too that it wasn't an
exact double. The 750 to the 1550 was a little bit more than double. >> And that was to support budgets that were all the way out past 2030. So, we knew we could survive more than the blink of an eye into the future. Had we
re-uped the existing levy in two or three years, we'd be right back here saying we're underwater. So, that was the point was to get us out five or six years. Well, it wouldn't be a truth in taxation if I didn't show up. So, um, glad to be
here tonight. I, uh, be handing out sheets here. Um, I did go through some other stuff and I'll call it statute land stuff because it really is it's on the statutory end. Um, with trying to understand the ballot itself because obviously you guys knew that the ballot
itself did not clarify absolutely what was to be had with the referendum. It can be extended to 20 years. Nobody's argued that here. The fact that it wasn't written on the um ballot itself is obviously deceitful to the voters, right? It it can't get away from that and I know you guys aren't arguing about
that. Um but with that I was looking at the other aspects of the questions that were you know how it was related to that question and I could go into this I did a lot about it and there is really nothing in in state statute against statute land which is not where I normally want to be but I'll do it for
tonight um is to actually ask um the revoke and replace um that you guys did is not actually stated in statute. They have every other combinations, but revoke and replace is not in there, which is kind of concerning because obviously you guys
are getting your language from that statute in order for you guys to do a referendum. So, I would ask where that authority was done from the state in terms of how you got that because it does not show up anywhere. And I've got the whole example for you guys to show.
I've got the whole statute here and it does not show you how you can revoke and replace. So, I'm not sure how the Secretary of State was able to come up with that um particular ballot, but nevertheless, um we went ahead with it and November 4th showed what it was, but it wasn't by much, right? 3% 362 votes.
It's not a lot. So, you've got a lot of people on both sides of this whole argument because there's a lot of things that people are having to be challenged with with with the property tax. Having said that, um I did have a question for you, Tina, in terms of what was reflected, and this is for the people to
understand on their tax statement. Was that as if the the amount that they were showing as the voter approved levy that you guys submitted to the county by September 30th, was that the amount as if the 2015 referendum went for that additional year? >> Yes.
>> So, that's what it was. Okay. So, that that cleared that up a little bit. I was talking to Kyle and trying to figure that out because the only thing that you guys know for sure is that the referendum was going to be revoked, but that has to go with if it failed, right? So, that question on the ballot again,
it would have been nice if it would have been a little bit more easier to understand between the revocation of the all leveies coming in or just this one so that you can do a replacement. getting to the next level. This is the uh the the the question that you guys are um going to have to answer at some
point here at least the the um more than you but most of the public servants is uh yearly property tax private land constitutional right that's a big one and that's again I want to remind you guys when you took the oath being on the school board you swore an oath to the
constitutions not the statutes the constitutions and there's a reason for that you guys unfortunately should be able to know fortunately should know but unfortunately do not know what the constitution is verbatim. So we gave you a copy of the most important section of it which is the article one which has
all 17 sections of the bill of rights which is on the Minnesota constitution side. In that article 1 section 15 talks about a lodial. Um the other pamphlet will go into describing it. But what a lodial means is basically you are the sole ownership of that property and with
that your property is yours and that to have what's called the fetal tenure you'd have lordship over that. That lordship does not exist cannot exist in the state of Minnesota per the constitution. And what's happening is what you've seen in other states, but particularly this one, we define that as
somebody that's um having to have owe a rent. And that's what property taxes are doing for the the people. And that's what's not right and that's what's wrong. So this is just a general education piece of it, but um hopefully there'll be uh more to come on that. Um
like I said, it it is going to hit a lot of people and I I get I get it. You know, you guys may not feel the benefits of this. I would say the benefits, but you guys aren't going to feel much of a change for your budget, but there are definitely a lot of people that will be. And this is one that will take um you
know quite a few families to say is it worth it? And so um I'm here just to educate you on the next level, which is the constitutional aspect of it. And it is more important than our statutory aspect because everything that is um comes from the legislation has to be in
pursuance constitution. Constitution is the highest supreme law of the land. So, I'm hoping you guys are able to uh read that and actually take it in full consideration, not just a thing to shove into the shredder because it's very important that you guys understand why this is going to be challenged now. So,
but I thank you for your time. Um, thank you for answering my question, Tina. And, uh, yeah, there we go. And thanks for not doing the timer. Yeah, that unfortunately that I know you guys did that last year and Kathy was here, but that should not be done. It's not per state statue. This was meant to be an open interchange. And as you can tell,
thank you Mark for asking questions because that takes up any time and that's not what you know you could filler buster the person and that that's not what the um truth and taxation allows for. It is full interaction between those elected officials and the people. So thank you.
>> We did. Thank you. All right. Uh, no action tonight. I'll come back on December 15th for the final levy approval. There's any questions or anything more you want me to highlight, just let me know. Thank you. We appreciate it. All right. Now, we'll
move on to item number C. We get to hear, this is the best part of the evening, we get to hear from our student representatives report. So, help me welcome to the podium Dawson Blake and Natasha Forzy to give us an update. >> Oh, good evening. Dustin and I are here
to just briefly cover we have two topics that we're going to talk on. Um, so I'm going to start by just giving a brief update of the transition that we just had today from trimester 1 into our trimester 2. So as I'm sure you guys
know our school calendar, we had the end of trimester 1 just came last November and then we had a week off and as of today we are now settling into trimester 2. That means a lot of different things for different students. Whether that means a whole new schedule, just a
couple new classes, but regardless, it means new teachers, new classmates, a new schedule for every student in some aspect. We also have in trimester 2, we have as we're getting into winter, as I'm sure
you guys all know. Um, we now that means our winter sports are in full swing. We also this week we have a couple of activities that are going on at our high school. We have on Wednesday, December 3rd, we have our blood drive. And then
this weekend, we have Shrek the musical being put on at the high school on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. So, those are coming up. And then we also did have one sort of event that went on in trimester 1, which was our Veterans Day program, which Dawson is going to
>> Yes. Um, on November 11th, we got to have our Veterans Day program hosted here at the high school. We had our wonderful speaker, Miss Jamie Seban. Uh along with we had our VFW pose or serve as the color guard and then we had both
performances from our Monosel High School choir and our band. Uh Natasha and I were very thankful for the opportunity to MC that program and um genuinely we want to say thank you to the administration for keeping that
something that happens annually every year. Um Natasha and I are thankful for that opportunity to be a part of something that we are actually passionate about and it does mean a lot. Like that's something that my stepmother
remembers and it's it's something that I'm proud of that we have here at our school and I just I thank our administration for keeping that going for years even though there will be students that sit through it and wish it wasn't there. We had a very good uh
attendance that day, but I just I really do think it means a lot more not just to the veterans, but also us that have family that have served or us that really do love our nation. That means a lot to us to have that opportunity. So, thank you.
Um any questions or do we have any questions? >> Well, welcome back right from break. fun way to get started and yeah, it was an honor to speak. So, all of our students were so respectful at the middle school
and the high school and the program was brought tear to eyes, tears to eyes. It was so awesome. So, you two did a fantastic job of MCing. So, good job. >> Well, thank you. >> All right. Now, we'll move on to safe
and healthy culture item number seven. And I will bring back up to the podium director of business services Tina and Burke Holder to go over enrollment projections. Whoopsies. All right. All right. So, normally I do this uh
presentation in November. Uh but with the audit being moved up in November, just made the the flop to have more Tina time in December and have enrollment projections for tonight.
Um so with this enrollment projection, we'll go over some different data points to look at and review this year's enrollment projection and go over next year's enrollment projection. Um this is just a sneak peek at the enrollment projection where we'll end up
at the end of this presentation. Uh so for 2627 looking at 3,898 as our enrollment projection number. Um over the last 10 years we've seen some small increases and decreases with our enrollment. Over the last five years
we've seen a decrease of 158 students or 3.85%. So again, you can see some increases and decreases over the last five years. Our resident population, the students that live within our district boundaries
have similar trends in what's happening. Again, some small increases and decreases during the different years in resident population. It does not include homeschool students. And hopefully next year I can have a graph that shows 10
years of history of homeschool enrollment that's in our boundaries. The next slide has the percent of residents and being served in our district. So you can see a decline where we're just above 80% of our residents
being at Monaceel schools. I also like to look at open enrollment trends within the district. Um, so this is looking at last year's data that the state has uh for school districts. So we have the biggest gains from Big Lake
where we net 164 students last year from Big Lake and we lose the most to St. Michael Albertville where we lost a net of 160 kids. Looking at this information in comparison to the 232 24 school year, we gained less from Big Lake last year
or 2324, we had a net gain of almost 200 students. Um, St. Cloud, we gained more last year was a plus 72 versus a plus 85. Becker, we gained a little less. Uh, we last year or 2324 was 20 plus 29
versus a plus 23. We gained more from Maple Lake. Uh, 2324. we were a net minus 6 and last year we were plus five and we're losing more to Worthington. I'm guessing there's an online school where we're seeing more enrollment loss
to that district. Swan River we lost a little more uh a net minus 84 versus a minus 71. The co-op we're gaining some ground. A lot of that has to do with shifting some programs back to Monaceel. So there are
students um and then I think we lost a little less with the Minnesota transition. So on the side is kind of the charter schools or right tech the co-op um sort of enrollment and then just looking at 10 years of of
how we are doing for open enrollment and we are a net loser. our biggest uh I guess gain or not as big loss was 27 2018 where we netted a minus 143 and last year our overall enrollment loss
was a minus 256. There are a lot of options for students whether it be online homeschool there's just a lot of options that families can choose to do. When we look at our fall versus spring enrollment, we tend to lose students
throughout the year. So last year we lost in all grade grouping categories, but we tend to lose the most in at the high school level. We lost a minus 55 during the year at the high school. And then looking at 10 years, uh we did have
a couple positive years where we gained students throughout the year in 201617 and actually a COVID year of 2021 where we saw a gain. Another piece of information to look at are the single family detach building
permits. Uh so last year 2024 there were 48 building permits and 25 um year to date we're at 35. There's more housing kind of going up on that Walmart end of town. So hopefully we'll continue to see
uh some building activity to help our enrollment. Also like to look at uh the Wright County population. So again, it's not necessarily the city of Monaceel, but Wright County as a whole has been slowly increasing as well throughout the last
year, few years. And then we'll take a look at our enrollment projection for this year. Overall, we were over I estimate overestimated the students by uh 54 students. So, we didn't see as many come
in for kindergarten. Uh, minus 20 in grades one through five and just a handful at the middle school and high school. The next chart just has it broken down by grade, the projection versus what actually happened.
Um, but not too many swings besides the kindergarten. And that's, you know, you never know where kids are are going to show up once they hit kindergarten, if they're going to come here or if they're going to go elsewhere. So, when we look at open enrollment or
enrollment projection data with the Ellers's model, you can look at your October 1st MARS information. You can look at end of year information or district data. With October 1 Mars information, that's just looking at Monaceel students. And because we're a
co-op host, we do have some students at Pinewood and the middle school and high school that kind of flow between Monaceel programs and co-op programs. So, it's best to use district data when you're looking at those two options. End of year data, as you saw, we tend to
lose students throughout the year. So, it's best not to use that information because we want to staff when we're at our fullest, and that tends to be at the start of the school year. And once you kind of know what data you want to use, you look at kindergarten projection methods. You can hold it
constant uh for the different variables. You can look at a four or six year linear progression. You can look at average county births or again district data. I like to look at county births. This is a history of the birth in Wright
County in comparison to the kindergarten enrollment that shows up five years later. Um but you can see the last four years um the right county burst has been have been increasing. So that's a positive sign for enrollment. But
overall we've been losing um ground on right county births and who's actually showing up at our schools. So using a right county birth method there you can use a low, medium, high um
county birth uh projection and I tend to use the middle average county birth rate just looking at how we look in comparison to the kids showing up in kindergarten 5 years later. And then within the projection model
there's a 2 to sevenyear average or a 2 to seven weighted year average. And the next slide has uh four different projections to look at. I chose the three-year, four year, fiveyear, and six year. The five-year is the most aggressive where it has our peak uh year
of where our enrollment was the highest. Um so based on that information, I use that method knowing our births are going up. We're still seeing building activity. um that that might be a a good
solution to use. Uh this enrollment projection includes our online but it does not include our co-op uh our students in our co-op setting for uh classrooms at the workforce or our foundations one at the middle school. So
again this is our enrollment projection where it shows that 3,898 for next year and kind of where we're heading the next five years. And you can see there is still a decline. And the next chart shows a big reason why. The
red bar are the kindergarten history and projection of the kindergarten classes coming in and the gray bars are the cla the senior classes exiting our buildings. So we have large senior classes exiting our buildings and not as
many kindergarteners replacing that class size. So we will see a decline until those start lining up or the kindergarten is exceeding the senior class sizes. When you're another reason why we look at enrollment projections because we
want to make sure we have enough building capacity and since we are on a decline with enrollment we do have enough building capacity to hold our enrollment in the next five years. This is look again looking at the kindergarten projection where you can see that dip and hopefully an increase
as I mentioned with the county bursts increasing on an upward path. Grades one through five, it's kind of dipping a little bit and increasing based on the uh again the bursts and the higher kindergarten classes starting to come through.
Grades six through eight have a little bit of an increase yet with some somewhat larger class sizes coming through, but then still dropping off with those lower kindergarten classes coming in and the high school kind of just leveling off but uh declining as
well as those bigger classes are coming through. Uh this has the enrollment projection by grade. Um, next, you know, after this, I'll work on how does that look between our elementary buildings because we have Pinewood, Little Mountain, and
Naturebase to kind of divvy out how that looks for those buildings. This chart is interesting because it shows where the enrollment changes swings are. So, you can see kindergarten, there's a big change of plus 21 hopefully coming through. And
elementary, there are some decreases coming through. So, we might see some staffing shifts there. Uh, middle school, we'll see some larger changes hopefully with the middle school and, uh, like the Swan River kids coming through there. High school, some
decreases there where we might see some staffing shifts between those two buildings. Oh, I see that number wasn't updated. Supposed to be 3,898 um, is our projection for next year. Oh, and that was my last slide.
Any questions on enrollment projections? Question. Well, I can start with um a question. So, I know we do a questionnaire for students that leave. Do you know do we do a questionnaire on the students that we gain on why they're coming to Monaceel?
I believe we do. >> Interesting to know, you know, if it's some of the work that we've done um with our offerings to students. Any other questions from board?
Thank you. Great. Thanks. All right. Now we'll move on to item B, employee handbook amendments. Like to welcome to the podium director of human resources Rob Danaker. >> Chair Seban, members of the board,
Superintendent Olsen. Um so the first um item I'm up here for tonight is two proposed employee handbook um amendments. Now, typically we do not uh recommend or or bring forward amendments to the employee handbook midyear. Um however, in this case, we have the
Minnesota Paid Family Leave Act um coming online as of January 1st. Um Minnesota Schoolboard Association is recommending that as a part of that process, uh we formalize, um district procedures within the employee handbook.
And so that's why we're bringing uh that language forward tonight. um since we already uh knew we were going to have that on the agenda this evening. Also bringing forward a minor adjustment uh regarding um the section on absences um in the employee handbook as well. And
basically what we're doing there is clarifying that anytime an employee is expecting to be gone more than two consecutive days that they uh do two things. one is they um notify their supervisor um and then also secondly if there's a conversation be had with the
department of human resources regarding any formal leave applications or leave information that they consider doing that as well. And so uh both these would be action items for this evening. Um but I'm open to any questions before that.
>> Any questions from the board? >> This is an action item. Second move by Casey Root, seconded by Melissa Curtis. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Please say no. Motion passes for zero. And we will move right along to first read of policy.
>> Right. Um the uh uh monthly disclaimer. Uh so the policy committee meets once per month um before the first uh board meeting of each month and the committee goes through uh the policies for review and revision uh for the coming meeting. Uh this is the first reading of those
and so we have um you're pretty quick on the trigger. You're on it. Okay. We have six uh coming forward for first read this evening. First of all uh first of those six is 606.5 procedure for selection use and reconsideration of textbook instructional material media and
supplemental supplementary material. Uh the purpose of this policy is to provide direction and to delegate responsibility for selection and reconsideration of academic materials. This is a relatively new policy um across the state and in Monaceel. Um ours is a little bit unique
in terms of uh what other districts in the state have and that's because um our policy 606.5 was used as one of the models that the Minnesota School Board Association developed their uh statewide model on. Um and so this policy um again
just lays out how um curriculum items are selected and then also if there's um pause to reconsider those materials, how that would be um reviewed. Any questions on 606.5? All right. Second policy for this evening is uh policy 611, homeschooling.
The purpose of this policy is to recognize and provide guidelines in accordance with state law for parents who wish to have their children receive education in a home school. Um that is an alternate alternative to an accredited public or private school. Um, as director Burke Holder was saying, we
do have a sizable homeschooling population within our B our school district boundaries and so this is applicable. Um, in uh reference to this policy itself, this policy is coming forward as part of our review cycle for policies. There's no substant substantive changes to uh the policy as
it currently exists. Any questions however on 611? Okay. Third policy for this evening is 901 community education. The purpose of this policy is to convey to employees and to the general public the important role of community education within the
school district. Um there were um there were some minor changes uh in this policy um and that's part of our review cycle. This policy has not been reviewed by the policy committee for some time and so there's some minor changes um that have taken place over time through legislative action and also
recommendation of the Minnesota School Boards Association. Any questions on 901? I show we have policy 612.1 on the agenda. Are we reviewing that? >> Thank you for catching that. Did we go
past one, Gavin? Board member Branson for catching. Uh 612.1. This is development of parent and family engagement uh policies for title one programs. Uh the purpose of this policy is to encourage and facilitate involvement by parents of students participating in title one in the
educational programs and experience of students. Um title uh programs are federally funded programs. Uh those dollars are directed towards uh the district. Um there's four different title uh allocations title one, two, three, and four that we receive dollars
for. And this um this policy lays out again how to uh use those programs to build uh student and family engagement in the school district and our programs. Any questions on 612.1? Okay,
you can go to the next one, Gavin. We did 901. Thank you. Uh fifth on our list tonight is 902. This is the use of school district facilities and equipment. The purpose of this policy is to provide guidelines for the community use of school facilities and equipment. Essentially, it's uh parameters that the
um community education and our activities department use um in terms of uh again public access to facilities and equipment therein. Any questions on 902? Okay. And our final one in this evening is 903 visitors to school district
buildings and sites. The purpose of this policy is to inform the school community and the general public of the position of the school board on visitors to school buildings and other school property. Um pretty straightforward policy. We did uh articulate a little
bit in more detail um a procedure regarding visitors and their obligation to report to um uh the specific site office when they arrive. And then also um we added some uh material in here regarding um how visitors uh that are
law enforcement or other government entities uh shall be received in accordance with state law and district procedures as well. Any questions on 903? Okay. And then just generally, I did not uh articulate this at the top uh but all
these all six of these policies are coming to uh the board this evening and at our next meeting uh as a product of our review cycle. Um this year we're reviewing policies in the 300s, 600s, and 900s. Um and as of this meeting, we've exhausted all of the 300s, uh all
but one of the 600s, and now we're into the 900s. And so little progress check. We're ahead of schedule, and that's a a great thing for our committee. And um again uh for this for meetings like this possibly bring uh lesser policies for the remainder of the school year. >> Awesome. Thank you, Director Daner.
Appreciate it. Uh as always though, um I know we don't have a ton of questions when we're up here and that's because of the hours of work that goes behind the scenes into all of these policies before the first reading uh happens as well as any amendments to the handbooks that we
had robust conversation on. So, thank you to the board members for work on that. And that brings us to the end of the meeting. We are adjourning this meeting today, December 1st at 7:02 p.m. Our next meeting will be December 15th at 6:00 p.m. and we will have an
organizational and regular meeting January 5th at 5:00 p.m. Have a great evening.