e e e e e e e e e e welcome to the February 24th 2025
Independent School District number 152 school board meeting it is time to call this meeting to order at 6m so I'll start with my left Bergen present markart present stephus present Borland present thank you would you please stand for the
Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all preview of agenda Dr lck there are
no changes or additions to the agenda recommend approval item D we have a motion to approve the agenda as presented yes L Le I would approve the agenda as Pres presented motion to approve the agenda as
presented have a second Cass a second I have a motion by Laura Lee seconded by Cassidy move to approve the agenda as presented any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I those oppos same sign the motion carries item e we
are proud this is the time during the meeting we get to recognize outstanding achievements of students staff and community members after the they will accept their certificate and we will take a photo Cassidy would you please read the we are
PRS we are proud of Andrea cook and Molly moan for becoming morehead's first Catalyst engagement coaches at level three to become a catalyst engagement coach each year an individual needs to meet criteria such as being a certified demonstration teacher dedicating at
least point4 FTE to Catalyst support in the district and completing the feedback lab this recogn this recognition recognizes Andrea and Molly's dedication to growth learning and vulnerability in support of both Learners and fellow team
members [Applause] [Music] now moving on to item F public form uh Deb we don't have anybody that want wish to speak for public form that's correct thank you number two consent agenda all
items on the consent agenda are considered to be routine and have been made Avail available to the school board at least two days prior to the meeting the items will be enacted by one resolution there will be no separate discussion of these items unless a school board member so request in which
event that item will be removed from this agenda and considered under separate resolution to the to the extent possible Schoolboard member inquiries on consent agenda items are to be made directly to the District administration prior to the time of the meeting item a
superintendent we have number one the approval of the February 10th 2025 work session meeting minutes and the February 10th 2025 regular Schoolboard meeting minutes Item B under teaching and learning we have number one
Indian Ed advisory committee resolution number two business or under C Business and administrative Services we have number one February claims number two February me medical leave number three return from leave absence number four
change of contract number five resignations number six retirements number seven new employees and number eight affiliation agreement with Minnesota state colleges and universi this is a action item so we have a
motion to approve the consent agenda as presented Cassidy I will second your motion no you so move okay I'll so move thank you I have a second Laura Lee I'll second I have a motion by Cassidy second by
Laura Lee any further discussion on this action item seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I those oppos same sign and the motion carries item three new business we have a major magnitude
field trip request from the Morehead High School concert choir students to Los Angeles Dr Larson Kaylee gross is here tonight to uh talk about the proposal for uh the major magnitude for next school year and the choir
students good evening check check okay thanks everybody um tonight I will be presenting a proposal like mentioned for a choir trip next January in 2026 for students in concert choir and Corral choirs for the upcoming school year this
trip would be taking place at the end of January January 22nd through the 26th and would provide students an opportunity both to perform in in the Los Angeles area but also see some sites well in the area as well um some itinerary highlights for this trip
opportunity include performing at Universal Studios in conjunction with a day spent at the Universal Studios Parks um also working in a clinic with a Collegiate Professor from the area where students who have prepared this tour music will get the chance then to um get
their insights from another professor and bring those ideas back home with them Morhead um in addition to our performances they'll also have the chance to get some sightseeing in including spending some time at the beach in a time that's very different in climate from Morhead at that time of
year um also like I mentioned go to Universal Studios enjoy exploring the Arts in the Los Angeles area as they tour different film studios and see how film and music are paired together for making movies and then attending a Broadway show which gives students a
chance to just see that higher level per performance um from Broadway performers on stage in addition to this great itinerary um all of this gets wrapped up into about just under $2,000 per student for a price point um this may fluctuate
slightly depending on if students are in four-person to a room as well as um any adjustments to the flight pricing which we can get an updated number on that now that we're just under that year out point for this trip um but to help students making this attainable I'm in
conjunction working with the um Team Up events on a fundraiser right now which I know has worked well for some of my colleagues in the past but providing coupon books for both local and National coupons as well as a donation service where um so through that then students
can be fundraising during some of our class times through a fundraising event and still brainstorming some other ideas for maybe another fundraiser later on in the fall to help this be something accessible for the majority of those students but um I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to take students on
this trip and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about the itinerary or parent contact or any of the expenses and things like that any questions from the board how many students approximately will be going on the trip do you know um if I were to guess kind of based on
previous trips somewhere around 40 to 50 is sort of what's expected um it's offered to all students in concert choir and Corral which is about more like 80 or so students but um just depending on who all wants to participate thank you
anything else from the board um this would this be coordinated with other activities like with activities Dean for example for other activities over the weekend because looks like it's during the school days or during the school days so like that weekend would be so nothing else
effective if it's you know a bunch of kids gone for other activities or you know I can't guarantee that I don't think Dean has done any of his scheduling as of yet for next year at least for the winter season I know he's working on the fall oh okay
um I would I would imagine that if he knew that I think he would probably try to do his best not to have any conflict but when you're at the mercy of other schools at the same time it becomes difficult so um to answer your question
I'm honestly not sure but if I had to say he's not uh working on the winter schedule as of yet once that wraps up I think he gets going on that um but I haven't heard in the past when they've taken uh field trips like this that
there have been too many conflicts so I can't say that there wouldn't be uh but I think they try to do their best to eliminate any of those conflicts to the best of our ability anyway sure yeah I know many of them are during the school week or school days but still but be good to coordinate with all activities
but it sounds like good trip so yeah thanks for being here thank you it looks like this is an action item so the suggested resolution is to approve the major magnitude field trip request from where at high school concert choir students to travel to Los
Angeles California on January 22nd through the 26 of 2026 Cassidy so move thank you Dave I'll second okay is there any further discussion on this Bley I just want to say thank you
for being willing to take a bunch of kids to California of course it's a real burden right yeah thank you especially in January right anything else seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I those oppose same sign and that motion
carries good luck with your trip and have fun thank you so much also thank you for coming tonight yes Item B the 2020 5 to 2028 achievement and achievement and integration plan Dr
Larson so every three years uh we get uh we receive uh achievement integration dollars uh from the state and we have to submit a three-year plan um next we are submitting in March our following our next three-year plan uh so it'll run
from 2025 to 2028 um so just kind of review of kind of what the the achievement integration plan is again um the purpose of achievement integration is to close the achievement and opportunity gap for all
students uh that's directed on on why we get this funding um here's to use it in kind of four areas integrated learning environments uh policies curricula and trained instruction kind of that PD around uh Innovative research-based
instruction and differentiated instruction rigorous career and college readiness programs um and then uh trying to adopt policies try to increase the diversity of our our staff in the district so those are kind of the four areas uh for
the achievement integration um there are seven goal areas our plan is focused on the three highlighted uh really the climate instruction and assessment and then family and Community Partnership so uh we are we are kind of sticking with the
plan we've had uh so we're going to submit a new plan but it'll be the uh same goals and structure that we've had in the past so we have seven goal areas that we will focus on uh through the achievement integration to reduce our reading and math uh
outcomes to uh reduce the dis discipline disparity and discipline office referrals uh increase graduation rates of our diverse students each year by 3% um really trying to focus on more family and student learning experiences uh increase engagement of
American Indian families um as part of ani if you have a um indied program as we approved today you have to have a focus and a goal area with that that ties through so that's kind of the resolution you made today that's part of this as well achievement
integration uh professional development and then increase access to qualified diverse teachers so a main role of this you've heard from two of us Andre cook and Molly moan is Pier is kind of a center of what we do at the k6 level through this funding so all of our peer coaches
are funded through the achievement integration dollars um and so the the peer has been working uh they form Partnerships again uh with the classroom teachers we have peer coaches in um five of our k6 buildings again the goal uh
there's short Partnerships it's really there to really help establish those tier one classroom environment consistency again catalyst is our tier one um supports we use for students um help with family engagement and academic achievement so again we pay for all of
our peer coaches out of the achievement and we have uh so that'll continue as we move forward at the secondary level uh 7 through 12 we utilize bar and we pay for our bar coaches out of the achievement
integration and then we also have bar at Hopkins so we got a grant last year uh to expand it to one Elementary so Hopkins is our one Elementary that is also implementing bar they just are wrapping up year one so again bar is a a
process to really wrap around and focus on the whole student uh you have multiple meetings from Team meetings to Big Block meetings to community connects or risk review um and the idea is to really try to have as many times to discuss students and try to provide strategies or solutions to really help
engage them get them focused so again it's it's not really an academic intervention as much as it's really trying to wrap around that kid find the positives and the the strengths that they have so we can try to build on those so again bar is in year uh six 72
uh and Hopkins is just kind of in year year one and a half so again the bar the structure again you cohort teachers teacher box and big block um so you do that through advisoring and they have I times and U
time at the elementary uh it's kind of their curricul um that we use but it's really a strength-based focus um and so again we have three bar coordinators in the district uh that are also funded out of this achievement integration
dollars so goal um we another goal is to really try to expand our opportunities our celebrations through some of programming you know what what prop what um experiences can we provide students uh in that summer that are attending Excel um a big one that we've had is the
annual District showcase that keeps growing every year uh we use uh the achievement integration dollars again to help try to fund that uh whether it's the meals for the students that come the haircuts last year the pictures uh whatever we can uh we kind of use this pot of money to try to provide those
Services for Families so the district showcase is an example of um one of the big summer opportunities that we do for families we also give each school um funding to do their own family nights so that kind of comes from this
between title and AI we make sure every school has money for family events uh again all our title is spent at the K4 levels so 512 we offset those schools with some achievement integration so they can have some family uh increasing engagement of
American Indian families uh we've had many different ECF family nights dance um a big one that we do is the the drum and dance go to all of our elementaries uh during the school year um and do a little show um our our drum group from Horizon has performed at different
groups uh last year at basketball we had an indigenous night uh for some of the basketball so we've trying to do different things uh lunch and learns College field trips um last year we had some students and teachers come to present on the Native American class at
Horizon East that again is funded through this project um and so those teachers are paid uh with these dollars to offer those opportunities so um again it's just a way to try to work to have as many opportunities for kids um we have
a sorry I was looking right here um we have a new writing group this year at the alc uh ujo uh it's an creative writing group for some of our minority students that again is brand new this year that we're trying again to try to just form some of those opportunities for students that's another example of
what's funded out of this program so professional development vment again is a key um we've had kind of three different ways we've done some professional development with this money in the past a cultural centered teacher training um we've contracted uh with a
Jocelyn hubard to come in and do some um cultural centered training with our admin our head principls our peer teachers and this year our El so we've tried to recognize different groups um that we consult with her uh that they have monthly meetings
uh this year we brought in again Ken Williams that's our third time that we've had him in the district uh he did our keynote uh this school year to kick off the year as well as uh spent a day with the 712 staff this year um and a half work session with our admin and
again uh we will do last year was our first year we did an educational Justice summit summit in collaboration with Fargo schools uh that was in June and so we uh paid for 40 of the teachers to go we're going to do that again this year so next this this June will be kind of
year two of that educational Justice Summit and that is in collaboration with Fargo schools and then uh we always have a goal of Recruitment and Retention um some of the things here we are doing again is uh we did start that teacher
prep program so we're trying to grow our own students uh for high school they get college credit at msum uh We've doubled the number of students in that class from last year to this year so we're going to continue to try to recruit and build that that um Dwayne has some programs to help um work
with Future Special Ed teachers um and so we're continue to try to look at ways we can to try to recruit um and also retain our any diverse staff and that's kind of our plan again it it's uh we really we look to adapt with the goals that we've had but we're not really
looking to change anything because uh again pier and bar are the centers of this and we're really excited where we're going with that so we are submitting basically kind of the next three-year plan with the same goals that we've had the previous three
years okay any questions from the board how much funding does the district receive then from uh right about a million a million doll and we're not worried about funding losses on that with the way the state's sitting right
now has not been mentioned and again like they said we just submitted for an threee budget so we anticipate problems for the next three years good it's a good program uh so this is an action item so the suggested resolution is to approve the achievement and integration
overview as presented or Lee I so move thank you Dave I'll second is there any further discussion from the board in regards to this seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I those those
oppose same sign and that motion carries item C the E rate 2025 cat one least dark fiber bid award or Dan I guess okay we're back here to talk about eate uh typically something we do once a
year um and so we'll uh jump through the history of the E program 1996 everybody started paying 75 cents a month on there at that time probably their uh just their home phone or their landline and of course uh that fee is
continued with cell phon so 75 cents a month if you look at your monthly bill it's called the universal access fee and that's what funds internet access and other technology uh items for schools and public libraries it's a program
basically only for education and Public Library so no County no City dollars related to ER forward here in 2014 then they took the original rap program which basically only paid
for internet access to each school but if you were schools like Morehead that had an interconnection between schools it would also pay for that in 24 and it also paid for dial tone because obviously that's where the money was coming from was was phones in
2014 cell phones had taken off and they realized that for businesses like schools and public libraries dial tone could be delivered cheaper via the Internet and so they took away the dial tone option for
reimbursement and because they did that they said we're still going to pay for internet access but now we're going to also do what's called Category 2 equipment and that's to get the internet down to the classroom level so equipment in buildings we get the signal to the buildings now we'll add category two to
pay to get the signal into the classrooms and then again in 2021 um they reup it so they did a fiveyear plan and now we're at the end of our second Five-Year Plan and what
they did is they changed category to funding because the first five years they said we must evenly spend the money and so larger districts like Morhead big a greater number of students at the secondary level we were forced to
spend more money there than at an elementary and if you have a smaller elementary site or uh something like maybe our prek school there wasn't enough money to make an impact to pay for the equipment you need so they took that stipulation away said now schools
can spend it where the greatest need is as long as it's on these items and so at the same time we've stayed relatively uh level with our reimbursement rate so every dollar we
spend we get 60 cents back on the dollar 12 to 18 months later so it's pay for it UPF front file the paperwork get your reimbursement to come back 12 to 18 months later uh at the same time I believe it was
1998 uh Minnesota put in place what is called Telcom Equity Aid and they basically were trying to pay the remainder of the fee so again we're out 40 cents a year and a half later the state of Minnesota
said we want to reimburse that 40 cents and early on most districts were getting that 40 cents but now even though the Telcom Aid has grown right costs have increased and the legislature hasn't necessarily put
enough money in there so we're roughly 71 cents is coming back to us so about 11% of the remaining 40% is coming or 11 cents is coming back to us for every dollar we send spend so we're here tonight to um
present to you category one for approval and again category one internet access to each building so we're not bidding the internet pipe we are bidding the interconnects between the seven sites listed so we've had this same dark fiber
in place since 1998 was one of the first contracts that I awarded when I started in the district was the first fiber Network so we are renewing this expired lease that
actually expired last year um because we basically said it was a failed bid process and so last year we paid the full 24,000 got no 60% reimbursement and now we're coming back to you this year with a rebid and um for
the same exact uh service eate requires us to bid dark fiber which is what we've had as well as what's called lit fiber and they require that because in major Metro areas it is extremely expensive obviously to bury
cable under sidewalks around Subways skyscrapers and so in larger cities you know you can light the fiber and do things on a single Strand and then you're just paying on how much
throughput you need doesn't necessarily work the best out here because um most contractors can get City to put fiber in the ground so we were required to bid both we're recommending
tonight to um move forward with um awarding the contract to Dakota carrier networks they're in North Dakota based company started in bismar they have a Fargo office they run the Statewide Network for the entire state of North Dakota they were a bitter
considered by us last year um but if you recall my presentation to you was that they were routing some of the fiber across the river through Fargo coming back across the river to connect our
southernmost schools and so where we have a good connection with the city of Morehead say Clay County to get notified of when there's road work right away contracts those types of things we don't necessarily have that on the North Dakota side of the river plus that
increased dist meant we would have to buy new equipment because where you could get by with a 10mile link now we had to buy the next version of the fiber optic equipment which goes to 75 miles of
length can't get eate on that connection piece so it would would have been actually cost ineffective to award them the bid so this year when we rebid we put a stipulation in place all fiber must
run in a city of Morehead approved right away so everything all fiber will be in the city of Morehead and approved by the city of Morhead so with that being said um Dakota carrier Network came back they actually lowered their price and um
they're we're recommending that we continue with six strands of fiber which we have to connect those seven remote sites and our cost is $1,925 a month up front and then after e rate it'll be
$770 a month and then again Telcom will be on top of that to lower that cost further I'll be back in a month so March 24th and to award category two or recommend to you category two and that
will be the equipment to finish off phase two of the high school are there any questions go ahead what so what do you guys do for the C Academy I didn't see them on the list for so so that's the other thing with timing right this is an expiring 20year
lease used to be eight sites a the eighth site was the transportation facility way up North which we've now vacated so there's one less facility that was in this bid uh the other site um when we were on previously a
20-year bid now eate only lets us go to 120 20 months that's why this is not bid again at 20 years um we used to run our ALC program kitty corner right back here I forget what the name of the Bella building maybe so we paid a one-time fee
to have more Public Service pull that fiber back and trench it into this facility so that's how we got fiber in this facility so your question was about the Career Academy that was bid separately when that when that building
opened Dakota carrier network has that bid likewise Dorothy dods was bid at the same time we acquired the Vista facility that was bid at a separate time so we have three other contracts that have
varying other uh dates where they'll have to be renewed thank you lle and just to be clear if we do not have dark fiber what happens like if we're like no we're not spending any
moneyy on technology then what ha What's the outcome of that so the fiber is the heartbeat of the technology in the district so it's Internet to the classroom it's the phone in the
classroom it's the all call paging via overhead um Steve Moore can tell you that we need internet to work control HVAC uh we have lights in our newest building that are controlled via
internet type connections so that's why we bid six strands we use two pair send receive we have a redundant pair to send and receive then we always have a spare pair for most of our sites so that if there is a cut we can flop
over a second but we do also use that sixth pair between our high school and Horizon and between the high school here and we do backups across the other pairs in real time during the day so you know
most most people will back up at night and then if you have a problem you potentially have lost 24 hours in data retention because we do a shadow copy we typically will lose at most 20 uh minutes of data because we're shadowing
data back and forth between two other sites so what I'm hearing just to be clear for the public is if we do not have dark fiber then we do not have internet to the building to the classroom correct thank you without
bidding separate connections to each building which would then incur a higher cost correct because we have a five gigabyte connection into the high school that we spider out to our sites through the dark fiber thank you and that is
also a 10year contract anything else from the board that's a lot of information Dan hey Dan one question universal access fee that was um was that involved in a lawsuit at the
federal level yes and I I think it was over time okay um but it's stayed I guess I don't know the history of it dismissed or whatever what I guess what I'll talk
more about next month is this is year 10 the second five-year renewal where they awarded Cat 2 so Cat 2 is expiring after this year they have not announced another round of
category two funding but category one is written into legislation where that will continue so there's no chance we lose this funding through the length of our 10-year contract they could cut it off in year five they still have are
obligated to hold that funding for the next five years now when I come to you with category two yes we'll be in reimbursed for whatever you approved but there's no guarantee those dollars will come for a renewal right and again that's the
equipment in each building that that's the equipment that turns over every seven to eight years in every school so we hope they give us another fiveyear cycle or our costs will go up as an organization
so cool I'll make the motion how's that so I move to uh award the 2025 cat one least dark fiber bid to Dakota carrier network of Fargo for six strands of least dark fiber connecting seven remote
School sites at Morehead high schools for a term of 120 months at the cost of 1 925 per month as presented thank you Cassidy a second thank you have a motion by Laur
Lee second by Cassidy move to award the 205 cat one lease dark fiber bid to Dakota carrier network of Fargo for six strands of leas dark fiber connecting seven remote School sites to Morehead high schools for a term of 120 months at
a cost of $1,925 per month as presented any further discussion see none all those in favor signify by saying I I those oppose same sign that motion carries item D
resolution accepting donations Dr damer thank you tonight I present the following donations um de dewitz instruments a value of $1,100 to Horizon Middle School music department Deb Jones school supplies $100 Horizon
West Middle School students Rebecca thebert a monetary donation for $4,000 for homeless Services Bell State Bank and Trust a monetary donation for $300 for homeless services and Holland Group LLC a monetary donation of $454 for Ellen Hopkins Elementary
students thank you lle I move to accept the donations presented and direct the administration to send a thank you letter Cassidy second a motion by Lord Lee second to M Cassidy move to accept the donations present presented at and
directed direct Administration to send a thank you at her any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I those opposed same sign and that motion carries item four superintendant updates
okay regarding the March 10th Masa msba day Capital just continue to check your emails Deb will continue forwarding you information as it becomes available from msba uh um I believe there is a um a video that's coming out that uh
they encourage you to watch uh before kind of a before you go um presentation I believe that should be coming out here within the next uh next couple days by the end of the week at the latest so just be on the lookout for that and
she'll get those to you if it hasn't dropped in your inbox from msba already and uh that's the update that I've got and I think that video came out already it did okay okay anything else from the board item five adjournment the
suggested resolution is to adjourn this meeting on February 24th 2025 at 6:37 p.m. Dave so moved thank you Cassidy second any further discussion on that
seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I those po him sign this meeting is adjourned thank you