Welcome to the September 8th, 2025 independent school district number one number 152 schoolboard meeting. It is at 6 p.m. I'm calling this meeting to order and I'll start on my please. Vin present. Bergen present. Mark present.
Steph present. Burgard present. Bjorkland present. Vote present. Thank you. No. Item B, we'll 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. Item C, preview of agenda. Dr. Lunik. Uh there are no changes or additions. I recommend approval. Melissa,
I move to approve the agenda as presented. Cassidy, I'll second. I have a motion by Melissa, seconded by Cassidy. Move to approve the agenda as presented. Any further discord? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. That motion
carries. Item E, public form. Public forum will be open for anybody up to 30 minutes for the public comment on a agenda item. Individuals who wish to speak during a public forum have to submit a written request by 1 p.m. on
the day of the meeting. The school board chair will call speakers to the microphone and recognize one speaker at a time. Each speaker can speak for up to three minutes. The public form will not be recorded or live streamed. Deb, do we have any requests? No, we do not. Thank you.
Item two, consent agenda. All items under the consent agenda are considered to be routine and have been made available to the school board at least two days prior to the meeting. The items will be act been be enacted by one resolution. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a
school or so requests in which event that that item will be removed from this agenda and considered under separate resolution. 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, we have superintendent number one, approval of the August 18, 2025 schoolboard meeting minutes. Item B under business and administrative services we have number one medical leave number two leave of
absence number three change of contract number four resignations number five new employees number six additional staffing requests item C under operations and emergency management we have number one rink
operations agreement Keith move to approve the consent ent agenda as presented. Laura Lee, I second. I have a motion by Keith, second by Laura Lee. Move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Any further discussion from the board?
Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. And that motion carries. Item three, we have new business under a. We have opening day enrollment 2025 to 2026. Dr. Damer.
Thank you. Um we'll do a brief presentation tonight of uh our opening enrollment for September 2nd, 2025. And then um I'll also give a brief update based on today's numbers as well. Um which isn't in the presentation, but I'll just give
by numbers. So this was our opening enrollment for September 2nd, 2025. Um and so if you look um at both sections, kind of the leg yellow is 2526. So that's this year's numbers um at each grade level.
Um on the far on the far side, your opening enrollment uh in the light yellow would be by building and then uh the previous year in um in kind of the orange color. So um our opening enrollment for September 2nd, 2025 was
7378. And you can see that is lower than last year. But also I want to note um a slight increase from where we projected. Um so that that's important information as well. So when we look at this um our highlights um our difference from 24 to
25 to 2526 um we started with 88 less students but we increased um by 129 from the last day number in 2425. So when we look at um our final numbers at the end of the school year um we would have had
an increase of 129 students. Our largest class sizes are 12th grade um at 613 students and third grade at 612 students. Um the 10th grade has historically been one of our higher numbers. They have dropped below um 600. So that that grade level has gotten uh
slightly smaller. Our smallest class sizes are kindergarten um at 512 and we have seen a couple more of course in the last week or so but um as of the starting opening enrollment. And so this just shows our opening enrollment uh 7378. Our November of last
year projections were 7374. So we had a slight increase. And again, we have seen um a few more students added to that since last week. Um but that's just to give a comparison of where we were last year um our November projections and where we opened this year.
And so um when we address kindergarten enrollment, we watch uh we watch enrollment numbers all throughout the summer. I would say um especially in the last few years in August, we've been doing some shuffling. Generally um if you have a if you have high
numbers in first grade and you transfer them to second grade, then you might shift some teachers into second grade to offset that. So we continued to watch the numbers and did make some shifts um at the beginning to I would say slightly mid August um with a resignation and
then we um which we didn't backfill. we just shifted um a class size into there due to to um lower than average class sizes and then in a couple buildings we shifted to SGR which continues to see some increased numbers. Um so just know
that we do that throughout the summer. Sometimes it's as easy as July saying, "Hey, those numbers are are really over. We're going to start doing some shifting." And in this case, um, we got an influx of students, um, one weekend, um, specifically to kindergarten and SGR that we had to make some adjustments.
So, um, that happens throughout the summer, but a real real focus on July and into August. So, we make sure, um, that class sizes are balanced, um, and that they're not too heavy. And kindergarten, uh, kindergarten and I believe it was second grade at SGR were on the heavy side. So, we did some
shifts there. Um so grades uh K through 12. Um again our enrollment at the end of June was 7209 and we opened with 7378. Uh this is a document we track um monthly throughout the entirety of the year.
Um K4 we did see um a drop from 2837 to 2761. Again that can be as class sizes uh move through as well. So, um a a higher number in fourth grade moving up to fifth grade. Um you see may see some of those shifts and again we have a
lower sizing in in class lower grade level um number of students in kindergarten this year. um grades 5 through 8, so 2166. And as you can see, we have an increase there of 2267 and then grades 9 through 12, um 2206 we
ended with and 2350 um we started uh the year with and so we started again slightly higher last year. Um but as we see um as I'll note at the end um again what we increased we also watch this throughout the year and it's not it's not abnormal to decrease students
especially as we look at um our 15-day drops. So if someone hasn't shown up for those 15 days and we aren't aware that they aren't coming back. That's at the point that some of these numbers um cleaned up as well and those numbers will continue to come in October and November and you'll see what those look like.
Um, Robert Asp uh started on the lower side with 552 students, Dorothy Dods 594, Ellen Hopkins at 591, and as you can see, SGR um 732. Uh Propesfield's always generally going
to stay steady. um we don't um it's it we have three CLA we have three great class sizes in kindergarten and so as those go through generally you see between um no more than 300 students in this program so that's not one that's going to go up generally because we haven't been adding classes to
kindergarten we fit to 72 um and I would say this year some years that 72 fills right away some summers we're working through it for the entirety of the summer and that that is a little how this summer looked so we kind of hovered around 68 most of the summer. And how
that looks is um more head students and siblings of students in the program um get access to that program and then we look at individuals from other areas like Fargo, West Fargo who may be looking at tuition um to come to those programs. So generally though kindergarten is at
uh 72 which is our max for those three those three kindergarten classes. Um the high school alone started at 21.88. 88 and then if we look at alternative education uh that started at 166. So
this number in particular can be quite fluid. Um as you can see 2425 we stayed relatively steady um until that last ending date of June. Um but those numbers have they'll remain steady um even though there's some fluidity to
them. And then online academy and this one is hard to track. Um, we have had it, it's not hard to track in that we have the numbers, but we have had different versions of this throughout the years as we've had different enrollments and online programs. We had a brief break and then started last year um with our
partnership and then this year on our own. So, we started that program with 28 students and Jeremy says we're up to 45 now. I'm not sure all of those are enrol are in my the enrollment though. They're in the process
which is a good thing. So just to give an update for today. So when we looked at our enrollment numbers, we get an enrollment spreadsheet um every morning telling us how many people or how many new kids we have or how many exiting kids we have um by building and grade level. And um our
largest class uh continues to be 12th grade and they are currently at 625. Third grade is 613 and our kindergarten is 517. And then um 73.99 is what we're at today. So, um, we did add about 20 more
students and maybe more according to Dr. Larson who says we have some waiting to get in on online. That might be a but it might be a shift. Yeah. Any questions? Keith has a question. Yeah. On the I I don't know Dan if you want to
go back to the first slide. Um, the biggest jump seemed to be from junior to senior year this year. Um, do we have any insight? Is that typical of a class or is that do we have any intel on why that it's not typical but there is a heavy 12th grade class in alternative
education? Okay. So um at the high school that might I believe it looks like uh high five80s maybe but then when you transition some of the um alternative education um
programs. That's true. Remember we we kind of talked about the graduation rate last year. We had a higher continuing group. Those kids stay as seniors. So kids that maybe didn't graduate last year and have some credits to finish up, they're listed as seniors
again this year. Okay. So we had we had a higher continuing group which will be reflected in our seven-year graduation rate, but some of that is that senior class this year. Okay. Thank you, Lauri. Dan, if you could go forward to
where we're talking about No, still forward. Talking about beginning and end of year for high school enrollment. Yep, that Yep, that one. So, I'm seeing about about 190 kids missing from opening enrollment. I mean,
I guess if we look at October is probably being more honest number. Yeah. Uh then we're looking at probably at least 170 kids. I'm just wondering if we know where they're going. It's just it's such a
decline. I I saw about 20 kids that could have been moved over into online, but that's only 20 of maybe 170. Yeah, we'd have to I I think we'd have
to look more specifically to get you more specific data, but in reality, we um we have very fluid enrollment. So, in reality, 100 kids, maybe more than 100 kids because we've got a lot of kids coming in and a lot of kids going out.
Um I I don't know that we could speak to where those kids are going without looking at it in more in detail, but it's pretty it's pretty standard from year to year that we lose some of those kids. In some years where we had low where we reduced the credits required to graduate, some of those kids graduated
in January, for example, so then you saw okay you saw those numbers going down. I can't speak uh that could have happened last year um as we continue to work on increasing those credits but um sometime that was the case in the last couple of years that that could be part of it.
I just had like graduate in January. Oh wow. So, and that that was due to the fact that we were at 21 like Kristen said, but that number was extremely high and not normal uh compared to the past um when we were
at the 26 26 credit. What's that? Your mic on? Yeah, but I'm not standing over it. So, um so yeah, Kristen's right. Uh it was some of that will be the early graduation. Um, and I think the highest
it's been since CO was around that 55 mark in January. So, it was when we first saw that coming out of CO, we were we were surprised. We didn't anticipate that. And then now it's now that we've seen it once, I don't think it surprises us, but
that should Wayne. Yeah, I would think so. Matt has Matt has a question. How many district students do we know are enrolled in other districts and how many in privatemies?
Um, some of that information will come in November. Um, so I don't know. I I I don't have the numbers in privatemies off the top of my head. It tends to be around a couple hundred and our outward enrollment um is higher than you'd
think, but I' I'd rather get that number for you than speak to it without having it exactly. Okay. Yeah. Anybody else? If uh SG keeps up with their 700 enrollment or we're going to have to
look at doing some boundary changes or any thoughts on that. Yeah, we talked about that this morning. Um, and I think we got to, if we do that, we got to proceed
cautiously cuz people, um, people appreciate stability in their home school. Y um, so I want to tread lightly on that, but that uh either you were sitting in the meeting this morning or you're you must have heard what we were saying because that was exactly what we talked
about today. I was just looking at the number and that's Oh, I it it's so yeah, you're you're you're spot on though. But that's one of those things where everybody's not as comfortable, especially the younger they are uh switching uh
boundaries and so I want to be careful with that. But that was a topic of conversation this morning. Yes. Thank you. Anything else? Thank you for for the presentation tonight. And uh we're move on to item B,
property tax levy adoption calendar. Dr. Damer, looks like it's your night, I guess. So, um the school board must certify the proposed property tax levy by September 30th, 2025. Um that will be presented on
this at the September 22nd, 2025 school board meeting. And the administration will recommend the following timeline for a property levy adoption. Certifying the proposed levy on that September 22nd, 2025 meeting and the final levy approval at 6:00 um on Monday, December
15th, 2025, at which case we will also do the truth and taxation hearing which um can coincide with that final levy of adoption. Thank you. Yeah. Move to approve the property tax levy
adoption calendar as presented. Dave, I'll second. I have a motion by Matt, seconded by Dave. Move to approve the property tax levy adoption calendar as presented. Any further discussion from seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I.
I. I. Those opposed, same sign. And that motion carries. Item C, major magnitude field trip, civil leadership students to Washington DC. Dr. Larson, thank you. Um Chad Olsen uh has a
Delaware city council meeting, so he's not able to be here to present. Uh so I said I would take that. Um civic leadership um is a course. We are in year two in that course. Um this began in the 2324 school year. We had a handful of kids that we actually bust to
Fargo South for junior ROC. Um we then looked at the following year it grew to about 30 40 kids and we thought hey let's let's see if we can do this ourselves um just because number one financially it it was cheaper than busing them over there and paying the tuition um and we
had some interest in our own staff and so we are in the process of becoming um certified junior ROC. Uh while we're doing that, we're currently calling it civic leadership. So again, this is in year two. Uh we now have about 40
students that are in civic leadership. U so we have a civic leadership one and a civic leadership 2. Um and as part of that course, uh Mr. Olsen would love to do a Washington DC major magnitude trip in the spring. So, uh, the plan is if
it's approved tonight, uh, he's going to work with EF Educational Tours, uh, get a parent meeting on the books, um, ASAP to start looking at the planning on that. Um, the cost is approximately just a little bit under $2,400.
Um, he's going to reach out to various veteran organizations to see if there's any sponsorship. And then after that happens then with the parent meeting um he would look at any other fundraising or what needs might happen. So uh there are currently 38 students that would be
a part of this trip and the plan would be uh May 2026. Thank you. Any questions from the board? Keith, is this only for the students enrolled in the program? Yep. Just for the civic leadership students. Yes.
Thank you. Lor Lee, I'll move to approve. Okay, Dave. I'll second. Have a motion by Laur Lee, seconded by Dave. Move to approve the major magnitude field trip request for Morehead High School civil leadership
students to Washington DC. Any further disc board? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. That motion carries. Item D, Levy referendum communication campaign. Brenda.
Good evening, everybody. I'll be walking you tonight through our communication plan for the 2025 levy referendum. Get the slideshow up here. So, our our central communication goal really is to inform and engage community voters and to encourage voter
participation to successfully pass the levy campaign. And that really means giving people clear and consistent and accessible information about what's being asked and why it matters to our community. So, we're structuring um our cam
communication around several key elements. And this is is really just the um steps of of telling telling the story. We're highlighting the importance of our schools. Uh clearly explaining our challenges, uh the process that we followed and the plan being presented.
We'll outline the benefits and then the tax impact and what happens if no action is taken. And finally, we'll make sure that people know where and when to vote and where to get more information. To keep our messaging credible, we're
really committed to being transparent, accurate, consistent, timely, and accessessful. These are the standards that'll guide all of the communications that we do. Um, so this is our campaign theme and graphic, which you'll see repeated
across all of the platforms. On the left is the uh graphic from last year's levy. And um, then we're just we're using that and tweaking it a bit. um just simplifying and updating a little bit. And the uh reasoning behind that was um
really to um build on the uh messaging and momentum that was started last year and to maintain consistency across um the um different platforms that hopefully that will really build the
recognition and the trust that we need. So, we've worked to align our communication timing and tactics with key community moments leading up to November. Um, every channel plays a role in reinforcing the message. Um, we've got a lot of different um channels. It's
really a multi- um channel communication plan. We'll use um the website. We've we'll talk about that in a little bit. Um social media, face-toface meetings, direct mail, email, signage, video, and media outreach. By layering these
different channels, we really um hope to reach uh voters in multiple different ways. Um as you know from any marketing that people have to hear something five times before they even realize that they've heard it. So we're really hoping that the layering um effect will help
the messaging to stick. So first off, our website um our referendum website, we've got a the same vanity URL that we had last year, which is vote152.org or and this is really the central hub for all information where
community um members can can get um details and answers to questions. Um there's an FAQ that we are continually updating as we um are doing meetings and hearing what people are wondering about so that we can kind of stay ahead of that. There's also a a connection um tab
that you'll see up on the top right and that's a place where um people can ask a question or give us their comments or or um anything and then um my team is committed to responding back to those in a timely manner. There's a QR code there
um so that people can go directly to the website. all of our print advertising. We're adding that QR code as well as electronic monitors around the schools and so forth so that um people can um access it mobiley very quickly.
Um from a social media perspective, um we'll post three times a week around different weekly themes. Uh this regular rhythm builds awareness and really keeps the campaign top of mind. Um we're prioritizing um in-person engagement. Um, we're doing staff
meetings at every school. We think it's vital that our our staff um hears whether they live in Morehead or not that they have a basic understanding because when when people have questions about it, um it's natural to ask somebody who works at the schools. Um
we're doing uh PTAC meetings at every building. Um we're hosting a multicultural session for EL and AB families um that we have scheduled um and uh as well as as many community groups. So these conversations allow for
two-way dialogue which I I really feel like is huge in in trust building and and in um you know really being that relational um presence that we want to be in the community. We've got a direct mailer that's going
out as well. This is a legally required um mailer. It was set to be mailed September 22nd. Um that's the design there that you can see. There's a lot of pieces that are are um required um legally to be on there. So there um
there as well. Um but we we have a a section with the QR code and a place where where people can directing people to um the website where there's a whole lot more information. Um we um from a signage perspective um
that's that will play a strong role and is playing a strong role in our campaign as well. Um we use our internal monitors. Every single school has monitors uh in many different locations. So that's that's good for staff as well as the public that's coming in and out of our of our schools. Um external
school signage banners um and the video board at um MHS athletic events. So that visibility um really really matters. We've already seen substantial media coverage um from the forum WDAWY, KFGO,
Valley News Live and others. Um articles really help raise the awareness and set the stage um for our direct communication. Um you'll note in the bottom left there um the Star Tribune article that shines a positive light on our referendum with ties to our athletic
programming. So that was that was a really great um article as well. more to come there. So really as we think about um communicating for a referendum, I want to clearly differentiate that there's two types of communication that happens.
It's important to distinguish those two because the district is responsible for the left hand side, the information um using public dollars to share um factual content and engage our re um residents.
However, we can't advocate or ask uh residents to vote in a certain way. And so that's that's really um where student uh citizen le um privately funded and
focused on voter turnout comes in. And um last year that that really was a gap um for us. We had the wonderful people at the the Legacy Foundation that kind of stepped in and did what they could, but we didn't um really have um a
citizen voice. So, we're excited. Oops, wrong one. Um about some things that are happening this year. in order for someone to be willing to do that advocacy or be that that voice um of like, hey, I believe
that um they really need to be a supporter of the district. And so um we believe that our our um supporters believe in the district's leadership. They trust that decisions are made in the best interests of the residents um and that tax dollars are used widely and and that citizens have been engaged in
the process of that. They value access to clear information and want to know what their friends and neighbors think. Um these beliefs guide how we shape um our messaging. And um as we think of those supporters
um we had several people come forward right after the last election and say hey I can't believe this didn't pass. I'm really disappointed. What what will it take to to um bring it across the the finish line? And so, um, here's a list
of the leadership team of of, um, uh, citizen advocacy group that is is, uh, working with us. Um, they're also partnering with Education Morehead and Education Minnesota, um, to plan some,
um, pretty cool advocacy efforts. So, finally, board involvement is vital. Each one of you has a huge role um in this and um can help share um district messaging or yes committee posts on your personal accounts or by making your own.
Um I encourage each of you to to just ask yourself, hey, how how can we be involved? Um what have I done this week to bring the refer referendum message um to a new audience? And as a leadership team, we're doing every every Monday we uh say, "Hey, what are you hearing? um
what what meetings do we have coming up this week? I think we've got what eight or nine different meetings um this week, you know, specifically around the the referendum. And we're just really committed to um ensuring that we can communicate it as as um extensively um
as we can. What questions do you have around referendum communication? Go ahead, Keith. Um, couple questions. First, um, I'm super excited to see the YES committee coming back. I thank the volunteers and
the folks that are leading that because that's, I think, uh, paramount to getting the word out there as well. Um, and then just a couple questions on some of the things you presented that one, the subscription or the the links that you have like the Star Tribune. I know sometimes they require a subscription to
read. Have those been vetted or are those on publicly facing sites so anybody can go in and click the link and actually read it or are they behind a payw wall or something? So it depends on the different media challenge like we we don't have control over how they you know post their
information. So I just include the you know the links that to their information. Some outlets allow anybody in you know some doesn't. But I just wanted to wanted you guys to see you know we we track all of the media we get throughout the year. I just wanted you you guys to see that, you know, in the short
beginning part of our um campaign, we already have gotten quite a bit of coverage. Yeah. I And I think the the links to the article is great. I just fear that some people might get frustrated if they can't actually read the article behind. So, yeah, I mean, unfortunately, it's copyrighted, so there's, you know, not a
lot we can do if if they don't open that up to the public. It's not something that we can um maybe we could put that behind the link or something or so people don't expect to read it and they can't. Sure. Um the second thing now when they
when they provide feedback there's that connect button up there. Um and there's a FAQ section. Would it be possible or or beneficial like when people re respond to that connect button to make to add like an ongoing FAQ?
Because if if I ask a question and then Cassidy asks a question and they submit it and then Scott submits a question and you're responding to the same thing three different times, could we kind of have a ongoing FAQ or something? Good point. And that's exactly what we're doing with updating that FAQ. So
what we're what we're doing is listening for themes in the questions, right? And so um as we meet on Monday mornings and say, you know, what's the word on the street is kind of how we start that meeting like what are you hearing? And then um in the the um presentations that
we do that week, then we um um each person that's presenting will say, "Hey, here were the five questions that I got." And we look for themes in those. And anything that that gets asked the number of times, then we add into that FAQ for that for that purpose. And a lot of those come from the um you know that
comment button as you're as you're talking about. Some of them come from the the face-to-face um um discussions in our presentations. And some of those honestly come from uh visiting with neighbors. Um you know when we're hearing the same question um multiple
times that we know that you know that that that's something that we really need to address and get out there. And so then I add that to the FAQs and oftentimes if it's if it's you know maybe a hotter topic that there might be a social post um on that as well. So yep we're constantly monitoring those to to
find those themes. Perfect. Thank you. And then last question, um I know the there's some listening sessions that are already planned and some community groups are included. Um is that published or how would we because if if somebody asked me if there's a listening session, can I
point them to something on the site saying these are the upcoming meetings or something? Yeah. So we don't necessarily So last year we tried to do that and we got abysmal attendance. Um and so we don't we haven't really um said like here's
open listening sessions. I think if there was if if you're getting question you know getting that asked a lot certainly um um you know refer it to us and we certainly can hold um something if if there's a need there. When we
tried last time nobody showed up. So, um, you know, a lot of the things that we are doing are, you know, PTAs. If they're parents, they're welcome to come, you know, to their students PTAC. So, you know, if you're hearing that, you know, shoot it to me and I can
probably find um a group that would would fit with their interests or who they are. Um yeah, I know they could one of the social media posts I had said they were like looking for something like a listening session and um you know I if it's out there at least we can
point them to that. Um, I I realize attendance. It's great to put something out there, but it's frustrating to have low or no attendance, but I think we need to at least get something out there um cadence-wise or scheduled wise that
we could at least say, well, there's a meeting the third weekend of October or the second weekend of third well, third weekend of September, whatever. But Sure. Um, I I just think that would be beneficial and hopefully there would be better attendance, but at least they would have the option then. Sure.
That's it for me. Thank you. I think you brought up a really good point because I think people might reach out to us regarding the PTAC meetings and if there's um information sessions during those be helpful for us to know because if somebody asks us we might they might be involved with that school and can hear it there. So I kind of
that's a great point and I would love to have the information just for a specific one that I might interact with um as the rest of us probably have one that we interact with more specifically than others. So yeah, thanks Dave, yeah, I was thinking the same
thing. Is there a way to get like a list emailed to us each week like the Friday to say what's coming up in the week ahead? So if we want to attend or somebody else, are they open most of like the eight or nine you have this week, are they open to the public or is it just a So some of them are staff ones. Um so
you know, as a school board, you'd be um welcome to that. the general public wouldn't, you know, um because they'd be during staff. But then staff, PTAC, this week I think we've got Rotary. Um what else was on this one? Um so it's it's
clubs, PTAs, um staff is the the main main ones. Um we we certainly can um can share those out with with you guys so you know what's what's coming up. Yeah, I think the clubs in particular, having those posted on the site, kind of a one-stop shop would be beneficial.
Yeah. And my other question is the the three a week emails or social media posts, is that starting soon or I haven't seen anything coming across yet. So, I'm just curious. It it is coming up.
Yep, it has already started. Yep. We're doing we did one a week for the first until September hit and now we're doing three a week. Okay. And that's like all social media and then email also. All all social media right now. Okay. Yeah. So from an email perspective um
for staff um there we're we're doing the the Spud Hub. Um we we will start um as you'll probably remember last um year um from our campaign we did a latest on the levy on Friday afternoons we that we um
pushed out to all families and we'll we'll be starting that as well with this campaign. Thank you. Oh good. Anybody else? One quick question for me actually too. the mailing that goes out on September
22nd, is that a date that we have to have it out by or do we have to can we wait till closer to the vote? Yeah, great question. So, um the um there is a a window that we have to hit and it's September 20th and through
October 20th. And the reason we went at the early um end of that, Scott, is that early voting starts September 19th. Okay. And so we really wanted to highlight that early voting um happens at the district office which is really
convenient um for us and for our publics because anybody who's here for a meeting can just stop and vote. Anybody um who is driving by um can stop and vote. And so we really want to move towards that upper um part because it announces that
as well as the the polling um places for November 4th. So that's that's why we chose um that date. It's not set in stone. I mean, if if if you felt strongly that it needed to be a different day, we we certainly could discuss that. Nope. That's a great answer. I I just
didn't realize that that's when open. Scott on um September 19th. Yep. Almost 700 absentee ballots will be going out to the district. Thank you. Instead of permanent absentes. That sounds like a great date then to
get that out there. Um my last question is just will we be having something at homecoming for people that could stop by and and talk? Yeah. So the yes committee is um doing um they've got a list of of home games
in different sports through through the fall. Um as well as I believe they're doing the homecoming parade. Um they've got a whole list of of things. I think they're doing a a trickor treat kind of uh thingy and they they've got a lot of of um exciting things planned from what
I understand. That's great. That's I was hoping we'd have some stuff like that going up. Go ahead, Keith. Is that September 19th date on the website that they could because coming here I think is a a good benefit for people just to get it done and not have
to wait until they're maybe out of town or committed or forget about it or whatever. That date was posted uh published in the extra. Okay. It's already been published. Is it on our vote 152? It's both on the vote 152 and on our
normal website, too. So, we're trying to get that out in as many places as possible. Cassidy, um thank you for your work in this. This has been hard work. Um your the website looks nice. I appreciate all the um time that you guys have put into this. Um,
and then I also just want to shout out to our yes committee. I know a lot of those individuals and they've been working hard to um get that going and their partnership with Education Minnesota is um nice to see as well. So, thank you to all those people that are
making this this hard job and educating all the people. Okay. Yes. Thank you, Cassidy. That was a very good comment. We need to say that to our yes committee and our education Morehead and everybody else that is working hard
for this to pass. Thank you for the presentation and we'll move on to item E, submission of legislative resolution to MSBA. Dr. Lunick. Okay. part of uh the MSBA process is um
if you want to uh get on their legislative platform, you need to submit uh your proposal to them before the end of September. And uh I know that this is a little but it's very similar to what we did last year in terms of um uh
following that process and the rationale uh why. And so tonight, just to take you through again the funding flexibility and in our district, uh, we're really focusing on our ability to, um, move
LTFM excess dollars, and I don't want to call them excess dollars, but they're dollars that after we achieve the mission of LTFM in terms of what what is an allowable expense, uh, we have dollars that are left over. So, uh, one
of the things that, uh, I would take you through is if you would look on page 96, you would get an idea of how many dollars have the potential uh, to be expended uh, above and beyond what uh,
what we currently have. And so, if you're on page 96, uh, Dan, could you turn it to 96, please? We don't have it. No, he has to. But they have it in their packet, don't they? Have full packets. Oh, I gotcha. So, here's the um
very similar to what you saw last year. Uh but what I want um us to pay attention to is that our mission here would not be to make any transfers till we're sitting in December
of like would be this fiscal year. So we would have already gone through um the previous fiscal year. Our um transfers would be announced at the same time we would be um shown the audit. So, we
would make my vision would be that we would make the transfer resolution prior to the audit being accepted. And to ensure that each fund that you're looking at here is allowed to carry out
their mission, you'll notice we've set um a minimum fund balance. So, like for instance, uh an $800,000 fund balance is where we're going to leave LTFM and fund two and fund four will not be
affected if they can't meet their minimum fund balance. So, when you look at year four, so fiscal year 29, you'll see that there is no dollars being transferred from funds two and funds four, that's to ensure that they stay at
a particular level. And if we dip below that, we would not be allowed to transfer those funds. So that's how we would honor and make sure that each of those funds are still respected to carry out their mission. But you'll notice uh
like in fiscal year 27, uh you'll see the orange under the LTFM line. So if you could just put the arrow on that 910,000, that would be the dollars that would be eligible for transfer. and what we would do with those
transfers um would be dependent upon what our need is in the district. So some of the things that have been talked about would be uh the potential to improve uh school
safety and security. Um, if you know, Steve has a report coming back here from the Zeal Education Group that he briefed you on in August and depending on what that report would yield, we might try to accomplish some of those things here.
Now, a couple things. um going that route to accomplish school safety and security is is good for us, but I'm not sure if that is good statewide because there are other districts that don't have the ability to transfer
um LTFM funds. So, what I might continue to advocate for with our area legislators is that any school safety project that is over $100,000 qualifies under the health and safety provision,
very similar to them adding roofs last year uh as part of statute. Uh, I know there's area superintendent that want to see HVAC systems added as a health and safety um, initiative. And the only
reason I say the health and safety as an add over the 100,000 is that it doesn't affect what your regular allotment is uh, annually under LTFM. It's a board decision to make that investment if it's above $100,000.
So probably try to push it on both fronts to try to see uh what we can generate in terms of interest to promote flexibility. So tonight we're asking you to support the resolution that would come from the
Morhead Area Public Schools to get potentially on MSBA's legislative platform. And you'll notice in our 4-year window here our ability to transfer some dollars. These are real dollars. I mean, you're almost pushing a
million dollars a year of LTFM. And I again, I can't emphasize that we're fortunate here to have that. There aren't other districts that have that because they have bonded against their aotment, which then would decrease the
amount that they would have uh the ability to transfer because they have to pay the bond payment first for an for a repair that they've already done. That's why I think it's important that we look at the health and safety mechanism,
which is the $100,000 threshold or higher for that to qualify for the repair because then everybody gets that above and beyond what your allotment. Does that make sense? Mhm. So when we're talking about flexibility, trying to improve our school sites for
um uh improve safety and security, that's another mechanism that if you allow me to, I can go towards trying to push towards that flexibility. But when you go directly to the 100,000 threshold
for health and safety, it has to be extremely specific for school safety. Just like it's specific for HVAC upgrades, it's specific for roofs. Um I know that other superintendents want to really push the HVAC. It would be
similar to those things, not affecting your um regular aotment. So tonight, uh, if I could get your blessing in supporting this resolution, uh, I will go work on our behalf to see
if we can't get any leverage, uh, for some health and safety flexibility as well as some LTFM flexibility. And I'll entertain any questions that you have, Keith. So, thanks for putting colors on there
and amounts for people like me. Like for this, for example, this FY28, the LTFM one um has 800,000 and then there's 955,000. Is that total what we already what we would already have right now or?
Yeah. So, that's our regular aotment right there. So what you see is because the LTFM structure in terms of what you can use it for is extremely tight. We have expended $800,000 that year or we have
the we have that 955 plus 800. Y and we need to keep the $800,000 threshold as the fund balance. So we're not going to dip into that. So what you see there is we have 955 available. Um
that doesn't include the amounts that we've already budgeted under that category. That's what's available. So it could have been if we didn't have a fund balance requirement, you could have had all of that line available to transfer. Gotcha.
Does that make sense? So the 955 would be what we are looking to have moving flexibility with. Okay. and and still being able to have a fund balance if we have an emergency. Um we wouldn't be
left without anything to carry out an emergency. Now the challenge on LTFM is everything has to be like for like and I don't necessarily care for that language because if I have a let's say for instance if I have a staff member that
makes a request to fob a door and if I replace that door over there and it's with the same hardware, same handles, it's LTFM. But if if um a staff member comes and says, "I'd really like to see my door
fobbed." Now, because it's not like for like, it flips to capital. So, I'd really like to have the flexibility to use LTFM. If I'm replacing a door and I'm just putting a fob on there, I shouldn't have to move
to capital to replace a door because I'm essentially replacing the door. I'm just adding a fob. or if we were to do it, I wouldn't mind going door, you know, dollar for dollar on the door and then the capital portion would be the FOB
cost, but that's not the way we get to work this. So, I'm I'm I'm I'm really pushing for the flexibility because it's the capital part in our district as we're growing that is what's causing us our our our
challenges for the most part. So hopefully I'm making sense when I tell you that. Yes. Anything else? Lori, so sorry. Uh, so are you thinking that the process would be
like when we're doing our budget that you would look over what our LTM or LTFM needs are for the upcoming year, like the the things that we know are going to have to be replaced or time for. And then you want to still keep 800
yep in there as a fund balance. And then anything beyond that would could you're looking for or requesting asking for uh flexibility in whatever would be beyond our needs beyond 800. And then
yeah and and I wouldn't do that until so like for instance we're in the 2526 school year now. I wouldn't transfer any dollars in the 2526 school year until we got to and we looked at our our fund balance at the end of June 30th, let's
say, because there's something that could come up that could affect instead of that being 955, maybe we have a large expense of something that maybe reduces that to 755. So there's still flexibility within the
year to move and carry through the LTFM repairs that are needed. You wouldn't ignore them. And that's why I say we wouldn't really officially transfer the dollars until we got to the night of the audit because we would work with the auditors to determine what our fund
balance is in those restricted areas. Then you would make the transfer once we worked with the auditor to officially determine what our endofear balance was on June 30th. So then come December when you go and approve the audit, the the
the item before you approve the audit would basically be to approve the transfers and then those transfers would be reflected in the audit final numbers. Does that make Yeah. So you're you have the ability to still carry out if we have an emergency. You
just might see less than less orange and more blue or the blue would stay the same. You just see less orange to transfer. Go ahead. And then my second question would be so last year we tried to do this through
the Minnesota Senate House and Senate. We tried to do it everywhere. Yeah. So, and it it passed the Senate, but it was killed in the House. Is that where it never made it to the floor essentially? Um, there were bills that were um there were bills that came out
of the House side. Um, and then it never crossed over to the Senate side to be heard and it never got included in the omnibus bill. Um, it had support and it made sense to them. Um I think the biggest fear was that
they would say districts would take dollars from let's say fund two and fund four and not be able to carry out their mission to educate or to feed kids. Right? So what we wanted to show in this graph is that if we don't have the
dollars there to meet the minimum fund balance, there is no transfer for that fund because then you're not carrying out the mission of fund two or fund four. And that's why then fund the LTFM fund that restricted general fund is the only one that you could make the
transfer from. So I wanted to show the people that had the concern about really thinking that we would take this you know Rob Peter to pay Paul kind of mentality that's really not the case because we do have to have minimum fund
balances to protect those other funds. And I would I think it would be in our best interest to say that's why we don't transfer anything during the year because it affects what our endofear fund balance is and what we can transfer. So it it's it's not anything
we should be doing during the year. It's what we look at at the end of the year and what is actually available if that makes sense. Okay. Anything else? That's what I was looking for was if we got any feedback and if we like were able to clean up or
tighten up our message to just package it. Yeah. And I'm I'm I'll I'll make sure that that that part of it clear because we want to be transparent. So that's why you only do it one time. You do it in December with your auditor and and then
your fund balances all match up from what you do for that resolution and then it's in the audit in December. So that's how I would I would recommend we work that. Ma'am, I just want to say I appreciate Dr. uh
Lunik's uh just tireless work on this issue and the respect that he's garnered throughout the this state and tenacity that he continues to to work as you can see. I mean he's just uh trying to make people understand this because it
makes so much sense. So, uh, thank you. And with that, I would move to approve and submit the Morid School Board's proposed fund reallocation authority legislative resolution to the MSBA 2025 delegate assembly to be considered for
MSBA's legislative platform for the upcoming legislative session as presented. Thank you, Matt. Laura Lee. Second. I have a motion by Matt, seconded by Laura Lee. Move to approve and submit the Morhead School Board's proposed fund
reallocation authority legislative resolution to the MSBA 2025 delegate assembly to be considered for MSBA's legislative platform for the upcoming legislative session. Any further discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. That motion carries. Item four, superintendent report. Okay. Just one item that I want to bring to your attention. Uh prior to the levy
um being called by you folks back in uh August, uh you also approved a review and comment and that review and comment has not been approved yet by the Department of Education. And I believe we have to bring that back
to you by a certain timeline once they approve it for you to have a hearing and then to basically bless the letter that MDE gives you. Now the unfortunate part is if it he told me it was the next one
up. Sounds pretty convenient, but um it may not fall it might fall under MDE's deadlines in terms of getting it back to you by a certain time. It may not follow our timeline in terms of when the next
September meeting falls. So, I guess what I'm preparing you for is I might need you to come back for a one item special meeting to approve uh a review and comment. I don't know when it's
coming, but when it does make it back to us in an approved form, then Deb and I will make darn sure that we're meeting the statute timelines in terms of when we have to have that board approved by. So, all I'm saying is please, please, please keep your calendars open in case
we got to come back for a one item special meeting to approve the review and comment. Okay, that sounds good. Thank you for that information. It uh never ceases to amaze me how slow the process can be.
Yes. Item five, close the meeting. I have a motion. Keith move to close the public meeting at 6:59 p.m. pursuant to Minnesota statutes 13D.03 for the purpose of discussing negotiations. Dave,
I'll second. Motion by Keith, second by Dave. Move to close the public meeting at 6:59 p.m. pursuant to Minnesota statutes section 13.03 for the purpose of discussing negotiations. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify
by saying I. I. Those opposed, same sign. This meeting will be closed. We'll take a fivem minute break. Looks like everybody Item six. Go ahead, Melissa. I move to open the public meeting at
7:11 p.m. Thank you, Keith. I second. Got a motion by Melissa, second by Keith, move to open the public meeting at 7:11 p.m. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor signify by saying I.
I. Those oppos same that motion carries. Item seven. Item seven, adjournment. Keith, I knew you'd call on me. Yes. Move to approve the adjournment of the September 8th, 2025 school board meeting at 7:12 p.m.
Thank you, Cassidy. I'll second. I have a motion by Keith, seconded by Cassidy. Move to approve the adjournment of the September 8th, 2025 schoolboard meeting at 7:12 PM. Any I get the next one. Yeah, I don't think I'll remember that.
All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Those oppose, same sign. This meeting is adjourned. But