welcome to the April 14th 2025 Morehead Independent School District number 152 school board meeting it is 6 pm i am calling this meeting to order with a roll call starting on my left please vin present bergen present markard present
steph present burgard present bjorkland present vote present thank you and item B will 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 lunick yes please note the uh revision with the addition of uh the extraction of minutes
and the addition of the resolution for the Ellers's presentation that will be the uh new page 41 and then on page 47 starts the memo for the uh support of the fund transfer thank you Dr lunick
cassidy i move to approve the meeting agenda as revised keith I second i have a motion by Cassidy second by Keith move to approve the agenda as revised any further discussion on this from the board seeing none all those in favor signify
by saying I i those opposed same sign that motion carries item E we are proud we have a lot of them tonight so this is the time during the meeting to recognize outstanding achievements of students staff and community members after an
honor's name has been called or read they can come forward and accept their certificate from Dr lunik and myself and photos can be taken after that for moms and dads who wish to take photos we are proud of the Morhead High School robotics team Spudnick which had its
best season since it was founded in 2012 the team was on the winning alliance at the Northern Lights Regional in late February and finished 16th in the individual rankings the team tied its highest ranking prior to this season 19th at the Great Northern Regional
mid-March the team members are Wyatt Bhutanas Gianna Canton Ethan Collins Henry Heskin Eli Cotter Miller Broden Lesnner Khloe Matson Isabella Miller
Rosetta Miller Gio M Gio Munos Nolan Olsen Hunter Orino Christensen Jonah Paul Jason Fam Levi Risinger Austin Sheeran Balen Taylor Simon Taylor
Gavin Boy Simon Wanzik team is coached by Matt Craig Tammy Rising the team mentors are Roger Almanson Nick Buts Stacy Buts Colton Keaney Ian Nos Shannon
Olsen Danalyn O Dian Puit Enoch Santrum and Linda Winkler we are proud of the Morehead High School girls hockey team who competed in the Minnesota State girls hockey tournament team members are Cha Benson Liv Dillstra
Anna Bjorkman Olivia Corton Lauren Heinman Kelsey Clute Kaylee Inger Britson Lucy Wilson Kendall Anderson Kendall Lun Sydney Martinsson Haley Melquist Addie Moose Anakah Strom Addie
Salvald Samantha Stage Ashlin Hanekah Taylor Cresen Alli Moser and Caitlyn Shirley team managers for girls hockey are Lauren Chos Michaela Finstrom and Lauren Ness the team is coached by Ryan
Craft Tyler Johnson Greg Salvivald Lily Kercher and Meen Grryer and God um don't leave yet we have an indiv individual award we are proud of individual award winner Olivia Corton who received the class doubleA her
Brooks award as well okay we are proud of the Morehead High School boys hockey team who competed in the 2025 Minnesota Class AA state boys hockey tournament capturing the Morehead's first class doubleA state
high School Hockey Championship team members are Drew Simick Brandon Mikkelson Brady Stefen Aiden Dufalt Zack Zimmerman Brooks Cullen Michael Herman Max Cullen George Arnold Carver Hasbar
Carter Huttori Zack Devig Carson Coun Mason Craft Evan Warner Sheamus Campbell Tanner Gilbertson Titan Bergensson Nolan Cook and Charlie Stenjum team managers are Graden Quig Jake Franklin and Levi
Moser the team is coached by John Ammerman Tony Kunka Matt Cullen Aaron Hurt Derek Thompson Sam Walstead and Tyler McNamera and we are proud of individual award winners Mason Craft who received the Minnesota 2025 Mr hockey award
brooks Cullen who was named the 2025 class doubleA Herb Brooks award recipient and coach John Ammerman who received the class doubleA hockey coach of the year award we are proud of the Morehead High School boys basketball team who competed in the
2025 Minnesota class 4A state boys basketball tournament for the 25th time the Spuds took home fifth place after winning the consolation bracket team members are David Mack Andy Kafa Brian
Zer Zerzula Jr Casten Hoff Rain Battle Jack Donner Owen Theologges D'Angelo Jones Carson Hills Austin Dryberg Gage Baky you ute Dalton Jones Elijah Lopez
Aaron Dineker Romeo Chroma Qua Jesse Adasti and Edmund Woto team manager is Andrew Var team is coached by Matt Ellson Jay Hartman Jackson Mallister Andrew Ellensson Parker Wood and Jacob Lang
i think that's that was funny okay moving on to item F public form i don't believe there's nobody no request for public form de that is correct thank you item two consent agenda all items under on the consent agenda are considered to be routine and have been
made available prior to the school board meeting at least two days prior I guess it is uh these items will be enacted by one resolution there will be no separate discussion on these items unless a school requests in which event 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 we got number one March 2020 20 March 24
2025 school board meeting minutes item B we have business and administration administrative services we have number one family medical leave two leave of absence three extended leave of absence four resignations five
retirements six change of contract seven new employees and eight affiliation agreement with Augusta Augustana University Association item E under special services we have number one 2025 special
education school year staffing laura Lee I move to approve the consent consent agenda as uh presented cassidy i'll second i have a motion by Laura Lee seconded by Cassidy
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 that motion carries item three new
business we have under item A ER's pre-sale report for certificate issuance series 2025A dr tonight we have Beth DS with Ellers to present to you the pre-sale report uh
for uh certificate of participations uh series 2025A and uh without further ado I'll turn it over to Miss DS thanks good evening school board members yeah I am here to talk about your certificates of participation that you'll be issuing to
finance some outdoor education facilities um including turf softball fields so uh we are planning to issue these next month um and these authority this authority is a little bit different than what you would see for your general obligation school building bonds or for
your long-term facilities maintenance projects when those come through um these are backed by your lease levy authority so the district is authorized to levy up to $212 per pupil um for certain projects at the school you've used this in the past for things like
your building additions or for other outdoor facilities so definitely not something new the district has seen but a little bit different than what you would um use if you had school building bonds you can um jump to page 34 of the board packet so there's some information here pre-sale information and there's a lot of standard information here for you
but um basically that this is just a little bit different than your general obligation bonds and I wanted to point out in particular when we get to page 39 the estimated sources and uses of
funds oh you're okay just want to make sure you can see it on the um online as well so page 39 is the sources and uses of funds so the par amount of the issuance is at 1.57
million and you'll see there's a small reoffering premium that we're estimating right now for 73,000 so um obviously we've had a lot of volatility in the market the past week and that hasn't just been what we've seen in our 401ks but for the bond business as well so um
we are marketing these bonds at a coupon rate of four and 5% what that means right now for the market is that investors will pay a little bit more for that higher coupon rate we're estimating a reoffering premium of about 73,000 if interest rates come in better we'll see
that come a little bit higher and that means you'll have a little bit more funds available for the project when we sell the bonds you'll see their um deposit to our project construction fund is estimated at just under 1.5 million and the last page of the pre-sale report
is that debt service schedule so you can see principal and interest payments um first interest payment is due in February or excuse me April of 2026 um in order for us to have gotten that levy on we would have had to approve that
amount back in December of 2024 so that first interest payment of 58,000 will be funded through this financing um and after that you'll see that annual appropriation come through on your levies each December and we are um the second item that's
included in the packet tonight is that parameters resolution so we are asking the school board to approve a um parameters what um essentially what that means is you're going to give authority to the superintendent and a school board member to approve that sale as long as that um true interest cost comes in
under 5% and the reason we're asking for that is because of the volatility that we're seeing right now we want to make sure if we go to sale day and interest rates do not come out the way we want we don't want you um tied into that we want to make sure that um we could resell on a different date if we needed to so the
action item you'll see tonight is that resolution that approves the um authorization to issue the certificates so that was pretty quick and there is a decent amount of information here does anyone have any follow-up questions or um anything more they'd like to discuss
any questions from the board cassidy can you remind us what the reoffering fee means yep page 34 uh yep it's on page 30 um 39 under sources and uses um so you'll look if
you look on the next page the coupon rates of the bonds are at 5% and 4% essentially what that means is somebody in the future is is going to invest is going to buy this investment and they're going to get that four or 5% coupon rate the average um rate we're seeing right now in the in the market is closer to
like a 4 point uh 4.1 so what that means is the underwriter is going to be able to sell your investments at a little higher price a premium so instead of it selling for like a dollar on the dollar they're going to sell it for $110 on the dollar so you get a little bit money for it upfront for that higher interest rate
that is on the coupons um the nice thing about these is that they're almost an it's almost an 11-year maturity but when we get to year 7 in 2033 you can refund or refinance um and if there are lower interest rates at that point then you can refund um and capture a lower
interest rate and that lowers the levy for your taxpayers at that point anything else from the board so this is going to be an action item Dr l and what would the resolution be
then that we're asking for and it's uh right there on page uh I guess I'm missing it's the top of page 42 um in bold 42 it's separate for you that's separate oh my apologies i'm sorry thank you so Dan has it up on the screen right
now right at the top resolution stating thank you any other questions is this an action item can I get a motion from Do I No just this on the top okay um I'll
make a motion thank you um I move to uh for the res or for the resolution um by the school board of independent school district 152 oh I'm sorry the resolution i move to for the resolution stating the
intention of the school district to issue participation series 2025A in the maximum aggregate principal amount of approximately um 1,570,000 and taking other actions with respect there too is that correct
perfect thank you Dave i'll second okay okay I have a motion by Melissa seconded by Dave the resolution is stating the intention of the school district to issue certificates of participation series 2025A in the maximum aggregate
principal amount of approximately 1,570,000 and taking other actions with respect thereto any further discussion from the board seeing none all those in favor signify
by saying I i those opposed same sign that motion carries thank you for coming tonight thank you okay moving on we have item B support of authority for internal fund transfers resolution this is from me and
I think we have Christine Berg here tonight from Education Morehead to speak about this also correct y thank you Christine for coming tonight thanks um go ahead do you want me to start yeah go ahead and start okay um yeah i just
wanted to um kind of talk through the process that we went to come to this um support the we met as a meet and confer committee and then we brought it to cabinet and then some of the cabinet members also then reached out to others that they knew in the legislature to
find out more details as to what this would mean for the district and after all that with the cabinet decided that we would support this um this house um house file because it does allow the
school board to make some decisions and move some money from places where it might be an excess to where we could really use it in the hopes of you know keeping some teachers in the classroom and that would be best for our students in the district
thank you so this Dr lunick is in regards to the House File 957 yeah this will be this will be 957 when we talked earlier this was part of House File 6 so when you look at uh Christine's
uh letter that made reference to House File 6 that portion that she referenced in here was pulled out of House File 6 and then was became a standalone bill as House File 957 which included mandate
relief and fund transfer like we've stated before uh our belief is that the mandate relief is not as important as it would be to get the ability to transfer and to
move the funds in the areas uh where it would be needed i believe the the fund or the uh mandate relief would require a much larger discussion because that's already in law and I I believe it it pits the school board against uh
employees especially when it comes to something that's already in place so what we're asking for tonight is very similar to what we asked for uh from you in the early fall where we talked about uh the importance of allowing us the flexibility to transfer the funds and
then you uh as a board you approved uh the presentation that night and we sent that off to MSBA if you remember that to get on their platform right and uh as a result of those um that evening
uh it did get on the MSBA platform and then it came in the form of a bill in the House File 6 to start moved to 957 and so what this is as we get closer and closer to the legislative session being completed this just reiterates the
support of our largest local and the school board uh uh showing the importance of the fund transfers and the support that we have and would uh get behind to do such a thing keep in mind
the fund transfers do have a limit uh the limit is in terms of fiscal years we'd only be able to do it five times uh starting in fiscal year 25 completing in I believe fiscal year 29 and that would
that was that would be when this would end unless there was some legislation that would continue uh to allow us to do that but right now there is a start and there is an end and so uh what we're asking as well as um um Miss Berg here
tonight is for the board and education Morehead to get behind the ability to transfer funds from this evening then uh we would send these that we would send this resolution to our local legislators
explaining the support and as um our legislators now are getting close to moving to conference committee this would be important that they see this as they move into uh the Senate and the House getting together to come up with
one omnibus bill so the timing is good uh would appreciate your support from Christine Berg and the board and we can move this thing forward um tonight and get that sent out as of tomorrow thank you thank you for the explanation
Keith is the five transfers is that per year or throughout the whole term well it it it doesn't specify how we would do that but the good it's a good question so my recommendation and it's only my recommendation is that we would do it
one time a year per fund and the funds that we would really look at utilizing if there were dollars to transfer because remember you don't want to leave one fund dry because you're going to have to move it back anyway because statute prevents you from going into the
negative mhm so um my goal and it's only mine would be that you do it one time a year you do it at the same time you're going to have the audit so the audit would be completed and then in that December with the auditor's approval
because they also know what the ending fund balances would be exactly we would present to you at the same time in the motion previous to you approving the audit on the agenda so then you would approve the transfer and then the audit would support and show that the transfer
was made and those numbers would match up so we would do it one time a year you wouldn't do it any more than that because if you did it any more than that you might risk running some challenges if something came up in food service or something came up in community service
or something came up in LTFM so we want to get through the year and be able to carry out that mission and if there's dollars left over then we would move those dollars over in conjunction with the audit so everything would be transparent and upfront so that would be
our goal so you get five transfers we would utilize them one time a year okay and then would that be the when you transfer it do you have to transfer it back is that included or is it just There's no transferring it back once you move it you Okay and that's why I say you would wait until the end of the year
so you would see where you're at because there might be a year in which you don't want to move it because it would get you below what you would deem as your minimum fund balance for those areas so we have to protect those areas at the same time we could potentially shift them if that makes sense to you and
those transfers could have numbers from a couple different line items essentially it would be from different funds not necessarily line items but different funds yes so it could have fund food transportation that's one transfer i wouldn't say transfer
transportation i would say I would say fund two and fund four and LTFM would be the ones that we would focus on the most with LTFM being okay each one of those funds that I listed would constitute a transfer but you would do it one time a
year for those three funds so that would be one transfer for those three you do it one time a year three transfers one time a year okay and the reason for that is because I need we need to make sure that we get through the current year and that there's
dollars in there so they carry out their mission okay um and then I think there's in here there's reference to 967 it should be 957 on the back of the last paragraph
for the resolution or for the for the support yeah if it says 967 that would be an error we say 957 house file 957 yep thank you we will correct that before it goes out
okay anything else from the board Cassie i'm ready to make a motion thank you um move to approve the support of granting the schoolboard authority to transfer funds internally for fiscal years 25 through excuse me 2025 through
2029 as presented in bill House File 957 and I think it's section one on the back yes section one on the back correct oh yes section one thank you thank you Dave i'll second so I have a motion by Cassidy and a second from Dave move to
approve support of granting the school board authority to transfer funds internally for fiscal years 2025 through 2029 as presented in bill House File 957-section 1 any further discussion from the board
cassidy I just wanted to thank Education Morehead for their partnership on this um it it would it's a big deal to be able to do this so thank you for um talking through everything and partnering with us i was going to say the same thing Cassidy we very much
appreciate the the help and the uh support from the Morehead Education Education Morehead I'm sorry uh all those in favor signify by saying I i those opposed same sign that motion
carries item C resolution relating to the termination and non-renewal of teaching contract of probationary teachers dr damer um thank you um tonight we ask you to consider the resolution directing administration to affect termination and non-re
non-renewal of the probationary teachers as listed below um and just as a point of information um this is an annual process and it's important to note that um anyone who is not teaching within their lensure and is a probationary staff has to be non-renewed we have uh
requirements for posting in the state of Minnesota um and we have a four tiered license system tier 1 tier 2 tier three and tier four um and there are different rules for tier one and tier two who are those teachers who are not uh traditionally educated um as teachers or
have gone to a teacher preparation program um and the other uh point would be you could have teachers who have been traditionally uh educated in teacher prep programs but maybe they're teaching out of field any of those individuals who um are not getting that um the
ability to teach in the extra field or that additional field prior to coming back next year also would be on that list so um additionally state statute requires uh that we have three years with new teachers who have never taught before and those who have taught for three consecutive years in one district
regardless of state or area also have um only one year of probationary status so districts are required to um identify uh within that period um whether they're going to uh remain employed or not so um that's a little background on this as
you consider uh the memo in front of you thank you Dave i'll move to approve the resolution relating to the termination and non-renewal of teacher contracts of probationary teachers as presented thank you Dave laurely I'll second i have a
motion by Dave second by Laura Lee move to approve the resolution relating to the termination and nonract of probationary teachers as presented any further discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I i those
opposed same sign and that motion carries item D second reading of policies dr lunick thank you uh with the last meeting being the first reading and no corrections or additions uh made I would recommend that
uh the board approve the second reading as presented thank you Dr linnick we have a motion on this keith move to approve the policies as presented thank you melissa I second i have a
motion by Keith second by Melissa move to approve the policies as presented any further discussion on this seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I i i those opposed same sign and that motion carries item four
superintendent update start okay okay I just got one and it's and it's kind of a big one and and uh we're all aware of the um I don't want to call it uh turmoil but it it there are there are there are things out there right now that are
making uh school districts school boards staff uh a little uncomfortable um and as a result of that some of the um things that have us a little concerned are the resources in terms of uh our
federal dollars and one thing that uh is uh interesting is for instance uh Cam in the business office generally would have had his aotment already for next year so he would have known what and how much we
would be receiving for next year that has not happened as of yet and he uh he stated that uh he hopes to find out between now and the end of the month that doesn't mean that that number those numbers are going to come in now what
concerns me about the numbers um not being told to us quite yet is that um there could be some changes uh to um let's just say how the formula works and how the dollars are
distributed uh back to the states and then that would affect how they would ultimately be distributed to us so those are that's one component of it uh the other component is no matter what the number ends up being uh the
challenge that uh I think we have and and nobody ultimately knows the answers to this is uh is there a possibility that the federal government would withhold any of our federal dollars
and again I don't have any answers for you on that so um by next meeting uh we will have a presentation uh to you just so you can be aware of number one how
many dollars are tied to us in terms of federal uh programming and and then um what does that staffing look like and then what uh potentially uh would we need to do to balance if those funds
were not um coming to us so to speak and so um I don't have any information that would uh make you feel any more comfortable than I do tonight but I'm hoping that um well
I'm not hoping there will be a there will be a a federal title presentation next meeting that will take us through a lot of those things and and keep in mind what what ultimately worries me is that we have to
have things wrapped up as we turn the page and move into the next fiscal year for us which is at the end of June the federal government's fiscal year runs and ends in October and unfortunately
our timelines don't match up so I I I'm I'm hoping that we'll have some sort of an answer before we have to make some real difficult decisions but I honestly don't know because our timelines don't match up in terms of fiscal years so we
will come back with uh some information uh regarding some federal programming and some of the statue guide statute guidelines that we are up against in terms of contracts and when we have to have everything finalized and ready to
go so um stay tuned for that but those are the things that really have us worried at the moment and um and we can have a much greater discussion when we get to those to that uh to that agenda item so just be aware that that's going
to be coming uh next meeting and I've been doing this since 1997 and I've never seen um what feels to me um a lot of a lot of uncertainty heading
into the next fiscal year that I've in my time have not uh seen before and I'm sure anybody else that is in the is in the profession whether you're a board member staff member whatever it's the same
probably concern uh throughout so uh we'll have that uh we'll have that presentation here and I'm not and I'm not trying to create any um any heightened fear or anything like that i we just need to let you know what we're up against should should something
happen or not happen so I think we're better to be prepared than than to not be prepared so uh look for that presentation to come next meeting so that's my big update for tonight so thank you
anything else keith prepare to make a motion move to approve the adjournment of the April 14th 2025 schoolboard meeting at 6:39 p.m thank you guess we're going to adjourn the meeting now item number five were you
ready thank you Keith yeah second second laura Lee i'll second okay i got a motion by Keith second by Laura Lee move to approve the adjournment of the April 14th further discussion seeing none all those
in favor signify by saying I i those opposed same sign this meeting is adjourned somebody got a date down there