years. >> Ready to go. >> All right. We'll call to order the Mora regular school board meeting for February 25th at 6:30 p.m. We'll all rise for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. >> All right, we have uh five school board members, uh Superintendent Boce, a couple staff members, and a couple
people in the audience uh take a motion to approve the meeting agenda. >> So moved. >> Motion by Dakota. >> Second by Jill. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> I. Post. Same sign. All right. Uh, open forum one. I don't
think do we have anybody? So, we'll move on to Mustang spirit recognition. >> Yep. >> Do we have any Mustang spirits? >> I do. >> Perfect. >> Yes. Um, I'd like to recognize Laura Manley Harmon. She has been selected
um out of the entire state of Minnesota. um the middle school uh music educator of the year and um Laura I talked to her a little bit this past week and she's been teaching in Mora since 1995
and before that I think four years in New York is that correct >> couple of New York couple Minnesota >> okay couple so I was right about the four not quite the math didn't quite add up so >> um Laura I've been able to visit her class last year and see how she works
with middle school students and teaching band. And she's she's amazing. Um I went to the concert the other night um with her uh and her band students and I think it's the ninth grade students that you're going to take to a competition.
So, um, so very welld deserving of this recognition and, um, I just wanted to honor her and thank her for all of her dedication to teaching students all the way from fifth grade all the way up to
high school. So, thank you, Laura. >> Now, I'll go back to conferences. >> Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. >> Anybody else have a Mustang Spirit? All right, we will move on to the refunding bond pre-sale report from
Ellers. >> You're good. >> We're good. >> Good evening. Uh my name is Aaron Bushberger from Ellers. I'm one of the Ellers's adviserss um along with Matthew Hammer and Greg Crow who was uh here back in January. So uh you have in front
of you the pre-sale report uh really it's kind of a highle look at the upcoming bond issuance process. So I'm just going to cover a few things uh within the the report and um would be available to answer any questions you might have. Again this is anformational
item uh at this point and doesn't need any action. So, um, on the first page there, uh, regarding the purposes, uh, we're, um, issuing a a current refunding of the 2027 through 36 maturities, um,
of your 2015A school building bonds. And again, the purpose of that is to reduce future debt service levies, uh, reduce overall interest costs. And as a reminder, uh, those savings have to be used to reduce future levies. you can't use those savings for general fund
operations or anything like that. So, that goes uh directly to your taxpayers. Um on the bottom there, you can see the term call feature. So, um it'll be the same term of what we're refunding 2027 through 2036.
Uh the pre-sale report you have in front of you says that the bonds will be subject to prepayment at the discretion of the district on February 1, 2033 or any date thereafter. What that means is that's the call date for the new bonds at which point you can refund the bonds.
Um so that's what a call date is known as. So this is what's in the pre-sale report. We had a conversation today uh amongst our team and uh what we're proposing is to change this to not have any call date and there's two reasons.
One is um with this call date in here, there would only be three maturities left and so it would be about $2.5 million worth of maturities, which when it comes to refunding bonds, that's a pretty small amount. So the likelihood of us being able to do that would be
pretty small. And uh the second reason being if we don't have a call date in there, that generally means a lower interest rate because investors are going to know that they're going to be able to hold their funds for three years longer and they're willing to kind of pay a little bit uh to have that
investment security. So just wanted to point that out that that's a little bit different than what's in the pre-sale report, but uh we got our team together and and thought that that was the best approach. Uh on the page two uh just a couple pieces there. So you can see bank
qualification. So anytime a school district issues under $10 million in debt in one uh calendar year uh those are known as bank qualified and generally results in a little bit lower interest rates um because those underwriters and banks uh get a little
um kind of uh benefit uh for investing in bank qualified investments. the state credit enhancement program. Um, again, you uh committed to this as part of the resolution you approved uh back at the end of January. Um, there's no cost to participate in this, but the
state of Minnesota guarantees school districts debt service payments, which as a potential investor is really seen as a benefit, lowers the risk, um, and lowers the interest rate. So, a great part a great program that the state provides uh to participate in. And then
the that uh third section there, the rating. So again, um we use the mortgage analogy, right? You have a credit score and that helps determine the interest rate on your mortgage. Similarly, uh school districts receive a bond rating. Generally speaking, the higher the rating, uh the lower the interest cost.
So your uh current rating, you can see underlying rating is an A there. And so we'll go through that bond rating process uh again to get an updated rating. So there's that A underlying rating. And then you can see that AAA credit enhanced rating and that means you're getting the state of Minnesota's
AAA rating. So again, a big benefit for school districts. Um there's some other pieces of information just regarding kind of the the debt process um and some postisssuance requirements that we work with the district on. Um on page five is
the proposed debt issuance schedule. I'll just note on there again, you approved the resolution in January. We're here tonight to review the pre-sale report. Um then the week of March 9th will be a busy week. Uh we'll be working um with Dan and Eric on um on
that bond rating call. So we'll go through that rating call um and then we'll get your bond rating and then you can see then on March 25th um we'll sell the bonds in the morning and then we'll be here um at your March 25th board meeting to uh have you approve the sale
of the bonds. And then uh the next few pages are some schedules, some estimated schedules. Uh the last page um shows our current estimated savings. So I think when Greg was here um at the towards the end of January, we were looking at about
between 90,000 and $100,000. Um rates since that time have come down. And so you can see our estimated savings now is about $166,000. So overall good news. uh we can't guarantee that until we get to the the
bond sale, but um positive news for sure. So, so we're we're definitely excited about the opportunity and and hope we can we can save your taxpayers a little bit of money along the way. So, uh so that concludes what I had to share, but I'm more than happy to answer
any questions you have. Well, it's nice to see um you know, it over over time, you know, to some of 166,000 may not seem like a lot, but that's that's a that's a good chunk. So, very very happy to see that. So, thank
you to Allers for >> um your work on that. >> Good. Yep. Absolutely. Definitely want to take advantage of the opportunity when we can. So, >> other than that, see you next month. >> All right. Sounds good. Thank you. >> Thanks, sir.
All right. Spanish club triper K. Edber. >> Where would you like me to be? >> Wherever you want to go. >> All right. Well, >> where where does Kelly want you? >> Wherever you want to stay. >> Okay. I mean, I can see all the screens, so whatever works for me. Um, so I'm proposing a Costa Rica trip for June of
2027. This would probably be the week of the 7th. Departing, graduation is the 6th. Um, and so it would be after graduation. and 13 days later we would return. So sometime you know if we leave
the 7th so 13 20th something like that. Um so depending upon airfare too I mean if we have really good airfare and we're staying one more day then we'll stay one more day. Um and if we have really good airfare on a Wednesday instead of on a Monday we'll leave on a Wednesday. So,
um I won't be able to figure that out until September because we can only probably actually October because we can only book airfare like 9 months out. So, um at that point I'll I'll go through and um get some quotes and that will you
know that price is probably pretty safe to say right now is what it's historically been. I'm looking kind of at our historic averages of how much we've paid for um hotels and I did get a quote from the bus company already. So I
have a really good idea of of how much it should be. So it should be right around there um and 13 days. So this is basically the itinerary. Day one we arrive. Feel free to kind of go quickly through this. I mean unless you want to pause. Um, so day two we're going to
travel to Sachi where they have some traditional ox carts and these are really traditional in Costa Rica. Um, learn a little history of Costa Rica and I'm going to try to organize a little painting activity so they can try to paint those wheels or something like that. Uh, we'll do some horseback riding
near the volcano here. This is the Arno volcano, one of the most uh, visited volcanoes in Costa Rica. a lot of tourist attractions there and hotels and lodging and um activities. So, horseback riding and visit the hot springs because there are lots of those because of the
geothermic activity. Um we'll do white water rafting. Um Rio Piki, we've done I mean we've done three trips to Costa Rica before, so none of this is brand new. We've done all these things. Um so maybe not in all the same locations, but
we've done them all. Um, so a little nature walk near the volcano that you just saw. Um, we've got a coffee cocoa plantation tour so we can see how uh how chocolate is made, how coffee is made. Coffee is a big deal in Costa Rica and
as is chocolate. Um, so that'll be fun. Um, we're going to visit a sloth sanctuary, butterfly garden in Monte Verde, um, which is a really cute little town up in the hills. Um, and um, also famous for a zipline. So, Costa Rican zip lines are like the best in Latin
America. Um, and this is the bless best place to do them in Costa Rica. Um, so that'll be a fun day. And then we're going to go to the beach and do a sunset catamaran cruise, which oftentimes they'll give us like snorkel gear and the kids can go snorkeling and see some
tropical fish. Um and then we're going to travel down um well it's maybe um so we're going to we're going to be up here by on the coast by Learia and then we're going to travel down to Manol Antonio National Park. So kind of right down to
the coast right south. No other way. Mania sorry just point to it your map there. So um so that's a really popular national park. has a lot of um wildlife and um really good surfing which is um something that is really fun for all the
kids. They they love when we learn to surf. So um we're gonna just travel that day and then the next day we'll do a um so day 11 we're going to do a tour in the park uh walk around and see all the all the animals there. And um day 12
we'll do our surf lessons and have a beach day. And then day 13 we will go back and return to Uh so looking at the um flight schedules um assuming that we're probably going to take American Airlines, our flight would probably
depart in the early afternoon. So if we had a few hours of travel time, we should be able to get there um in time. So that's kind of that's the itinerary I put together. There is some wiggle room. I mean, I could condense it and it could be 12 days or um I'm you know, if we had
an extra day in Monte or in um Manuel Antonio, I don't think anybody would complain. So, um, so it's it's there's still some flexibility there. Um, but basically that's kind of a little different from the trips we've done in the past to Costa Rica. In the past, we've gone to language schools and I've had students
staying at home stays. Um, but it it I have about 40 students that are interested in this trip, and that's way too many for any language school to really find homes for. So, um, my plan is to have Costa Rican guides who are going to be with us the whole time. Um,
and that's going to be their Spanish language exposure because I really feel strongly that they should have some language component. So, that will be our language component, but it also provides us the culture. It provides us the the knowledge of the country and a lot of really uh really nice things come along with having that native speaker Costa
Rican guide. So, so that's that's the plan. And I have a lot of students interested and a lot of chaperones interested as well. So, um, so yeah, >> how that happens. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, >> I was just going to say, you know,
talking to you about your trip planning. I mean, the nice thing is that she'll she'll customize the and plan the whole trip. So, it's not like she's hiring a tour company. So, we're very lucky to have you doing that for our students and
and uh I wish I would have had that opportunity when I was a kid. >> No, I I love the trip planning as much as I love being on the trip. I mean, I really enjoy like the the behind the scenes making things happen. And um today in blue, I showed my students how
I choose hotels. So, I told them, "Go on Booking.com, pick 30 adults, and these are the dates. Free cancellation, free breakfast, and um eight point, you know, eight eight plus ratings." So, like, okay. All right. And our budget is this
much per per person. So, okay. Calculate that times 30. this is these are our hotels. So, if we're going to this place, these are the ones we're going to pick. So, I mean, it's kind of fun for them to see like those those insider, you know, scoops on how how plans uh
come come together. So, that's really fun. Um, and yeah, if the kids have something they really really want to do or if we need to change something, it's nice to have that flexibility. And I really appreciate the board of always supporting me um to to do these things because like for $2,700, you're not going to get this trip from the company.
So, um it's just like that this is the actual cost for the trip. So, I mean, if it winds up costing less, then then everybody gets a refund and nobody complains about that um because we're not in this business to make money. Um but but um yeah, I mean, I think it's going to be a really good value and all
the cool experiences they're going to have and the great memories. Um so, I'm excited and um we'll see. If we have 40 people, we might need to take two buses because the roads in Costa Rica are kind of narrow. Um, and uh, and the buses usually are not like 60 passenger buses.
So, we would just have two separate buses and two separate guides, but I've already kind of budgeted for that. So, that's that's my assumption. And, you know, I don't know. We'll see how many parents want to come along. And we'll take as many as we can, as many as we have space for. Um, because I think like
it's really really cool for kids to be able to have this experience with their parents, too. Um, and uh, yeah, we'll they'll have to learn a little Spanish. Um because I probably won't make the guide speak English just for the parents. So that will be a uh FYI. If you're on this trip as a chaperone, you
may not understand everything or your kid might have to translate for you. So either or it's it's a win-win. So >> that's just the price for the they just have to do that for the price they're going. >> That that's Yeah. Like the parent is paying for the kids trip in exchange the translation.
>> Expensive translator, but it's fine. >> That's perfect. I love that. That's that's a good deal. >> Yep. But we will do fundraising, too. So, we've done Spanish camp this past uh last week and we did concessions three times and next year we'll do Spanish camp again and we'll do concessions
again and we'll probably do some other fundraising activities. So, we'll see what the parents want to do for that. But, we'll try our best to to make it even more economical for them. But, I feel like if if you keep the price low from the beginning, that's just like $1,000 of fundraising you don't have to do. So, that's that's kind of how I see
it. So, ask questions if you have. I'm I'm willing to take any questions you'd like. If you want to talk about trip planning, you know, we'll have to talk about that later. >> We'll take that offline. >> If if you want to any expert tips, I have those. But but yeah, if you want to know anything more about this trip,
that's basically what I have so far. >> Looks like a Yeah. >> Yeah. Thanks. >> Well, maybe some of you would like to come along if you have space. >> Yeah. >> If you have children, you know, in Spanish, >> could could be.
>> Yeah. So, you're looking for approval. Does any for the for the trip? >> I'll take a motion to approve the Spanish trip for 2027. >> So, >> Scott, >> second. >> Scott and Joe. All right. All those in favor of the proving the 2027 Spanish trip, say I. >> I. Posting signed.
>> All right. Have fun. >> Yeah. The kids are going to be excited that we can finally move forward. I'll have some parent meetings now and, you know, start collecting deposits and it'll be a great trip. >> This trip was great, too, by the way. But you probably read about that. >> I've heard about that. >> So I'm not going to take your time
because I'm not going to take any more time. But but yeah, it's going to be great. So thank you. >> Separate. >> All right. Revised budget business manager Eric Portouch. >> Good evening. All right. Eric Martou, business manager here for the district.
Um we're going through our 2526 first revised budget. Um and here's just a quick agenda here for this evening. Um next slide. All right. So right now we're in the third column of that budget
cycle. Um you know we've we've adopted a budget back in June. Uh our our building administration, our employees typically live by that adopted budget for the vast majority of the year. This is our first real chance that we get to look at the revised budget to say, okay, you know, back in June, there were a lot of
things, you know, on the table. The legislative session was still in session. You know, there were a lot of projections that were not fully known at the time. you know, so you make a prelim budget, but then you want to, you know, deliberately go through and revise your budget multiple times throughout the
year because that helps you, you know, kind of hone in on exactly how you're doing financially so that, you know, if changes need to be made, um, you can do so, you know, before you find out after the year is gone. So, uh, third column year, we'll have another chance to revise the budget. We typically do that
around May. Next slide, please. All right. Uh, the story on this revised budget. So when we build a budget, we make projections. Um you know, one of the things I think MOA has really benefited from over the last several years has been um in increasing
enrollment kind of in the face of a lot of what districts around the state have experienced. They've experienced a lot of declining enrollment. Um so over the last several years coming out of CO, we were seeing up and up and up and up and we knew that at some point we were going to plateau um and possibly pull back a
little bit. I think as we look at the chart here tonight, the the the pullback that we've experienced has been pretty pretty extreme to say the least. Um, you know, we came into this year, you know, having ended the last year at uh 1,652.92
ADM. I'll talk about that here in a second. And then as we've been submitting doing MARS submissions, our student enrollment system submissions to the state, you know, we just noticed that the numbers haven't been there. So, as we sit here, we're doing our revised budget. We really have to take that into account because, you know, we're
obviously well into February right now, and if the enrollment numbers aren't showing, then we need to really consider that when we're looking at our budget, particularly as we get into prelim prelim planning for next year. Uh, next slide, please. All right.
So, when we experience declining enrollment, it kind of has a a double-edged. I think what we've seen um and I I don't mean to um make this about the state legislature by any stretch of the imagination. They have an extremely difficult job. They have certainly a lot of different organizations and folks
with their hands out looking for things to go their way. Um education's no different. We would love for the state to continue to fund education. Um, I think what we've seen over the past probably 20 plus years in education is that the funding has never fully kept up
with inflation. So, the B belt has to get tighter and tighter every year. Um, we saw a little bit of relief during the COVID years. You know, we had a lot of federal funds coming in. Um, you know, we obviously have experienced a little increasing enrollment, things like that. Functionally, when declining enrollment
happens, not only do you have the increases that aren't keeping up with inflation, you're seeing those increases get completely wiped out because you're getting more money on fewer students. So, in this case up here on the slide, uh if we serve a student from the very
first day of school all the way to the very last day of school, it's considered to be 1.0. So, a lot of times when you see enrollment, not necessarily enrollment, average daily membership, what we get uh receive our funding based off of, you'll see it as a decimal place. So, you'll see like we served
half a student, which normally doesn't make sense, but if the student only attended half the year, we only get funding for half of what that funding model looks like. Um, there is a weird conversion called APU, uh, adjusted pupil unit, and that is where you go
from elementary school, uh, into high school. The state recognizes that high school education, secondary level education is inherently more expensive. So you get a little bit of a bump in funding, 1.2 times your ADM factor to get your high school funding number. So a little bit different across the board
there. But in FY26, when you factor in our actual APU, the funding number, we actually have seen a reduction of 61.07 07 APU, which if we were to just look at an apple to an apple and say we kept the
exact same students served from last year to this year, we would uh we were missing out on basically $456,000 of revenue. Now, I say missing out on and not lost because we never had that funding, right? If we would have served that many students, we would see our
basic funding formula provide for that much more revenue, which is just not the case right now. Uh, next slide, please. All right. So, as that kind of takes hold, that's a huge sum of money to hope to get, not get. Now, when schools do
budgeting, we do we participate in what we what we dub conservative budgeting. We estimate our enrollment a little lower. We estimate that our expenses might be a little higher, you know, and we try to hopefully get a little bit close. Um, that way if we do wind up with more students, it's a better
problem to have to say, "Oh, we came out ahead." then to come back and say, "Wait a minute, we we estimated that we're going to serve more students than we did, and now we're really upside down." Um, missing out on that chunk of a revenue. If you draw your attention to
the subtotal UARS 01, it's about the fifth line down, sixth line down, um, 283,504. So, what that basically means is that in our general fund, we are anticipated to outpace our revenues by that number. um
which isn't which isn't a great thing to be obviously experiencing here this year. Uh a lot of the the pressures on our budget are heavily inflation inflationary to begin with. So you're thinking things like salaries and benefits obviously. Uh we're a serviceoriented business. We um you know
we we are stewards of taxpayer dollars and we use that to provide a public service education to students and that's a very uh labor intensive field to be in. Um, we also have contracted services and obviously year-over-year contracts go up, costs go up there. Our utilities
get more and more expensive every year. That's everything from fuel for our buses to the lights in this room. Um, our supplies and materials. Everyone knows that when you check out um, you know, whether on Amazon or anything else, you know, that that cart total is a little bigger than it was last year.
Um and and that's true of school districts especially when we have, you know, 300 students that were or 300 staff members, 1,600 students, you know, that we're moving twice a day. Um, you know, a a huge campus that we're trying to maintain, you know, and take care of.
Um, lot of lot of different moving pieces and every purchase that we make is just a little bit more expensive than last year. Um, and the capital expenditures, you get into things like purchasing buses. buses are probably $50 $60,000 more now than they were even five six years ago. Um and then the last
one is special education costs. Not just the costs themselves um you know the the the actual services that are provided but just the number of students that are on IEPs or require special education services. That's been a significant increase uh to the district and you hear
that at the legislature known as the cross subsidy. Um so that number also has been going up quite a bit. Um, you know, certainly we do get some state funding. For every dollar we spend on special education, we usually get about 60 cents back on the dollar. There's a bit of a trailing effect with that,
though. Usually we have to wait about 18 months to see that. >> Thanks. I help you there. Okay. Um, so she's at me. She wants me to go. So, >> so is the the bottom line question, right? if I came to the board here
tonight and just presented a budget and said this is where we're at and asked for approval be put the board in a tough position to you know to to be able to approve that kind of a budget. So uh we're really looking at fiscal year 26 and our shortterm plan to make sure that we come out ahead. Our board policy is
to have a 15% unrestricted unassigned fund balance at the end of the year and we intend to meet that threshold and we uh we intend to do so through the the what's up on the slide there. Um, we have several restricted funds that hold balances that don't need to hold
balances. Your compensatory, your ALC, gifted and talented, those are things that by and large in school districts, it's you receive the funds, you would spend the funds in that area in that given year. Um, we've had a couple of years, especially coming out of COVID, where we were underspending in these
categories and we built up a little bit of a fund balance. Now is the time to start drawing those back down. Um, so that doesn't impact our 15% fund balance. So that will provide quite a bit of pressure relief. In fact, those four items right there would almost wholly account for what the deficit is
here. Um, we didn't really want to leave it at that though because it still doesn't leave you any wiggle room to be wrong on anything. Um, so we are uh implementing a what I'll call a soft freeze to capital purchasing in the in fiscal year 26. So any big purchases,
uh, we've asked our staff to come forward and to seek superintendent approval prior to making any more capital purchases. At the beginning of the year, we made a capital plan and we've been living by that capital plan, but just as a as a precautionary measure, you know, even if you had something that was originally in that
plan, let's talk about it before we actually make that purchase. Again, not saying that we won't say yes. We just want to take that extra minute to review it and make sure we're making the right decision for fiscal 26. We also have a technology grant hanging out there right now. It's a state uh
state driven grant. Uh it's about 50,000 just hair under uh $50,000 technology grant. Uh we did receive a pre-approval to receive that. Um we have to do some back-end work to actually earn that. So I didn't plug that into the initial budget just because I don't didn't want
to count on those dollars until we got them. But if we get that certainly that helps that deficit by uh you know a $50,000 chunk right there and that's based on existing funding that's or on existing expenses that's not introducing new funding. So um fully confident that these actions
um we project are going to be sufficient to maintain our 15%. Obviously, when our auditors get here, um you know, there'll be a number of entries at year end. Um we'll want to make sure that when the auditors present that year-end analysis that you are receiving, um you know, we
what we want is not only a clean unmodified audit opinion, but we also would love when our auditors can come to the board and say, "Yes, our team is meeting its fund balance policy." Because if the answer is no, we're not meeting our fund balance policy. Not only do we have to rightsize the
district to account for whatever led to that fund balance deficit, but then you also have to make up the fund balance deficit as well. So that's not a great spot to be in. Um so we definitely want to make sure that you know through some of these mechanisms here, we're going to bring you a 15% fund balance policy
adherence so that that way all we have to focus on is building our budget for fiscal 27. Next slide, please. So, looking ahead to 27. Um, so we're already in the process of working on our preliminary budget. Uh, our administrators have been, you know,
reviewing their own staffing, supply, uh, software, curriculum, all that. So, we've already uh, internally departments are really looking at their own spending and looking for areas to uh, you know, looking at areas to be able to reduce spending just so that we can align with
that current funding. Um, you know, certainly if anything in the next several months changes and we're we're seeing that enrollment come back, you know, we can have a conversation about that, but it's at this point we need to live with the reality that we might really be down that many students and we
need to build our prelim plan with that in mind. Um, so we're looking at all these different areas. Um, a lot of the remedies I just talked about on the previous slide, they're one-year remedies. Once you use them, they're gone. So I don't want to pretend like there are other spots where we can draw
out of to um you know to to still meet 15% and still apply what I'll call band-aids. Um we really do need to make sure that when we build that prelim budget for FY27 that we're confident that that budget will be um sufficient
to maintain our fund balance uh going forward. All right, next slide. Yes, next steps here. So this evening, uh, first revised budget for FY26. It's part of the packet. You saw it on one of the slides as well. Um, so it asks for the board to
consider and approve that budget. Um, I know the the the numbers aren't particularly all that um, great to look at right now. Um, but just knowing that some of those things are in place to um, uh, to help maintain our fund balance policy. So, I'll ask for the approval on
that. uh in March of 26 of next month here uh we will be bringing those staffing and prelimin budget recommendations for fiscal 27 um so we can be prepared for that meeting and then uh May and June we'll revise and adopt the budget so revise for current year adopt for next year that's
following that similar budget planning cycle that we're pretty accustomed to at this point uh so pending any questions that's what I have for our budget presentation >> questions I have one Um, since we we
haven't settled any any contracts, is there anything built into this revised budget that's going to accommodate since we haven't settled any labor contracts yet? >> Yes. So, um, you know, >> you need to give me specific numbers,
but >> there's are we it by doing this, are we going to be sufficient to settle these other ones or are we going to be coming back for this. Um, >> yeah.
>> So, I would say that this budget has built in u not only the tenative agreement that's on the agenda for tonight for the teachers contract. Um, so that's built into this budget already. Um, but we do have expectations built in for the other opening bargaining units um for the other three
groups that are open here as well. So, we built in expectations in here. And to your point, yeah, we won't um disclose what those expectations are. Uh but yes, I I believe that the what is built into the budget should be able to uh
accommodate settlements. >> Anybody else? >> All right. Thanks, Eric. >> Thanks, >> Eric. >> All right. Strategic plan update. Superintendent Boche. >> Is it okay if I sit here? >> Sit wherever you want. I'll allow it.
>> Okay. This time. >> Yeah, >> I guess. Appreciate it. >> Um, so I just wanted to to bring back to the board um a little update on the strategic plan. Um, I'm going to open that up so I can kind of see that as
well. But, um, you know, I spoke to this before. I know the board has been actively involved in selecting a strategic plan and and been involved with um planning and and assisting
coming up with um uh you know a mission, a vision, strategic vision, all of those sort of things that go into that. It's it's really an investment into our organization um to tell students, families, staff, and the school board and everyone in the
community this is this is what we would like to see happen. This is how we would like to see it happen and this is why we we believe what we believe. So it it really is a strong statement by the board and you know you're tasking all of
our employees to to live that strategic plan and to communicate that it speaks as one voice for the for the school district and the community as to on this one page. This is what what we're hoping
to achieve. Um and it's a roadmap for everyone in the district to try to achieve those things. And um one of the I think the features of this strategic plan that was intriguing to the board is that there's some measurable um uh
components of it that we can measure progress and improvement and gives us specific areas that we're doing well and specific areas that we can grow in as well. Um so again the mission
um is preparing self-directed learners to thrive in a changing world. Um our vision is to provide a an innovative learning environment to move our community forward. our strategic uh directions um which I'll show you
that our administration and our staff are working towards trying to achieve those and improve upon those. Um our our uh all of these things I guess kind of the complex part of it is trying
to align everything so it kind of makes sense to the school board to the administration to the staff. There's a lot of moving parts in in a school district that can I think one of the most challenging things
is trying to see make sure that everything is kind of aligned and moving in the right direction and that all starts with the strategic plan and then academics. I showed the board the vision card. I'll
show that in a little bit as well. Building academic goals. We have our teachers working in professional learning communities. We have classroom goals. We have student goals. So all of those things are aligned to the strategic plan. Um which I think is very
important. Um again the strategic directions there's four different strategic directions based around academics um equity and access for every student self-directed learning um and building a
safe and welcoming school community. And then so each uh areas of our administration along with our teachers and staff are working to try to achieve those four different strategic
directions. And so um each area has a different action card. So it's it's kind of like a this is what we want to achieve. This is how we're going to achieve it. This is how we're going to measure it. And so the goal is to
achieve uh or at least make progress on these strategic directions. This is that vision card that I was um speaking about a little bit ago and it gives just a a good visual. Uh the the
bright yellow there is our current state of our district and that's like our baseline data and our goal would be to move to the right uh to progressing um and then uh to hopefully meet our
vision at some point would be to get to the far right spot. Um and so again you you know that there's a lot of moving variables. So, in some areas we may improve, in some areas we may not improve, we may stay the same, but the
goal is to keep moving um to the right. And there's our core values. And the reason I bring this up is uh to show you some of the um survey data that was done on the next slide there. Um, you can see that we
asked our students, staff, and families what you think Mora Public Schools is showing in each of our core values. And I I added them all together and took the average composite of those um surveys. And so excellence
um was a was 91% uh saying that Mora schools is is doing a good or excellent job at at showing its core value of excellence. For belonging it was 86% for integrity 87%
and for support 87%. So, those are those are real strong numbers I think the board should feel good about as as far as our baseline um data and we'll again do this survey again next fall just to make sure that
we're making progress on that. The other part I wanted to show the board was um the desired daily experiences for families. 87% again I took a composite score of all those different uh experiences and
87% strongly agreed or gre agreed that MOA was Mora schools is meeting these uh desired daily experiences for their kids or for their students.
This is students their daily experiences that um they actually created that they wanted to have and again 87% strongly agreed or agreed um in those um
different areas as a composite score. And for staff, um, it was 86% um, composite score. Um, and so again, I think the board
should feel good about those composite scores. It's a good baseline for us. We have certain areas that we know we have some areas to improve upon because each individually has been scored. So, um, our administration and our staff are
working to try to improve those areas where we can improve upon and also, uh, notice that we have a lot of strengths that we're doing well. I think it's important to celebrate some of those areas that we're doing well and also focus on what are some other ways
that we can get better. So um the last point I wanted to touch on was comparable data. was one of the recommendations of teamworks, our strategic plan, is just to get a sense of where your school district is in
relation to other comparable schools, in relation to size, in relation to other demographics like special ed population, free and reduced. Um, geography is another area. And so I took a lot of
East Central area schools, schools within our uh conference is is another one. And then we we took and we said if you were in the top five of those 17 schools, you you would get a green high
ranking. Um if you were in the middle, you'd get a yellow. You were in the mid zone. And um if you were in the red, you were in the low. So, kind of like a stoplight um is the analogy I guess that I used.
And so, I I just took a screenshot on the next slide of where MOA was in relation to these different uh categories, attendance, graduation rate, uh reading, math,
science, and reading and math in elementary and reading and math in high school. And you can you can see that the area that we need to improve upon is our attendance. Um that's in the lower um
part of all the different comparable schools at 73%. I guess we always strive to try to get to 90% attendance of getting our kids to uh come to school 90% of the time. That's what per uh positive attendance
is. graduation rate 94% is a real high one in relation to the other ones. And then I I don't think it's any secret to the board that we shared the MCA data on a annual basis and and we know that
MORAD performs really well in our academic achievement and um you can see that we're in the top five of the 17 schools in all those different categories. So, the board should feel really good about that. Um, and a
testament to our students, uh, our staff, our parents, um, and the commitment that the board has made to provide students with supports to able to improve uh, for students that need
improvement. um that's been a financial commitment to the board in the last well five years in particular since I've been here and and before that as well. So So I think that is what I have. I'll
stand for any questions or comments or >> questions. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Okay. And you're up again for review of American Indian parent advisory recommendations. >> Darcy was unable to be here. So
um this is the American Indian grant funds or funding that we all school districts get funding based on their American Indian population. And so the interesting thing that I'll tell the board is last year I felt and Darcy did
and and I think our parents came to the board meeting felt that it was probably one of the better um plans that we had. We had a lot of interaction with our students and our parents. Um we did a lot of cool I shouldn't say cool but
educationally um attractive things for our students that were related to their culture. Um, and unfortunately around the state, schools have not been able to get their American Indian plans approved at the
state. Um, and in fact, there was a statewide webinar about a month ago that districts were really disappointed that the state hadn't approved those. So, we haven't really been able to launch a lot of it. Um, and ironically, it's the same
plan that we had last year. So, they get different people in the position and um different people interpret different things. So, Darcy submitted it a couple times, but I'll just go through kind of the five areas of the grant that we're trying to accomplish
um and some things that we uh have done in the past and we're asking to do again. Um tutoring is one uh providing curriculum for those students, providing programming and and we had a nice American Indian uh afterchool program
that we ran all year last year that uh Kelly Gams did. Um we also had uh taken a nice field trip. You'll see some of those pictures. So I'll kind of just buzz through this just so you get an idea. Um, this is one of the college
days that that we include in the grant. Darcy does some other opportunities if American Indian students want to go visit college campuses. Um, after school tutoring, we did we were able to get this off the ground. Um, uh, this fall
and will end in May. Um, the other part of it is, you know, looking at the data for these students and seeing how well they're doing. Um and so um and attendance is another another piece of that.
Um this is just a website for the Ojiba language resources. We provide resources so students and families can can learn the language. This is our field trip last year. I was able to go with it was probably one of the highlights of my
year um just because that's kind of my background in history and culture. Um, and they got me in a few of these pictures, but I got to work with the students and we went through the uh museum of the Max Museum. Um, and so it
was it was really fun uh for uh the students and myself and uh a lot of great like visuals and uh different um parts of that. So we had a great day over there. Um, and this this is some of
the after school that I talked about. Um, Teresa, our parent, um, is going and Darcy are going to Prior Lake for the American Indian Conference. Um,
we had a nice dinner. We had, I think, 49 um, family members attend at Freddy's. So, that's probably one of the higher numbers that we've been able to have. So I think with good programming and and good activities, it it just keeps
growing a little bit. So um so and Darcy asked if there were some suggestions. So that's kind of the presentation. Darcy isn't necessarily looking for any approval uh from the board. It's just more of a we need to
present and share with the board what the plan is. So, um, so yeah, we're fortunate to have a good parent group, a good student group. Um, Darcy and Kelly Gams do a nice job along with Ronald
Olsen to keep that program going. So, >> how long has this program How long have you been doing this here, Mora? You know, I would say this funding has been around for the past 15 years and school districts get to, you know, it's based
on your population. So, you get to do you get a certain amount of money. Um, and then you get to create some sort of plan that has to be approved through the state. So, they've gotten a I'd say in the past three to five years, they've gotten a lot more
um difficult. It's been more challenging to get your plan passed because there there's certain criteria that you have to to meet. Like, for example, we used to be able to to have like a schoolwide
program for about Native American cultures. Well, you can't do that. you can only spend the funds on Native American students and families. So, they kind of restrict the different parts that you can spend uh money on, which is some of the challenges that go along
with the funding. >> Sure. >> So, but it is a it is a good thing for our our American Indian population for sure. >> Thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> All right, we'll move on to the consent
agenda. Uh look for a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Motion by Dak. >> Second. >> Second by Jill. Any discussion? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Posting sign.
>> Do you want to mention anything about the retirements? >> Oh yes. >> Good. Uh good call. >> Oh yep. Uh, thank you for to Patty Falner and Kelly Gams for your dedication for all these years. Happy
retirement. Enjoy uh enjoy it. >> Thank you to your dedication to more schools. Uh, no nothing was approved from the consent agenda. Budget calendar review. You kind of see the items on there. Um,
13 items in which the schoolboard discussion or action is requested. Uh, just like to make note of E Central Energy, $1,500 for the Imagination Library up through Operation Roundup and Mary Ellen Becker, Thomas Mortonson, $2,000 for the Mortonson scholarship.
So, we'll consider approval of the resolution accepting gifts and donations. >> So, moved. >> Dakota. >> Scott. Second. Okay. Uh, since this is a resolution, we'll go by roll call. Ken, >> I. Jill >> I >> I'm going to abstain because my employer
is on there. Dakota >> I. >> Scott is I. >> Okay. Thank you. And thank you to those that have donated. >> Uh letter B, consider of approval of education Minnesota 2025 20 through 2027
master agreement more local 1802. Um I think we've all gotten the information, seen it. Um >> yeah, I'll make a motion that we approve um the master agreement. >> Okay. Motion by Scott. >> Second. >> Second by Dakota. Any discussion?
If >> not, I'll take a or all those in favor of the agreement say I >> oppose. Same sign. Approves. Uh letter C consider approval of a memorandum of agreement DMM release
hour. uh is the Dan, I'll let you get the other. >> This is just part of the negotiation process of um you know allowing the union to have a release hour and they would pay for that
through their union. Um and then on the days that they're um not doing union business, they would be subbing um at the school when the school district pays. So they're paying for their union
when they spend their time and the district is paying for when they do subbing at the school. >> Okay. >> And to clarify, this is for the president. >> Yeah. Just the president. Yes. >> President split the time. >> Yep. So I'll take a motion for approval
of this. >> So motion by Scott. We have a second. >> Second. >> Second by Jill. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Post same sign passes. Uh letter D, consider approval
of the fiscal year 2025 revised budget for a motion for that. >> So moved. >> Motion by Scott. A second. >> Second. >> Second by Ken. Any uh discussion? All right. All those in favor signify by
saying I. >> I. Post. Same sign. >> Passes. Um E. Consider approval of single reading policies that received technical or substantive changes per MSBA. Um
anything from the committee there? >> Uh a lot of it was pretty quick like just clean up language. Um changing like different statute numbers um or some things were like from a may to a shall or vice versa. So very very very small
changes. Yeah, >> perfect. All right, we'll uh take a motion to approve that these changes 401 through 701. >> So moved. >> Jill Beacha. You have a second. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Dakota second. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.
>> I. Same sign. >> That passes. We will go on to student board member report. Um, so this time of year is usually pretty chill for us, I would say, except um, we do have our blood drive coming
up. So the blood drive is March 13th, I believe, to I think that's two Fridays from now. Um, and there's we have I think 50 people signed up and we usually look for like 70ish, but it shouldn't be
too hard. Um, and a lot of the times the volunteers um that are at the school like stop in and say hi. So, the blood drive is good for us. Um, we recently did Matcha, which is like a little survey that students do and then they get matched with their friends or like
it's like a Valentine's Day fundraiser. Um, so that was fun. And then we also had the pepfest recently and it went really really well. We had some different groups playing different sports like than we usually do. We had I believe boys basketball and girls
basketball playing volleyball. So that was really fun and people got into that. And then we had like a tugof-war and that was super fun. Um I think people's new class schedules kind of was very refreshing for them. Um that's what I've
heard from my friends and some um other some of my other peers. Um, I think the winter time does get hard though for students. Um, and so the windows help, but I think some students are feeling
the burden of winter a lot. Um, but we're excited for when we can use like more of the outside flex areas. That's that seems to really help in the springtime. Um, other than that, we have um possibly a babysitting night in the
spring that we're going to do. Um, but it we don't necessarily need the fundraiser right now, but we know that it helps a lot of parents out. Um, so we might do that and then we have we usually do like a talent show in the
spring, but we might twitch it or like do something else fun. But yeah, so it's a lot of fun things um in the spring and I hopefully there will be a little bit more positive attitudes towards school when the weather gets a little bit better.
>> So we need spring, we need warmth. >> Yes. So I know you guys can't do a lot about that, but that's usually when my attitude improves. >> It's not just a kid thing, it's everybody in general. So next week >> Well, it doesn't I think it's going to be nice this weekend. Yeah.
>> So maybe we'll feel good on Monday. >> There we go. >> Fingers crossed. >> Yep. I think I'll feel good. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Uh any board member meeting reports? >> I don't have anything. >> I don't have anything.
>> Okay. Uh all the activities committee at transportation buildings and grounds and principles reports are in the board packet for us to review. Uh Superintendent Boce, anything you'd like to highlight on yours? Um, I won't speak very long because I've already talked a
lot tonight, but um, yeah, the, uh, yesterday actually, I believe it was, yeah, we had, uh, the Minnesota School Safety Center. Um, they provide, they're out of, uh, Homeland, uh, security. Um, and they offer a free service for all
public spaces. and they came and they they do a walk through of the schools and they just kind of look and tell you what, you know, safety features that you have that are look like they're in place and then they they give you some suggestions possibly for improving. And
so, um I think we spent three hours going through the building with with the guy from um the safety center and then he types up a report and gives it back to us. So, we're going to wait for that. So that I thought that was a a really they went to Oglev in the morning and
then tomorrow in the afternoon. So yeah, >> good deal. >> All right. Uh pass your own correspondence already. Uh any other board business? >> No secretary.
>> It is now 7:30. I want to thank our parents and guardians for heading out to conferences tonight. Please take >> Thanks, Brian. Um I don't see anybody for open forum two. So look for a motion to adjourn the meeting.
>> Ken meet second Dakota. >> Sure. >> Second Dakota. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Post same sign. We are adjourned at