All right. >> Okay. It's 6:30, so we're going to call the meeting to order. Please rise for 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. Okay, please take note that all six board members are present and Mr. Doce is as well. Um, we're going to start by
reading the uh new strategic direction or strategic plan. I'm going to read it today and maybe in the future I'll have some of you guys read it read it occasionally. So um first the mission statement which is our core purpose is
preparing self-directed learners to thrive in a changing world. Our vision statement which is what we intend to create is an innovative learning environment moving our community forward. Our core values which drive are
drivers of our words and actions. The first one is excellence. We set high expectations and deliver engaging engaging student centered learning. We strive for excellence through teamwork and independent thinking. The second one
is support. We ensure every student is supported socially, emotionally and academically. We provide equitable access to resources in a safe environment. Third is integrity. We are transparent, accountable, and responsible. We promote high
expectations through honesty, respect and fairness. And fourth is belonging. We create a welcoming environment where all are included, respected, valued and connected. We build strong relationships through collaboration and shared experiences.
Um our strategic direction is focus of our improvement efforts. So the four listed here is advance academic excellence through high expectations, promote equity and access for every student, foster self-directed thinking
and lifelong learning. Build a safe, welcoming, and respectable school community. Um I think it's important for us all to remember all of those things, especially at the meetings. Um, I'll take a motion
to approve the agenda. >> So, move the motion. Is there a second? Scott seconded it. >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say no. >> Um, agenda is approved unanimously. Um, the first thing we're going to do is
uh recognize um that Matt Hagness is officially back on the school board as an elected official, not an appointed one again. Um, so I'm glad you're here. >> Well, thank you. >> I'm glad you're here. >> Well, thank you. >> Welcome. >> Yes. I
Yep. >> All right. And if anybody wants to speak, they can fill out a card um to speak at our meetings. Is there any cards? There are no cards today. Um Mustang spirit recognition. Do you have
>> Yeah, I do actually. Um Gail Stassen is here and I know it's July so there's not many people um working in July but Gail is one of them. So I chose Gail and asked her to come here. Gail is our transportation assistant and works
really closely with Mr. Brandt, our transportation director, our mechanic, Corey, um all of our drivers, our AD, uh all of our other coaches. Um, you know, she when I called her last week, she was
doing the routing and all that stuff, making sure that that gets finished and communicated out to our parents. She's kind of the front line of all the transportation needs. And I don't know how many different routes we have and how many different parents and students
we have, but Gail um does a wonderful job trying to navigate all those things. Um, and how long have you been here like? >> I've been with the school district 22 years. Started as a band driver, went to a bus
driver, and then into the position that I am now. >> And I think her family history, was your dad a bus driver? >> He was. >> Okay. >> From our graph of all places. >> Yeah. So, we're very fortunate to have Gail on our team. Gail, I want to recognize you. So, thank you, Gail.
And you can give a speech if you want. >> I've got a card and a nice mustache. >> Oh, thank you. >> Do I really have to say give a speech? >> No, you don't have to. >> Boston McGrath so I can call my father-in-law. He had to ride the bus too far.
>> Larry. >> Yeah. >> I'm trying to think if dad actually drove him to school. >> Probably did. >> Yeah. probably kicked them off most of the time. But >> you know, um, a lot of people ask me in the summertimes, "Oh, I bet your happy
school is out." You know, and I'm I just laugh at him like, "Do you don't know what goes on in the summertime, do you?" The buses just don't magically show up. So, they're like, "Oh." So, they don't a lot of people don't understand the behindthescenes stuff. So,
>> we got a couple new buses, right, Gail in Arizona? >> We do. We have a couple new buses. Corey hasn't decided what routes they're going to go on yet. So, once he gets that all set up, then I'll get the inventory set up for you guys, but um so we're looking
forward to that. And I haven't heard if we're losing any drivers this year or not. Cross fingers. Um but yeah, otherwise it's smooth operation. I try to make it smooth anyway. We might have some bumps
in the roads, but they seem to pan out. I in my years of experience, I used to get really really really really like nervous about like, oh my god, how am I going to find this? I don't get that way anymore. It it'll work itself out. It
always does. So whether I have to take the route or whatever type deal. So or Dan has to drive something, you know, by scraping the bottle of the barrel, we're in a lot of trouble. >> Comes up. >> You didn't share that with Yeah.
>> Thank you, Gail. You can leave whenever you want. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Or >> I'll stay because I'm just not type of person that you don't want. >> Thanks. Um I don't know if you know this, but my mom did what you do and I
remember how nervous she'd get and how much work it was in the summer and especially like right before school started. >> So, it's amazing. Thank you. >> Yeah, we've got I've already gave the drivers their preliminaries for routing. Um, so hopefully they'll take a look at them and then um get their their inputs
back cuz I'm not out there, they're out there, you know, they know their routes and so um giving me the inputs and then I can put into transfinder our routing system. I can make those changes. So, um, the routing system has been a blessing. I have to say that.
>> Third year. >> Yeah. >> Third year. >> Awesome. >> Okay. So I think is going to do the 2025 Minnesota. >> Sure. >> Yeah,
I could probably do it from here. >> Okay. Yeah. So I thought I would give the board of course we had the um the legislative session a little bit later than finish up a little bit later than usual. Um go ahead Kelly. Kelly made
these wonderful slides um about our mission. So, I'm going to try to incorporate those into my presentation. So, um, thought I'd share those with you. Go ahead, Kelly. Um, so just so everyone understands,
these are our representatives. Representative Nathan Nelson, Ron Ka, he represents the northern part of our county, kind of by Isisle and over there, and I think he goes all the way over to Little Falls. Um Isaac Schultz
is on the western border of Kabic County and probably touches a few of our households. And then Senator Jason Raric of course is our senator for our area. Um Eric and I along with other
superintendents, I think Dakota was with us one time when we met with >> most of these representatives to advocate for school. Amy was with too I believe. Um, so we've we've tried to develop good working relationships with
with these legislator legislators and they do a really good job of listening to local concerns. I know Joe, you had mentioned that too at the county level. So, >> um, yeah. So, the the legislative session kind of got off to a a rocky
late start because of uh the house being split. Um the thing that the board should know and is that you know there was a little bit of a surplus this year and at the same time next year there's projected $6 billion deficit. Of course
that can change. Um but I I don't think it'll it'll go into a surplus by any means. So that created a lot of uh reductions for not only schools but other areas. Um the
legislature missed their n May 19th deadline. They had a a one-day special session. I think it was June 9th. Um they're talking about maybe another special session here maybe in the fall because there's some uncertainty and I think it has to do with u medical
insurance and and uh things of that that side. But uh the good thing for schools there were no further mandates like there were the previous year. So that was something positive that we were telling the legislators that you know we we can only manage so many of these new
mandates and a lot of these mandates come without uh funding. So on the next slide you can see that um there was no new funding um for schools um and actually there was a a reduction of 420
million over the next bianium the two years in uh 28-29. the general ed formula um is now tied to inflation and that was something that we as school leaders were concerned about because there was discussion about
whether or not they'd actually follow through with that. Um in the past schools could kind of count on 2% and then during CO we had a couple years where we got 4% and 2% and then it's been tied to inflation by statute. Um,
so this year we know we're going to get 2.7%. Next year it's uncertain because we don't know what the inflation is doing. Um, but it's there's still a lot of uncertainty into the to the funding piece of that.
Um, on the on the funding, you know, some things that are going to be costing the district is the teacher pension. It did lower the retirement age from 60 to 30. Um, which could help school districts in the long run because a lot
of the staff that are towards the bottom of the salary schedule and make the most, if they retire early and are replaced by um, uh, newer newish teachers, then that would save the school district and other school districts around the state. I heard a
number at I think Amy and I were at the staff meeting and one of the superintendents was talking about all the money that um could be saved if we had uh quite a few teachers retired around the state. Um one of the things
that they did is they uh TRA increased the contribution that school districts need to make and also I I believe employees too, right Eric? employees had a a slight increase in that too. >> Yeah. >> Um the other thing that we have coming
up on us beginning January 26 is the Minnesota leave paid leave program and that'll be paid for by the employer of44%. And um you know I think Eric has some calculations on what that'll cost the
school district. So it's a part employer and a part employee district. Um, on the next one, um, one of our concerns I think that I brought to the district, Eric and I did when when we had our preliminary budget was just the
uncertainty of the unemployment insurance. And for our district, it was anywhere in the range of $225,000 to $250,000 that if the state didn't pick that up, the districts would have to fund. Um there was some things in compensatory
fund which would be the free and reduce that we weren't quite sure would pan out and and actually came out a little more favorable for school districts. So that that was um a positive for school districts. LTFM. I think Eric had
mentioned this in this presentation, but it just gives districts an more of options when they have to do big roofing projects that they can um have some different options to fund anything over a h 100,000. And there's some
equalization factors in there so that it helps the state pays for part of that. So that was a positive. Um, some reductions to school funding would be the specialed transportation reimbursement. That's $90 million
statewide for two years. You know, I talked a little bit to Eric about like what that means. And I think it's a real unertain number at this point. It reduced by like what was it 5% or 10%. So, I mean it's not going to be a big number, but it it will be a reduction.
The way special ed funding works is is we pay for all of that um upfront cost and then we get reimbursed. I I want to say it's about a year later, a year and a half later. So, um, >> so cents on the dollar,
>> 60 cents on the dollar, so to speak, >> give or take >> student support, um, it was reduced and that's kind of restricted. That goes to pay for um any guidance counselors, new guidance counselors. So, we do have a new social worker at the elementary that
we can utilize those funds for. Library aid that was, you know, I think want to say um $40,000. I think it was reduced by $20,000. We can use that to purchase library books and other library things.
So, school lunch reimbursement was reduced. And I don't think anyone really knows what that means right now. I think that the from what we've seen, the state and the federal government has held up their bargain. I don't think it's going to impact any of our school funding. Um,
so we'll just kind of have to wait and see. It doesn't come on the books until 2829. um part of the special ed uh part of the fund funding or savings, the state is going to um create a blue ribbon program
for trying to reduce special ed funding or services and save money. Um so they're getting a group of people through the special ed community and and trying to figure out ways that we can reduce costs for the state and school
districts. It's probably one of the bigger um funding streams that the state has in special ed. Some of the policy things I'll just kind of highlight. Um readact, there was a few minor changes
and updates to it. We've been doing this, you know, I want to say more as a head of the ball game in the redact. We were doing things before it actually became a a requirement. Um and that has to do with staff training. The big thing will be now purchasing the reading
programs and some of the um some of the curriculum that goes along with that. That's going to be a big cost. Uh Labor Day start. I was just talking to Mr. Whipred today and he was saying um he's scheduling for next year already. So, uh
I think Labor Day next year is September 7th or 8th. So, the state is going to allow school districts to start on September 1st um instead of waiting till after Labor Day. So, that'll be I know you two are on the calendar committee.
That'll be a conversation that we'll have to talk about. It seems to make sense um and uh gives us a little flexibility if we choose to do that. This is kind of interesting. Short call emergency subs.
They had a pilot program and they required districts to pay subs $200 and a lot of districts, you know, like MOA, we pay, I want to say 155, 160 for retired teachers. So that um if we were
part of the pilot program, we we could pay uh pilot people that were trying to get licensed $200 and we pay all of our other subs 155 or 60. So there were not very many districts around the state
that actually participated in the program. So now they kind of lowered it to say that okay you can do it. One of the interesting things is that it gives a little bit more flexibility on who can sub. Um actually paras I think that were
in our district for a certain number of years could actually sub in a classroom now. So could be a um cardiac um cardiac emergency response plans. Um they're
requiring uh schools to have those student attendance reporting changes. There were some minor things. I think they're the state is trying to uh along with MOA and every other school district try to improve attendance. So, um, other things of interest, open
meeting law. There were changes to allow board members to participate remotely. I know we've done this in the past, and I think Matt, maybe you had to do it once or considering it, but you had to like post it on your physical location, like
let's say you were doing it at home. Um, so there were some quirky things about it. They just kind of loosened some of those requirements up. I know MSBA worked hard at that. data requests. Um, so now school districts, you know,
if we get a data request, we're required to go through with that. And then so what they say now is if if we go through and prepare some of that data and they don't get they don't come and pick it up after 5 days, then we don't have to sit and wait and we don't have to keep
responding to their requests if they don't come up and physically pick it up. So that's a good thing for schools. directory information. It just says privacy for parents and their data mandatory reporting. There's some uh
training requirements um in ESST which has been a thing last year. I don't know how closely that you had done uh dealt with it but like school districts employees had quite a a bit of liberty to notify the school
district of you know what they were using their leave for and things of that sort. So it does put some more um I would say for school districts we could ask people if they're going to take more than two days if they what they needed
to use that leave for. So it does give a a little bit of opportunity for us to do some things and then some reasonable documentation. So all right. So I talked a lot. Any questions or
comments or thoughts about the legislative session? >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Sure. Thanks. Um next we have the consent agenda. Are there any requests to remove anything from the consent
agenda? Okay, seeing none, I'll take a motion regarding the consent agenda. >> So move. >> Dakota is making a motion to approve the consent agenda. Correct. >> Yep. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Second by Matt. All those in favor say
I. >> I. >> All those opposed say no. It passes unanimously. Um, okay. So, next up is the budget calendar review. So, it's listed there for us to
review. And after that, we have the resolution for accepting gifts and donations. Um, there was a $1,500 donation from American Red Cross to like for a scholarship. Um, so I'll take a
motion regarding that resolution. >> Make the motion to approve. Second. >> Matt is made first. You said second. Scott seconded it. Um, let's take a roll call vote. Um, Ken >> I >> I Jill >> I. >> Matt.
>> I. >> Amy is I >> I >> I got his eye. They're all I um Okay. So, next is the board committee appointments.
Pull that up here. Or are you pulling it up? >> Do you want me to make it really easy? Just throw me in the vacancies. >> I think that's what the plan was. >> Yes. >> So, that would put you on only one
committee other than the others. Is it possible you would be interested in taking because I have like six. Is it possible you'd be interested in taking either buildings and grounds for me or wellness. >> I'll do I'll do either. I've done buildings and grounds in the past, so I
can do either or whichever one you >> would you rather give up. >> Why don't you take buildings and grounds? >> Okay, perfect. >> Thank you. >> Yep. No problem. >> Is there any other areas that people want to change? I don't think we have to approve it. So,
thanks. >> Yep. >> All right. Next is considering approval of the substitute pay rates for 2526. Um I'll take a motion regarding that. >> So move.
>> Dakota is making a motion to approve it. Is that second? >> Jill seconds it. Um all those in favor say I. >> I. >> All those opposed say no. >> Okay. It's approved unanimously. Um, next is the employee employee
appreciation and recognition events 2526. Um, take a motion regarding this. >> So moved. >> That is motioning to approve it. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Could second it. All those in favor say >> can can we have a discussion on this, please? >> Sorry.
>> Yep. Uh, >> thank you for stopping. >> Yeah, no problem. I think it would be good for us as a board, and I don't want to strongarm anybody, but I think it'd be good for us to start a fund to help kind of fund some of these as a board. Like, you know, each of us donate x amount of dollars and then they can be used for a certain portion for each, you
know, it can be used to purchase something for each one of these events. I think it'd be pretty good show of faith for the board to do that. So, >> um probably a discussion we can have offline. Um we can determine that at another time, but I just thought it was something that was noteworthy to add to this discussion. So,
Yeah, >> because it shows that we appreciate the staff, which we do. >> Yes, absolutely. So, and it just helps everybody. So, just put that we can determine that later, the amounts and everything, but I just thought it was good noteworthy time to bring that up. So, >> yeah. And the other thing that, you know, board members are welcome to
attend >> some of these, especially the ones that are in town. I know some people have work schedules and it's not as easy. So, um but uh yeah, I know that people staff appreciate um being recognized. I know that I think
anyways Mora does a great job. I've been in other districts and I think MOA does more than other districts do as far as recognition. Um so that's a nice thing um and a good way to to recognize
people. So, >> any other discussion on the subject? >> I was going to say I'll have Kelly and I will reach out to the board members and we'll talk about how to start a fund. >> Thank you. >> Good. >> Okay. So, all those in favor of
approving the appreciation events um staff. >> I. >> All those in post say no. Okay, it's unanimously approved. Um, next is considering approval of the
resolution to dissolve the boys hockey cooperative between Mo and Malaca. Um, it seems to me that, um, we the next three agenda items are for that. Um, we are going to include Bram into
the mix. And so in order to do so, we have to dissolve the agreement between Nora and Malaka first and then next we have to make an agreement between the three of them and then after that we have to approve.
So um I guess I'll take a motion regarding um this resolution. >> Um Ken made the first motion to approve it and Scott seconded it. Um is there any discussion?
Um we'll do a roll call vote because it is a resolution. So Dakota >> I Dakota is I Scott >> I >> Scott is I Jill >> I >> Jill is I Ken >> I >> Ken is I Matt >> Hi. and Amy.
Um, next is approving the resolution to enter into the boys happy cooperative between Laura Black and Graham. Um, is there a motion to approve this? She's got it's Joe seconding it. >> Um, it's a resolution. So, we'll do it
by roll call. Matt >> I. >> Matt is I. Amy is I. Ken >> I. >> Ken is I. Scott >> I. Scott is I. Jill I. Jill is I. Dakota >> I. >> Dakota is I. So the resolution is approved. Next. Consider approval of the
2025 boys hockey agreement between Laura Malaka and Ram. Let's make a motion. >> I'll motion. Jill. >> I'll second >> and Matt is seconding. >> Um, all those in favor say I.
>> I. >> All those opposed say no. Okay, it's approved. Um, next up is the policies. Um, most of these take a single well these all take a single reading. Um, so,
um, I want to take mention that 905 is on here policy for the advertising that we talked about previously. um allowing uh other like allowing us to not market but to um share with people um other
nonprofits or other people who have the same mission as ours activities. >> Other school districts I know >> um like OGO offers some things through their community that we don't necessarily have. So if that wants to be
promoted, I think Kenya had mentioned something to the effect of I think it was firearm safety and could be snowmobile certification. You know, it could be, >> you know, something of that sort. Um, >> so it we put that language in there. I
can read it if um it says the district may cooperate in furthering the work of any nonprofit communitywide agency or other neighboring school district that aligns with the educational purpose and mission of the district upon approval of
the superintendent or designate. So that gives us that flexibility to do that and you know so um if you run across situations where you um you know whether it's your student or whether you hear uh
about certain things it could be could be inkly could be ogle could be malaca things like that and so I think that'll give us some flexibility in that policy so >> and it also still says it's at our discretion
Um I believe we have to approve these. Correct. >> Right. So I'll take a motion regarding approving these um policies as listed. >> So moved. >> Scott made the motion. Is there a second? Joe's seconding it. Um all those in favor of approving all of the
policies as listed and written in our agenda say I. >> I. All those opposed say no. They're approved unanimously. Um, this brings us to the board reports. Uh, does any board members have any
reports to share? >> The the only one that I have um Dan mentioned it a little bit, but because he was at the executive council, he did mention it out loud, but it's written in his report. um he was at the executive
council for Rum River and they purchased or are purchasing some property and so then after that meeting we had the governing board meeting and we did approve to purchase the property. Um it is so if you know where uh Dairy Queen
is when you're entering Malaka um if you go east of there there's a road I think it's called Second Street. Um, so it's like just down from 23, just south like a couple block. So there's like across second street from like the dental
office that's anybody that's >> um anything. Um yeah, so they went through at the governing board and the executive council the property and then
um preparing for um construction, getting some um conceptual diagrams, creating a website. So once I have that, um Tanya will share that. Um, I think Tanya is going to come in this fall and
talk to the board a little bit more about the process and um, I can share the property information. Maybe I did already, but the property location was shared at the governing board, too. So, it's about a five little over five
acres. >> Yeah. 55. >> Yeah. Sounded like they were working with the city to get city sewer and water. So that was a um a thing that not only our board talked about but other board members. So um so yeah.
>> So it's east of Dairy Queen down past the cemetery. >> Yep. >> On the east side of that road. >> I don't think it's that far. >> I think it's north of or not north. South of 23. Is it?
>> Yeah. A little bit east of 169. Is that what you said? >> Uh no. So you have 16 169 and then you have Dairy Queen. >> Okay. >> And then you have Second Street and it's like one block off of that is there's like a small little road that goes farther east from Second Street.
>> Yeah. It's the one that would bring you back around over like the back way into Bach or if you were going to cut just past the cemetery. You go south. >> Yeah. There's a cemetery on the corner of 23 in that road. >> Yeah. Past there. The cemetery is right there and you go south. That was the detour road.
>> Yes. It's about one or two blocks south of >> Yeah. And it's on the east side of the road. >> They'll have an address that even >> Yeah. And every city city sewer, water, everything is on the industrialized side of it already. Yeah. >> I'm getting that's from my memory of having finance, you know, but not onto
that side. So, it shouldn't be anything major. Just some hookups. >> Some have to run it there. >> Hookups beook the hookups are going to come um down the west side of that road, >> the And then it's going to cross right into >> Yeah.
>> right by the driveway like right into where it's going to start. >> So Ken here's Dairy Queen and stuff over here. >> It's just this is that north cell throw. Here's the cemetery. It's just down here. >> You're right. >> Just right over here. So >> yeah, it might actually be >> I bet it's a parcel here.
>> This right here. This parcel. >> Yeah, I bet it's a parcel. >> Yep. So, >> is there anything else from your board or board that you like to share? >> Um, well, maybe just the Pathways Early
Learning Scholarship. Carrie Cells, our um preschool teacher. um she applies every year for these scholarships and I think we receive 62,000 per year um for preschool families and
students who need financial need. So that's a that's a really great thing that that we're able to get and that really helps our community and preschool funding. So kudos to to Carrie for doing that. So that brings us to the upcoming dates
to remember. Most of them are focused on coming back to school which will be on September 2nd um for all students. There's other back to school dates that are listed for teachers. I don't see any correspondence here. Um
is there any other board business? And there's no more cards or writing cards for open form. Um, that brings us to I need a motion to adjourn to close session meeting to discuss labor negotiation
strategies per Minnesota statute 13D.05 subdivision 3. >> So moved. >> Could have made the motion at 705. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Scott seconded it. All those in favor say I.
>> I. All those in close say no. So we're adjourned at 706.