##VIDEO ID:Gq8OTPWf9mQ## it's y oh it's time good evening everyone and welcome we are the otana school board this is Monday it's December 9th 5:30 I'm going to call this meeting to order Eric if you would are attendants uh Aaron won't be with us tonight and Deborah had something where she might make it let's hope that she's able to do so let's start our meeting tonight with the pledge pled 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 before I ask for a motion for the approval of the agenda I would just like to uh make sure that everybody understands tonight we're going to pause our meeting at 6 o'clock for the truth and Taxation and uh we can't start it before 6 o' but as close as we can at 6 or slightly thereafter we're going to pause the meeting we'll have truth and Taxation and after truth and Taxation will resume our meeting with that we'll entertain a motion to approve the agenda so moved second motion and a second is there any discussion all in favor with an i i any oppose that motion carries item four tonight is Mission moment Mr elad if you would please absolutely thank you Mr chair members of the board I'd like to ask Mark Octor Kirk to please come up to the front you're not getting away in the back row tonight Mr oerk tonight we are honoring Mark oerk uh for being named the region one daa activities director of the year mark is an an amazing activities director coach and mentor to students at owana high school he works extremely hard to ensure successful experiences for our students coaches and advisers in all of our high school activities and Athletics Mark took on the role as activities director in 2018 after serving as a math teacher at the high school for 23 years his exceptional organizational skills and ability to solve problems are Central to his success while feeling successful teams is always fun and exciting Mark knows the most important purpose of Athletics and activities is to develop better young women and men the wide variety of opportunities we offer allow students to connect with peers and adults outside of the classroom which enriches their High School experience thank you Mark for all you do for our students coaches and advisers and congratulations on the very well-deserved honor of region 1aa activities director of the year [Music] the board yeah I uh by way of introduction Mr octar kerk's daughter was a nominee for the KY de cam leadership award and as we sat in the interviews and and had a chance to talk to each of the kids iub was one of the uh nominees as well and and as we were interviewing Mark's daughter she was asked who's a mentor who's a significant person in your life she t talked about her dad and and one of the other questions was tell us about something that you struggle with ironically she said well I kind of struggle with my math so then when we married the two together and we said when you ask your dad for help with math what's that like and she said well it can be a little intense but um I've had great admiration for Mark oerk the entire time that I've known him as a as a member of the staff here at the uh oana Public School System we're really we're we're honored to have you a part of our system i' turn it over to anybody else with any comments Mark I just have to say I can't believe it's been six years it it seems like just the other day you know you were coming forward and taking this role and we were so excited and here it's six years later um can you I I know there have been many um you know activities and new things but tell us about a couple of the new things that have begun under your leadership because I I know there's more than I can think of a couple but yeah you Mark can you pull the microphone close to you and you got to push a little button to it and make it like there you go is that better don't be modest feel free to brag right now don't be modest what's your favorite I tell us I will say one of my favorite things of the year um that we implemented when we started is when we have our our adapted floor hockey kids come to the high school is one of the most special nights of the year um and it's it's one night but it's it's just one of the coolest things um to have all of our other activities come and support the kids our community that comes out the band cheerleaders um and it was always pushed previous at ah we can't find a night or it's tough on the gym floor whatever the case might be but it was it's just such a neat event um and so many people pull together to make that happen we you know go to the hockey rink and we get the bumpers from them so that we can pull it off in that gym floor and um that it's just I I think that night kind of exemplifies otana and and what we stand for and what we do for all our kids all our kids um and the excitement that they you know and at the new high school last year and they had the big boards up and and then when we scored the goal and we had the horn going like the Wild game the kids were just going crazy so um we have other teams like yep we'll be here next year it's like well we come to you next year on the rotation nope nope we want to come back to aana for this we don't ever get to see anything like this and our kids don't get to experience this with a full pep band and the full cheerleading squad so that's just one highlight that I I um really enjoy great thank you appr absolutely well and I sincerely appreciate the fact that when we've asked you to come to board meetings and speak um about the students in our school system that are are multiple activity kids and and you've brought it to our attention time and again that these are the students that that really lift up the entire student body that um absolutely they uh exemplify the best of of what we have and and here you are steering the entire process so again thank you very much thank you I I I would be really remiss um not to make it very clear that this is a sh shared award um Nancy Benson is an incredible administrative assistant and there's absolutely no way that I could do my job without her and what she her contributions to what we do in the activities is incredible um not just Nancy but our our head coaches and what they do and our advisers um and you know quite frankly Mr elstead Mr Kath the rest of our administrative team there's no way that I could possibly do the job that I do without uh those specific people our site managers our ticket takers our scoreboard operators there's so many folks that are behind the scenes that people don't get to see uh they go to a football game on Friday night and you have this big spectacle going on and just magically happens well it doesn't just magically happen there's so many people that are working to make that go behind the scenes during the game and you know from our our maintenance workers to our our field Shannon Vick and what he does to have our Fields ready to go and our Stadium ready to go um and and a lot of times those folks just they don't get seen cuz they're not out in the front and um they need to be acknowledged because um it's a team and and I'll go even further and saying I know I've said this before I I think I've said this in front of this group before um but if being an activities director you have a it's a very unique job um in the fact that I work so closely with so many different schools on a on a daily basis weekly basis I mean we as ads we meet once a month and you get a very good look at how other school districts operate you hear their frustrations or how things you know go in their District their communities and I am here to tell you we are very blessed to live and work in otana people need to understand that are there things that we could be better at and we could do better absolutely just like any Community but I'm here to tell you that oana is a very unique and very special community and people need to understand that and if you don't have the opportunity to work and see the inner workings of other districts and other schools and the the opportunities they provide or don't provide it's hard to know that you know because we all can when we work within a community you know your own weaknesses and and your warts per se um that we could be better at and sometimes we lose sight of how special we have it and the great things that we have and the great people that we get to work work with oana and the support that oana gives to our school district to our activities is incredible and people are people know this and um just are very I don't want to say jealous but wow must be pretty nice to work in aana and I say to them it really is it really is so thanks um my my my acceptance of this word and I try to say this to everybody it's it's uh shared award um with Nancy um with our coaches advisers all the people that support and work together because it is certainly a shared award and and again I just want to express how grateful and honored I am to B the represent Latana work in this community work in this District because it's it's incredible drad any closing thoughts no I think Mark said it pretty well I mean this was an incredible place but when you have people like Mr oerk to lean on often say there are two things that generally can end up on a superintendent's desk one of them is activities that special education and we have two extraordinary leaders in this District that uh are managing those issues and leading those issues very well and um I'm very proud to work with not only Mark but our entire team but Mark exemplifies everything about leadership thanks we know you have basketball game to get to thank you thank you [Applause] item five tonight is public forum uh sir do we have any cards no cards okay we're going to continue on item six tonight would be reports one item only in the reports area item a would be the audit Mr elad if you would please do some inter yes I'm going to ask uh uh Lori BS our Director of Finance and operations and Mary REI is our representative from Clifton Larsson Allen and our lead um audit auditor on this report and I'll turn the items over to them Mr chairman members of the board superintendent elstead um pleased to uh be presenting the audit report for this fiscal year ending June 30th 2024 and uh Mary REI is an ultimate professional in her field of audit tetin for Clifton Larson Allen and so I'm very happy that she's here to present this excellent Auto report to us tonight yes thank you for having me um Mary can you pull that mic close to you thanks yep uh normal pretty much audit season obviously losing Sarah during the middle of it but um she was able to wrap everything up for us able to present tonight with final um copies of the audit overall you know pretty clean audit when we look at it um audit opinion we were able to issue a clean or unmodified opinion so highest level of assurance that us as Auditors can give when you look at each of these sections your yellow book compliance internal control single audit and Minnesota Leo compliance no findings there um within the single audit that's your federal Awards we tested Child Nutrition and special education um and no findings overall so overall a really clean audit report so we'll get into some of the numbers here fund balances of the general fund we like to give you just a picture um going back a few years so 2020 is on the far left and then 2024 is on your far right um there you can see your unassigned fund balance went up from last year if you look down a couple lines your restricted fund balance you were able to spend that down right so within there you spent down your medical assistance operating capital and ltfm went down about 3.4 there um so really able to spend um down on those um restrictions which is what you want to do right you want to be able to spend that money on the projects that you have going on so you can put the rest in unassigned which is pretty much you can run day-to-day operations so when you look at that overall if you look at all of your fund balances um over your total expenditures you're at 22.6% you take that out and just use your unassigned what can be spent on anything you're at 14.81% right now fund balance policy is to have between 8 and 10% so um meeting and exceeding that policy the next one is the student enrollment um average daily memberships here when you look at this you actually see that you increase by about 1% I will say that about 90% of my schools actually decreased so you're in the top 10% there that you actually did increase I know it's just a slight increase but um increas is is better than what I've seen there so that impacts your funding here so then your Revenue sources coming in property taxes up from prior year um State sources when you look at this almost a 6 million increase again quite a bit of additional State funding coming in um but a lot of that again is restricted so for you to be able to spend down restricted and really put that in un assigned is pretty significant as well um Federal sources at 5.6 million so when you look at your sea you have about 3.1 million coming in from Esser that is now gone right so next year when you see this your federal is going to go significantly down um so just keep that in mind as you go I'm pretty sure Lori has kept you aware of that yes okay perfect so then we look at your general fund expenditures per those average daily memberships that we just showed um here you can see in 23 it was at 13723 and then 1549 this year so general fund expenditures per student increased by about 12.29% and then we showed you that the adms increased by about 1.7 so this next slide shows you where a lot of those expenditures were spent expenditures by object here um the largest two pieces of that increase is your salaries and employee benefits obviously your biggest cost of the school but when you look at um total expenditures here you can see in 2023 at about 66 million and you went up to about 75 million this year then we look at your food service operating results here revenues at about 4.5 million expenditures at 4.1 million so you have about 1.8 million in fund balance um of course you will try and work on spending that down um over the year um a lot of my schools have this same problem I want to say right is your revenues you just weren't sure where to expect it it's all free um on the next slide I'll show but you increase in your participation right so that means increase in Revenue um just not sure where the costs were going to come in you can see the costs went up as well um due to both inflation and that increase in participation so then here the meal served so it wasn't 100% federally funded it was federal and state funded so a mixture of that but overall in general 100% of free males were served so 553,000 um compared to about 490,000 last year community service fund here's your operating results um revenues at about 3.6 million expenditures at 3.6 um so pretty much stayed right on 1.8 million in fund balance so when you look at community service funds you have about four or five pots within there all of those are positive as well so really each program is taking in the revenue it needs to um operate that program in full so just to give you a high view of the expenditures per ADM comparison here um really when you look at this pretty much similar to Prior year um nothing really significant that changed year over year so any questions or comments um we did present a few found documents for you um to review whenever and then ask any follow-up questions after as well no I would just say you know the finance committee had an opportunity to hear this material earlier in the week so um appreciate all your efforts and it's a great result and so we're pleased with that else Mary thank you thanks so much okay we're doing well TimeWise um we're going to come back to you um we're going to move to item eight which would be the general information uh any board members have a question for Mr elad or members of his staff as it relates to the enrollment report there okay we're going to continue on um we have time item nine would be board Forum um I don't know that necessarily we have anything were there committees that met yeah there were committees that met uh facilities has not met since our last meeting but uh policy anybody from policy want to update us with anything yeah we did meet as a policy committee last week um we've brought uh couple new fairly um like statutory change only policies uh to our second Reading Plus all of the policies that we had presented at first reading last time um we did take a look uh Elizabeth had uh raised some suggestions for uh policy what 522 is that what the number is and um we we considered them and the the uh msba model policy being in line with what uh the legislatur is actually um kind of passed we just didn't feel that there was any change warranted so it's just as it was in the first reading we also looked at policy 903 that was lifted up a couple of weeks ago by some community members and did a deep dive into that one and had good conversation and that policy We Believe reflects the best available options for all of our students and keeps access and opportunity available for everyone so we're going to leave that one as is as well and just so I might interject policy 903 as our visitors to build policy y it was address during public forum there was a concern lifted up so the committee looked yes correct that was just review that's not we just we reviewed it because there was concern it was brought up and we just believe the language in there provides access as well as protection for all of our students so I know that's what the lawyers recommended was the wording to how it was y y so yeah anything else for policy Finance um no again we met um the bulk of our meeting was focused on the audit report just saw okay um while we are on board Forum uh this is an opportunity there are two of us that are uh uh this is your last meeting tonight and if if you don't mind we'd like to take just a few minutes and recognize both of you I um um and I'll start um Deborah I uh have great appreciation for anybody that steps up and pays the $2 and signs up to put your name on a ballot and be and and to serve and um it it takes a special breed of cat to be able to um attend all the meetings listen to all the information process it and um um it's very nice to have you to have been a part of all of this with the school board and I appreciate um the work that you have done um Eric uh and I started at the same time we were both elected 12 years ago and um when Eric and I went to to our first msba training meeting which was up in the Twin Cities and Eric drove and I didn't really know him very well um and so as we walked out to his vehicle I noticed that his his truck had a license plate personalized plates that said see if I care and I thought I don't know Eric and he's a guy driving around with a vehicle that says see if I care and in the 12 years that you've been on the board Eric I think you've done a a spectacular job of showing the community just in fact how much you do care and you are extremely well connected here in the community I think that you have um a very very sensible pulse of what's happened in happening in the community good history and I thought I think that in the time that you've been here you've been a a wonderful voice for the school board and for the community with that I'm going to kick it over to Tim for some comments okay thanks for that uh Deborah uh congratulations on your service I've observed that you've always had a heart for the wellbeing of the kids of this district and I think you show that whenever you're asking questions that's an very important thing that we need to keep in mind all the time Eric um as as a fellow hometowner um I feel like I followed in your footsteps coming on the board four years later um and I I I know you're a huge advocate for this community I love getting the reminder there's a football game and everything else that goes on here and I just uh thank you so much for your 12 years of time here thank you I'll Echo all of these sentiments Deborah thank you so much I will miss the adventures of your dogs I'm not going to lie so did Mark tell you I took one to the vet this morning yeah I did hear that you were at the vet and so I am looking forward to the rest of that story after the meeting so yeah yes thank you for that and Eric thank you for your service and dedication and and advocacy for our kids in our community I very much have appreciated that over the years so thank you well I don't mean to belor because obviously I would just reiterate but um 12 years is a good long time that's a that's a real commitment to this organization and the kids so thank you for for 12 years that's more than most um and Deborah thank you so much for the two I think it's been two four four four yep golly where does the time go see it's amazing um and I do appreciate um maybe kind of what Tim uh commented on you know you are genuine and you're passionate about what you're passionate about so I appreciate that yes and um just thank you for um especially the the work over the several years before I came on the board all the work with the new high school and and I've definitely gotten to been able to um enjoy and be a part of all of that um but you guys did all the work so I appreciate all the efforts and commitment thank you Deborah board Forum anything to [Music] add um this is not the last time you will see me at a meeting I will be back I keep bugging you I'll call you first and ask questions and see what I where I need to go with things but good idea get my three minutes worth in in the 12 years met a lot of great staff a lot of great admin administrative wise and teacher wise um sat back and tried figuring numbers and figured I missed one regular meeting in the 12 years and I think we've had 15 or 16 different board members during that period which doesn't seem like a lot but yet it does when you have a four-year term um my mother and kids came theight before the meeting and and I think reality is starting to sink in for what normally pops up all the time for reminders I got to shut those dog on things off because I got to figure out what I'm going to be doing on Monday nights but you guys will see me now and then on Monday so I already warned you on that I'll be in one of the corner comfy chairs on the other side of the wall looking up at the two newbies we get to call you newbies at least for the first stretch and I welcome you both coming on um he'll take the oath on the sixth and just remember what you're doing we take the oath and who you are representing the entire District it's I think I'll stop or all start tearing up uh thank you IU anything for board forum tonight yes uh this week and last week me and Aon had the opportunity to sit in on some of the advisory meetings with Mr elstead and the middle school students high school students and ALC students I'll just try to go quickly because I know we have um a presentation soon so today we had the advisory meeting with high school students some key topics we discussed were classes and academics all students agreed that the classes were progressing well and that they were understanding the concepts being taught we discussed a 4day school week and the possibility of transitioning to a 4-day school week um pros and cons of that we discussed Compass Home Room most students most student feedback was mixed on on its usefulness students thought that maybe that time could be better used as um an addition to the already 50 minutes of compass time um and and then after that we also had some facilities feedback some students suggested adding more garbage cans in the school parking lot and then for e-learning and hybrid options um some interest was expressed in in implementing e-learning or hybrid days once a week or bi-weekly to offer flexibility for the alc we had a meeting last week Monday on Monday some highlights were class engagement classes are going well the students expressed joy in learning and we building strong connections with staff and we also had another ALC we had we had another advisory meeting um at this time with middle school students last week on Monday um some highlights were preparation for high school students felt well prepared for high school and particularly valued their CCR class that is College and Career Readiness um students expressed interest in electives there was enthusiasm among students to learn more about high school electives and students showed interest in hosting a high school panel where representatives from a diverse from diverse career past could share their experiences and insights and some advice for um the incoming freshman Au this is all of what you and Aaron pulled together in the last two weeks from when we last met yes we're going to be okay folks just look at our kids we're all going to be okay logistically how did you pull that off last week Monday we had a meeting with middle school students at 9: I believe and then again at 2: that Monday and then today we had a meeting at 2m with the high school Advisory Group IU is there anything else that's new any other announce maybe personally is there anything personally that you might have been recognized recently I was chosen as the male Excel Award nominee for otana all right [Applause] uh with that you know what we're going to we're going to take up the administrative report while we're at it Mr elad if you would oh okay all right um I'll try to keep this somewhat brief tonight um I'm spending a lot of my time these days on legislative meetings uh trying to organize our platform um I'll be coming back to you with all the finalized platforms had an opportunity to engage with representative elect seon last week um as well as I uh with Senator jinsky and so uh we continue to work towards some resolution there and how they might be able to best um Advocate at the capital for uh the needs of our public school students in otana uh quick reminder that we have coffee and conversation this Thursday at 8:30 looking for a board member or two that would be willing to uh be part or just be present to listen as well in coffee and conversation I can be there thank you I will double check okay okay thank you again Thursday at 8:30 um you sto my thunder Mr uh Sebring I wanted to congratulate Hub on Excel award uh that's chosen by coaches and so on and I think uh he certainly exemplifies leadership uh at the high school and certainly I just try to stay ahead of hean Erin um when it comes to listening to students and hearing their perspectives and I appreciate that this new report that you're going to start hearing from them will be that sort of capture of what the students are telling them and I kind of just let them talk and as an adult sometimes we just seem to stay out of their way um so anyway uh it's been refreshing to have that um real quickly I think this is a real um real Kudo to our district but we are the United Way campaign Community campaign leader this year and we indeed did lead this year we had a goal set for our district at $115,000 and as we tabulated the final amount we raised over $11,000 for the United Way of Steel County as a school district I think that's commendable and uh certainly uh outpaced our um what our goal was for the year so thank you to our staff uh that participated um in all of the events that went on to help support our families that are connected to the uned way of Steel County uh two other things things um I want to publicly tonight thank Lori voles uh Lori voles last day in the district will be this Friday um Lori has provided um a real steady and experienced Financial voice um in our um midst um she came in um kind of as a midyear transition to us um and when somebody walks into your office it says hi I'm Lori I have 40 years of school Finance experience you say welcome we'll get an office for you but no she's just been a complete joy to work with the consumate professional and uh has really set our path as a district recognizing that all of these federal funds and things coming in are really hard to manage and those of you in the finance committee fully understand that school Finance is a animal that's hard to cage at times because it just it everything changes and and so on and so forth but Lori my sincere thank you to you for your service to the district and as a friend thank you thank you yeah and then lastly I want to lift up uh Deborah and Eric uh Deborah um I've I would share uh the comments that were made by your board colleagues I appreciate your passion and perspective not everyone has to have the same perspective and that's the beautiful thing about democracy is that we have voices like yours and others that aren't afraid to share those perspectives and I appreciate that so thank you for your service to the board Eric um 8 years ago you chose a fantastic superintendent I apologize I remember the interview Eric um I would tell you I want to my sincerest thank you to you for trusting me uh the last eight years as your superintendent um but also the service that you provided through thick and thin um you know as I have reflected with a few board members about uh the last uh eight years it seems like two and a half of them felt like 10 uh particularly during the pandemic when we were trying to piece together what we thought was our best next move uh with that but I appreciate your leadership I appreciate the perspective that you brought and that you represented the voices of the community and so for that thank you and thank you both for your dedicated service because this is not an easy job and for those that have ever sat as board members they would attest to that this is a hard job when you're trying to make decisions that are maybe not best for the few but our best for the many so thank you for that that's it tonight thank you thank you Mr elstead with that um before either of you leave tonight we'll get uh um Lori's here and we'll get a quick picture of the the existing board and uh sharing a gift with both of you there's a bell and a lifetime activity pass for all the activities um to make your way in to see with that it is 6:07 I'm going to pause the regular meeting and we'll take up the truth in taxation in the audience and we'll all move out oh we do okay yeah do you want another one cuz I have yeah well here you go if you need another one yeah so you must have caught the same thing I did cuz yeah I know yeah all right I am going to begin with our presentation tonight regarding the tooth and Taxation hearing this is for taxes payable in 2025 for the oana public school district okay nope that wasn't it any any suggestions oh okay all right so we're going to go over what some of the requirements are we have a tooth and Taxation hearing because it is required by state law and we are within the time frame it has to be held between November 25th December 30th at 6: p.m or later it can be part of a regular scheduled board meeting must allow for public comments and may adopt the final Levy at the same meeting the another requirement of the uh tooth and Taxation hearing is that we have information on the current budget and the proposed property tax levy there I just had to hit the button harder okay um some of the components background information on school funding very exciting uh District budget and of course uh proposed taxes for payable 25 and then public comments is part of it as well so we're going to start with um the Minnesota Legislature and how they have identified uh some requirements um Minnesota's Constitution Article 8 or that's 13 excuse me uniform system of public schools um and you can read that there and very important uh phrase there um government depending mainly upon the intelligence of the people it is the duty of the legislature to establish a general and uniform system of public schools that's a very important phrase there uh the legislature shall make such Provisions by taxation or otherwise and you can see the rest there as a result the funding is highly regulated absolutely so the state sets fabula uh formulas so what she determined the revenue most for revenue is based on a specific amount per pupil and we are uh funded on the number of uh students that we serve and there's a component regarding resident students tax policy for local schools is a component that the state sets they also identify a Max maximum authorized property tax levy where districts can choose to Levy Less on a particular line item um but cannot be more than authorized by the state unless approved by the voters in November an example of voter approval would be an operating referendum for example um or even like a building bond is another uh public vote for example Jed formula allowance um this is a really interesting data set you'll see in the chart there and it illustrates the challenge that we have here in Minnesota so as as you know we have inflation that impacts all of us but the challenge for public schools in Minnesota is that the gened formula in Minnesota has not kept pace with inflation and you'll see that in the comparative on the two lines in the graph and so unfortunately um we we suffer as a public entity as a public school because our funding has not kept pace with the inflation that we've seen that come through on our expenses so for example the prepupal allowance for fiscal year 20 2024 25 of 7,281 would need to increase by another 1,36 4 or 18.7% to keep Pace with inflation since the 20022 2003 year and so that is a really great way to illustrate the challenges that all public schools in Minnesota face and according to the Department of Education um and just kind of a highlight overall for all public schools in Minnesota uh the 2023 fiscal year costs providing programs were underfunded Statewide by 726 million so that was FY 23 even with the current recent funding costs are will be underfunded by 455 million Statewide by FY 27 so even though with the last legislative session they did greatly improve our funding in a couple different categories a greatly improved special ed uh Aid as well as the gened formula there was some improvement there but it's not enough to uh address that uh shortage of funding of adequate funding so budget information that we're going to be going over tonight uh we go over the current year budget we'll also Identify some uh final actual expenses from last fiscal year and the proposed Levy for pay 25 so in the District funds we have different categories of funds the general fund is our main fund that's where our main operations are you know that's where most of our staff is charged uh where supplies for students textbooks Etc even in the general fund we have Capital Improvements for our buildings such as operating Capital as and uh long-term facility maintenance uh expenditures are in the general fund other funds within our uh District financials are Food Service community service building construction Debt Service and internal service so this is a summary of U what I call is a bud budget publication report and this is a requirement that mde um has districts complete and publish in the newspaper so it has been published so on the far left you'll see the funds that I mentioned earlier and you'll see fiscal 24 so that is reflective of um last fiscal year as we began that fiscal year and then we have the in the middle there we have 23 24 actuals so those are actual revenues by fund and our actual expenditures by fund for last fiscal year and then in the kind of the middle there in the blue uh you'll see the final fund balance of June 30th 2024 by fund and so as a grand total you'll see that for example all funds totaling as this fiscal year that ended in June 30th we were at 33.1 million and then going forward in the black category that is just uh to highlight what the current year 2024 25 budget is so you'll see a column for revenues transferring in expenses transferring out I want to emphasize these are budgeted and then um the far right you'll see fund balance that are anticipated so you'll see in the bottom there of all funds together um a $24 million fund balance overall of all our funds one thing I want to point out is a couple things so our building construction fund you'll see we have you know we're nearing the end of various construction expenses of obviously the new high school is complete uh we're still wrapping up final expenses for the renovation that is now called the district office which is a wing of the old high school so those some of those expenses are still going on and so the proceeds from that Bond um issuance um those expenses are nearing the end and that's why that fund balance is being spent down and used up per se um in the general fund you'll see a couple interesting things that in the general restricted category for example that component there is for example the operating capital and long-term facility maintenance for maintaining our buildings and we do have in this current fiscal year um budgeted to repair the pool and so that's uh larger than normal expense and um we also have um some other categories of reserved that will be spent down some fund balance like third party billing will be spent down Etc um um another piece I want to point out in the general fund other so you'll see that we're going from a 12.9 million budget excuse me fund balance and down to a 12.1 uh so what that is telling us is that this current year in the unassigned general fund we are deficit spending which means our expenses are exceeding our revenues by almost a million dollars and so that is part part of the discussion we've had and continue to have of how to adjust our budget and so that our goal is of course in the future that we would have a balanced budget where revenues equal expense so that just overall gives us a summary of the financials again all revenue all funds uh for this current year is a $95 million budget and the general fund is by far our largest fund as I've mentioned as uh comprises of 81% of the overall revenues and you can see the other categories listed there in the pie graph then in the general fund um Revenue another way of looking at it uh just zering in on the general fund uh again that's a $77.8 million budget as far as on the revenues coming in for the general fund uh State AIDS is a a great share of our revenues and that's almost 80% you'll see in the purple uh federal funds um at 2.7 so this I'm just going to make reference here you maybe recall the auditor talked about how Federal revenues last year um were higher and they we have uh $3 million of e eser funds it's a federal pandemic Revenue grants that have expired and dropped off so now we're uh down to our lower level now of federal AIDS we have um local revenues that includes um property tax for example then general fund expenditure by object code again we our current budget is 80.3 million and I just want to point out a couple things so in the uh category of the general fund uh area that we spend a the most of our our budget is uh regarding people so you'll see that with the salary benefit component that uh comprises the majority of of our expenses I was just going to try to find a quick summary here we go um so salary and wages and employee benefits together uh if you add those two that's 81% and we're in the people business we're a service organization um providing instruction to students so our large largest cost is for people so that's typical reflection of any public school in Minnesota you have other uh categories reflected here too um purchase service supplies Etc okay this is another way of looking at our general fund expenditures by program this I always found find very interesting again that grand total is 8.3 million and what's what you expect to see is that majority of our expenses would be for instruction we're a public schools um District so between reg regular instruction vocational instruction special instruction that comprises of 66.6% of our overall budget um but of course other categories can be um kind of a higher cost too when we're maintaining our buildings so of course between sites and buildings as operating Capital long-term facility maintenance is in that category pupil support services for example that is the majority piece of that which is that 10.2% is um transportation for example is a majority portion of that so these just break it down by those categories okay so um another thing to clarify is a change in tax lovey does not determine a change in budget so for example it all depends on what the state legislature has determined for formulas and so some of these formulas were let's say the of a grand total formula they determine a certain percentage of this formula is in the form of state aid the other component is local Levy it can shift between state aid and local Levy but the grand total revenue is the same and so um just to point that out most of the um increases in tax levies are Revenue neutral to us as a public public school and is if we have an increase in tax levy often we have a reduction in state aid by a similar amount um again as I mentioned before expenditure budget is limited by state set Revenue formulas and voter approved levies and fund balance okay difference in like Levy cycle so a school district a public school district Minnesota has a different um like a say fiscal year calendar than a city and county city and county their budget year begins January 1 and 20125 taxes provide revenue for the 2025 calendar year budget it's different for public schools our fiscal year our budget year starts July 1 and so 2025 taxes um provide revenue for the upcoming fiscal year which is the 2025 26 fiscal year and for example for that 2526 fiscal year our budget is required to be approved by June of 25 the month before that first um day of the new fiscal year so this is you've all seen your proposed uh property tax is just an example what a um proposed a tax statement would look like so every owner that owns property would receive this with uh this notice and on the notice it breaks down what the school tax County tax and city tax um components uh arrive at on your tax bill it also includes includes your property valuations so I want to really emphasize that because often if you look at if your taxes on your property is going up you really want to look at that property valuation up in the upper right corner the market value because often a lot of your tax is driven by if you have an increase in your proper property value a lot of that is a major contributor to what your actual tax bill is so each school district has a limited Authority um to Levy taxes we've talked about this it's the formulas set by state law and voter approval this just gives a timeline of how the property tax the flow of information it starts with the county assessor valuing the market value on each piece of property it goes then the legislature sets formulas then it flows to the county auditor who calculate the tax capacity on each parcel property admin Department of Education calculates detailed Levy limits for each School District so it's MD calculating these Levy documents the school board uh sets the levy and uh goes through that approval process after the tooth and Taxation hearing and then from there upon approval uh it goes uh to the county AER and they divide the final levy on the district's total tax capacity to determine the tax rate so that's how the flow of information goes so for our schedule we had our um on September 8th MD did their the first run I'll say of the draft Levy limit and then it was brought to our school board on September 23rd for the proposed Levy which they approved then uh the county sends out their property statements of their proposed stop property statements and then we tonight we have the public hearing and then following the hearing the school board will certify those final Levy amounts then overview of the proposed tax levy um so for us this year uh oron of public schools uh the increase in the school tax levy is 5% uh total dollar amount of that increase is $967,000 uh changes by each category and Reasons I'm going to go over that in just a second there's so many categories in the levy it's a very complex uh report and uh very complex um flow of data and revenue through those documents but I'm going to highlight a few categories so in the general fund uh there we saw an increase there of 5.9% and probably the main there's a couple drivers here of this increase uh probably the biggest one is the I category that says prior adjustment it shows increase of on the far right side you'll see 389,000 of an increase in that line item and that has to do with it has uh long-term facility maintenance in the previous year we had a credit on that line and that credit dropped off and now it's back to the normal level and um there's also a component that there's a inflationary piece on our operating referendum where each year um that refer oper refer amount per pupil increased slightly and um so there's a very many I ideas or uh line items here but those are kind of the main ones that pop out on the general fund community service um that line in that category went up by 20% we have a school age child care line that's new this year um but to the great benefit of of that program that is operated through community service Debt Service you'll see in that category that is going up by 3.7% um so we have a a couple things going on there we have the issuance of long-term facility maintenance bonds uh for an improvement project at the McKinley and the oec buildings for HVAC upgrade and um so that is reflective there in that category of Debt Service under the long-term facility maintenance line item and then um at the very bottom you'll see overall increase of 5% as I mentioned and so that's how it all tallies up and I'm going to uh get to some interesting nuances regarding this year regarding the levy but first we're going to just highlight I kind of mentioned this before in the general fund um we have the category change um of debt service and the the negative 125,000 under uh General and as I mentioned before health and safety maintenance as a big component of that um we do have a a new uh formula allowance regarding ltfm is listed there at 380 per student so it's formula driven um and so another thing I want to point out is that when we put the levy application together and as we saw how all the numbers were coming together um we we did determine decide to reduce the long-term facility maintenance Revenue line item by 420,000 and we did that to um give some relief on that total increase amount and uh we were able to do that because we are issuing that long-term facility manance Bond and we're able to address many uh needs there with that Bond and that's why we're able to help reduce that line and to to improve that bottom line total a little bit uh prior adjustments I talked about this earlier and that was that credit from a prior year that was dropping off and so now it ends up being an increase on that line item so uh many factors come into play for an individual when they um they look at their increase or decrease from year to year again as I mentioned earlier um when you look at your tax statement first look at changes on your individual property then look at the total value of all property within the district so that's we refer that to as our tax base and increases and decreases in Levy amounts caused by changes of state formulas Etc are other factors so all those components are factors impact of property valuations for example if you have two properties both house uh houses valued 100,000 the total Levy let's say each property is paying 250 so that's a total of 500 that's nice and simple so what happens if uh you have a change valuation let's say the orange house value goes up by 10% Blue House increases by 25% their property value is now different and they also then that the levy that's spread on them will be also be different where the orange house is going to be paying less and the blue house is paying more okay so now we're on to the Minnesota state legislature and laws that impact for payable 25 so one thing that is really a big component of our our Levy here is the fact that uh there's property tax relief that came through through the legislature that impacts taxes payable 2025 uh for the first time and so uh that's very good news so for example there's um a home exclusion to the benefit of homeowners where um it impacts valuations between 76,000 500 17,000 so homes valued in that range are benefiting from this um tax break I'll say um and so another component is eg Homestead so farmers that own Farmland are also getting a tax break uh for the um the land that's valued uh between the 3.5 million and um and it the previous limit had been 2.15 million so they're also receiving socalled um a tax break in with this new formula so there we go um so examples that I want to show you that uh let's say we have some properties that have no change in value and how that tax rate changes I'm also going to show you an ex example that's probably more realistic of showing a home that has increased in value over the last four years and a cumulative increase of 30 point about 30% increase in how that impact for those homeowners so I'm going to go over these examples just you can kind of illustrate this I want to point out that these calculations were done by our Municipal adviser aers and so I thanked him for that information so here is uh a chart that shows the property values on the left so residential Homestead commercial egg and apartments so for example if if you look let's just um let's use uh $300,000 home let's say so you'll see from taxes payable 22 to taxable taxes payable in 23 and 24 25 so on kind of the light green highlighted uh column you'll see um that's kind of reflective you can see how those taxes changes Through The Years so for that let's say that $300,000 home um in 2025 compared to 2022 the tax is actually going down by 299,000 um but that is if the property value stayed the same through those uh that time period um when we compare taxes 24 last year to 25 if that home value stayed 300,000 exactly then that tax is is going down as well by 47 so that just illustrate that is the impact of this um new property tax relief that's coming into play and so it just kind of gives you an example how that's impacting various different types of property so here's an example of a $250,000 home on the left and um let's just using this assumption that that property value for all those four years that home was valued the exact same 250,000 each year so with this chart on the left is showing that um actually that tax rate went down so there's a uh you know one factor there is um the tax Bas has increased as a whole for the oana public school and therefore our Levy is spread through on a larger task base similar thing for a 300,000 home the same scenario is happening you can see how um that um the tax actual tax on that home has gone down again this is just reflecting no changes in property value and we all know property values have gone up right but this just also gives an example for commu commercial property it's the same thing how the the tax rate has gone down our tax basees increased to so their taxes are being spread on a larger tax base so this is probably more realistic we could probably you can probably resonate with this one so this is showing a house that's currently valued at 250,000 and this is they calculated how the on average how the market value has increased over the last four years so using that assumption for example a house currently valued at 250,000 this year back in 2022 it was valued at 191,000 so obviously the value has been going up this also reflects okay shows what that tax was back in 2022 they were paying $993,000 I mean 993 $993 compared to 1,086 this year so uh this is a really good example for you to just try to understand what might be how it might be impacting on your own your own home for example and then on the right show us a $300,000 current valued home compared to what it was in 2022 okay another piece um I'm required to just inform you is um the components of a homestead cra credit refund and you'll see they're listed there it gives some information regarding the homestead credit refund uh special special property tax refund also is another required piece we want to inform you of and you'll see those points listed there and then the senior SED property tax deferral is another data set that we are providing information regarding I apologize I have a cold and my my voice is starting to uh slip away from me here so the next step is that the board accepts public comments on the proposed Levy and then the next step after that would be that the board would certify the 2025 property tax levy are there any questions from the public tonight and yeah in all reality it it it doesn't and that's why I showed that's why I showed the graph of a current $300,000 home when it was valued like four years ago um so how the um the tax impact charts though it's the it's how they are re required to be laid out where your list of property value and then what the tax is and so that is the reason it's reflected that way that's why a municipal advisor puts the charts together as they do any other questions all right there we go thank you [Music] can stay on okay 639 we'll um we'll resume the meeting Lori voles thank you very much that is a wealth of information it takes um a lot of heavy lifting to get that information pulled together I'm going to turn things back over to Mr elad one more time for just uh some transitional yes um I was remiss in my administrative report uh we have one of our new Finance uh staff with us tonight um I'd like to introduce you to Linda Gunther uh Linda comes to us with experiences with the St Louis Park School District uh she started uh a couple weeks ago as our controller and uh has been great addition to our staff and just brings a wealth of knowledge and uh looking forward to working with Linda so thank you welcome uh we will move on item 10 tonight would be the consent agenda the quick reminder we are approving the minutes from November 25 as well as the Personnel report any reason to pull anything out we'll entertain a motion to approve I move that the board approve the consent agenda second second we have a motion in a second is there any further discussion hearing none Eric if you would please Elizabeth I Deborah I Tim I jaline I Lori I Mark I and I myself as an i 7 all pass motion carries very good thank you item 11 tonight would be a couple items that the Board needs to take action on item a would be the audit for the year end of june30 2024 that was the audit that we just had the benefit of hearing about tonight um would one of you please introduce the motion for this I move that the board approve the audit for year ended June 30th 2024 as presented second we have a motion in a second had an opportunity to talk with Mary about any questions any further comments from the board on that okay hearing none all in favor with an i i any opposed that motion carries Item B would be the tax levy certification once again we just heard very comprehensive report from Lori voles on that would one of you please introduce this motion I move that the board approve the tax levy limitation and certification as presented second have a motion and a second once again any further discussions we have the benefit of Lori being here um uh Deborah asked a good question relative to uh taxes and home values any other questions okay hearing none all in favor with an i i any opposed that motion carries item C would be policy revisions again this is the second reading we took up the first reading at the board work session last time um a couple of comments that were raised uh policy committee responds to that um wanted you please introduce the policy revision I move that the board approve the revisions to the policies as presented second we have a motion in a second discussion I just would like to say um first of all thank you for recognizing U my comments in the in the policy committee discussion um and I just just would like to take that policy out of the rest of them um for voting um and I'd just like to read for the record that um one of the things I had suggested about policy 522 which is the title 9 non-discrimination policy um was a a basic statement just emphasizing protection of all students and um I just felt like the policy as it was written even though it was modeled after mba's policy was just left a little bit of room for possibly not protecting all students and I just wanted to consider adding an extra statement about um more protection for all students um so I am planning to vote no on that policy that which is so I'd like to separate that up policy committee you want to respond I I know that as you you talked about that you took into consideration what msba and the state law um had to say um how about a response to Elizabeth's concern well I think it's just as you said it's following the law um we felt it would be um not in alignment with the statute to include Elizabeth statement so we chose not to because we want to be in in the right place in terms of we don't we don't need uh legal action against the district because of a policy that we would enact that doesn't comply with the law i' I'd like to read the suggested statement just for the record um I suggested adding quote when making decisions regarding student participation in a given activity or sport considerations will be made for the physical mental and emotional safety of all students in effort to prevent subjecting any student to more than di Minimus harm this consideration includes practice and participation in activities and or Sports and the use of facilities typically divided for biological male and biological female use so just wanted to state that I didn't feel that that was going against the law but I understand the policy committees decision yeah we had some discussion about what Dom Minimus actually meant in the legal um context and I think we're we're all in agreement that that would put us in a legal Jeopardy things change in a couple of years depending upon legislative action then we'll revisit the policy and make adjustments accordingly absolutely so I think we just we really don't don't want to be a test case here right so all right so what the motion has been made to approve the Slate of policies as they were presented Elizabeth is requesting that we would pull um a particular policy out and vote on that separately that policy Elizabeth is 522 522 all three lines CU there's three 522 has got three lines of policies Mr share 522 uh Complaint Form and grievance procedure are accompanying documents that go with as far as different forms and procedural items that we would need to follow to be in compliance with Title 9 so they're part and parcel to the policy are you making reference to Eric's comment about I'm sorry I don't know if I heard his comment I know he was referencing those two items because they are link have three different policy lines of 522 that were I see I think what we if I may I think we need a motion from Elizabeth to pull out the 522 and the two attachments from the regular agenda then we can handle that separately and then we can move back to the other side actually we need a friendly amendment to jolan's motion to approve the Slate so Jolan if you would um would you reintroduce would you make a friendly um amendment to your motion that eliminates anything relevant to policy 522 yep I move that the board approve the revisions to the policies as presented with the exception of policy 522 and its two accompanied attachments all right second and Lori seconded that any further discussion and we're just voting on pulling those two out those three documents out correct go ahead point of order you are voting to approve the other policies minus the 522 and their attachments correct correct yep any further discussion hearing none all in favor with an i i i any opposed that motion carries Jolan if you would please I move the board approve the revisions to policy 522 and its two Affiliated forms as presented second we have a motion and a second any further discussion on that hearing none all in favor with an i i any opposed okay that motion carries as well thank you that takes care of policy revisions item D would be the Bridge Street property Mr elate could you give the board a quick summary of uh where we are with the uh recommendation if you're a member members of the board uh we you were presented uh that most recent work session and actually closed session as we we discussed the potential sale of the property of our Bridge Street property uh within that uh there was a recommendation that came forward uh from the facilities committee that we indeed lifted up and look for a realtor to assist us in the sale of that property um we did set um a timeline for those proposals to come forward we received two pro proposals um after discussion at our most recent facilities committee meeting uh it believed it was a consensus of the facility Comm that we lift up the Hamilton Real Estate Group uh as the group that was um would best represent based upon two criteria one of which was uh the overall price uh or the uh fees that were associated and secondly was the body of work and Commercial other commercial properties uh that had been um represented by the Hamilton Real Estate Group uh then following that up facilities meeting met we talked our way through everything um I think uh largely the the PO the facilities committee was was um uniform in the recommendation that we would take the The Proposal from Mack Hamilton have the motion y by chance so with that I'm going to ask Eric to please introduce the motion I move that the board approve the Hamilton Real Estate Group as the commercial real estate firm to sell the former district office building located at 5:15 West Bridge Street in utana Minnesota second we have a motion in a second any further discussion I have a quick question and I won't hold them to this but building of this size in our community price point average time frame to sell and this is average Josh um average um there's really I don't really know um it just depends upon you know in another uh the conversation that the board facilities committee had was how many potential buyers might there come to Market okay uh potentially using one of the other real estate firms that were represented in the proposals um there's a fair chance that it could sell pretty quickly and probably an equal chance yeah that it might sit on the market obviously as a school district there's a motivation for us to release that property to release us from utility costs moving forward and things like that um so we um the real estate group that um you're considering approving um feels like it uh the property could move relatively quickly okay I'll take that thank you and with that neither of the proposals that came forward neither of them made any mention of potential buyers that we we awaiting so y it's a real estate transaction y yep any other comments hearing none all in favor with an i i i any opposed that motion carries finally gifts to the district Mr elad uh tonight we have a number of gifts and I just did a little uh simple math here um if you consider the gifts that have been given to our music department tonight they total $1,925 uh for a number of different things and again our music boosters of otana have made some significant contributions to our music programs including some uh money set aside uh just over $7,000 for uh new choir robes and again um we're very fortunate to have a robust music program in our community and uh the music boosters certainly help us to uh keep that momentum moving forward would one of you be kind enough to introduce this last motion for us I move go ahead nope ladies first I move that the board approved the resolution for acceptance of gifts as presented second motion and a second all in favor with an i oh that is correct think Eric's still here I know everyone was excited though vote for it any go ahead discussion any further discussion Elizabeth I Deborah I Tim I jolain I Lori I Mark I and I myself an I 70 pass carries thank you item 12 I'll make the motion that we adjourn second we a motion in a second all in favor with an i i any opposed motion carries good meeting thanks folks is there a picture