Okay. So, it is six o'clock. All board members are present both in person and virtual. So, we will move on. There was two additions to the agenda which we'll cover later. Looking for a motion to approve the agenda.
>> So, move. Second by Ron. Um, roll call vote. >> Uh, Jacob. Uh, hi >> Thomas. >> Hi >> Ron. >> Hi >> Gerald.
>> Hi >> Rachel. >> Hi >> Bruce. >> Hi. >> And Cheryl. >> Cheryl. Are you Are you available? Can you hear us? >> She's muted. Okay. Um, maybe just a no vote.
>> Okay. >> No, for sure. >> I'm going to text text her and see if she's >> Okay. >> So, all in favor? >> I >> Well, you did the roll. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, motion passes.
Okay. I'm so so sorry. I know it's a little disadvant um no public comment. So, moving on to the consent agenda. >> Okay. Um couple of things that I'll just real quickly call out. Um you'll notice that there are um there's less bills. I
don't know Cheryl if she's available. generally she comes in and checks them um in the morning and when she hasn't been able to come in she's checked them during the uh remotely. Uh so um I haven't heard any questions from her. Um
the one area that I really do want to um highlight and just take a second to pause is uh for our retirements. And if you've had an opportunity uh to read the letters um of our of Diane, Kim, Dena, Becky, Karen, Char, and Diane Miller
Gerkin. Um there's uh a lot of warmth and and they were really nice letters and um grateful for the the work that they've been able to do for our students in Paysia schools. and um I just want to take a second to say thank you uh for
their service and their work. Um and so it's a that's a big list and so I I wanted to take a second to call that out. Um and then uh you're also going to notice a new column that is um leaves of
absence uh with the new um uh upcoming paid Minnesota paid leave. um we we do need to um call out leaves of absence, but we also have to be um very cautious of what's identified. So, the recommendation has been just to identify
how many leaves of absence are um the board is approving and then we have the appropriate documentation on file in the district office. Uh so, um I would stand for any questions on the consent agenda. I do see uh Cheryl has hopped on. Cheryl, is there anything you would like
to call out for bills? Yeah, I finally got on. I finally figured out how to work it. >> Okay, sounds good. >> Um, no, I I did go through the bills remotely. Um, there was a pretty short list this month. Uh, there wasn't really much to call out.
>> Great. Okay, hearing no questions. Looking for a motion to approve. >> Motion. >> Motion by Thomas. >> Second. >> Second by Bruce. Uh, roll call vote. >> Uh, Ron. >> I. Rachel,
>> hi >> Bruce. >> Hi >> Jacob. >> Abstain. >> Bruce. >> Oh, >> hi >> Thomas. >> That's okay. You put me down for two, huh? >> My
>> Thomas. >> Hi, >> Cheryl. >> Hi. >> And then we got Ron. >> Gerald says I >> Gerald. Oh my goodness. This is all new. We've become rusty since co haven't we? I
guess. >> Um don't even know one abstain. Motion carries. Moving on to the communication items. >> Uh so revenues and expenditures. Um as Cheryl noted, it is a really short month and so there is nothing to um to
summarize at this point in time. So the uh dece or the next revenues and expenditures will be reviewed. We'll review two months in January. So I just want you to know that um we don't have any student representatives. Um I'll just you know acknowledge the the weather and the uh demands of activities
for our student our student representatives. Um and I didn't receive any reports from them. So I would go on to uh look to you for organization or community reports. I was just going to say negotiations are still pro progressing on that end and I
don't know if anybody other committees have met. >> Yeah, West this is Gerald West Central Ed District uh we had an emergency meeting last night. Uh just to go through uh take a look at the contracts that they have uh and to approve those.
Uh so we did for the uh the teachers uh also for the uh uh uh >> administrators. >> Yeah, administrator. Yeah. And uh and then the last one uh I was going to say the bookkeeper, but it's not the
bookkeeper. So >> business manager. >> Business manager. There you go. Thank you. I'm glad you were there, Janelle. So >> I could we'll figure it out. >> Yeah. But other than that, that that's then we do have an upcoming one possibly
tomorrow for the uh uh staff development. We we'll see how the weather plays for that. >> Y any any other ones hearing? Nothing. Moving on. No old business. Moving on to new new business. The truth
and taxation hearing information. Okay. Uh so uh Steve Humper is available um online with uh PMA Financials. So uh with that I'm going to turn it over to Steve and Steve is going to share his screen and walk through our truth and taxation information.
>> Um wonderful. Thank you. I should have tested this before because now I'm having Oh, here we go. Now I figured it out, I think. >> Okay. >> All right. Can you see that now, Janelle? and everybody else. >> Yes, you can. >> Yep.
>> Great. Thank you. Well, it's a pleasure to be um here virtually, I guess. Um I miss seeing you all in person. I've done this for many years now on behalf of the of the district. Um so, happy holidays to everyone first before I forget to say that. So, tonight, um we're going
through the truth and taxation. Um you're having your hearing, which is requirement. Um there we go. Yeah. So, um, what has to happen is you must have your meeting between November 25th and December 30th, and it has to be at 6 PM or later. So,
you're meeting that requirement. Um, can be part of a regularly scheduled board meeting, and you have that right now. So, that meets that requirement. >> And we need to discuss your 2026 budget. So, that's the current fiscal year that you're in, your the school year that you're in right now. And we also need to
discuss the tax levy that you're proposing to levy onto taxpayers for taxes that are payable billable in 2012 26 which is for your next school year budget um 202627.
And then before you approve um the the final levy which you'll be doing shortly after this presentation, you have to allow for any public to um have comment um if if they so choose to do so. So, we will start with the first requirement and that's um going over
your fisc year 26 budget. So, remember this is the budget of the school year you're in right now. You have six different funds. Um the general fund, the food service fund, the community service fund, the building construction fund, a debt service fund, and internal
service fund. The three bulleted um funds, general fund, community service fund, and debt service fund are the only three funds that actually have a tax levy component to them. So, we'll certainly focus on that when we get to the levy. Um, this probably looks very
familiar to board members. This is the budget that you would have taken action on um prior to June 30th of 2025 for the again the the current school year that you're in right now. You'll notice it's a fairly balanced budget. There's a
little bit of a deficit spending plan deficit spending in your general fund. So you're using some of your fund balance to you know cover your expend your um the expenses for this year but most of the funds are you know fairly well balanced.
Um when we look at um Minnesota school funding sometimes this is a little bit of surprise to residents and that's that the tax levy itself is a very small percentage of the total school budget. Um the largest source of funding is um
state aid. And when we look at it for your district, you can see that 65% of all the funding for your school district comes from state aid. Very small portion, 3% comes from federal. And then 21% which is what we'll be focusing on
here next is coming from taxes at your living um local taxpayers. You can see that um of that revenue 82 82% goes to your general fund and most people would consider the general fund
all the operations of the district and that includes all instructional um so your teachers and your aids um but it also includes your building expenses and your transportation expenses, your utility expenses, your textbooks, your
technology etc. So most people consider that like doing business, classroom expenses, the cost of of educating your students, which of course is a business that you're in. So 82% of all of your revenue that you generate goes to your general fund.
Um when we look at the expenses in your general fund, um this pie chart is actually um it's uh parsed out according to state law of how districts across the state are mandated to code their expenditures. So it can be a little bit
misleading. Um the largest chunk there you see at 41% is for elementary and secondary instruction. Um but the but there's other pieces of the pie that really are classroom expenditures as well. For instance, the vocational educational instruction, your
special education instruction, your instructional support services, all those add up into what most people would consider directly class classroom related expenditures. And if I add those those up, 63% of all your expenses are going directly to the classroom. Um, and
that is, you know, certainly as should be is because that's, you know, of course the business that you're in, educating students. Um, a quick highlight here for the school district. Um, you had a a a rating call with Moody's. Moody's is a third-party um firm that assigns ratings
to school districts as well as to, you know, corporations. And you were upgraded from an A1 to a double A3 back in March 3rd of 2022. And what's important for you as a district is that um helps you borrow
money like when you issue debt um to build buildings or fix buildings up etc at a much lower interest rate. And one of the main reasons that you would be upgraded is because of the very good financial position you are in which is certainly um a direct result of of
management both at the administrative level and the oversight of the school board. So, that's something you should certainly take pride in. >> Now, when we I'm sorry, I got a question. Um, >> yeah, >> go back to that A1 and double A3.
>> Yep. >> I realize that's a a fancy number, but what what what is the scale? Uh, is there something in between capital A one versus I mean, >> no. >> And then, >> yeah, the scale the top of the scale
would be a triple A. So, three A's, right? and then it would go to um double A1, double A2, double A3, and then it would go to A1. >> And for a district your size, a double
A3 is a a very very solid rating. It's pro probably the highest rating that you could you could reasonably get for a district that's um in your size with your tax base would be a double A2, which means that that it's really out of
your control. Um, I mean, the only way you could you probably could get a double A2 is if your fund balance was like over 50% or something, which is not something that you necessarily need to aim for. Um, but it's based on the fact that, you know, you only have so many taxpayers in your district, you only
have so much commercial and industrial, and you're not going to be able to change that. And so, um, you're almost at maxed out of where as high as you can possibly be. There's only two districts in the state of Minnesota that have a AAA rating. Um, you know, they're both very u wealthy metro area districts.
>> What is the the state a I guess if you don't know the answer, I respect that. What uh what what is kind of this the average for Minnesota? And then I don't need to know name of a school, but what is the poorest average? >> Well, the poor it wouldn't be a poorest
average. It' be >> poorest grade, I guess. Of course rating would be in the in the B category like a triple B and that's considered um that below investment grade. So people would not purchase their bonds. Um and there
are some districts that have that. Um I would say um the you know the the district the average just because most of the districts in the state are smaller districts, right? I mean you have quite a few in the metro that are larger, but the vast majority of districts in the state are smaller. So they're in the A1 category would be the
the majority of districts just because of the size and the again the lack of commercial industrial and most smaller districts. >> Cheryl, you must have a television or something on the background because we're hearing background noise.
>> My hubby is on the phone, but he's in a different room. >> Oh, okay. >> Okay. I will keep going then. Um when we look at the property tax levy, um we're going to look at two different timelines. Here's here's the one that the school district is really
following and that's um you know during the summer Janelle and Amanda and your administrative staff work on providing the Minnesota Department of Education with a bunch of information that then gets fed into creating your tax levy. And some of that would be
estimates on like how many students are you going to have, what kind of expenditures are you going to have on certain qualifying programs. Um, and again, it's all estimates for for the following school year. Um, in September, your board would have taken action on a preliminary levy. You probably all
remember doing that. And that's what gets put into the notices that are mailed to the taxpayers. Um November um 5th uh actually I think it was November 4th this year um is when you hold elections um if you you did not have an election on the ballot but you know if a
district were to have elections that's the day they would have done that and then the county um mails out their tax statements. Then between November 25th and the 30th is when you hold your tra taxation hearing and certify the taxes payable for next year. Um and then um
actually in 2026, I can see I have an old slide here, I apologize, is when the property taxes are collected um from taxpayers themselves. And that would be um payments that you know if you still have a mortgage or if you have a the home and you receive your statement um
they are due in in May and then in October um of the of 2026. The timeline for tax payers is a little bit different and um this is probably more important for any you know constituents who are are watching this.
Um so in March 2025 um every resident in who owns property in your district would have received a valuation notice for their piece of property. And during the spring and summer of 2025 would have been the time
that a resident could go and appeal what that value is by the county assessor. So we're past that time right now. Um and then November 10th through the 24th is when county auditors across the state are required to um mail out those
property tax statements. Um again, both the not only does the school district have to hold a truth and taxation hearing, but the city and the county does as well. And then in March of 2026, that's when all the entities start receiving their tax um dollars from from
the taxpayers as well. Um one piece I want to show again is this is what the the levy would have looked like, a sample statement of what everybody would have been mailed out with. And you would see on this statement the different amounts of taxes by the city, by the county, and by the school district.
Um, when we look at this for your school district, it's important to know um, you know, what the valuation is on a piece of property to how much tax they're going to pay. And here's the trend over the last um, eight-year period of time.
Um, and you can see that, you know, for your district, you've had some significant bonds, four and a half% here in 2018, almost 8% in 2019, etc. as we follow along. So, you're in that five to six% range. And then in 2023,
your valuation increased by um over 19%. Which honestly is a little bit, not much, but a little bit lower than what the state average was that year. The state average was closer to 21 22%. So you're right in that ballpark, but you were just a little bit below. 2024 was
another big year of of valuation increases and your district had a 10% increase. You went down back to kind of your normal average of 5% last year. And then for taxes payable next year, the values again are showing that they're going up again. So, you know, eight and
a half percent. Which of course is great if you're trying to sell your piece of property, right? The the value of your piece of property is is has been growing quite a bit. So, that means your resale price has grown quite a bit. Um, but how that divides up amongst um how much tax you pay, you know, can have an effect.
And I'll kind of show you as we go along. Um, so oftentimes when we're doing these presentations, if somebody does show up to the hearing, they actually are talk they they have more of a conversation about what their piece of property is worth and they're um, you know, they
want to know what they can do about that. And while it's not the school district's responsibility on um, you know, assessing the property and saying what the value of it is, I want you just just to have a little bit of knowledge so that you can direct people in, you know, the right way. They certainly are
going to go back to the county for sure, but if they go back to the statement that they were received back in March that said this is what the value of the of, you know, their piece of property was, on the back of that statement, it shows all of the options they have if
they want to contest what that value is. Now, as I mentioned before, um most of that has already expired for um taxes that are going to be paid in 2026. There was an appeal process that could have been done, but that would have had been done in the spring and summer. This late
in the game, the only um thing left for them to do was would be to go to tax court. So, they could go to tax court if they want to to appeal, you know, um the value of their property, but that's their last step. So, what most people would do is just have an awareness that
when they get this valuation statement next March in March of 2026, they know that that's the time to take action. And oftentimes it's it's honestly as easy as calling up, you know, the county auditor's office and saying, "Hey, my property I think is wrong." And the
county auditor um and the assessor would then look at that those values and make a judgment call at that point in time. I mean, it can be as simple as that. There are other steps involved there that um you can take, but the first step is honestly a very easy. It's just a phone call or you know, you go to the county
officer itself and have a conversation. Anyways, that's just some background information that I think board members um it's good if you're equipped with that information. So, then we could look at the tax levy itself. Um and you know, how is that going to be applied to different
properties? So, here's a a piece of information for looking at your district. When we look at the values of all the pieces of property in your district, that's this column right here. and you have roughly 38% of all the value is um based on residential pieces
of property. Um we actually can add this next column. This this yellow this very small yellow piece is is agricultural HGA which stands for the house garage and one acre. So if you own some a land the the first acre in your house is actually treated like a residential
piece of property. So we can actually call it roughly 43% of all your property is valued as residential. Then you have a very large and I know it's not a surprise to you but 38% of the value in your district is egg land. So that's the buildings and um land outside of the
first acre and house. And then you have a fairly small amount of commercial industrial at 7 and a half% and then you have 11% that's valued at seasonal rec recreational. And why that's important to understand what those are is because
um based on what you are levying, different pieces of property pay tax on that. So when we look at referendum market value, and we'll look at this in another slide here shortly, that's that's what um gets uh set for your operating um referendum that you went to
and what's also called the local optional revenue or LR revenue. and your a land is excluded from paying tax on that portion of your levy as is the seasonal wreck. So that means instead of you know 38% of your residential you
know splitting out the pie based on that residential is carrying 75% of the taxes that are taxed on referendum market value and I'll show you that on another slide here. whereas the rest of your levy is based on net tax capacity where everybody pays and then you can kind of
see how it's split up, you know, that way as well. Um, commercial and industrial gets hit a little bit harder on the net tax capacity. So, when we look at your levy for 2026, um, we see this is what you levied back
in 2025, a million28447. What you're expected to take action tonight is leving a million296548. Um, oh, I'm sorry. That's the debt service. My fault. Let me give you the right numbers. Um, last year you you
levied 3,53166. You're expected to levy 3,6206 this coming year. So, an increase of $88,000 or two and a half%. Um, that would be your total increase. And we're going to break out some of this by, you
know, what were some of those major changes? Well, you had you have an additional $16,000 that that you are going to receive in additional revenue and that's based on your capital projects referendum. And if board members remember when you went to the voters for that, you're setting that at
a tax rate. So, you're going to have you're leving, you know, so much percentage for every every value of of tax capacity in your district. And as that tax capacity grows, that means you get a a larger dollar amount. Um, your
your local optional revenue, you're going to levy $17,567 more. And I'm going to show you this on another site. It doesn't mean that you're getting any more money on this one, though. It just means that you are getting less state aid and your local
taxpayers are paying more of the pie. So, this first one, you actually are getting $16,000 more revenue. this one, you're getting the same amount of revenue, but the local taxpayers have to pay a bigger portion of it. Um, and then this last one I just wanted to highlight as well is you're loving $4,000 more in
that reemployment insurance. And um again, board members may um remember that a year ago um the state changed the um reemployment laws so that many more people are qualify for that, which means there's there's more expense for the
school district because of that change in law. So, as I mentioned, uh the change in the the tax levy does not necessarily mean a change in how much revenue you're receiving as a district. And that's because what we call is equalization or
the state aid the in very simple terms the state says okay what's your total property valuation we're going to divide that by how many students you have and if that number goes up higher we're going to give you less state aid and we're going to say the local taxpayers
can pay more because they consider you a wealthier district. You have more property wealth per student than you did last year. So we as a state don't need to to pay as much. You can have your own thoughts whether that's a good idea or a bad idea, but that's just how the formula works. So, I put this out as an
example for you. Back in 2025, your local optional revenue, um, you received $72,000. Next year, you're going to receive 73,000. So, roughly the same amount of money. Um, but last year you levied only
$659,000. This year you're going to le levy $677,000 to your local taxpayers because your state aid portion went down from 42,000 to $26,000. So in other words, again, based on the formulas, the state said, "Well, your
local taxpayers can pay $17,000 more of this bill um because you're wealthier now." Okay, so that's just how the formula works. Um then when we look at taking okay so your your total levy is going to be a certain dollar amount and now how are we
going to split that out amongst all the different property um you know properties in your district and I and I showed you this example I think for the first time last year to make it as simple as possible I said okay let's say you were a district and you were leving
$100 and you only had two pieces of property in the entire district and they both were valued at the same amount $100,000 each. They each would then pay 50% of that total $100 and so it's $50 each. Okay? And then next year you still
only wanted to levy levy $100 and this house went up by 20%. So now the value is to $120,000. Um and this house also went up by 20%. So $120,000. Many people think that if my house value went up my taxes are
going to go up. Well, in this case it's not. It just means how are we going to split the pie? Well, they both have the same value still. Um, and so they both would only pay 50% of that property tax bill. So they're they would still only have $50 each. But in this scenario, if
I'm going on the right hand side here, if this um house only went up 10% and this house went up 40%, now we're going to split the pie a little bit differently. So in this case, this house would pay $58 and this house would pay
$42 of it. So even though this house went up by 10%, they actually would have a tax de decrease because it didn't go up as much as the other property in the district. And then without going to a lot of detail, it just it just gets more complicated when we add these other
pieces to it. So if we add a land to it and we add commercial industrial and everything gets split up, now we're splitting up the pie a lot differently based on who's paying what and how much value is increased for different pieces as well. So, I want to just again just
to let you know, you are levying a set dollar amount based on what the the legal law is. How it gets divided up is really the Minnesota tax system. If your property wealth goes up, it doesn't mean that you as a homeowner are going to necessarily pay more. It's all relative
to what's happening with other homeowners and what's happening to a land in your district and what's happening in commercial industrial district. Okay. Um, so now we look at a house for taxes payable in 2026. If the home value on
that house was valued at $300,000, they would be be paying $888 in school district taxes next year. And if we break that out by components, $154 of that $888 is was from the operating
referendum that was approved um by the voters. $285 would be um your mostly what the board approves as a local optional revenue, which every district um in the state is able to do. Um $724
for that. And then $34 is for the debt that you were paying off again when you went to the voters and asked for voter approval to issue bonds so you could do your construction projects that you did. Um $26 is for board approved debt. Um,
and then $118 is for the whole rest of a 40-page formula system that goes from everything from community ed to capital levies and um, uh, you know, a whole bunch of other different levies that are in the mix. So again, by you know, you
if you take the 154 and the $34, $458, so little bit more than half um, of the levy has been approved by voters when you went to the voters at the polls and asked them for authority. So, when we we put that into a chart
here, I've got, you know, a lot of different types of property and different values. I want to point this out to make sure you understand this. If I were to look at a $300,000 home, um, for next year, that's what the current value is. Um, we're using an 8.6%
increase in value because that's what the trend is in your district. That home would have been worth $276,000 last year. Last year, that $276,000 home would have paid $853. With the increase going to $300,000,
that home um now would pay $888 or a $34 increase, you know, for the entire year. Okay, so that's how this chart reads and you can look at it for a land or for commercial industrial as well. So, um, what's going to happen? Every
district on, you know, on average, I'm saying is is or the homes are going to go up roughly that 8%. But every home won't. So, what happens if my home didn't go up at all if it stayed the same? Well, in that case, um, you know, that $300,000 home, you know, is this is actually going to go down roughly $50.
Okay? Or what happens if I'm on the other end of the spectrum? Instead of my home going up by 8% kind of on average, it actually doubled that and went by 17%. Well, then we're looking at, you know, a $108, you know, increase. So, I'm just kind of giving you some
goalposts on either side. You know, it could, you know, most property doesn't get devalued, but it could stay at the same value. And in that case, you're going to get a decrease. If it goes up the average, you're going to have a pretty small increase. But, you know, there will be some homes that did some additions or something on them and they
went up, you know, a larger amount. And so, that's where it be. So, everybody's gonna have their own experience, but you kind of see the range of what will happen in your district. Here's the trend um for you for the last eight years. And again, what I'm doing is I'm saying a home that's now valued at
$300,000, eight years ago, that home in your district would had a value of $182,000. and that same home would have paid $575 in taxes eight years ago and now they're paying $888. And you can see for the last four years, it was pretty
consistent. But back in in 2022 is when you went to the voters and you asked for the operating referendum and they approved it. And that's why it increased um here. And you can actually see that by the colors back here. You had virtually nothing of an operating referendum. And then when you went to
the voters, you can see this blue part down the bottom. um that's what's making the tax increase go up for the last, you know, four years, but it's been consistent since then as well. And again, you as a board didn't make the taxes go up. Um you went to the voters of is this okay so we can support our
schools? And they said yes. Um the last thing I have here I think is just to remind you of how the actto credit works. So on the bonds that you're paying off um the the AG lend gets credit from the state um and for
you that means that it's 18% of all your bond debt is being paid by the state as opposed to your local taxpayers. And um of the million296,000 of debt service payments that you're going to be paying next year, 232,000 of
that is paid by this active school credit. So paid by taxpayers throughout the entire state, you know, are contributing to your district to help pay that off. This is the tax trend then for a land as well. So similar to the residential, but seeing how much this is per acre.
Um and then the last slide I have here is just a resource slide um that shows that people can go to um you know the state website and look at these tax programs to see if they qualify. Um, and there's a lot of good healthy programs out there that many people can take
advantage of. Um, but it does take the taxpayer to go out and fill out, you know, forms, etc. to see if they qualify for those. So, tonight, um, you need to approve a a a levy dollar amount to the um to the exact dollar that you want to
approve. According to your levy certification, that number would be $3,620. Uh, $620,6. And so with that, I'll turn it over um back to the chair, madam chair, for public comment and before you take your
action on approving the letter. >> Okay. Have any public comment? I believe so. Okay. So, we have no public comment. So, then do I move to for a motion to
certify it? >> You sure can. Yep. >> Okay. I'll make motion we uh approve the pay 2026 levy of $3,620,06. >> Motion by Thomas. >> Second. >> Second by Bruce.
>> And this is a roll call vote. Um can I just pause the the actual levy amount is 05.90. >> 300 3,620,5.90. >> Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Jill. >> You're welcome.
>> Miranda, roll call vote. >> Sorry, I was muted. Uh, Ron. >> Oh, yeah. Yes. >> Rachel. >> Yep. >> Bruce. >> Hi, >> Jacob. >> Hi, >> Gerald. >> Hi,
>> Thomas. >> Hi, >> Cheryl. I >> um hearing nothing. Motion passes. >> All right. >> Very good. Thank you all. I appreciate it. >> Thank you, Steve.
>> Thanks, Steve. >> Okay. Okay. Moving on to the first meeting in January. Action. Uh so at the um November work session we talked about um just the heads up that uh we needed to set the January board meeting. So um
taking a look at everything that we have on the calendar um my recommendation was to um for board members to consider Tuesday, January 13th at 6 p.m. for the organizational meeting immediately followed by the work session. So >> we always used to do it that way.
>> Great. I'll make that motion. >> Motion by Bruce. >> Oh, second. >> Second by Jacob. Roll call vote. >> Ron. >> Ron. >> Roll call vote on the >> I know. I'm looking at the calendar.
Yeah, I guess. Yep. >> Okay. U Rachel. >> Hi, Bruce. Hi >> Jacob. >> Hi >> Gerald. >> I >> Thomas >> I >> Cheryl
>> I >> hearing nothing. Motion passes. >> Moving on to the pair professional master agreement. >> Okay. Um, and I I prepared a summary for you um that I'll share and I'll uh
invite uh members who are on the negotiating committee uh to add in any details if you would like to. Um the first section of the first section of the document is just the language provisions. Um the
entire contract states were updated. um the and and due to some changes in insurance structure with brokerage fees um for the 2526 school year, there's not going to be an excess contribution to an employees VIVA should that occur. Um
we've been working with our our health partners um with health partners and trying to determine uh how to uh come into compliance with u with some uh changes to practices. Um so that was that's why that came in and it's purely
for the 2526 school year leaves of absence there was a re a revision made around the discretionary leave um frontloading and so for probationary employees that are hired after January 1st um all accumulate all leave will
accumulate versus being front-loaded uh non-probationary staff will maintain that front-loading leave allocation um article um article eight, the leave of absence, sorry, nine, leave of absence is a removal of earn safe and
sick sick time reference. So, if you think back to the last contract negotiations, um all of our units and the board worked really hard to um try to differentiate uh what was going to be um discretionary leave and earn safe and
sick time and then maintain sick leave as a se separate bucket. Legislatively, there were changes. So all leave provisions fall under the earn safe and sick time um category. So it made it really kind of unnecessary to dis
differentiate what was earned safe and sick time and sick leave. And so to clean up that language uh it was the ESST reference was removed where it was unnecessary. Um, also, uh, discretionary leave, uh,
there used to be a provision of a one-hour minimum, and what we found was that that was, um, inhibiting, uh, the ability to get subs or cover for an entire class period because an employee would take an entire hour if they even only needed 15 minutes. And so, um, that
seems to make sense on both sides. So, the leave increment can be 15 minutes instead of an hour. Um the provision of this contract did not have a reference to paid to family medical leave act. So there was that reference made uh which is really around following the family
the federal FMLA uh language. >> And then um uh there was also on article 9 there was just a professional leave use. Um it referenced sick leave and uh sick leave and um uh personal leave. And
so that came back into discretionary leave. So um that language was clarified. Uh in regards to financials, uh health and hospitalization insurance, you'll see the increase um in 2526 to a single premium is covered. And then the
family contribution is is commensurate. And then an increase for the 2627 school year uh by $500 for both plans. And then there's the language in the contract which is for the vivba. Um it's all the the language of um ordering for uh all
the contribution language. Um the dollars are reflected and updated which is section 8 of that contract. Um if you recall during the pay equity discussion uh we real we it was confirmed that our pair
professionals had some work to do. Um so the uh salary schedule was restructured for the 2526 school year and the starting wage is uh for our pair of professionals is $17 and there are nine steps and the the top step would be 2152
and then the starting wage for a nurse pair professional is $1,755 again with nine steps with a high wage of 2207. Um so that brings us uh to uh sorry then second year is a 1% to the salary schedule and then longevity change was
no change for 2526 and 10 cents um per longevity step increment for 2627. Uh so you will see it is a substantial package from uh what we normally see within this unit. Um but we do recognize that we needed we had a lot of work to
do within um that unit to be comparable um and uh not only comparable to our employment group but also our neighboring and surrounding communities. So that's the summary of the uh pair professional contract and I would stand for questions unless um other board
members who are on the negotiating committee would like to add more. >> I I don't need to add anymore. Guys, Gary, very well put, uh, Janelle. Thank you. >> Okay, >> I have nothing to add. >> Okay,
>> I make a motion to introduce and prove uh to approve professional master agreement 25 through 2027. >> Motion by Thomas. >> Second. >> Second by Jacob. Roll call vote. >> Ron,
>> I. >> Rachel, >> I. Bruce, >> hi >> Jacob. >> Hi >> Gerald. >> Hi >> Thomas. >> Hi >> Cheryl. >> Hi. >> Um I also I'm sorry I forgot to add the
memorandum of agreement for e-learning is in there as well. Um I didn't I forgot to say that because it was not listed in the so I my apologies for that. If you take a look at the memor memorandum of agreement, it is identical to what it has been in the years past and it spans for the two years just like
we did for the certified staff. So, um I don't know. So, uh Thomas, do you want to amend your motion? >> Yeah. Um make amendment to the motion to include memorandum of agreement for e-learning professionals. >> Do we need a second? >> I think you do.
>> Okay, I'll second again. >> Okay, second by Jacob. And then do we need another roll call? I think we do. Okay. Another roll call vote for the amendment. >> I >> Rachel >> I >> Bruce >> I
>> Jacob >> I >> Gerald >> I >> Thomas >> I >> Cheryl >> I >> hearing no hearing no no nos. A motion passes. Moving on to the food service master
agreement. Um so I have prepared a summary for the food service uh master agreement as well. So let me share that. Um and again uh board members who are part of the food service negotiations uh please feel
free to add anything that you uh would like to expound expound upon. All dates also have been changed to reflect the 2527 um uh contract there and where it was applicable. Um the the sections were
renumbered. Um uh there was an added section for article 8 um a subdivision allocating two personal days from their discretionary leave um allocation. So really what the um the intent of this was was not to add more days but to
allow a little bit of flexibility um for circumstances where um they they needed to take a day um maybe in September and they hadn't had an opportunity for that to be acred. So um that was again not additional days but it came from the
allocation of discretionary leave. Article 8, section two, subdivision three, uh revise language to reference statutory eligible absences um as did subdivision uh two. So both section subdivision two and three referenced
statute article 8 section 7 family medical leave. Um this section was added to again uh reference uh compliance with federal law and uh article 8 section 8 is a reference to um uh being in compliance with u Minnesota paid leave
and um staff development was added as a reference to paid training just to make sure that our food service um our food service workers have an opportunity to collaborate on their um on the the pair on the um
the professional development that they receive in the fall um is pertinent to them as well. In financials, uh you'll see that um they they have a a goal um achieving goals that are set with the superintendent and that increased from
10 cents an hour to 20 cents an hour. There was an added holiday of President's Day um and the health and hospitalization insurance increased to 834576. and then the second year to 8,49576 and then the rates are also reflected in
section 10 which is again the compliance language for the viva um distribution salary schedule 3% on year 1 3% on year two longevity for year two increases each increment by 20 cents for a total
package of 7.95% over two years uh so board members that are part of that committee if there's anything you'd like to I think it looks good. >> Very good. >> Let me make sure I didn't miss anything. Nope. Okay. >> All right. This Gerald, I make a motion
to approve the food services contract for the 25 to 27 school years. >> Motion by Gerald. >> Second. >> Second by Bruce. Roll call vote. >> Ron. >> I. >> Rachel.
>> I. >> Bruce. I >> Jacob >> I >> Gerald >> I >> Thomas >> I >> Cheryl >> I >> hearing no opposed motion passes. Uh
review of upcoming meetings. >> Well if something were to happen with staff uh school day tomorrow with staff development >> it would be. Yeah. Okay. Just confirm that. Yep. Uh meet and confer had to be rescheduled today. So that it'd be the same.
>> Yep. >> But the negotiations would still go, right? >> Um if school is not in session, um negotiation, it would be rescheduled. Correct. Just thought I'd ask that question because Yep. Nope. That's fair.
>> Okay. Hearing nothing more. Um, looking for a motion to close the meeting to evaluate superintendent. >> This is Gerald. I make a motion to close the meeting, go into close session. >> Motion by Gerald. >> This is Cheryl. I'll second that motion. >> Second by Cheryl. Um, roll call vote.
>> Ron. >> I. >> Rachel. >> I. >> Bruce. >> I. >> Jacob. >> I. >> Gerald. >> I >> Thomas. >> Hi. >> Cheryl. I
>> um hearing no opposed. Uh we move to close the meeting at 6:49 p.m. Okay. Letter H. Okay. We are back in open session. So we're looking for a motion to open the meeting back up. >> So move. >> Motion by Bruce. >> A second.
>> Second by Cheryl. Uh then it's a roll call, right? Uh yes. Okay. I call I'll call Rachel. >> Hi, >> Thomas. >> Hi, >> Bruce. >> Hi, >> Jacob. >> Hi, >> Ron.
>> I >> Cheryl, >> I >> Gerald, >> I hearing no opposed. We are back in open session. >> So then, do I read the statement or does somebody read the statement? >> Yeah, you read the statement.
>> Okay. Okay. >> Um, we are back in open session. the board of education with all members present close the meeting to evaluate superintendent on 12925. We recognize the superintendent has met or exceeded the expectations around communication and community relationships. The board looks forward
to the strategic planning updates. That's a that's a literal. >> I'll make a motion to adjourn the meeting. I'll second. >> Motion by Thomas, second by Jacob. Roll call vote. Rachel, >> hi >> Thomas.
>> Hi >> Bruce. >> Hi >> Jacob. >> Hi >> Ron. >> Hi >> Cheryl. >> Hi >> Gerald. >> Hi. >> Um hearing no motion is a or excuse me meeting is ajourned.