call meeting order Stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Okay Agenda Move to approve the agenda
Second move by Monica Second by Julie All in favor I recognition Mr Well again remember um the hungry dog is a program we instituted to recognize our
staff So they get a shirt and uh recognize them for pretty much individual stuff So there's a good group again this month I appreciate the principles They're the spearheads of identifying folks I do want to talk
about Darlene a little She's in the lunchroom and I I picked Arlene out because um Darlene does so much for our students both her and Tammy I mean anytime someone needs something but even beyond that um every holiday they make
special and uh it was great to see the elementary recognize Darlene for her birthday and the lady was in tears and it it was such a moving uh and of course I gave her the hungry dog t-shirt but um it was wasn't a John It was such a
moving time Great recognition So okay we'll move on to public comment Each speakers must identify themselves Each person is allowed three minutes Public comment is for input only
and will not get a response If the meeting is recessed because of conduct during public comment no further no further public comment will be permitted I got a question Can I still be added on
there Comment public comment must be respectful and civil The following are inappropriate for public comment and will not be allowed Signs banners complaints against individual board members complaints against individual employees of the
district Private private data related to students including student behavior academic performance complaints filed by students and families physical violence threats or comments that incite violence
comments that instill fear cause disruption of a school board meeting cheering booing or any other interruption of a member of the board school official or speaker who has been recognized
With that Darren Scunline will be our first First and foremost thank you board members for all of your time I've had some pretty pointed aggressive emails and things I feel very passionate about So I appreciate you responding The biggest thing is I'm not
here for monetary gain or put myself on a pedestal I'm here because I have kids in the program program I'm part of this town and I want to make sure it's one the best way possible First and foremost one of our own policies when it comes to student fundraising states section 3
responsibility subsection E the school district expects all employees who plan supervise coordinate and participate in student fundraising activities to act in the best interest of the students and to represent the school the student organization and the community in a responsible manner Obviously I brought some issues in front of you that we now
pull apart to look at and say "Hey some things aren't being done appropriately Let's look into those things." People that are in charge of these booster clubs fundraising clubs may not be the best fit for some of these things Money being withheld not money not going to the programs equipment not being up to date for some of these kids We know if
there's thousands of dollars properly we need to look into those things I've been assured by most you folks that we're going to look at our policies and hopefully look at them across the board Make sure we're running it the right way the right people are put in place There's a good turnover uh plan in place for treasury secretaries
things like that to ensure that all money the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars that this town donates to these programs here goes to the programs that were donated to Next we're going to talk about accountability This town keeps being put in the press every couple years in a negative light
It's not okay to stop The reason it keeps happening is because we are allowing this to happen I've given all the board members MSHS rules that talk about different circumstances Whether it be hazing whether it be racial slurs whether it be bad sportsmanship who's accountable who needs to stop this from
happening It's up to our parents It's up to our coaching staffs to make sure that kids are acting the right way They're being held accountable when things are done wrong If they make a mistake it's okay but there needs to be some sort of punishment We had hazing incidents that happened where kids were directly involved MSHSL rules state that if
something like this ever happens those players are out for two games and for two weeks That did not happen in multiple cases We have players that say the n-word out loud screaming it in the middle of a game in front of coaches in front of parents Nothing's done We have players that take their bats and they throw them from home plate because
they're upset that they struck out and they throw it all the way back to the the dugout narrowly hitting the batter potentially killing them or right in front of coaches right in front of staff Nothing's done This is not sports teamlike activity We need to start holding these kids accountable Kids get to do whatever they want right now with
no rules no repercussions So hey let's just keep doing it We need to start punishing these kids I don't want not looking for corporal punishment to start hitting these kids but we need to start following MSH assault guidelines We need to follow our own policies because based off everything I'm saying I really don't think that some of these things that are
happening are representing the school in response to that I want us to look into this If it's not looked into it's not going to be fixed I will be back I won't be the only one I will be back There's many people have these concerns I'm not the only person standing on the soap box Hey this has to change It has to change It is time to change If it doesn't we're
going to have some issues Thank you Mike Mage what's that Mary dummy Okay I just need a clarification Ask the people here This
is about immigration Um when I was listening I heard a statement somebody saying all immigrants are afraid of being deported I was scratching my head on that What does that mean So I went and did some
research on what it actually means So the question I had is how many students fit into these particular categories in our system our school system So basically what I found is there's four different categories There's illegal
immigrants there's migrants there's refugees or there's legals Legals are coming in the right way Refugees are not illegal if they come in the right way Then there's migrants Migrants have green cards and they can go either way
They can come or go But then there's the legals So I can see that the legal The legals would be afraid of deportation but too often I hear them all lumped
into one and people saying the immigrants are all afraid to be deported So somehow I think that needs to be clarified What are we talking about here How many kids are actually
illegal immigrants in our system thing that needs to be looked at Um if parents did this illegally and I don't even blame the parents these people that came over at the borders because they were the door was open I
don't blame them at all but we have to take a look at this and see who are illegals and what what's a person going to do about that situation about the illegal or are there any illegal immigrants illegal children in
our system That's my question So I just wanted to clarify it using those examples because it's not normally very clarified It's just migrants are afraid That is not true In in Florida there was a whole group of people on us on the
sidewalk that were legal immigrants that actually had signs up saying "We want illegals to be deported." I said "Did you see that big sign when I went by with my husband?" He says "No." I says "These are illegals
They they don't want illegals They want illegals deported because they did something wrong and they are also they said exploitation um of the illegals by the workforce and all this kind of stuff
So I think you need to take a look at how many students in our system are actually illegal That's your three minutes Thank you Move to information principles and doors
Mr Right John can you use the micart home watching virtually Appreciate Is that on It should be Is it green I think it is Yep Great Um do you guys receive my my reports into that share We have our
letters training We are on the final stretch to finish up units one through four We have our last sacred day on the 25th April 25th Um playground I'm going to be getting presentation later so I'll kind of skip over that But um stick
around I got great news about our playground Uh pair professional week We had pair professional week The national pair professional week which there is a Minnesota for some reason Minnesota does one really early after Christmas We uh decided uh celebrate this one Had a
great time We used the theme um the happy unbirth So Mrs Hagen who's in the crowd came up with this great idea from Alice Wonderland where basically you're great every other day not just your birthday So we celebrate all 364 days of
greatness with you So we had bunk cakes we had popcorn bars and and lots of laughter and fun Uh and then the Baka Museum came down and gave a presentation on bees It was a free presentation and I believe K2 uh was able to uh take advantage of that
and about pollinators and codes and things that all goes very presentation and we're hoping to have them back again Any questions Thanks Where you going Same thing Just a few quick things Um this is MCA testing for us We do 12
different tests at the 4H All five grades do math all do reading fifth and eighth grade do science So the next four weeks um we are busy starting today Junior high like every time lots of clubs still happening Um a nice thank you to Delila Loyal She does our
bilingual teacher She took 16 of our students the ELELLL students in the fourth through 12th grade Winota state last Wednesday It's a leadership conference for those kids She said it was outstanding Spring concert is coming up in May Um Miss Emily Meyer again is always very busy She's doing some autism
things every month of April Couple things not on there We're wrapping up letters Another training this Thursday Next Friday we'll be done with our last online for the first year of letters training Um two more things one um I did after last month when you had you approved the share position with um Miss
Irons and Miss uh um Miller um I did send out to 99 third grade parents 13 of those parents did request not to be in that shared classroom had a lot of good conversations with those parents for more clarification but again overall
like I said 13 of the 99 um so we we're taking care of that class list and the last thing I forgot to put on there our eighth grade courage retreat was postponed last time in general because of the weather It is actually tomorrow We do about 9:15 to 2:15 out there at Peace United Methodist halfway between
El and Plain View I know Julia been there once but um if you're looking for that if that the morning is very loud energetic a lot of activity a lot of fun The afternoon after lunch is much more serious Um so again if you haven't been there if you want it you're very
welcome Mike thanks Uh I just wanted to highlight our band and choir teachers a few people band and choir Linda Tyson uh and Zack Tesling Uh the month of March that we've just gotten through and then leading into the end of the year is a really busy time for all of them and they do an amazing
job with their kids Just as an example um you know in in three weeks basically they've got the MSHSL large group Festival which is take your group and you play in front of a set of judges and they give you a critique um off off a
specific set of music Um they have that They also have the 712 concert which we've done that now for two years which I think is a really great um showcase of talent across the district It does take a lot of planning Put that in in place though And then they also had the small
group fest recently where you take individual or small group kids and have them play in front of uh judges and get critique So very busy time all while they're also planning for the pops concert which is uh in May actually the same day as our next board
meeting So that's that's coming up I'd also like to highlight Jen Simon and Christy Rans They run the National Honor Society Um they've done some amazing work as they always do hosting blood drives They did uh Cameron's carnival this year which was a great success Um
they also uh volunteered at Beat My Starving Children for the Day along with bringing a donation to that organization So I just wanted to highlight those staff members and the kids that are involved in all of that Um another positive
uh we were approved for a $5,000 grant uh through the United Way to continue our youth frontiers program with the high school uh student leaders and we're really looking forward to keeping that going for next year That was new this year So that'll go a long way in helping us keep that going Um I included some
more information about the two new courses we're uh adding at the high school for next year Um we also we had one round of MCAs went really well This is the second year we've had MCAs as a late start So the kids get to finish you know just focus
on their test as opposed to doing it day by day and trying to fill that in It works much much better And then we have the next one coming up on the 24th of April for that Any questions Well with the two new
classes that you're adding you have sign up for next year's Yes Good numbers for those Yeah Um the medical terminology classes is really good numbers The uh food product development a little bit lower Still still enough to make a class
but as I've said that's kind of like the next level from uh the first food class that he's offering And so I think that's going to continue to grow as as we continue to offer that Very good Last some questions for you Um
when you do the MCAs do you explain do you guys is it a habit for you to explain to the kids how important they are and what we use them for Like as the board we look at that as to how we're doing how our kids students
are learning as a community Our parents look at those how are their kids learning Um you know I explain the MCA the same way to the parents and to the kids is it's it's a good snapshot of of what they're learning and what we're doing in the classroom I wouldn't say we
you know we don't have a an all school assembly to talk about it or anything like that but the teachers uh you know 10th grade um reading and biology it's a part of those two classes and then 11th grade math So individually yes but not
not as a full uh group And then there was an did you have on yours an AI tool Uh yes on that Yep We um were triing a tool called Brisk All the teachers have
it Um basically we we we've been talking about all the different tools we've been using There's chat GPT there There's a whole lot of stuff out there And one of the things we kind of came to was you know there's good things about each one of them but it would probably
be probably be better if as a staff we picked one Not that that's the only one we ever used but we could then um be able to talk about it a little more help each other out and also get some training from that company um on that tool and how we can use it in the
classroom So Brisk is one We've used the free version for a little while or at least it's been available to us all the high school teachers are have the full version for this month of April giving it giving them a shot and and we'll kind of make a decision on if that's what we
want to do uh look into for next year as kind of our staff development focus or if we want to look in a different direction Okay So then um every time we bring something new in we need to be measuring it to make sure it's improving our student outcomes [Music]
So um what are there might not So what are we we using as specific measurement to determine if this new technology is good for our student outcomes Uh whatever tool we pick we'll probably we'll have some student
achievement linked to that I don't really think one month is going to be this is really figuring out if it's answering some of the big questions that we have um or that takes time right now Um I will give you just a real quick
example or two two examples Um and there's a lot more of these tools than just this But two very basic examples that a lot of teachers have already used in the first couple weeks is if you have a student in your classroom and you have an article that everyone is reading and that student has an IEP and it says that
their reading level is uh fourth grade or fifth grade This tool you can click two buttons and it will take that article and change it to a fourth grade level Okay which would take quite a bit of time to try and do that on your own I honestly don't know if I It would take
me a long time to even figure that out right This happens very quickly And then the teacher can use that They don't just take what it is It's um I think the way that the intro talked about it was you know the goal is for this to do like 80% of the work and then the teacher can
make sure it's right Another example of that is translating So it's very good if we have documents for instance that we're sending home or that we need our students to learn it will take that same article and translate it to another language uh and then we can check that as opposed to trying to translate every
single part or take it to our teachers that do speak that language and have them take time to translate So those are two real basic ones There's a lot more to it Um well that's the purpose of those tools is to help provide efficiency for the teacher Yes I use co-pilot all the time for my work and
we're encouraged to use them and it helps me in my daily work to be more efficient so that teachers can spend more time with their students because these AI tools can take some of these manual task and and they they speed it up incredibly fast So to me it's an efficiency for the teachers to allow
them to spend more time on what's you know with the students Agreed One more question Academic awards think that was in your report as well Yeah On the dates Yep And I I just had a question
Um why why is it a weekday morning Is that what parents are I I'm assuming that this is academic awards Parents would want to be there for those Sure And we have a good we had a good turnout last year Um we used to do it on
Sundays and we couple of things we had lower and lower turnout overall student and parent uh over the couple years Um and we decided to try it last year during the day so that students could also see um their classmates getting
recognized and and see what um awards and scholarships and so forth are there So um that's why we made that change And I have one more question This is random because I got asked this by a constituent Um does PEM have a class
about the Constitution Do we teach our students what their rights constitutional rights are Not only about the Constitution we have our American politics classes Thank you A lot of stuff like that Yeah It covers the
Constitution student number Good evening everyone Um kind of similar to last year and every time our students had the past month Um to be honest I kind of thought things would start to slow down after
our snow week celebration but we remain hard at work A lot of different committee work and a lot of different activities for the group Um first of all one of our the most important things we've been working on recently has been planning a prem safety day for our
juniors and seniors which is taking place next Tuesday during the school day Um we've been working with local law enforcement and the Minnesota Department of Transportation to provide um interactive events and activities for students to take part in Hopefully kind
of kind of raise awareness on the dangers of distracted and impaired driving Um not only just weekend but just as a constant reminder for students year round Um so we're really looking forward to this Hopefully it'll leave a lasting impact on the students every
time they get so looking forward to that Um we have also been working with the high school teachers to plan and do something differently which is taking place on May 2nd So this is really just a fun day for all high school students um maybe to try something new that
they've never done before or do something fun with their friends that they wouldn't typically do on their on a free day Um our teachers are all I think most of our teachers are participating Um each hosting a different event So so one of our teachers is going down to the
to go hunting and fishing for the day There's a movie here in Rochester probably more so for like the freshman all of that stuff Um there's some mini golfing pickle ball arts and crafts music ones and a bunch of
different options that our teachers are hosting So we're really looking forward to that and we appreciate our staff being willing to work with us on that Um one of our major accomplishments this past month has been updating and revising our student council
constitution just kind of the better request of our goals and our direction more recently Um this has been a top priority for us for a while and so we're really glad to have worked on it and updated that Um Beyond
that um we have some smaller activities We've um been planning a bingo day for our history students for next Thursday Um student or teacher appreciation recognition and a student council just a
fun day for us as a council for the year And then lastly one of our um largest I would say probably this whole year has been working way video um kind of just to reflect the values of our school obviously
responsibility present kind of to pertain more so to students K12 Um so with that we've been working the staff buildings to plan a time to come in and film real life student examples of
students following the pillars and of students not following all of the pillars Um Our committee has been doing a great job on that and we hope to get that wrapped up within the next month or so But overall it's been a great year We're just looking to continue um
finishing off on a positive note with a bunch of different activities Thank you Thank you Maintenance report is attached Any questions on that community We have any questions on that What's the budget report
We um just finished with budget revisions which we did review with the finance committee um last Wednesday night and I just want to point out as we look up here this this tells us which budget
we're looking at 25 re one that Stanford 25 revised one last month you would have seen 25 which was a revision that we did in December and then um prior to that it was it was 25 So just a background on on we don't always go through um two budget
revisions but for we'll go through that later as we look at that where um action but that's that's what that is pointing out there and if we point out these numbers here we'll come back to them but this number will match up then with the revenue budget
that we'll present later and again here those are the numbers when we're looking at our budget uh the budget approval that we're going to ask for later on Other than that um our budget our numbers are tracking where we want to Uh we did u add to our
legal fee budget We added to our transportation budgets um and some age and that detail but the rest go back up to 400 in here We had previously been um cracking a little bit higher in some of
them That was our age Those are HVAC payments and they'll come into line with the decisions that we had to put in place We did end up having to add to that factor um those numbers but they are now tracking where they
should but other than that um our numbers are we're working also working on next year's budget busy wrapping up the year Um and I can take any questions and I'll be back Thank you J Superintendent report
So Jan mentioned um we did do the revised budget with the um financial committee We also are going through or the finance committee We're also working on a three-year forecast So normally um we would do a one-year
budget next year's budget and um kind of internally know some things maybe out there Um Jan and I are working with a consultant um from Baker Tilly that's that's helping us on the side with um an
additional two-year forecast So um when we bring the budget for approval for next year we'll also have that forecast in there um for you to be able to look at to go okay here's next year's budget which we can make really good um numbers
for the most part for next year's budget The further out you forecast the more unknown variables are involved Um but it's still very interesting I think um looking at that and working on that with Jan Um uh Lori is the consultant So I'm
excited to to bring that piece to you guys as well Um I did add a couple of things I won't have Marsha um maybe open just the one that's uh the teacher pension one That one's specific to I just added these to my report Um
important to realize there's a lot going on at the legislature right now and there's multiple pools of or pots of money So um when you hear about the teacher retirement it's really not a piece of the the school world pot of
money other than I am hopeful um the um district's contribution goes up next year from seven and a half or eight and a half to to nine.5 I'm hopeful that we can maybe get that in our pot of money but everything else with teacher retirement is in a
different pot of money and um somebody put the effort um time and effort into showing how this impacts our district So I just included those If you're interested please take a look at those Um I'm a very strong advocate for this I'm fortunate to be old and I'm under
what they call the rule of 90 So when my years of service and my age equal 90 I was able to retire and receive my full pension um that's no longer the case in Minnesota and I feel u very strongly
that if we want to have uh great teaching uh pools uh supply I think the the pension is a big piece of that So please take a look at that if you get a chance Um there's quite a few things that are in our pot of money that are
going on at the legislature A few of those I just want to mention are you know the paid family medical leave Um that would be a huge impact to to our district and and um I am not an advocate for the paid family leave Um I feel if
if we're going to do that at the school level um we need to have some financial support with with that Um also even our hourly uh unemployment um you know that was taken care of in the first year
There's some monies available right now um not enough to to cover it statewide for the second time around If we're going to mandate things um in the leave area that are beyond our contract um the sport the the state really needs to
support that with with the funding We shouldn't be expected to take that out of of our dollars Uh another thing we're watching very closely is in the proposal is um as Jan talked about the revised budget We can't control our sped um
transportation We can do our regular ed We know how many routes we have We we work with the bus company and do that Sped is is completely based on the students we need to serve and every time we get a new student that we need to serve we need to transport them Um we
can't control that the idea of taking away some of our um funding in that area Um it just amazes me But um so those are some of the other things that we're um tracking and hoping um this legislative
session um come our way But I I just added these because like I said they're in a separate pot and and I do advocate for them Um just an update I was hoping to pre uh preview our our video Um remember we're
doing a video for the the district promotion Um Courtney is going to uh be filming that shortly Pretty much it's all coming together Um Macy was also our student rep which thank you Um I have not seen it I've
given full autonomy to Katie Henderson is putting it together out of Southeast Co-op and um I told her no She offered to allow us um any sort of looking We're going to let her finish the project and
uh I will share that with you guys before it goes public But whatever she develops is is what we're going to go with and I'm I'm very excited about it We did have a patron share a video um that uh do Riota put together and it
reminded me that I knew a contact in Lake City Steve Brown a retired um dentist Steve is uh loves photography but also got into uh drones Um so Steve voluntarily came over and did some drone
work for our video So um we will also have some some drone footage in our video So I'm excited about that And then again I know we don't um respond to patron input um but uh on my report as I shared with you uh you know
prior to the meeting I am taking a look at our fundraisers and our overall um activity accounts in booster clubs Um we've gone through or I've gone through the experience here of not knowing who's
running the booster club trying to figure some things out Um it's important to realize we we have limited control over booster clubs but in my opinion limited is better than um no control or
no guidance Um just knowing who people are So we are I am putting together um working with Scott um and uh Mike Walton Uh I am putting together some stuff that I I plan on bringing to you before I
leave just a few things that we can know uh for the most part the fundraisers and then second when it comes to to booster clubs just some guidelines um we can um have some expectations for them and I I think it would help patrons to be able
to have that on the website so here's our clubs that have uh a booster club here's the the the folks involved a little more transparency a little bit more knowledge for for folks that are getting hit up for the hundreds of
thousands of dollars that that Darren mentioned So I think that's it Oh I did want to comment John was a little bit later Um like he said we did a mult uh things in the other buildings earlier when Minnesota recognized our paras but
always want to thank our paras um they don't get paid nearly enough for what they do and we have many all uh outstanding parents So very thankful and just want to again recognize them and thank them for for their piece of what
they do for PEM schools All right Committee reports um minutes are attached Nothing to add Development We got nothing to add Mas HL
committee We'll be touching on that a little later Okay And the finance committee Nothing to add I mean okay Board rights are attached
Looking for a motion on the consent agenda I move to approve second by any questions All those approved Governments policies under review anything The weather wiped out
our policy meeting So we will just carry it over to next month We do meet Wednesday 2026 27 school calendar This is for approval was on last month just asformational We didn't make any changes did we cl
again it comes from the staff development committee K12 representation Julie's on it Lory's on it I think states you asked last month the only change was again this goes back to like previous before our letters training and the only thing was we used to have 173 student days which was one and a half
staff development trying to make that into two staff build so it's basically minus a.5 student contact other than that the terminology went to back the way it was teacher work days and building days So what's the difference
between development or staff development I'd say is again where I'm planning something some activity where they contractually it's supposed to be they are not allowed to take it off so that teacher work day is more their time they're doing grades planning etc but that's theirs versus maybe the
district's planning thanks I had a question where did I see the discussion about reverting to the snow day system like that was in my notes and I don't want to deal with that tonight but it is something the board's
going to have to address Um are you going to go back to what is going to be your snow day um policy because next year we're still under letters y so every day will be a virtual an e-learning day Um but in 26 27 you know
is it is it going to be every day is an e-learning day Is it going to be first day off You just got to take a look at that before sometime next year Wasn't that postco right I mean we had five
five e-learning days because we weren't an accredited online school right I mean that was correct something and now this year it was unlimited email in the state is what I was told
that was there wasn't a set number of there's there's a set number but you can do unlimited e-learning days to continue the continuity of learning you just can't count them all as um days of
contact does that make sense yes yep absolutely Yep But yeah so they I mean unlimited eeries Yeah Yes So I think and knock out what do we have Four right now We still have technically if we had
another one it would count and um theory we don't need it Um you your high school is what carries the most um need for that The elementary and the middle school they're way beyond the days Right But yes we still could do unlimited but
only count five towards our contract Looking for a motion Move to approve the calendar for 2627 Motion by Stacy second by Ron All those in favor I vote Acceptance of
donations I have a question Is this routine booster club donates to the school Because I thought we weren't in involved with that type of stuff Yeah Is there Isn't it typically close to the next booster club
Is that I can't speak for PM I don't have the history but I I've never Yeah I've never seen where booster club donates to the school But is there a way to just move that on the next booster club or is that not how
does it work So it was the booster club's money They gave it to the school with clear instructions to keep it It it is the softball's money It's just it's in an activity account So the only
people that can spend that money are the um softball program Okay So it's their money It's also an account 22 can carry over So let what's on there $18,620.76 If they don't spend a nickel of that a penny of it it's there next
year It rolls over every year But it is specifically for the softball program only So to your point this is better than having it in a booster club because it's there and anybody can see how the
$18,620 is spent So they can access the they have full access I think they've already started spending some of it There was Yeah it so it works the same as any of our other expenditures We request a requisition goes through to whichever building secretary and this
goes to the activities department and purchase orders created and that gets approved um by the person in that department and then you will see those expenditures come through on the check registers When I pay those bills you'll see that's all part of the check register
So when that's gone it's gone Yeah But when it when it's gone Yeah But there I mean there are levels of approval So it's yeah but it's usually the request will come in from coach or whoever within the program and it's my understanding there are some limitations
to what right that money spent on camp salaries out of there you cannot pay for coaching but specifically the students are what we're in the softball program right or in any program Scott is the same baseball
there's many different student activities within on 22 There's many of them There's there's one for baseball there's one for softball there's marching band there's I mean there and there's other activities not even just sports Yeah Student council's under that That's
And so then who accesses this Is it like the coach does Through the ad Okay But only softball can spend the So we have our own budget for softball This is a $18,000
uh gift to the softball program that only the softball program can can utilize They tell us how to spend that money We don't tell them how And it rolls over every year which is unique It's like no if you don't use it you
lose it No this could sit in there for till perpetuity Move to the donation I'll second Move by Stacy All those in favor I Mr Chair I have a question Yes And this is in
regard to the March donations Did you get answers on that No I did not If you go I looked back on our March I didn't remember us approving this in March And I was back on our March agenda I didn't
see any donations I don't remember that either I heard someone say about hockey Yeah we talked about that earlier Yeah you said it but I don't remember this donation So I'm thinking I think we need to approve this
I'll move to approve I'll in favor Taher renewal pursue for food service contract So a couple things on this So we have a arrangement with um Taher
There's different ways to outsource your food service So we have a fixed amount It's set by the uh the CPU I don't know if Marsha could open that but I mean formally we're going to approve it but we need to realize we don't have any
control over what that number is We can control not working with TER but as far as the increase that's listed on here that comes off of that index
So definitely happy with Taher Um I would recommend we approve and continue working with them I move to approve the renewal of the Tahara school service contract Thank you
Julie all those in favor I sixth grade to junior high proposal discussion All right Um we go to the next one Mara But some I've been asked by a lot of people I've been talking about this with Mr Anger for several months We talked
about just kind of posting this you know later another year or two And the more I've talked like I just want to bring it up now And again first of all on top there 19 years it still feels like year five or six to me as far as PDM It really does I can't believe it's 19 So like why in the world
you ask me to change something out after 19 years Well I'll I'll get through that But I've always wanted this This isn't something new I've always thought all all the years I've been involved with the elementarymentaries our current setup that sixth grade students would benefit being in a middle school setting
Again I wrote down the academically the social behaviorally And as you'll see through the next slides I don't have a lot of facts I can't prove to you right now tonight that there's going to be a 10% increase in reading or math I I can't do that It's what I believe professionally And again um and I want
I'll say this over and over many times I am okay for me Seriously But you telling me no Seriously I'm not going home tonighting kicking the TV I'm okay I do believe in this This is kind of fun for me to talk about I truly believe this is
the way to go but again not everybody agrees I'll talk about my staff It'd be a good thing But the the next thing um Marca this is probably the one of the more important slides of the entire presentation This is again currently our
numbers Our sixth grade class today 112 I think Mr Wright last month said 108 was in the roundup roughly So again you look at these numbers These aren't what I want in kindergarten but this is what it represents Four sections when they get to the middle school level And again
these numbers at the middle school level you know 26 is the four 26 point Those are good numbers at a middle school level I have a teacher in fourth grade used to teach in Rochester had 32 kids in fourth grade But like I've said many times I don't want to be Rochester I'm
glad this is home Blame Bill one of the best things we have is class size This is this is absolutely awesome numbers Our biggest class again will be our next year's seventh graders 28 kids per class That seems big to us That's small to
others But I don't even want to go there There are many schools with the 97s and the 99s and 93s What would they do They'd be three sections So we don't want to do that Close your ears on that one right Keep it like it is But this page here I Why did I bring this up
years ago Because we've always been five sections or four sections every other year It's not been physically possible to put the 678 at that junior high It is and will be probably for a long time
What happens in who knows This is this is incoming kindergarten through our seventh grade We are changing I know Mr and I have talked a lot about that This will be something with superintendent Mrs Free here A good discussion with the board in the upcoming times You know what is coming along It's just different
We don't have the five section classes I look way back again doing this for 19 years I believe at one time at the junior high our biggest time ever with the two grades combo was about that 270 265 So again we're going to be right
around that 300ish most years a little bit over next year because the 112 but again this this page is it tells a lot That's why I'm bringing up 19 years after PEM Um it's just it's just time to have this discussion
Thanks Marsha Again I always just these are my thoughts about sixth grade coming up You know advanced math class We talked about splitting the English class Um Wisconsin does this kind of like our read act Mrs Poshi's here is one of our ideas Talking
about taking that traditional English class I always ask what is that Well it's jamming as much literature language arts as you can And some people again they split it You have much more emphasis I think that'd be a plus music block Right now we again the word is sports but we force sixth graders to be
in music Our seventh and eighth grade have options X class we don't have computers right now at the sixth grade level I a big thing for me again I can't prove this any facts I truly believe the environment sixth grade students after seven years of elementary K through six
seven years of elementary flavor I believe I've seen it for years I believe the six figures are just itching for the next step I really do Um all the activities they already get through knowledgeable mapping But just some of
my thoughts these next two pages again I'm not a chat GBT guys This is my first time professionally but I figured it let them do some work and I am not reading through all seven of those But what's kind of fun is like I want to pick on number two So this is a positive from
chat GPT and I do agree with a lot of these um specialized teaching in middle school So that teacher that does just the English or the teacher that's been doing just the science there is more of an emphasis but like anything and to be fair we'll flip back and forth Get to that next page Marsha They look at the
negative It's the same people Chat GBT Look at number two They're saying the same thing they just said Well that might be too much academic pressure because that teacher is going to have more science knowledge more driven as far as the rigor So when I look at these two pages the positive and negative
reminds you of talking about a rainy day Mr Anger and I can argue about rainy day He says it's a beautiful day right We need the moisture crops grass I can say it's cold miserable gloomy So I mean we can stand up and talk about the negative and positive all you want I'm not disagreeing Um my staff right now that
would be teaching that level I think most the majority definitely um believe their job to be somewhat similar I think the majority feel their job would be just fine What's good I would say though it's
fairly split to be honest about do we think the sixth grade is coming up you know too much they're younger That is definitely a split opinion between my staff I'm honestly on the side of they're ready Um I look at like our setup K3 that's four grades
Kindergartens with the third graders 46 to me is just like if we move six grades three grades 6A would be three grades Our 912 again the big bad high school is four grades again right So I I don't see that But again to be fair there's no doubt my staff I would say a very split
opinion about bringing the sixth graders up Too young different setting the eighth graders etc I believe they're right That's that's again my opinion And like I said there's lots of positive Um other benefits and again I'm going to
say this many times I believe I wouldn't be bringing this up if I didn't feel was best for kids I've been doing this for 35 years It' be a lot easier to keep my mouth shut Not seriously not changing it Status quo I wouldn't had to bring this up if we' have just hired more sixth grade teachers It just kind of all fell
into place this year when we had the share position That was one of my sixth grade teachers We had sixth grade teacher resign going back to Rochester That was two Um I had a fourth grade teacher resign You know so I mean the reason you can reduce FTE sixth
grade if you're not you wouldn't bring all four sixth grade teachers up You'd bring two And the reason again is that the 7A when there were four sections The math teacher in seventh grade is four classes They can do one more class like a sixth grade class The eighth grade
math teacher right Same thing Four eighth grade a sixth grade class So again these teachers up there the core math English science those say seventh and eighth they're going to absorb two of the sixth grade teachers That's where you're getting your reduction And again
I'm not promoting this This isn't I think this is other benefits That's a positive But I'm I'm not coming to you like oh just so we can make this a clean thing for those junior high teachers Nope I don't care about the junior high teachers that much Right Samantha But um and to reduce 2.0 financially sure it's
a plus But that's not why I believe it's good for kids That's just me There's mixed feelings Um so that's again like I said another like I said another benefit of it So again right now we have technically three elementary positions
open I have not posted them Again if we do this I would post one versus three because you would reduce the two six grade by absorbing with the junior high staff That make sense Yep Good Marsha again academic core classes
pretty much the same as we've had the seventh and eighth grade it's your core classes we got some hex classes our computers and fi every other day sixth grade would be slightly different we need that fifth class and the question because again Mr Henry Mr Peter they're already on that with the seventh and eighth grade There's not three of them
So we would do that Again splitting the English class into that language arts and literature which I think is a huge plus And then again you're going to have some hex classes An issue with some of the staff and they were right to talk about again their sixth graders They need activity We wanted to get that
where that fine is every other day just like the junior the seventh and eighth graders We have never had in 19 years recess at the junior high 19 years have passed We've had the seventh and eighth grade eat sit in the cafeteria go to the next class That was a big discussion
with the staff mixed feelings but we are looking into next year again adding more activity during that lunch time just like the Guth Elementary K3 does it 46 You eat lunch you go wear out some energy We talked about using the gym obviously the weather's a factor here in Minnesota and plus there's some green
space behind the junior high in the nice states But we're that was one of the concerns as far as still again the sixth grade kids some activity Again we talked about that um six million and this is just every year
again I always look at the 46 elementary 78 and there are times already where as needed we move things around the 4678 and it's two buildings but it's my one building as far as sometimes I need a person up here or a half there specialist same thing moving the sixth
grade up we still have them switching off but they all the specialist the instrumental the art physical education reading being vocal They're going to be in both buildings obviously doing you know both all those levels 48 special education we've talked a lot every year we look at this again where are needs
it's never just clean I got five special ed teachers at the 48 is it two and three is it two and a half two and a half we work that out as a group so again staffing those are things we just do whether sixth grade stays where it's at which is fine or moving them
out I double Check with all the food service No concerns They would simply move probably a personnel from the kitchen of the four six to the 78 because it went from two grades to three Transportation absolutely no concerns You got the same number of kids coming to Elgen No concerns at all Um lockers
we bought a bunch of individual lockers during CO I got a ton of them at 46 We would not buy new They are simply attached to the wall sitting on the floor for next year We'd move a bunch of those up to the junior high And there is enough space Would it be crowded up there compared to what is
now Yeah 6 day would be a fun building Be busy Um but there is room This one I didn't even want to put on there Um I am not opening up a can of worms here today So this I'm going to go over But people said "Well what are you going to do with that extra grade level
open at the 46?" Well that's a good question Hopefully nothing next year if the move is going to bring them up Um I put this here because even like this year at the 48 I had 14 non-English-speaking students Um
that's one of our things we talked about doing more You have a classroom or two down there We use that But again this is not to stir things up with Mr Ray and the K3 or the community To me this is something superintendent Mrs Free the school board You know what are some big options down the road You're looking at
our numbers I didn't even want to put this on because I was saying what we're moving to third grade No I didn't say that Okay this is I'm just saying six right up the street three blocks I believe that'd be good for them This is all definitely future discussions much more community things more
Um but there are things like I said people in the district are talking about you get creative in your building and somehow get kids here get families here with daycare with more preschool stuff But again I'll let that be And again really you know I know I it's not an action item but I really
would like to at least get a feel from the board because I want to post positions I post three tomorrow I post one But again if the board approves like I said we're moving forward locking in schedules Um finalize all the staffing from each building We do have a a date
April 23rd is next Wednesday meeting in the choir room in Elgen I do a public presentation invite everybody like I said communicate with parents If not the next one not a big deal Like I said hire hire those two sixth grade
teachers lock in our classes etc It's not hard at the junior high level I think the question what do you do with all the seventh eighth grade teachers Mr Walter and I spent a lot of time previous before this Do they come over here and teach some classes There are a lot of overloads Do we do things with
more support classes there It's It's not hard finding something good for kids and clearing out a staff schedule That That's not hard So again like I said way back when to start this I am okay with you telling me no I'm not This isn't
Clark's last harrah I'm okay I believe in this I've always wanted to do this Why now Because you saw that second or third slide our numbers staffing etc But again I own it and I believe it's good for kids It's a mixed feeling I want to
make sure you know my 78 staff and sixth grade teachers there's a mixed feeling about is it good for sixth graders or not I respect that Questions Mr Anger things I missed I think you did well Clark Is that your last slide I think so
I got a threearter Yes All right So 19 years ago Yes We were a lot younger Yes Right So the reason that was kind of explained that we have a 78 building rather than a
67 is we did not have a middle school lure in our district Does that change Um I've checked all the lenses I should brought that up So many people at the junior high staff have a 58 in their special Mr
K a 5'8 math 712 He can only teach sixth grade math Mrs P She is a 5'8 English but she's a elementary license She could teach totally surprised sixth grade math sixth grade science No but she's the English teacher that you know with the
58 license So everybody fits either this way or this way Everybody Yep I've checked all lentures The two sixth grade teachers would come up They might teach multiple classes So they truly need to be a sixth grade elementary license So again um you know like Mrs Boni could
she go teach at the high school Absolutely not She's a 58 English with an elementary She cannot teach over eight English eighth grade And Mr Katie goes the other way He's 5'8 math in high school He can only teach fifth grade math sixth grade math Can't teach
another subject in the fifth and sixth grade and can't go below So we Mr and I we've checked licenses over and over and over We're good to go there Okay Um and then yeah my other part of it well the recess part knowing that sixth graders
are kind of still mandated by the state right certain amount of I don't know about that um um in my would just be the lack of green space behind the school right absolutely
the gym you know I look at recess at that level my opinion is our elementary Kids K3 four six they're trained to bring snow pants boots mittens gloves They're ready for that play in the snow My seventh and eighth grade boys they bring shorts for third week So to me at
the middle school level the gym will be used mainly but we'll use some of that green space September October May but point taken Okay Yep Then just the last part just the survey of of the staff the staff involved and maybe kind of answer
that I mean yeah I think again most there's only a few here but I think I've talked them over and over majority of the staff as far as their schedule you know some have taught four classes at the junior high one at the high school Well it be like four now and one at the junior high might be a sixth grade We're
in seventh grade But now we split it But again the mix bar without a doubt sixth grade coming up Not everybody feels like I do which is okay And I really believe that's more of a split in that 5050 Absolutely Thank you I got a question Y
um so sixth graders are used to their classroom teachers right So then when they move to seventh grade it's a different teacher for every class So I would be concerned about that That's that's a big jump Just a thought Yep And that's where some that's about where half my staff is
saying that I get on the other side thinking watch my six I'm like please get them to another teacher every hour versus right now the six we do kind of two So I'm on the other end but absolutely half my staff feel the same way you do Absolutely I respect that
My question I'm thinking of about Angie Mash and the gifted and talented those kids and anybody that's ever worked in a classroom and they have those one or two kids that are so much higher than all the rest Differentiation is a very difficult thing at times Will this give
you the flexibility to take that high-f flyer sixth grader and move them into a seventh grade math class if you will I mean do you have that flexibility as opposed to having that We do And we currently have a seventh grade student
in our eighth grade math That student in eighth grade next will be taking a high school credit through Mr Kada you know in eighth grade So we've done that in the past We're doing it currently The answer is yes And it just makes it seems to be a little bit easier to facilitate
Excellent Another question So sixth graders are not allowed to participate in sports Is that right Under Minnesota State They're not always wonder So that would be a different
And again like I said I've said this I won't say it again I believe in it I believe it's best for kids There's all these other factors that are secondary but you're not going to hurt my feelings by saying no Okay Seriously But like tonight I know this is not action but you know initially because if we wait
another month for you to kind of at least give a little bit of an inkling kind of you know hiring to be done a month later there's schedule So just general thoughts I don't know if that's fair to say Mr trigger not primary those that are not in favor the staff members
their primary thing is just a schedule concern I don't think it's their schedule their job there's a few of that very few the majority of the people their schedule their classroom assignments that's okay I think it's what Julia had mentioned about are we sure sixth graders coming up to that
level you know when you look in the area there's lots of 58 middle schools 68 I think most people can do it are there still your traditional elementaryaries K six and seven both Absolutely Um anything else No I would just say as
on the board perspective you know John um we're working on the elementary We rightsize pretty much every year Um we'd love to have more sections Uh we still have to do what we have to do within the budget constraints Clark told you these
are going to be a four section um classes as they move forward You haven't had the opportunity to take a look at doing this because of the fact you were larger in the past You're now at this point It takes 19 years I don't know
full 19 years It takes quite a while to be able to go in that direction and be to the point where you're at as a board to even entertain this The next piece of that will be a few more years and you'll be looking at um what we can you might
have to do at the high school level It's just part of the transition from a five section school district to a four section school district and we're talking at those upper levels not not our elementary So I think it's you know
kudos to you Clark This started as you said it with a discussion of piggybacking on our strategic planning maybe in the future and this was one of the topics I shared with the principles of you know when's the last time we looked at these well Clark took that a
little further and um dug into it and like he said it really impacts um Clark other than the sixth grade um he's the one that does Elgen whether he's doing one more class at the 78 building and
one less at the the 46 So I appreciate you uh your efforts Clark Talk about something a little less fun Hang on One more question I think one
question with this Were we looking to make an Okay Siri Um were we looking to make a decision tonight because you have not clerk just wanted a little guidance on contractually um you know by April 30th we should let staff know we can keep
some things pretty well open but if we were really totally against it he probably would post tomorrow for three teachers instead of one So my concern is because you're going to be briefing the public what next week and were you looking for input from them or rather
just briefing them what's happening difference between the two and that's all I was asking So we're definitely looking for input So yeah Okay So sorry John there any other board thoughts on
that Does anybody have anything to add I mean if you're looking my fun is I like would like to keep it the way it is I live for sixth and I have concerns about six graders in in the 70 building I see the positives but
I this is just where I go Any other thoughts I'm old I hate change right you know but I would like to see what the parents I I mean I really would you know
I thought you did a great job I mean you know dealing with concerns And I I I really would I you know if parents come back you know if they're all for it who am I to say no And I would just add I'm the same I would I trust Clark I trust
your gut I do Um so I'm supportive but I really would like to hear what the parents have to say because I think that's important That's kind of where I'm at See what the community thinks Yeah And I would add that that's a strength of our district
because Julie's concerned um still a 678 grade band that that's awesome There aren't a lot of districts the reason you're K6 you're um 712 you're doing whatever is because of your buildings So
for us as a district to have the opportunity to entertain this um again is a strength to our district whether we do it or not But happens all over the go Perfect Well I'm up here to talk
about our uh our playground So I've got a presentation coming up day after tomorrow for the public I will go through this very quickly because it will take a little while but um this on Wednesday we have the water cal association drilling out for us So at
5:00 I give my presentation We expecting be 20 25 minutes Then we're all going to head outside and uh have a little bite to eat and look at our playground Marsh want to click through a little bit When I meet with everybody the purpose of of a new playground is because we are
in dire need The playground we have right now is is roughly 30 years old It's run its course So we're looking for that We want to share the pause abilities with our with our Bulldogs there I'll show you the timeline here And then I'm looking to of course raise
some money So the new playground um you know again we've had this playground for 30 years You can see kind of if you ever take a walk back here the pictures don't quite do it justice but um we need we
need a lot right Proper lighting we need fencing uh we need to upgrade our equipment upgrade our play area And the biggest thing is that we're lacking as our inclusiveness We don't have uh anywhere for our students in our wheelchairs or with balance issues or
things like that We're providing unstable services things like it's it's a mess So if we go through this we go through this pretty quick but you can see some of the pictures of the wore off covers the the wood chips that have been piled on here after
year So as I say were worn through worn out and broken In fact just today we removed this piece of equipment because as well as our custodians our our our dasher staff have really tried to keep up on all the fixes They fixed us They
fixed us They said "We can't fix this anymore." So our playground is very safe because when things get to the point where we can't fix it we have to remove it So what we have out there is safe but that's a piece that kids have loved and loved and loved and we just have had to
remove it Drainage So this is a picture from the high school parking lot coming down into our playground We need to improve the drainage around there because as soon as it rains we have of course as you see water running This is a fullsize
park bench that sits about that far off the ground So it has just been buried buried buried The soils were nice Last time we had wood chips We spread wood chips right up to it because you can see the mud hole that would usually be out to here and wood chips Again they created a
nice path to get to our other piece of equipment here but it's just not enough So our wood chips are big um been added on added on They're just it's over overdone right now Um our classic backboard here I think Clark uh shot on that way back in the day That's how old
it is All right good But we lack lighting We lack cameras We lack stuff like that So we have a playground committee that we um put together Uh we started that this year to add to this We also have Kash
and Brandon Beck They're helping with our fundraising and we're just looking at stuff But our dream is to build an inclusive playground for everybody We need something for handicapped children Um like I said kids with mobility issues
balance issues things like that We have partnered with the Lions Club They actually reached out to us last year uh they had a deal with the city They were looking to add to Ledgewood Park Something didn't go quite right They said "Hey you want to you need help and we let you come on in." So we're doing
that Um so far we haven't signed any contracts anything like that but we're working with Flagship Recreation um Minnesota company to design all this and we'll kind of go through uh a little quickly of some of the stuff But yeah here we go the balance issues physical
impairment sensory issues all this kind of stuff So and actually if you back up a little bit this is a picture from another playground Sorry Where one of our students is on the right up in the equipment and he was in there uh this year smiling happy as
as all get out So he was zip around all day Loved it He can't do that Last time he did I had to go push him out of the wood chips because his wheelchair got stuck So keep going My plan here this is the overhead shot Sorry it's not a very clear shot but we have the playground
The two yellow X's that's where our current uh structures are They would be removed I want to uh increase the drainage on the red line to try and get that to drain out and get out um to the streets but that's also I also want to put a fence there So if we could have a
fence that not only keeps the balls in on a windy day but also keeps those kids that maybe get sick of Mr Wright and just want to take off running So I won't have to chase it down the alleyway or into the parking lot This and the blue rectangle is where the new structure would be It'd be right at the end of the
asphalt So on a rainy day kids could go right from the asphalt right onto this poured in place which I'll explain in just a second Um so even on intimate weather days we're not waiting for the ground to dry up or anything like that We get those kids out there get them
playing Uh this over kind of a overhead thing We'll keep going stuff but this is what we're looking at Excuse me This is what they call the pouring in place It is a rubberized matting Um it's got drainage underneath it They call you
have to build a container they call it but it's a rubberized mat It's good for falls but also you can walk It's a spongy kind of feel to walk on it but wheelchairs easily can zip around that whole thing We have some ramps of course
open slides lots of climbing When I met with the with the sales rep I said the biggest thing we want is climb climb climb Uh kids are climbing all over everything A lot of exclusive equipment This one of them It's called a we go around zero uh entry So a wheelchair can
go right in there It's just a little mirror go around to hang on and run around in there Uh sensory slides like the little kid slides all made of rollers So this was a old idea that's come back but it's you know could be for our ASD kids anything like
that more climbing open slides no more tunnels so that you know uh those big bad high schoolers as Clark put them can come down and write words and pictures inside and we don't know what's going on so we can see everything Uh and again another
influence of piece of equipment the sway fun Um it's up on a ramp Uh kid or the wheelchair can uh slip right in there And then this is like a glider rocker It doesn't get too wild but it sways back and forth And just give you a quick price before you're shocked by the whole
thing That piece of equip right there is 35 to $40,000 Revan it's hard to see but in there musical instruments So mallets we got bells drums things like that I don't know if they'll be in the middle like that but we'll spread them around But we
do want to hit the sensory um um instruments like that Also most of these are from I think it's called the dream playground in Winona where our third grade go down to the uh art museum down there Please help me
with the name Marine Marine Art Museum So thank you So then this is what they visit There is a type of sway fund on on the top there Lots of kids All right Estimated for the whole project from that big big idea is about
a million dollars So installation of the new equipment if we had the company go from you know tear down to build back up 720,000 they want to charge We're hoping we're going to bring that down with some community
investment Well the equipment itself 400,000 that port in place is just 180,000 by itself Now obviously we can reduce that down to paths but we'd love to have the whole thing uh with this port in place So site work roughly
guessing 250,000 of drainage all that kind of stuff And and meeting with some electricians and our tech department we're thinking light poles and cameras 75,000 just for that We are not going to use district money for this because we just don't have a
million dollars laying around So everything we're going to go with is all from fundraising So we haven't started any fundraising We don't have anything organized yet but we're hoping that you know it'll be fundraising direct payments to the school Um we bought some drop boxes so that we're hoping to put them in businesses so when they're
cashed out they can drop change in there for us Um and hopefully as I told electricians I met with them I'll be hitting up you know maybe do this for a freebie or you know at cost things like that So of course everybody's going to make a living at what they're doing and
we don't take advantage of anybody but any kind of discount we are happy to take anything So what can we do Again that's $720,000 is from the start to finish So we can use our labor We can remove the old equipment That's going to take some
money off If we can get our local garbage company that takes our garbage give us a dumpster for free that helps Uh materials if someone wants to uh donate a load of rock for that container we're going to need some rock you know So things like that The concrete I would
love to expand our 12in border because you have to have a border around that board in place It requires a 12 in x 6 in concrete border or excuse me 12 in x 6 in border I'd love to take that to a sidewalk so we have a nice walking path
all the way around Well you know it depends on what we get for donation And then I'd love love love to be adding a black top area again So once we get it all set and and done after a year and everything sells I'd love to
come back and re redo that black top get that nice and nice and uh flat again maybe is best But of course new hoops more games on the black top There's still going to be days there will be confined to that black top So we got to kind of upgrade that
too Timeline We've been talking about this internally uh since the beginning of the year in fact even last summer Well we roll it out here again on Wednesday collecting donations now until next June but uh January 26 all through
next year So about January next year we'll be finalizing these contractors Uh June start and I'd like to say a July finish but I'll say August finish because we don't know how that works And I talk very fast but don't
want to take up a ton of time Any quick questions So your sweat equity is that right That would be That would be hard to figure in like you would have to have commitments beforehand or signup sheets or whatever
Correct Yep So yeah I mean and we're not quite to that part Anything can take off that $720,000 bill that will help you know So if we get a dumpster we tear down the old stuff Even if we recycle the metal that's in there that helps
right Sure Yep Great All right Head coaches for winter 2025 2026 I move to approve second motion by Julie All those in favor I
updated classified working agreement So earlier in the agenda you approved the hire of Bridget Inc Bridget's going to be a speech language pathologist assistant So we have um advertised for a
new speech teacher I think for the last two years Two or three Two or three um not been successful This speech language pathologist assistant can actually do direct services to students They're just
not able to um do maybe certain parts of the evaluation and some things that they need to rely on a fully credentialed speech and language pathologist We're very fortunate that we're a large enough
district that we're not just trying to have an assistant We have Tina Montgomery our current speech teacher who can oversee this um assistant So this model will work great for us Um
however we'll still be um having to most likely do a little bit of virtual speech next year just because this still won't um fulfill everything we need Well the problem with having a speech
language assistant they don't exist in our system So the only way I could create them because they're not a parah they're not a secretary So everything in red here if you can scroll Marca I just
went through with Char and created um and most of this follows a pair of for the most part because this person will be a school year employee um not a um year round like our secretaries
So this has to go with the hire that we um hired earlier in the agenda So the nice part of this scroll back up Mara I'll just use this for an example Really a cap Well these agreements get
updated um every two years So I'm not you know it's not perpetuity on the $35 an hour I just had to come up with a number um for now and I thought that's pretty realistic So I think next year that'll be the last
year in this agreement So you'll be revisiting all of this the following year Does that make sense And to give you an idea right now $25 an hour HFED has one I didn't realize that till we got into this Hved
currently has one um SLP assistant They're looking to hire another one this summer which we might be able to utilize um for some of our additional needs Um but that's where I kind of got the starting number Um and and to give you a
perspective we're currently paying $85 an hour for the virtual So this is direct services completed at $25 an hour versus $85 an hour So huge
savings and John and Tina were part of the interview process I was very impressed with with Brit She just um has absolutely no interest in going back to complete her schooling We could have done a tiered lensure of some sort Um we
could work with her to go back and get fully credentialed She has absolutely no interest in doing that She wants to stay at this level with someone else having more of the responsibility but loves loves working directly with students So
we're excited I'll move to approve I'll second Motion by Monica Second by DC All those in favor I for the readact So a couple things um in
thisou So Marca can scroll down a little bit Um oh right there Make that just a hair bigger You can almost see it Ah sorry Um Oh 100% Go
125 Clark talks about age Even with my glasses I couldn't see it from this far All right But I'll drive home Don't worry All right So the dollar amount um the stipen um is from the state The
state through the read act gave specific dollars for this stipen Okay Couple of things that are important to point out The $45.50 that's gross We've already taken
out all of the expense to the districts TRA FICA all of that So this is their amount So basically that's the same amount for every teacher involved except for their taxes But there is absolutely no cost to
the district um for this stipen and there's nothing else we can do This is kind of like the softball um donation This is all we can do with this is give it to our teachers But I wanted to point out we've taken care of all of the district costs as a part of that
too Now you go down to the credits We've this year are doing units one through four embedded in our um calendar Next year you'll be doing units 5 through eight embedded in your
calendar Um there is still a lot of work folks So even though we're embedded in our um calendar people are working very very hard um the $45 uh stipen before taxes I guess I'm
glad the state um gave that to us that we can give to our teachers Um when it comes to the credits uh we can say no credits Um we could say all credits We could do whatever we want here in working with um Mike and Jen um
and looking at what some other districts did um both that did it with teachers embedded time and teachers completely um doing it in the summer or outside of the the calendar year Um there's a variety
of of of things and options that they did with the credits I landed on three because I feel it's a good number Um with this if you did the total um there's no additional work There are a couple of
websites that teachers can go to that they feed in the um information that's needed and the website will spit out um six credits for those one to four units one through four and another six credits
for five through eight If someone comes to us next year Clark John hire a new teacher and they have that on their their transcript we're going to take it It's germanine to their teaching I couldn't argue that I can say no to our
teachers because we embedded it in our calendar But I feel with all the additional work um the three internal credits what that means is there's no cost to any of our staff the 56 folks that completed this they will have three
internal graduate credits to use um for this year Next year they'll get another three credits Six credits do absolutely nothing for you in our lanes As you know they're they're set up in 10 credit in increments You still are going to have
to take some initiative and finish up something other than letters You can't double dip any This is all the letters we can give you Um even if you go out to those sources I'm talking about I'm not we as a district as part of thisou will
not um take any additional credits in that But if somebody comes to us that wasn't part of ourou they're and have the 12 credits we will um have to accept those and apply those So I'm kind
of trying to balance between what I think is is prudent for the district because of cost You really you know if I were to put a cost on the six credits I really can't do that Um I know there's a cost to it Um but it really depends on how
many of those um folks on that list are going to utilize that The other piece is I know my daughter's a first year teacher Um she's already talking to me about doing her masters They're going to move no matter what Um I I think this is
good quality work As a superintendent for 10 years I can tell you I've saw a lot of online stuff that had the right title um that teachers had to take in order to move So so I I feel good about the the the
three credits Could it be less Sure Could it be more Sure But I feel it's a good number And are there questions on how the internal So if somebody uh leaves us this year there is no credits
that leave with them This you have to stay here um in order to be able to utilize these credits Very simple We get a master list of 80% completion on all these um units That's just goes to um SH
in the business office and that's the master list for being able to utilize the credits scroll I think I covered and it does go into next year because next year we'll finish up five through eight
So the number on the the dollar amount we're pretty solid this year Next year um that's based on 56 teachers If we lose a few folks or add a few folks that number could change but that's just
a a minor thing that we would work out with the teachers union Any questions No we'll do a copy of that We'll second motion by Stacy second by Monica
All those in favor I 2024 2025 budget revisions Okay Um this page report is a summary of our 80 pages of revenue and expenditures
only compiled into one page here If you're looking at the top here this was our adopted budget um that you approved back in June If we scroll down further this was the revised budget that came in December of 24 Recall and we
always have to have an adopted a budget in place by June 30th of each year by state statute And then we had a revision that came through in December We often follow along um along with the truth and taxation It's always very good timing budget decision better for our
enrollment if there's any changes there Um so that one came through in December and you can see where we had improved our bottom line our unassigned fund balance um from 247 back down to 76,000 We knew
then more of our revenues interest rates We knew we're um holding steady at 4% We we couldn't plan on it at the beginning of the year not knowing that but at that point we knew better And then our revision is going to be on page three our second revision budget revision
number two So what this is showing um go through this quickly I know you've been through all this before The general fund showing a deficit spending of 494,000 That looks like a big scary number What we always have to do is remember come down here to the middle We were
factoring in that our our assigned and our reserved funds Um LTFM we knew that we had been budgeted I'm not sure that we've gotten there yet but that they were going to spend down some of the fund balance that we've built up And in that regard we need to show the
expenditure there But keep in mind that's already sitting in the reserve Um same with assigned projects Um that's where the some of our curriculum some of the capital projects we just don't have enough LTF or capital funds for we have been able to set those dollars aside
over the years um for those projects and as a safety net for the projects coming up and reserve staff development that pays for our tech integration specialist um salary and benefits in there So keep that in mind as we look at this number here We're not saying that un assigned
fund balance was dropping 494,000 We're actually projecting 34,000 So that's a much better number Um and the rest will come out of those plan projects the difference that you will see here It went from 200 further up to 250 Um we
talked about iPads and needing to I don't know if you want to speak to that a little more but that that's for iPad um purchase that So you might be following the news There's some tariff wars going on Um some of them been
delayed I guess 90 days but not China China's not playing very nice So um iPads come from China Um I've reached out to our tech folks Um at Midwest would not recommend at all um not
purchasing new iPads It would um goof up the cycle the old the new So um we definitely have to buy So why wait till July one Because this was a targeted purchase for next year We do two grade
levels um we would just purchase them um in July waiting to see what happens with tariffs We can buy them not worrying about tariffs at all So we're actually going to make that purchase that we were planning on making next year This year
it's about 70,000 The reason Jan only had to put 50,000 additional in that assigned project um some of the um savings from this year's budget also offset it So basically we'll be um updating our iPads
for two grade levels as part of this change in the assigned projects And because those are for next year yeah that 200,000 we estimated at the beginning of the year um we knew that we weren't going to be fully expending that by the end of the year Um but we had so
we had room to just put the 250 in instead of the entire 85 70 to 80,000 what it was going to be And what that'll be then um is we you know since it's not really it's not for this year we call that a prepaid
asset That's what that'll go on the books as when we get the audit done Um and then I'll uh move on to food service looking at this negative 138 We didn't change anything there from the previous one Just a reminder that's to spend uh on equipment They have a fund balance We
have to justify to the state now what we're going to spend that on me to submit a report saying yes we have expenditures They bought some combi ovens Am I saying that word You are And um so upgrading that equipment and as long as we're showing them that we're
spending that appropriately they won't take some of those funds away which is what has been threatened was going to happen Um so the 138,000 in the TER contract we do have they it's always a break even They they we don't they don't deficit spend And the reason that's
showing that there is though we are going to use that for the equipment the equipment that comes out of the fund balance that needs to go um report So bottom line that redemption um this is based on
1,390 pupil units which we have not changed since the beginning of the year We're still feeling like that's a good projection um as far as where our student count is at right now And on the conservative side hopefully we're we should always be a little above that We want to project um and not overstate it
So 1390 is still where we have a comfort level where we're at Um this does go along This is good timing We don't necessarily always come to you with a budget revision this late in the year but with the change between the different revenues and expenditures um
that will have changed from the go back If you look at these numbers here you can see the change Well we as we mentioned we added in additional interest and then we had the HB contract and since we have a big enough change within those revenue and expenditure
accounts that when the auditors come we do have to justify it if we're you know we didn't budget it any higher here And even though bottom line it didn't change a lot this we still felt was warranted So we did improve fromative 76,000
projected and then down to the bottom down to 34,000 So not a huge change but at least we're going in the right direction Um that still shows that we're you know we're ended the year last year at 14.5% unassigned fund balance That's
what basically keep that the same The financial forecast that's where that has come into play and has been very helpful Um we really don't know what's coming up next year We already know that at this point we're down 160,000 in compensatory based on the pupil unit drop They talk
about harmless I don't think that's going to apply to us but we'll see We hope it it will Um and so the financial forecast is helping us to see that We feel very fortunate with that fund balance to help push in that low and we will continue continue to monitor it but that it is in fact forecast That's not
the actual budget and we'll talk more about that as we get more information Motion by Ron second by Stacy All in favor All right we're on to board comments have a comment I'd like to uh give a
shout out to Matt Kada He is the one that did the work to update the teacher retirement uh the pension slides so that they are relevant to anybody that looks at them to uh show the PEM uh statutes
But the other thing that I want to bring to your attention is there's a much bigger picture to those slides than just teacher retirements teacher retirements is only one part of it In the long run as teachers are forced to stay longer
every year they get another year older and their salaries go up When you force a teacher to stay until they're 65 as it is right now think about that How much more that's going to cost the school
district if they're allowed to retire earlier you can replace them with a younger teacher at a much lower cost One of the ways to offset that is to approve these teacher retirement
um pensions or the one of the provisions that's out there I don't know if it's going to make it through the legislature this year but in time sooner or later we're going to have to pay the piper And it's not going to affect just PE It's
going to affect every school district in this state But it's important to know that small school districts like this one it's going to break our bank if something doesn't happen So please take the time if you do nothing else take a
look at that first slide go down in there a few slides to see what it's going to cost this district because math's taken the time to show how many teachers when there's 15 or 20 of them in that you know range of in the 60s you
know lower 60 61 years of age what it's going to cost this district to be able to keep them on staff whereas if they could retire earlier and we could have you know 15 or whatever younger teachers the cost difference So while some people
look at this and say teacher retirement I'm not interested that's uh much bigger picture than that and that's important for you as community members to be aware of It is this board's business It is your business as community members So I
just want you to be aware of that Roger Um I went to the girls soccer Friday night and it was it was a beautiful night great game What was frustrating to me was that they have a scoreboard
that's broken and I I don't understand I'm looking at the donation for softball money here and I don't understand why this scoreboard is broken But so there's that to be aware of I don't know who handles those things But
then my other the other thing that I don't understand is that it is my understanding that Elgen Park and Wreck shares shed storage with us but I'm not understanding why they get all the
shelving and our girls get the floor over here That just seems kind of wrong for me when it's our building That's all I want Thank you I will tell you that the I was there on Sunday prior to the start of the season
The scoreboard worked on Sunday Oh okay It got moved and then it quit Okay Don't know why Don't know what happened Okay But Craig Steel and I both Okay TV I kicked out a good word
Sorry I didn't have a softball at the end of all Um they were using them Yeah that's good information Thank you And I think they were looking into it That's all I know Okay Trying to get something to work But field is the
varsity field is groomed getting groomed and my understanding was they can play on it as long as maintained with no grass But fix the bleachers The bleachers were fixed They had new
boards on Very good Yep So yep So things will move over there with that field repair Anything else Second by
Stacy All favor