All right, you are live. All right, it's 5:34 in the secondary school media center and we'll call the meeting to order and we'll start with the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Roll call. Vincent, yes. Here. Sour here. Sanstead here. Porter here. And Gross
here. Um, we don't have any visitors that would like to comment today. Is that correct? No. Yes. Oh, okay. Um, so we'll look at our
agenda. you'll see an addition under uh 5.2 um for the lane change uh for Haley Gross. Is there any other additions or corrections to the agenda? That's the only one. And then I should mention so Darren can vote. We'll do the
consent agenda everything without Haley and then we'll just do Haley and do that as a vote after that. So it's got to that's just hiring. Hiring just hiring has to be that way. Okay. So, okay. Any other? So, then do we need
to modify that to be like a I think we could just do that as like the second part of the consent agenda. Got it. Okay. Any other additions or corrections? And I would look for a motion to approve the modified agenda.
Some moved. Second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Um, brings us to our administrative reports and business manager. Can you hear us, Tanya? Yes. Can you hear me?
Yep, we can. Okay. Do you have the reports in front of you or do I need to share my screen? Nope. I've got it pulled up on our other screen here, so we're good to go. Oh, you do? Okay, great. So, um, these are numbers again as of June 30th, 2025,
but they're updated as of September 10th. So, they're a lot more accurate to where we think we'll be sitting at the end of June. Um, it was the week of the audit that week. Um, I would say
probably 90% 90 to 95% of it is done. So um these would be pretty close but subject to change with the audit. So um overall in the yellow column um shows the revised budget. So this is all the
general fund. Um the revised budget for revenues total 12.2 million and received year-to date that's the first white column that's 12.5 million. So we did
receive 267,820 more than we budgeted which is great in the revenue side. Um so 102.2% of our budget and then um mainly that was due to state revenues coming in at
102.5%. So, that was a $231,000 increase or higher than what we budgeted. And that was mainly in the state special ed area. It's hard to budget really accurately what state special ed
is because that's kind of a a tougher one, but we budget conservatively and then it came out better than what we budgeted. So, that's great. Then um for expenditures um in that yellow column our total
revised budget was 12.2 million and expended year to date expected to be 11.8 million. So um we were under budget on the expenditure side by 382,000.
So we spent 96.9% of our budget. So that's good on the expenditure side. So overall um revenue is 12.5 million estimated and expenditures 11.8 million.
So that um nets to about a $620,000 surplus in the general fund. So um that's very good for us. We'll um of course the 620,000 consists of many different areas. There is some restricted balances. Um there is a bunch
of different assigned fund balances. um back in June you approved moving the committed funds into assigned. So they're sitting in those um different buckets of money. Um and then of course the unassigned. So we potentially will
be talking later about if we feel confident in in these numbers that we might do a transfer from to community service to help out those that that fund. But that'll be for a future conversation.
So that's overall the general fund and then um just broken on the bottom is broken out the expenditures by program. So are there any questions on the general fund? not I'll go ahead with the second page or all the other
activity funds. So food service overall um their revenue was about 91% of what was budgeted. Their expenditures were about 97%.
So overall, um, they're just squeaking by at a $1,700 increase in their fund balance. Community community education, they received about 82% of their revenue and
spent about 87% of their expenditures and expecting a deficit of about 182,000. And then debt service, that one is um expecting a deficit of 70,000, but that would not be a concern um because the
state watches our fund balance there and as we collect more than what we need, they just do adjustments there. So, but overall, um looking good for June 30th and we'll just keep making a little
adjustments, but this is pretty close. There any questions? So Tanya, it looks like because we were having some concern when the auditors were here that we potentially does that include our inventory. We thought we were going to maybe have to do a transfer to food service or is it
looking like that could be a net neutral so we don't have to do that food service transfer? It's looking like we don't have to do the food service transfer. Yeah, which would be great. We had concern that we were going to maybe have to transfer money from the general fund to food service because you can only be in a deficit for a couple years. Bad part
is we were going to know next year we're going to be probably in the positive. So then you can't take that money back out. They won't allow you to you say well we transferred $3,000. We'd like to get that back to our general fund where and then they say no you had to make that transfer and it's a one and done. So I think that's the part you know you look at the dollars where we had extra
revenue coming in. They knew the entire time that we were conservative in special ed is what our plan was, but you don't know until the very end. The alarming part sometimes with special ed is two years down the road. They can come in and say, "Hey, there was another adjustment that we weren't aware of. We need to back out another $75,000 or
something like that or even get more money." So, we know that that could still be a two-year delay there. And I think the other big piece too is you look at where we didn't spend 100% of our we've really tried to watch our spending, but remember we didn't fill some positions either that we anticipated filling in um in the career
tech ed program secretar's position. So some of those savings come into that and show that piece there. But I think yeah I mean it can be looked at but it's a lot of savings but at the same point I know the auditor said that last year's audit that we needed to stop deficit
spending. We've done that for a few years and so I think it's a positive piece as we move forward there. Puts the district in a little bit better financial condition and just shows that we can manage dollars when we need to make sure. And I've got to tell you, Tanya and Maggie have done phen
phenomenal work. The auditors came in two days last year. I think they were here for a week and a half and they still had to do a lot of work offsite, but things have been just laid out very good. Todd does a very nice job. She's a perfectionist, which I appreciate because then, you know, you're going to get it detailed and you're going to need
it where it needs to be. And so, it's been nice changing from her. Tanya just needs to know that seven days a week doesn't mean you work seven days a week. So, she is on emailing all the time and taking care of that stuff. But, we do really appreciate all the work you and Maggie put into it to get this taken
care of and making sure that our in the right areas where it needs to be. Yes. Any other questions, comments for Tanya? Thank you again, Tanya. We appreciate your hard work. Nope. Thank you.
And we will move on to the superintendent report. Okay. Real quickly there, school safety and security. I think you saw I did email out to you the letter that went out to all of our staff and our families, making them aware we have to give a 24-hour notice for any lockdown drill.
So Maya, Nate, and um Mr. McNamera went to a training back in August, the I Love You guys Foundation training, and they really have, I would call it, simple language that seems to be very easy to follow. While we were there was
emergency management directors from the area as well as Pope County Sheriff's Office was there. Um few other was it Stevens County was there as well. So, I think more are going to start looking at that approach, but it's a very simple here's what a hold is, here's what a
secure is, here's what a lockdown is. And so, we passed out those instructions to all of our staff. We uh visited with our staff the last couple days so they know they're going to talk to our students tomorrow before the drill happens at 1:30 in the elementaryaries. It's going to be districtwide. However,
in the high school, that's passing time at 1:30. So, they'll be in class at 1:35. the teachers will explain what's going to happen, what they need to do. Um, and we'll do it that way. We have to do five drills. Not all of them need to be locked down. It can be a whole drill and a secure. And we just want all of our students to know and and they do
have the right to opt out. I'm not aware of really too many people that are opting out of the drill, which I think is important because we need to practice what we're actually going to do. So, fortunately, Deputy Carlos will be down at South tomorrow. So, it'll be myself, Mr. Ryan, and Deputy Carlos clearing
rooms tomorrow there. And then at the secondary it'll be administrators. Maya's potentially going to be here at North and there'll be law enforcement from Grant County here in the same thing. Then up at that north just to get any feedback. It was nice to get some feedback that we got today to say, "Hey, can you check this part of the building?
Can we make sure that this is taken care of?" And so I forwarded that information. Kevin's done a nice job of getting back already on some things with some areas of potential concern. So, we'll make sure that we keep following up on that to make sure that that's taken care of and moving forward. Audit,
I kind of mentioned that already. So, the auditors, um, I don't think we've even had our audit. I think two years ago, I think we had to ask for a a little bit of a delay getting our stuff turned in for you. We had to ask for some timelines there. That is now they're going to have it done and our
audit will be presented on October 15th. Typically, I think it's been a December audit um, report. So, that's great to see there. and also knowing that it's going to be a positive fund balance is is positive there. Special election today. I went over to Grant County to pick up our assisted voter device. So,
we have that and absentee voting starts Friday. We do have some permanent absentee ballots that will have to get mailed out. Otherwise, people can start coming in to the district office on Friday and that'll go through Monday, November 3rd. And then our polling places will be open on uh the 2nd or the
4th that Tuesday, November 4th from 4 to 8. And as you see, we have a resolution to approve the election judges uh for that afternoon and evening. And then our JMC student information system, there's been some learning challenges and curves. I think everything from students
all the way down to some of our things uh for staff and things like that. I think students weren't able to check is right now I think is National Honor Society applications is that what everybody was needing their GPA for and stuff like that. So they couldn't find that. So there was concern we can't find
it now. We don't know where to find it on JMC but we've got that rectified and and JMC's been very responsive and we've had issues to take care of those things. Their system isn't quite it's a little I guess you could say maybe antiquated. I don't think that's right. It's a simpler
system, but it doesn't have where we can just it's simpler for them where we used to just push one button and a report came up. There's some other pieces, but they're very responsive. If we say, you know what, in Synergy, we were able to do it this way. Okay, we'll have our programmers and look at it because they've really added some business and they want to make sure that they can
retain those folks. So, it's still a work in progress. We did a did have invite staff in Monday after school, paid them the stipened, and then Paul Frerieded from JMC was available to answer any gradebook questions and things like that. So, we want to make it as smooth a transition as possible for
them, realizing that there are going to be a few bumps along the way here to get that taken care of. Then, upcoming dates, I'll be out at the superintendent fall conference um the 29th and 30th. Our next committee meeting is October 1st and then we have our first meeting
conferred um at 3:45 I believe is when we normally done that, right? 3:45 to uh 5:00 and that I believe is Maya, Nathan, and Ryan are the three meet and confer folks there. And we do have negotiations with
um I believe it's going to be custodial staff and I know for sure the 10-month secretaries on Monday, and that's Ryan, Kayla, and Darren. And so if we can start at 3:30, I know one of our groups would be able to start at 3:30. Does
that work or are you work for you Ryan and Darren? So we'll do 3:30 and then five o'clock and potentially add another one at 7 if you want to do that or if you want to if we have if we meet with the nine month and different day if you want to say let's pair those two up together. Otherwise it could be about six hours of
negotiations. Whatever you guys would like to do. I'm good either way. Whatever you can get scheduled. Okay. Well, I will follow up with you and let you know where we're at on that piece. That's all I have. All right.
You want to address 3.3? I do. Yeah. So, it's schoolboard appreciation month. And I just wanted our um I know that Jesse Simon, she's on our red team. And so, we do have some apple crisp and cheese crackers for
during the work session, but they also notice she brought these down. posters to recognize the board and thank you for your work there. So, if you want to take those and pass those around and then we've got certificates as well. The
schoolboard association bumped this up last year to September. And I uh didn't get that taken care of that early there. So, these just are certificates thanking you for your service on the school board. We know you're going to have a
lot of hard work ahead of you here over the next year. So Darren, thank you. Nathan, yes. Thank you. Yep. Josh, sir, thank you.
Cookies on your fridge. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Yeah. Maya, thank you. Ryan, let somebody else check these. That would have been embarrassing to run all of one. And I've got K. Not that that's ever happened to me
before. So again, thank you for all of your service on the school board. We know there's going to be a lot of hours coming up this year as we get through facilities, and it's not always a thankful job, but we do appreciate the decisions you make and how you impact students at WCA.
Like I said, after we're done here, I won't pass out like they did the pizza. I'll make sure we got it ready to go so we can have the meat and cheese and and the pie and or the apple crisp and ice cream as well. Sounds good. Is that We better hustle if the ice cream's over there melting. I still got that in the freezer.
Yeah. So, all right. Um we'll move on to the approval of payment of claims. Mr. Porter, do you have anything for us on that? Yeah. Well, I hope everyone had a chance to look at our board checks and
wire payments ahead of tonight, but uh just a couple of big ones I guess that we visited about before would be the we um wrote a check to Nelson Ford
60,700 or $674 for the new uh vehicle. I know that was a hot or well discussed earlier. this year. And uh the other item was the bus contracts um for
$7,740.80 for 9 months. So um there's a a few other ones that Maggie had sent me we I looked at and um I know does anybody have any questions on anything before we approve?
Mr. Brown will you have anything to mention on anything? Nope. I think yeah that's those big ones that are kind of out of the ordinary but like you said we had already talked about the auto piece we do have that we do have the vehicle and Jake just came in today and said it is super nice not to be scrambling and uh it would be nice
if we just had one more vehicle so I said to be able to have those and just get them out for people to use is been very much appreciated. We have, you know, some of the expenses to get get started for the year like the credit card um for the the custodial orders, the teacher orders, the for the
classrooms, everything is a little bit higher this month. But, uh there were no red flags. I guess everything is looking good on the payments. So, I would look for a motion to approve the 526,83655.
You're making that motion? Yes. Is there a second? Second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. That brings us to our consent agenda. Um, you receive the meeting minutes from
the August 20th uh regular meeting, the August 27th work session, as well as the September 3rd committee meeting. Um, we have the um following personnel items. uh Shelby Aoyo uh going from BA + 10 to
BA + 20. Uh remember we will move the Haley Gross piece out of the first vote. So that will be the second vote will be just for Haley going from BA plus 10 to BA plus 20. And then
um the contract agreements for post-secondary enrollment option contract with Northland Community and Technical College as well as the final reading for the uh following policies with statutory and recommended changes
from MSBA. Uh policy 531, the pledge of allegiance. Uh policy 532, use of peace officer and crisis team to remove student with IEPs from school grounds. Policy 533, wellness, policy 604, um,
instructional curriculum, and policy 515, protection and privacy of pupil records. Is there any questions, comments, anything on any of those policies or any of the consent agenda at this time?
So then I would look for a motion for the first portion of the consent agenda with everything with the exception of 5.2.1.2. Claire second. And Nathan, all in favor say I. I.
And then the second just on the 5.2.1.2 um just for Haley. Um Dan will abstain. And so I'd look for a motion to approve that. So moved. And a second. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in
favor say I. I. Motion carries. All right. Um that brings us to new business. Um we have the following donations um for our donation uh resolution. Um,
executive sanitation, $600 for corporate corporate partner donation. Um, Johnson Jetline, $600 corporate partner donation. DND spray foam, $1,200 corporate partner donation. DHS Grain,
$1,200 corporate partner donation. Farmers Co-op Oil, $1,200 corporate partner donation. Elbow Lake Soft Water, $600 corporate partner donation. Uh, TS Belgum Agency, $600 corporate partner
donation. Um, Artistry Salon, $600 corporate partner donation. Carlson Production, $1,200 corporate partner donation. Egg Country Farm Credit, $600 corporate partner donation. Uh, Specialty Smile Partners, $600 corporate
partner donation. Uh, Patricia Soberg, $30 golf donation. Eagle Bank. Um, it doesn't have a The Eagle Bank is a 1541 and 25 cent donation. Is
that's for their credit card. So, it's just a general donation. That's an extra money that they are. Do they round up? If you use their if you use their credit card, there's a percentage that comes back or they get a percentage back. Okay, got it. Um, WCA football boosters, $44.50
for BSN order. Uh, Grant County Lions, $600 corporate partner donation. Mickelson Lawn Care, $600 corporate partner donation. Cody Crinky Construction, $600 corporate partner donation. JC Electric Alexandria, $600
corporate partner donation. Grant County Lumber, $1,200 corporate partner donation. And Duly Petroleum, $600 corporate partner donation. There's not a second page. Is there? Nope. I believe that the total is down at the bottom there. Okay. So, we want to thank all those for
that and I would look for a motion to um approve that resolution. So, move second. And it'll be a roll call vote. Gross. Yes. Porter, yes. Sandstead, yes. Sour, yes. Olrich, yes. And Vincent, yes.
That'll be a yes. Motion carries. That brings us to our girls tennis cooperative agreement. Morris, do you have anything you want to
No, I think we, you know, we've kind of worked through a little bit with our Ashb and Brandon Evansville um agreements a little bit because some billing hadn't been done in the past and so we needed to get that cleaned up and now we do have that taken care of. So, we'll have some additional revenue
coming into the district for that. Um, but this now just gives us a better process to follow, right? there's a question with the bill and I guess I thought there was something already on the books but we've never had anything official. So this just says here's how the billing is going to be handled. So when we get any questions we can go back
to our cooperative agreement. So just make sure that it's in writing and and everybody's on the same page. All right. Any other questions on that? And I'd look for a motion to approve the girls tennis cooperative agreement with Morris area.
So move second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Uh that brings us to the resolution appointing election judges. Um I'll just read that quickly. Be it resolved that the school board of
independent school district number 2342 Barrett Minnesota as follows. The following individuals, each of whom is qualified to serve as an electing judge, are hereby appointed as judges of election, to act as such at their
respective polling places or combined polling places listed below. So, polling place, the Kensington Community Center. The election judges would be Marcy Hall, uh Bruce Holforth, did I say that right? Yeah, like Walforth. Yeah. Judy Andre
and the head head election judge Jennifer Kangis. And then the polling place elbow getser room. Election judges will be Pat soberg, Pam Holen, Katie Bloom, and the head election judge Dean Horton.
Any questions on that? I would look for a motion to uh approve that resolution. So move and a second. Second. Roll call vote. Olrich, yes. Vincent, yes. Sour, yes. Sanstead, yes.
Porter, yes. And Gross, yes. And I'll be a yes as well. [Music] Then we move to the e-learning plan for 2526. And the only thing that changed there
was the years. So, we have the same plan as last year. Any questions or comments on that? I think there was a little discussion about it, but it seems to be Yeah, I think accountability was our biggest piece, right, as we talked with the teachers a little bit to just making
sure that we're all on the same page. There's clarity, I think, some expectations, too. If you're already on a sick leave day, are you expected to? We said, "No, you're not expected to teach that day. If you're already out on personal leave or things like that, we would expect you to do that. We'll have to make sure we have subs ready to go and handle things that way.
Right. Do we continue to talk with other districts around the area and pros and cons, positives and negatives, see if we can improve on the plan if it's perfect, it's perfect. But yeah, I don't it's not perfect. I mean, I think our folks would tell us that,
you know, I think what I've heard from our staff is two days in a row is very difficult. a one day. You know, if they kind of know in advance, saying, "Hey, tomorrow looks like the weather's going to be bad and they can do one day, it's pretty easy to continue that curriculum for one day." What I've heard is two
days becomes more challenging. Some districts have moved away from e-learning and just had true snow days and they either make them up or figure out a way not to make some of those days up. You have to have a certain minimum number of days of school to be in there. That then begs the question of and we
already have makeup days built in. I think around Easter and President's Day or um Martin Luther King Day. So we do have if we have days before that we'll start to make them up there. I really think once you get after Memorial Day it becomes more challenging to make up
those days. And so I think that becomes a conversation what's more valuable in e-learning day or a day after Memorial Day. And I think it's really kind of a wash you know in that way. So I think just making sure one that everybody's on the same page with our staff. I think
there's been some concern that in certain programs or areas maybe it's and I get it certain it's going to be hard and I only pick on band because I was a former band director. I'm not saying that that's what band's doing but sometimes the comment is well I have to have 60 kids. We're not going to be able to play their instruments. Well there's other alternatives that you can do on
those days. And I think just getting that planned and ready to go. And I thought during negotiations the teachers had some pretty good ideas or plans of what they already have in place, you know, to to go. I think ours do a nice job of making that extension of learning for that day very good. I know in other districts,
especially in elementary, they sent home packets in September. And if you don't have the snow day until February, I'm not sure how your learning packet in September has impact there. And so we've asked them, we don't want crosswords. We don't want word finds or things like that. That's not that's just busy work.
So, let's make it an extension of that day. So, I think they've done that. I think one of the other areas, Darren, that becomes a challenge is kindergarten. How easy because now you've got parents, they're excited. They're this is new learning for them right when they're on a computer. So,
they're excited to share everything that they have, want to show you what they have on their house and things like that and trying to keep all of them ready to go. But I think year after year there's small improvements to say here's what this looks like compared to when it first came out during the pandemic. I think some kids, at least my
understanding, not necessarily here, but some kids got up and barely got themselves out of bed ready to go. And they weren't really ready for learning. And so I think just saying, "Hey, be ready to go. Here's what we're going to do. You're checked in for this hour. We'll be checking later on to do that." So I would say for certain kids, certain
staff, it's spot on. For other ones, it's probably not going to be quite as quite as positive there. But I've heard other districts, Fergus Falls, that's why you'll see them to be one of the last ones to close. They don't use e-learning. So, but then was it two years ago that we had all the snow and I
think they were going a lot later and then that sometimes is not as productive there either. And some say go back to the idea of forgiving so many days because those are the good oldfashioned snow days. But we have a certain minimum. And last year we got right to that minimum number because of all our
sporting events. So, so I think for each person it's different. You know, some like remote ideas, others, my son, he gets to do remote work in his place of business, but he goes to work. He said, "I just can't stay focused." He said, "I'm at home and it's too easy to," he said, "I
just need to go." Said, "Well, I need to see people." He said, "I don't want to see him on a computer." So, I said, "I want to go there." I think that's probably the same for some of our students. I think our biggest discussion yet is going to e-learning if the weather improves. Sometimes we get those questions of
should we can we hold practice? Can we do a contest? Can we do all the things if we close for? So that you know that I don't know if that questions ever. It's still it's still a challenge, right? Because part of me says we said it wasn't safe enough for school, but then I also get that it maybe wasn't
safe enough for school at 9:00 in the morning, but all of a sudden at 1:00 in the afternoon, it's fine. And so, can we make a decision on the fly that way? And and then sometimes the questions have, you know, parents have concerns. Just say, "It wasn't safe now, but now you're
telling me it's going to be okay." And well, maybe if the weather, if it's not a weather warning, I mean, use something that provides us infrastructure. You know, if the weather channel says it's no longer because sometimes they lift them, right? Yep. And that would be rationale. That is a good point. Yep. Right.
If it's no longer a Yeah. It's not your judgment call. I do like that idea. I think we had some of that, you know, where you know the like it happened last year with a cold, right? Right. The the reason we closed school
is because we didn't want kids out when it was negative30 or whatever it was -35, whatever our thresh. Yep. And it was a nice sunny day. But it was still 30. You know, the idea was it's still -35 out. So there's a reason we didn't send them to school is
because it was so cold. Now that cold didn't go away because the sun came out. It's just it's a nice day and there's no snow, you know. So everybody thought, well, we can go out. But I mean the reason that we close school is still there. So threshold change was still a weather warning about gold.
Y well and the hard part sometimes too is also we get the comment well we'll just make it a voluntary. Well that's hard for people to understand what voluntary is right. I didn't go to practice and now that voluntary just becomes a little bit of a challenging point because if the student
didn't practice that well that week and now they're not playing what they normally did. Well was it because that voluntary practice I didn't make it. just becomes some of those pieces there. But I do like the idea of the if it's a warning, it's a hard no, right? Yeah. You know, but Yeah.
All right. So then we would look for a motion to approve the e-learning plan for 2526. So moved and a second. Second. All in favor say I. I. I.
Motion carries. Um, that moves us to our call for snow removal quotes. Um, pretty standard, just annual that will go out. Unless it doesn't snow, then we'd be okay. But yeah, if we could predict that, none of
us would be here. So, um, so we do we need action to call for those? So, we just need a motion to, um, go ahead and call for snow removal quotes. So, move and a second. Second.
All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Moving right along. Um, brings us to the certified propose the 25 payable 26 property tax levy.
Okay. Well, that's what I do have to have you sign tonight so I can get that off. Tammy, are you still on the line? Yes, I am. Okay. Um or sorry Tanya not Tammy she's like well thanks for answering to Tammy as well
my sister's Tammy oh man well I think I'll just give some brief explanation but if you want to go in deeper so we actually MDE recommends that we always approve the maximum um so this is what goes out on the truth and
taxation levy forms now they're still going to be making adjustments all the way up until September 30th we still need to make some student enrollment adjustment numbers on there. Actually, the enrollment that's currently in there is higher than what we have. So, we'll adjust that down probably by about 15
students. That of course impacts our operating levy and some of those other formula pieces that are all due to um student enrollment. So, we anticipate a decline there. However, we have um put in or requesting approval for that HVAC
water to water project. And we're still waiting to hear back from MDE if they're going to they have certain criteria how it would meet that LTFM project, but we could put that right onto our levy. Now, we can we can do that now as of September 30th. Truth and taxation
statements come out around Thanksgiving and then as the board, you guys could say, "Paul, take that project off. We will cover what we just saw what our fund balance was or we believe that should be an internal expense. We're not going to pass along there. we're going to take half of it or whatever cuz I
think it's going to be $150,000 roughly or $125,000 for the project. So, we can do that all the way up until that truth and taxation meeting when you approve the final levy in December. So, we're just approving the maximum to let these adjustments still take shape up until September 30th. Hopefully, we'll
hear back from MDE. I know Tanya's been working feverishly to try to get that taken care of with with the folks at MDE again just for you to see. Right now, Tanya, I believe the number last year, we were at about 7 and a half% was what our levy increased to prior year. The
year before that was about 18% increase. This upcoming year, we're looking at about 6%. And with our student enrollment, it could go down, but if we put the $125,000 project on it, it could go back up. So, but that'll be the final piece that you'll take action on won't
happen until December. Is there anything I miss spoke on? No, I would say that's pretty accurate and I'm still working with MDE on that OPED levy piece. So, um that's why we certify to the maximum because of the changes that
keep happening along the way. If we certify to a dollar amount, we could not go higher than what we certified to. And so, our oped, we get an implicit rate subsidy with OPED. So, they because we offer health insurance to retirees after they retire, they can stay on the
plan. There's um what are they actuarials? They go through all that to say, you know, it's your insurance policies. The district's having to pay more for that because you provide it. It's open to retirees. And so then there's a certain dollar amount. And I think in the last couple years, we've
been able to levy about $35,000 towards our expense to to help cover that. All right. Right. Any other questions or comments about the uh certifying the maximum levy at this time?
And that I should say has been a practice I think for a standard ever since I've been on the board. I make a motion we approve it. I have a motion. Is there a second? Second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. Um, and then our last
item on the agenda for the regular meeting is to set the truth and taxation meeting for December 3rd, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. in the secondary school media center. There any questions about that. It's pretty standard practice.
That is our committee meeting. We can't start until 6. So, we'll usually do that at the beginning and then move right into the into the committee meeting. Any questions, comments?
Then we would look for a motion to set that time and date for the truth and taxation. So move second. All in favor say I. I. Motion carries. And that brings us to item 7.1.
Motion to adjurnn. Is there a second? Second. Motion carries. Meeting is adjourned. All right, you are back live with sound. Okay, so we're uh now into our uh work
session. Um all members are present. We have Brent on the uh Zoom call here and we're just going to discuss a little bit. We have a couple items on our discussion list. Uh request for proposal um for construction management as well
as our threemonth plan. So, um if you want to go ahead and kick off Brent with what you had and we'll kind of snack a little bit while we listen and go from there. Okay. Yep. So, we've got um two pieces of information that we had sent over.
One was that RFP for CM services or pre-referendum planning and then the uh preliminary schedule, just an idea of what the calendar might look uh like moving forward.
Um I think I'll start maybe with the schedule if that's okay. Um so we put this together. um we discussed it quite a bit yesterday just trying to think through
um what might be a good fit for this district and then also kind of thinking about um key milestones and especially kind of looking at that this next threemonth window you know trying to break it down
looking forward on that you know so looking at this schedule I think some of the key things in our opinion that we should be looking at between now and say the end of the year um one would be getting a construction manager on
board to help with the pre-referendum planning. So they would be working with um you know reviewing information developed today um working on developing a communication
plan um how information might get out for sure mailing so forth and then also they would uh provide a another set of eyes to look at the construction numbers
and just make sure those are valid and um coordinating how a schedule a construction schedule could look like. You know, if we got to look at phasing or something, we want to make sure that's factored into some of the planning and communication down the road. So, I think that's a big piece and
we laid out some specific dates on how that might look, you know, if the board wanted to move forward with that, you know, cuz so we kind of see them probably the earliest they would be getting on board would be December.
just kind of breaking it down with timelines to get proposals to interview propos proposes and then go through the contract process. That would just be a couple months. Sure. Then the the other key things we think
would be important between now and the end of the year. One would be um meetings with staff to just reaffirm the building program. you know, get together with uh teachers, make sure those classroom sizes, they're sized
correctly. Um, get together with the athletic folks and talk about the gymnasiums, make sure we have that dialed in and just have some of those conversations, you know, to make sure that that we're comfortable with what that program looks
like right now. And then the third thing would be having the district really get a good idea of um operational expenses and what they might look like under this option moving
forward. You know, what is the the overall impact? You know, we've kind of looked at utilities, but I think that would need to be explained to the big picture everything. And then I think one thing we talked quite a bit yesterday about was um
surveying the community. When is the right time to do that? What should be in that? So we thought between now and the end of the year just to have some discussions with um companies that specialize with this just to get their thoughts on how they might approach
that. you know, not necessarily commit to one yet, but maybe just kind of start to engage them and just get some of their viewpoints. So, those would be the key things between now and the end of the year. depending on how that comes together.
I think then January you really start getting into um the nitty-gritty of surveying the community, getting feedback based on that feedback and the board's input,
refining the option, getting that all dialed in. Um, again, kind of aiming for that May, June when a review and comment would be if you're going to go for a November 26 referendum. So, that kind of lays out um just a a
highlevel look at what a schedule might look like. I don't know if there's any questions or discussions you want to have on your end on that. You can put this in the parking lot, but I'm just wondering, you know, I think it was really helpful to have all that
information on the website with everything that came from our task force meetings is, you know, when this gets confirmed, would it be helpful to start posting this sort of thing and just keep that diet of information so people know
when we're because I think sometimes it makes it look like I think it'll help clarify the amount of attention each task get. And that was kind of one of the things that we talked about yesterday was probably having that task list at this
board meeting. These things will be addressed and taken care of, but then also how does that get shared out to the community? Is that Destiny helping me create a video to say this is going to go out as a video clip or is it a newsletter? Is it something in the newspaper?
just having here's how this gets communicated so everybody knows they so whatever the conduit we just got to keep that at the forefront that we don't lose that and then Brent as if we you know we kind of we really made it a
we took action to say November is our goal at our last meeting so are there some of these dates that we can really formalize knowing then that we're looking at a November 26 election ction, you know, that's our plan. Would
we be able to fill in, you know, find out what our exact review and comment date is? Find, you know, can we start to solidify some of those numbers for us as we, you know, as we're working backwards from that date so we know by this date
we have to have this done and this is when our review and comment comes back. This is the date that we have to officially say, yes, we're going to put this on the ballot. all those pieces. We should be able to fill some of those in. Is that right? Yeah. Basically, from the review and
comment submission to um voting day, there's a bunch of dates in there and those are already defined. We just can put them on the paper for you. So, those basically lay out that schedule from that review and comment on
and that I believe is it would be in June, probably mid June. comment would be due. So, it's between now and then getting to plan, right? And Brent, I did talk to the Grant
County auditor today because we have mail in balloting, right, in most of Grant County. And so, he said it's a general election. So, he said none of those timelines change for a mail in. He said it's very similar to He said they'll follow the deadlines of a of a
general election election. Y and that's important just to keep in mind for any communication plan down the road. You know, you want to keep that in mind if there's people doing mail and
vote early, right? I know that was one piece and I don't remember which one it was, but I know there was some, you know, like there was some meetings that were take took place after mail and ballots went out, right? So
some 90% of our well I shouldn't say 90 it's probably 50% at least of the population probably had their ballot already in hand after you know we had meetings after that about this. So just making sure we make those plans
correctly so that you know we're getting people get the right information before they get a ballot in their hand is I know that was one thing that was over kind of overlooked. Sure. is how early some I mean some of that goes what well it's going it's out now right so
we're talking midse September you got to have everything ready by September right I mean or you're or you missed your mail and ballots window and what percentage maybe I wasn't attending what percentage do mail and ballots it's really high because we like we don't have an option
for Elington right right so so but I mean you look at elbow lake is a considerable portion of the population as itself But you you know I don't know what that percentage is of our bet it's 50. It's possible. I bet it's a little less
but just because you know if you figure there's you know 600 and something in Hoffman and there's you know Barrett's got a you know 300 and Wendell's got 100 you know so there's going to be yeah I'm thinking whole county is what I'm thinking
you know of the 1200 in like not every one of those people votes right you know so you know it's kind of a Yeah. Tricky, but it's a chunk. It's a chunk. Yeah. So, all right. So, I think what we're really trying to
do is focus that threemon list so we can say here's what needs to happen at the board level. Here's what's going to happen with communication. Here's what needs to happen at the admin level. Right? I think one of the other notes that I had on my document from the work session on August 27th was that
operational piece of talking with our staff. And I thought Lindsay put that pretty eloquently yesterday when we were meeting and just the fact that yeah, we've got all their information at the very beginning right before the task force met. The task force met. They've
come up with a concept. Now it's time to go back to the the teachers and the staff who are going to use it to say, "Here's the concept that we have. How do we make this work? So, what do you need for educational spaces, learning spaces, you know, custodial storage spaces, gym?
I know that Jake has talked a little bit. He said I said I'd prefer to see the gym over connected to the existing gym. He said that all of our gyms are there and maybe it's a multi-purpose room on the elementary side so those elementary students can still stay
separate. So, he's got some ideas there as well. And and I think Lindsay or Brett, Lindsay and you had kind of concurred that yeah, we got to go back out to our teachers again first admin to see what we need for space to say what does our what do our numbers look like down the road at that point and then
what are those adequate learning spaces look like and probably having that information enough information before we go out maybe and I guess this is where a little bit of a difference of opinion even with Lindsay you and I I think as we discussed yesterday of on how that survey works similar to what I think we
had during that work session of you we have enough information but you know how do we get started with that as well and so is it a final product that we're already putting out there or does it come to the fact of here's the concept that the task force has approved the board uh you know a majority of the
board said yeah we want to move forward with this and then also here's the cost range you know are you in support of a up to 30 million up to 35 million up to 40 million and kind of honing that in as well and may take another time for that
a follow-up survey after that to get better information as well. But just to see cuz I think I don't want to put words in your mouth, Brent, but I think you said if the community comes back and says our limits 25 million, we know that that's that changes our direction quite
a bit from the beginning, but they also need to know what they're going to get for their dollars, I think, as well that you know that way. So I think that was that conversation there and that's where we felt having maybe some of those firms to say here's where we're at. One of them school perceptions I think you guys used the
last time and just saying we need to garner information when do they suggest is the right time to go out what are those questions look like so we can get that figured out on how to move forward if it sooner than later they say oh this is way too
premature you guys need to have these things ironed out then we'll be able to give you better data you know to to come back with so we thought we'd probably reach out to a couple not just school perceptions but a couple firms that way to see the best way to handle that survey type tool.
I don't know how like I'm not promoting or not promoting a survey but I guess what I am promoting is we you know we talked about asking staff but obviously have to do which hope substantial weight but I would also like to somehow
that may be ask some outside entities like you know we tal we talked to Jake about you know the 9 to3 9 to3 30 time frame, you know, but there's also the after that time,
right? There's the three to nine that the school is used by outside entities. Yeah. You know, boosters, clubs for whatever, basketball, volleyball, wrestling, all those things. So, it would be nice to hear from them a little bit too on how what they would like to see kind of, you
know, and parents like do they want to lean on the side of having the room 975 or 925 somehow. I don't know any way of doing that without a survey, I guess. But, you know, you know what I'm saying? Like just to see what their thoughts are too
on like even with the folks that are putting on these plays after after hours plays, you know, do they have what they need? Do they have enough storage? Do they have, you know, even if the storage for that
might end up down there or whatever, but you know, if there's had a significant deficit, we should hear from those folks too. Try to address those. Yeah. If we can. You know, I do know when we did school perception
survey the last time there was a staff survey as well as a public, you know, like we surveyed both groups, you know, and I'm not saying we, you know, we probably could come up with a simpler survey format for our staff, you know, do a survey monkey or some, you know, just something that we can ask the
questions that we want versus, you know, I know there's been issue with anonymity and all those things in the asked if I don't want you to know that it's me saying this but you know so that was part of the reason that we used the outside entity to do that was because
then we just got the information back we didn't touch the survey itself um they handled all that it was a mail in you know those kinds of things to where you know that was one well I don't want the board to know what I said and it was like well the board really wants to hear
what you have to say so I don't you know anyway we're still trying to there's some hurdles there, right? We're still battling about eight administrations ago issues, but and this is by no means an argument. I'm
just adding to it is like even some of the folks that are on the task force, right, as a group, they decided X what was the concept that was approved. But even in their concept, there was, you know, like a little there was another
gym there that's not proposed, right? maybe a possible an addon. Yeah. So, it'd be nice to hear. So, obviously there was people in that room that thought that that was needed. Why was it needed? Maybe some of those folks want to come forward and say, why
did we put why did we have that there as an option? So, and I I'll be honest, I was in the last meeting and and they they really thought there was a there was a little bit of, you know, they went back and forth on do we put those additional things on and
just say this is our proposal or do we leave it more generic and say these are options that we considered. So, those pieces, there was several people in that group that said we should put all this on there. I want, you know, we want every piece of this to be on that proposal. And then there were some that
said, well, let's give this this is our concept, you know, and then let them decide on where those other dollars fall and and how that works. So there were several I I would guarantee you that there were several people from that group that said this should be there,
this should be there, this should be there, we want, you know, all these pieces. If we're going to do this, let's do it right the first time was kind of the sentiment from most of those people. Um, and so, uh, you know, and again, I
would I guess I would probably say that even some of the ones that didn't vote for that still said, if we're going to do this, let's do it right the first first time. So, can't go backwards in church space was the backwards in right. So anything, you know, like
educational adequacy or anything, you know, maybe space isn't necessarily the best way to describe that, but from our athletic programs perspective, it is because we know that that's the deficit. We know that the 3
to 900 p.m. time we're way short and have been for a significant amount of time. I think there's other things maybe I mean this is a deep conversation to lots of people but for me personally the number one
priority is we have to create a learning climate for prek for kids we have to and all those other things are important but how do you weigh those out and that strategy of what you put on a do you do it as a separate voting IM or not but I
personally I want to create a plan that creates most likelihood pass so that we can have a structural environment that's appropriate for kids. That's the piece I I just will be heartbroken if we lose that in the shuffle. But I wouldn't be ex I
I'd be totally against just putting something that'll pass if it doesn't if it short changes our kids. So if that 100 square feet in a kindergarten room is the difference between them having a better education and not having a better education, I'm not going to short change
that even for any dollar amount. If that's a space that's as big as this table or bigger. Yeah. And we're going to add four or five. We know we're going to add kids to those rooms currently if we use our numbers right now. So that's the part that I'm talk I know what you're saying.
I'm not talking about instructional space. I'm talking about and I you know I was an athlete too. I mean I value all of those things but I think it's a a deep discussion for the board and for the community as a whole is how do you
strategically put a package together that will serve the community but also pass because we just can't go another four or five years without instructional climate for these kids. I mean I just
I I agree but that's where I'm I'm less energetic about the athletic part, but I'm less energetic than I am about I'm more energetic about the classroom size than I am about the gym space. 100 square feet less in these and in some of our one of our classroom kindergarten
classrooms is 1300 ft². One's,200 and some. And the other ones at south are 1,200 and then there's a small one. The one that my wife started their her career in is the smallest of the four kindergarten rooms that we have. And that one's around
1,040 square ft. So 60 ft less than what is proposed. But the other ones the other ones we're losing the size of this table in there in the current proposal. That's where like
I can't accept I mean I'll tell you right now I'm not accepting less than 1,200 square feet for those kindergarten classrooms. That's what's been proposed forever and that should be the minimum. I don't know what MDE's uh
recommendations are but I would rely heavily on they're 1200 in the documents that we got from Hogi. I have the sheet here. Kindergarten kindergarten and prek you're typically around 1,200 and our proposed one right now is 1100. So whether that's an accident or not, I
don't know, but it needs to be fixed. Garren, I would I I wouldn't disagree that we need to look deeply at it. But a question I have, if you go to kindergarten classrooms in metro areas, they're frequently 20 22 24, you know.
So, I don't know if that's based on what the child ratio is on that, Brett. Maybe you can help us with that, you know, cuz Yeah. You know, typically classrooms are around 35 square feet per child. Per child. Yep.
So, maybe and 1200's a guideline. So, you know, if you're anticipating higher classroom counts, you would definitely air that to the higher end. And you know, if you're gonna be lower, then you might skew it down. So that's a great metric for us to add
in is MD talks about $35 35 ft per square foot per child. That helps us. That's another piece of data as we look at the plan, right? You know, um, so I just think all of those things are important, Erin, and I agree. I just I I
think we're maybe in a little bit of the weeds too much on that. And what other pieces do we need to We know that's a variable. The staff needs to look at it. We need to look at it. You may have to tour maybe go to Brainard and see some of these new elementary buildings, right? To see the
indoor playground, but then say, "Okay, what does a kindergarten classroom look like?" Yeah. Now, where they can say, "Here's here's 1,200 square feet. Here's what you can get in there." And some of us did that, didn't we? didn't. Well, I know you and I'm pretty sure you and I did when we went to uh Lake Park
for a game or something, right? And Dale took us around or they're got us in contact with somebody who took us around cuz their school wasn't very old then, right? Yeah. You know, so yeah, he took us around the new part there. So I guess one question would be as we look
at this uh their schedule you know we're talking about staff meetings in in October who are we going to have it in those meetings how are we going to select staff how is that you know do we want to look at we want to go back to
the RFP do you want to go back through the RFP stuff first Brent or do you want us to continue on talking about this timeline what would be best for we we can continue on the timeline that's fine. So if we look at you know obviously this the top part here the construction
management piece just kind of lays out that the you know obviously on our next board meeting the board would approve to go out for proposals. Um we would look at you know giving issuing out this RFP. Um we'd have a deadline um what does it
say? receive proposals by the end of October and we'd have our facility buildings and grounds committee probably would shorten them, shorten whatever we get down. I mean, if we get four, we probably don't need to spend too much time shortening
the list. Maybe we' just interview them all. But if we get 10, it'd be nice to come back with, say, four that were top picks from the buildings and grounds committee to say, "Let's interview these." Um and then we look at you know
discussion about that on the 5th. Um conducting some interviews is that conducting interviews and awarding. I suppose after our interviews we would have a conversation about who we wanted to award that to on the 19th
and then approve a contract on the the the beginning of December. Does that seem like a legit timeline for everybody for that part of it? I think it's acceptable. So, we could go forward with that piece of it. And then I guess that brings me to my question. So, now we talked about
when we start having staff meetings, who's going to be in those? Do we want board members in there? Do we just want staff to meet and give us a synopsis? Do we want admin in with staff? Do we want it to be separate? How do we want to run those types of
I would say probably similar to what you guys did last fall. Wouldn't they be the same way now Brent to say, "Hey, we're the the task force has recommended a a one-site option. Here's what we're looking at because they really haven't, you know, I thought about that. We haven't really showed them the one side
proposal. So, they need to be able to see that information to see. I mean, there was some real interest, I think, in the indoor play, you know, play area, but to say, okay, here's what that classroom looks like. What are the pieces now that you currently miss? The one I continue to hear is we only have a couple outlets in our classroom, so it's
hard to to make things work there, but I I assume that's what you guys are probably going to do. And do you do would you work with every staff member where we'd break it up to maybe prek and K. You meet with those teachers for a half hour, probably well, probably an
hour um and do that. and maybe we have to figure out how to do it to bring them together so they have that conversation say, "Yep, these are the pieces I need and stuff like that." Or how do you envision that? Yeah, we could do that similar to um
when we met with them um last fall do a similar type of setup. That would work. Or, you know, we've seen sometimes too in other districts where you might have just a couple key representatives of that group. You know,
you might have one or two teachers that would represent the whole group. Sometimes they do it that way. And like it can really be done either way. I would like to include everybody voluntarily. Remember the last time we kind of had to go out and encourage people. They were concerned about doing
it. So maybe we do the same thing. And I think it's going to be critically important to bring North and South together to say here we need you guys to work as a team. We'll get subs. they come here for that hour or whatever it takes hour and a half to say these are my I would say non-negotiables, right? I
need these pieces and maybe it's my lockers need to be in there. I'm going to think if you're kindergarten or prek you're going to say I need a bathroom within the classroom. I can't let kids go down here but now maybe that's changed but I know that for a while that was pretty key and things like that. So these are the things we really need and
then we can refine from from there maybe going Do you want them to tour a couple of schools first? I mean because they've said we don't even know what's that's very true. Did you hear that Brent Clara said do we need to maybe take some folks and tour?
I don't know if there's a virtual tour we can do or do we figure out some ways to get people to check some of these you know because I think that was the other part that was pretty clear by our task force is they want pop right they want something innovative and great they didn't want the same. So, is there an
opportunity that not too far away? Maybe it is LPA or Brainer's a little ways, but suppose LPA is going to be about the same, maybe a little less, but checking out a few of those sites to see. I mean, I don't again virtual, I think, is hard because Rockidge is supposed to be
they've got the indoor play space, but I don't know if you can get that same feel, right? If you're trying to check space to do it virtually to say, go, I really couldn't tell that. So maybe we have to and I don't know if we can send the entire group, but maybe we over two or three days send groups to a few different buildings.
Maybe you could do a Google meet or something with some teachers and say, "How does your your square footage feel to you for first grade?" You know, you could do some I bet the staff would have some great ideas. I'm just thinking before we talk to them about what they want if they have if you taught your
whole career here, you really don't have a sense of what could what could be. I like the idea of like maybe some whatever districts have done something in the the recent past if maybe they could get on a Zoom meeting like you know somebody
from Lake Park's been a while now so it maybe have to be some place else true but maybe or something I don't one of them that's pretty recent B I don't know yeah Bold just did something did they just do something or they just pass Are they the ones that just pass
maybe somebody that's just been in there for like a couple three years and go you know what yeah This is great. This part is good, but I wish they would have done this. Right. To hear that. Oh, I wish I'd known that before. Right. So, the newness is off. So, now you start to find those pieces that Yeah. I
wish I had an outlet here or we said we didn't need bathrooms, but we do need bathrooms. And okay, I think we that should be something you should be able to facilitate, right? And maybe it's like you said doing that Google meet, but then maybe selecting team and we can split it up over two days where we we've
now got a vehicle that we can use. So we can take them down and just say, "Hey, you guys go in and check out this site, come back. These are the things that we really need to get information on." And come back with that information after they've honed in that way. I think teachers would be feel really great if it got a cross-section.
Yep. And then do we So, you know, on here it's it's talking about October. Is that realistic that we can do that all in October? Do we need to spread that out a little farther? Do we, you know, I I don't want to encroach on the
professional development day, but I mean, do we try to shoot for, you know, is this part of our professional development? The fact that we're going to go and try to, you know, decide what our new school is going to be is that I mean, it's pretty valuable, I think. So that first Friday
fall in there where we could just take a group that day. So way asking question make sure it doesn't touch letters because I know again I don't want I don't want to do something that doesn't work but I'm just asking the question right. I think it's a really good idea though because then you have to worry about subs and we could just at that point you
contract with Palmer to take a bus right and you go up there. Look at this you know this is the or you know maybe we I don't know Brent I know you guys had a virtual tour of one of the schools that we looked at. I'm just wondering if we had something where they could say, you know, maybe they could look at a
couple virtual tours and say, "I'd really like to go see what this one looks like versus, you know, that one." You know, let's check this one out and make that our day. You know, there there's your plan. You know, maybe it runs a little long and, you know, we can figure all that part out, but we probably have to take two different
vehicle. If we're going to take our entire staff, a school is probably going to say, "Oh, we're not ready for 60 new people coming in two settings." And you know, Darren, to your point, maybe you invite a couple of coaches to go. And you know, if you're talking about that expanded world that we all have in
buildings from 3 to 9, maybe you open that up. The nice piece is a lot of our coaches are going to fall into this cate, you know, be that way, too. Yeah. There's a lot of our coaches that are going to be staff, right? Well, a lot of the coaches have already been Go ahead. talking about where the
Yes, you're right. A lot of our coaches have comments, you know, they've been to the others, right? More than more than a classroom teacher see. You're right. So, they see the facility, they see the gyms, the locker rooms, maybe that's the everything.
I just concern, you know, that has been expressed that don't forget about the three to nine needs. So, Brent, back to October. Are we going to be able to facilitate that all in October? We do have an early release the second Friday in October. I've got to
double check our professional development schedule though because if it is letters training that will create a little bit of a a wrinkle there like the 10th. Yes. What a half day. I mean, how far are you going? You know, I don't know how far we I don't
I mean, I would think you could tour a building in an hour and if you do a half day training half day. Well, we we have a two-hour early out. This was early out. Yeah. So, you're going to be pushing already a little bit. I mean, so we probably just miss at 12:30 and right
I'm trying to think of what would be but you know the same thing if we have to hire subs we do that as well. We can we can get that figured out. You know it might be where we hire subs for the can we do the you know do you do a half day sub you know you know what I
mean? Can you do half day subs that day? And yeah, maybe you go for the day, you know, instead of being you're I know I I know it gets to be a little bit of concern if we go past the school day and all that stuff. And I don't want to affect that, but maybe that's a easier way to do it is, you
know, we hire half day subs and then they have their whole day to go and maybe they catch two. I don't know what that looks like, but maybe you just kind of flesh that out and let us know what you can operationalize once you think about all the details. So maybe Brent, you, I, and Lindsay can
kind of figure out what schools would be great ones for our staff to look at. And we know our probably our football coaches aren't going to be able to be gone maybe because that'll be football, but but I think we should be able to so
maybe we can get that figured out how we want to address that. But I think we open it up to everybody. And it might have to be two or three trips that we go. So everybody has an opportunity to because some are going to say, you know what, I'm not sure that I need to go whatever I'll just pick on science because we can, you know, whatever
Austin Hansen comes back with for our classrooms. We're going to trust Austin and things like that. So maybe it's a department rep and maybe it's something that we talk to our staff about to say, okay, here's what we envision. How do we best facilitate this? Sometimes they come back with the best answer to say, you know, we need to take eight people. It's going to be these people and
they're going to come back and because if you do an early release and some go and some don't go, you can't do PD then. So, right. Yeah. Not that it's not important to everybody, but it's it's more important to the people that it's going to affect more, right? So, the elementary staff's
getting entirely new places. There's a portion that's getting remodeled, right? Big tech and stuff like that. So, that to me is a high priority. Yeah. So, career, you said career tech. Yeah. career jacket science I think was other space just spaces that are getting the most
adjustment or whatnot should be the highest priority on if if there's a limit to what we can bring then that's where that letters so we'll just send our secondary staff to the letters training say hey you guys got to take the letters training and get get those guys caught back up when they get back they can come back with the
but I would agree no those groups that are going to have to have the most feedback are going to be the ones you know that are going to have to do that well I think we can sit down and probably figure out that plan if you guys are comfortable with that. But I think my thought would be to go back to our staff and just say here's the
opportunity. How do we best facilitate this? We'd love to have all of you go. Is there, you know, we'll help us figure out the logistics and we can come back probably at that October 1st meeting to say here's a plan. We'll keep you posted even before that just to say here's how we'd like to
address it and take care of it. And and quite honestly, I mean, if it can't all happen in October, it, you know, maybe it has to go to November. You know, we have a little bit of leeway here. It's not like it has to happen in October. It'd certainly be nice to get it sooner than later so we can start the ne the rest of the process. But I mean, if that
has to be an October, November time frame. That's, you know, that's what that is. Or, you know what, maybe they go to one place and they say, um, I didn't really that that didn't do it for me. You know, maybe we maybe we have to adjust anyway. So, biggest thing is to find out who would want to go. That's your first deal. How
many people want to go? Y and how much can a you know you can't drag 80 people through a school during a school day, right? What are they facilitating, you know? So you may have to do that's so it may have to be spread out.
It may have to be smaller groups and it it might have to be different times and like you said it if the you know football staff can't go on a Friday they might need to go on a Monday. you know, maybe that's different and there's different options that way. And we just spread split them out. Mhm. Yeah. It might have to be over three days or something like that that
we get it all in. And if everybody wants to go, I have a feeling some are going to say, "No, I'm going to trust my co-teer to take care of that." Or and and because I know some are probably also going to say, "I'm not a district resident, so should I be going because I'm not a absolutely because this isn't about
being a res." Now, this is about what do you want your classroom to look like, right? So this doesn't have anything to do with that part right now. It has to do with what does our classroom want want to be? What can it be? What do I need it to be? And you know, some of them may have ideas. They may have seen other places
already. Right. I like to your point of saying they're the educator. We're trusting them, right, to come back with that. Yeah. I see like you said Darren here is CTE and science would be the main ones that we've kind of looked at. Social studies classroom. Yep. And I mean I would say probably FID
because that was another thing that was mentioned as we did some walking through is the amount of space that's going to be take away to add storage maybe isn't going to be ideal there either. So we need to look at some of those pieces. But so Darren, maybe we'll get together with building principles and get that those
logistics laid out and come up with the plan. Does that seem reasonable to you to maybe try to find two or three days if that many people want to go to tour some sites and maybe you or Lindsay can kind of help facilitate that. But maybe you don't have to be there either. I
don't know. I guess whatever you feel is necessary there. No, I think we'd want to be there just to hear some of that feedback as staff see things ask question. I Lindsay or myself, we would definitely want to be a part of
that. That's great. Well, that's a big one. Yep. And then the operational expenses. Yeah. Well, I know that Mai and I talked to a district that they're kind of going through this right now. Brent and Lindsay are aware of it as well, just
where they're really looking to all of their expenses of what does it truly cost. It's just more than electricity and water and garbage. There's a lot of other extraneous expenses. So, I think they were more than willing to share that information with us um to say,
"Hey, here's what our business managers dug into. You know, Tanya's busy right now because she just finished our audit, so she's starting another school's audit." And so, she won't be able to do that right now, but maybe to say, "Okay, these are our pieces that we need to look at." I think one of those other big pieces that was really talked about was
just our staffing efficiencies, right? We as we talk about that elementary music position that we would have had to hire somebody if we didn't have a distance that we have between two elementaryaries. Yep. And all that stuff there. So insurance I mean that's going to be the other piece. The insurance the just the
lawn and snow removal and and those different pieces there so we can work to come up with that as well because I think that'll be critical and good communication piece that piece. Yep. Yep. Um,
so really once we start to figure some of those things out, I guess we should have that um, you know, if you were to start talking with some survey consultants to say what, you know, what port where should we be before we send this out? I know I think the last time
the timing, the proximity to the vote was important for that when timing was right to go out for that. you know, you don't want to be like you don't want to go out today for, you know, an election a year and a half, you know, that kind of thing. So, I know that is one of the pieces that they'll probably be able to
help with. What you know, when when should you be looking at what details should you have done? I know ours was pretty I think it was pretty generic. You know, the the dollar amounts weren't tied to any, you know, specific plan. So that
was one piece that uh you know some people didn't like that part of it that you know there was a 20 million 40 million which you know or whatever it was or there was a couple different breakdowns anyway. We didn't really have a project that was
20 or 40. It was just this was can you tell us where your threshold was at type of a question whereas you know would you support this project at this price? Maybe that's not the right question, but those are things that they helped with on the last go round and I don't I don't have those answers, but
okay, that would be definitely one of those pieces. Uh oh, we still have a little bit of time before all this. Mhm. So, well, and I think the other piece too,
sorry to cut you off, but I think where do we re So, we, you know, we need to engage both Elmo Lake and Kensington. I think we've had that conversation before. So, we need to get that on the schedule and then where do we re-engage the task force? Remember that was their piece. I
think they when they left or when they made their recommendation to say please don't please utilize us and keep us engaged. So I think that's the other thing too with our three-month timeline. Do we I mean is there anything in these first three months or just keeping them informed through
and the entire community informed of the status of where we're at or do we need to that's where I think during that October time when they're you're talking about to the staff about you know their needs or wants or however you want to put it.
I think that's a time to engage with that's kind of what I was getting at. it's time to engage with that task force as to you know what were they thinking on some of these points. So would you have them go on the tours as well then potentially? I was just
wondering about some of I mean for some of those it was that indoor play space right was a a big deal for some of those folks or science room I mean there were I think I don't think it's a I don't think it would be a bad thing right
like I kind of want to hear from a little bit of you know did you look into the give them some things to think about now if they're watching did you look into the size of the rooms what we had and what we what are on this
plan, you know, to and the gym stuff and yeah, I don't think they got dug that deep. I think that's where they kind of said that they didn't want to get into the weeds. They were going to leave that uh MDE's recommendations and stuff there. And I think at the same point kind of said we don't believe that's our space as much as it's our teacher spaces. But
I do think I think it would be great to have them along to say, "Hey, we really this is the pop that we were talking about. We felt that it would be great if we had the branding outside or we had the the new sign. I mean remember for one particular individual it was CT was pretty important as well as science
spaces and our science spaces are not anywhere. I think they came from the metro right and said what I saw in the metro is we don't even we pale in comparison to what is an option out there. So I think it's would be great to invite them and see
who chooses to come and that might help inform how we do it what the next step is with the task force too. I think it's really good to my feeling is you know by the time we app you know construction manager contract approval here on 123
December 3rd board meeting by then we should have visited with the task force again to say hey what you know like Darren's question was I'm not sure that they we never asked them to do
down to the nitty-gritty on class size room size. We were we asked them concept what should our direction be? Three sites, two sites, one site. What what is what should our direction be? What what
do you what is your example? They gave us an example their idea. So, you know, hopefully they listen to listening to our meetings and maybe, you know, write they're jotting some things down. So by December we could ask them,
hey, you know, do you have ideas or I mean what's you wanted to be involved with going forward? What do you what is your idea now? I would say by December 3rd board meeting hopefully.
I think you brought up something pretty important I hadn't thought about is you know we don't want to get muddy on roles and responsibilities and it was clear that the task force was a concept right so what are what are all of our roles and responsibilities out the board the
community the task force so that we don't miscommunicate or aren't clear about that and then people are like well why wasn't I asked or you know so maybe we need to sort that out a little bit I don't know Brent have you seen That does that make sense or unnecessary
perhaps? Could you repeat? I couldn't quite hear it all. Well, Nathan's comment made me really think maybe maybe we need to make sure that roles and responsibilities are clear in this next step. There was a clear charge
for the task force. Provide a concept. Provide a direction. But now, you know, what is the task force role now? What is the community's role? What is our role? what's the staff role so that we don't have people feeling like
that wasn't made clear to us and you moved in this direction. I think we just I don't know how you do that, but I guess one thing I just thought of as you you know, you talk about that and you ask about the square footage. You know, I I guess for me as a parent, I don't teach. I don't know what the
square footage would be. Most of our task force was parents. I don't necessarily want to hear from them what they think the square footage should be. I want that to come from the teaching staff. So that you know as far as what those numbers were I'm not so concerned that a task force didn't come and say oh
this should be a thousand over 900 or you know whatever that is because that should come from the staff to say this is what I want for my classroom or this is what we need for educational spaces. I think they're 100 you're I think you're mostly right except for that they
did they came with more than a than a concept. They came with a building that had a certain amount of rooms in it. Right. Right. But that leads us to be that leads us to ask those questions. So that's where I'm coming from. You came
with whether was set or some they came with a number. There was a number on those. There was square footages. There was a location where the building is. There were things that were done. So, it's within our realm, I think, to ask
those questions then as to why do we only have two sections in every grade that's in the building, right? Imagine they look at the population, then we then we should be able then we should ask then we should be able to kind of ask some of those questions.
More to my point though, Darren, was that I wouldn't have expected the task force to say, "Oh, this should be 50 square foot more than what you show on this because that's not what you know that's not their expertise or what they should were looking at. It was more of a Okay,
I would guess and you correct me if I'm wrong, Brent, but I'm guessing if there was a two-sight and a three-sight option, the square footage in the classrooms was very similar amongst all three options." So, it wasn't they would have been similar. It wasn't like this option had smaller classes
than what a three-sight option had. They just brought them here's a concept for a one-site, here's a concept for two sight, three sight, whatever it was. They were all very similar is my point here. And so the fact that this task force didn't pick apart the square
footage of the classroom. I didn't I wouldn't expect them to pick on the task. No, but what I'm saying is now that's the part then let's find out what our everybody's responsibilities are and and let's put them down so then everybody knows both the people that are
responsible for something and those that of us that want to know who's responsible for what and and some clarity about there's a reason why MDE provides infrastructure for for communities to figure this out. It's complicated, right? And so I think
you know to let them know that we are going to lean on that and the experts in the in that have built schools and done this um I don't know right but I think like you said having that clarity because what you don't want is the task force comes in and all the teachers get together and say and I'm
just picking on this because I'm going to pick on indoor play spaces but if they say oh we don't want an indoor play space because now who's going to keep it clean? Who's going to do this? And and the task force goes well that was the part that we thought was really cool. thought that and so I think sometimes realizing the final piece may not be
everything that the task force had mentioned because but I think having that clarity so they know to me it's kind of like interviewing right when you bring everybody together to say you're all going to give input but the final decision I'm the one evaluating so I'm going to make that final decision if we're we're there just but I think it otherwise there's some disappointment
right when they walk away and say well the only thing I wanted on that task force was this and that didn't happen. I'd like to make one more comment and I really think we need to get back to what our discussion is on our agenda and that is that I do not want to lose
credibility as a school board with the task force. So with that being said, I'd like to move on with what's on our agenda. Mr. Sure. Well, again, this is all part of the idea,
not not the size of the school and the design of the school is not on our agenda as far as who's going to be a part of that. So, um and that's fine. So, as we move forward, um
it says October to March one pager. What What is your thoughts on that, Mr. Brown? As far as do you want to wait till some more of those things are hashed out? Is this a, you know, a concept idea that we're going to put on a one pager to start with?
This was kind of what Lindsay, I think, was talking about just getting that information out so the public kind of knows where we're at right now. Some of those basic pieces and Brent, feel free to jump in. But that was my understanding, just a one-page document that gives them some pretty clear
factual information so they know kind of where that process is. um you know at the current time of stating and I I guess I'm not exactly sure what she meant by that but I think partly the operational expenses was going to be one of those pieces but wanted it to be
factual information that could be shared so the community could be informed so it's our one page of I think it was the one-site option here's our operational expense savings by going to a one-site option here's some of those I think also
looking at those guiding pinnacles to say here's the pieces this is what the task force charged us with they came up with these pinnacles here's how we're going to address those pinnacles I think she was pretty she really appreciated what Bold had you know on there that hey
these were our guiding principles our parts in yellow on our building address principle number one the parts that are in red are related to principle two principle three so it all tied back to those guiding principles. We're calling them pinnacles, but their plan on how
they did that was all tied to that. So they could say, "Yep, this is why we're doing this." It was guiding principle number one. And the building was just highlighted that way. So this may be more closer to that December as we were defining these operational expenses
and having that be a piece of that one pager maybe. I believe so. Is that how you recall that, Brent? Yesterday? today. I know Lindsay was kind of the one just saying we had to get that information out, but my understanding was following a little bit of that bold model. Yeah, I envisioned this as sort of like
a layered process where, you know, more immediately now it might be more of an update to the community of of what we've done in the past to get to today. And then you may have another piece, you know, month, two months down
the road, like, okay, here's where we are today. here's what we now know about um the uh operational expenses, cost impact, and and you have those repeated engagements with the community just to keep them up
to date with where the what the facts are today. You know, I don't think it's just one engagement, one single one pager at some point. I think it's going to be multiple engagements over time just to keep them
up to date throughout the process. But I think kind of aligned with those guiding pinnacles, right? I think was what she was really hoping to she said we the task force put a lot of time and effort into that. She said, "Let's make sure that we again don't abandon that, that
we continue to re reinforce that, I think, as we go through to say, these were the three pieces that were really brought to the light and here's how we handle those." Yep. Exactly. Sure. So, it's more than it's more than it's a continuing one pager kind of more
of a, you know, maybe more like your column or something like that. We're hitting these things more repeatedly than just a one shot type deal. Yeah. might be certain things that are there now, but after a meeting we may say, "Hey, we need to update this and now get this piece on there. Make sure we get this added because we have this
new piece of information or things like that." Um, one thing that was brought up in the past was going to those city council meetings. Do it looks to me like probably Ela Lake is October 6th. I think Kensington is the same. in the first Monday.
Council meeting is the first Monday or council meeting is first Monday and the study session is the third Monday. El has two meetings. Barrett is the second Tuesday of the month
and I think you know we were more not sure when Hoffman or Kensington I guess it was more the you know the site two sites to say you know Ela Lake Kensington this is the approach that we're you know now going to pursue we want to you know we want to work with
you on what happens to this piece if this were to pass type of a deal let's get out, you know, let's not wait 6 months to go. I personally feel from the Elakes perspective,
just my personal opinion living in Ela Lake that and knowing the political I don't know if you'd call climate. I don't think you'd call it climate just I think the study session is the best
meeting in Ela Lake for that because it gives more time for the individual council people to ask questions or the city administrator or versus their regular meeting.
Maybe you want to ask the mayor that. I think that's probably the most appropriate would be just to ask Mayor Hingel which meetings she would and I guess we'd have to check Kensington if they have anything like that. I don't know if they have both or if they just do one but there again it
might be you know if that's the case then it would be like a I think the sixth for you know would be the first Monday the 20th would be the third Monday.
be a matter of trying to get on that agenda for either one of those. And again, maybe we have to ask Kensington if they have something other than their regular meeting that they would Ellis, do you know what they did? They just I think so. I think they just have one meeting. Okay. No, but
yeah, that's in the paper now. October 20th would be the next October 20th if it's if it's at its regular time would be the study session and then the 6th would be the regular the regular meeting and I guess it just sooner than later to you know just the
have the conversation you know here's what our proposal is you know if everything would be to pass you know we we have in this plan at a minimum to make this a green space obviously if there's a you know if there's something else worked out in the meantime, that
would be an option. But, you know, we don't want to leave a building just sit in a town and go, you know, get full of rodents or whatever. We want we want to make sure that the area is clean. But we certainly would be open to working with those cities to, you know, maybe find a different option
if there was something that they were interested in or um, you know, I think one I can't remember one conversation I had with somebody was, you know, Maybe as we talk about gym space, maybe
we keep the Elike gym and we build some different things around that gym to help with our sports. You know, instead of building a new gym here, we keep that and we make some outdoor turf areas and we do some other things around that
building and we have it available for teams to practice in the spring. you know, now you gain two gym, you know, two gym spaces that we don't have to build because they're already there. Um, if we, you know, obviously there's a playground for the city to use there.
Maybe we can make some turf areas where spring sports could go and do stuff in the spring without having to be in the mud all the time. um you know, maybe there's just some less expensive options than building another gym space here and then only
part of that goes back to green space or whatever that is. So, you know, that just might be, you know, maybe that's a less expensive alternative to adding an additional gym space here or out there or wherever that goes, right? Again, I'm not saying that's the answer. I'm just saying it was brought brought
up to me that hey, maybe we can still use that space and there's definitely we know the perimeter of that around that gym is, you know, usable. We can take any wall out we want. That was checked on one of the last bow rounds. Okay.
Um cuz those rafters span to the outer. Anyway, long story longer, there's a lot of options we could do, but it would be good to start those conversations earlier than later. Um, you know, maybe it's a partnership with the city and say
this is a, you know, how do we collaborate on that approach? How do we work this together to where everybody can get something and it it improves both places and we can move forward with it. Um anyway, uh those would just be conversations that we should probably
check into to see when those city councils would be willing. Maybe Kensington would be willing to have an extra meeting to just have a conversation or maybe they want us to come to the regular meeting. I don't know. And we said October 6 we thought was there. So I'll reach out. That's the first Monday in October. So
Okay. I'll reach out to Jennifer then to Yeah. And yeah, and Jeff or probably Jeff to get on. I'd contact Mayor Hingle and ask what she feels,
what meeting she feels is okay. Best. Um, so we talked already a little bit about uh re-engaging task force. I guess community meetings. I would I would think we We want to have a little bit more of this refined before we start
into that process. Is that maybe I I think that's a safe Yeah, especially if we're going to get the one pager out there, we're going to talk to the communities already, Elbow Lake and in Kensington. And so then and while the
task force, unless the task force hears something to say, hey, we think we need to be out here doing that, we can definitely do that. But yeah, I think maybe because they're going to still say, "So, what's the final product look like? What's the final cost?" And if we say, "Well, that's yet to be ter determined," they're going to say, "Well, then I came
too early to the meeting." Yeah. So I guess when I look at this the refined concept concept options cost ranges you know those things would probably be this says following community engagement but I mean obviously we're talk we're going to be talking with different
groups but I would think some of the is this community meetings more of a a learning session from the communities or is it you know like theformational sessions like after we have a plan this is you know is there two different
community engagement type meetings that we're talking about here. Brent, do you know? Um, I don't know. We would have to just kind of think through that what we want to share at what point. You know, maybe,
you know, some of it is moreformational, some maybe some more input, you know, I guess it kind of depends on when it's occurring in the process. Sure. Because I think one of those thoughts was it could be tied in with that survey, right, Brent? I mean, if we if survey information,
if we're going down one path and the survey says, "Whoa, that's not going to work." Then do we need to go back to the community and say, "Okay, we've had the task force. We've done this. What What pieces are we missing here?" Because we do need to get this taken care of. Like Clarison said, we
can't continue to go another four or five years. We need to have something that everybody, for the most part, a majority can get together on to do the best thing for our kids. I think that was one thought is if we start to put that survey out there and and all of a sudden we're at a number that doesn't
look very promising, then we probably need to reach out to more of the community to say, "Okay, we need to we need to get this figured out." And I would think after the teachers tour and kind of give feedback, we should be able to start to refine
some of those spaces and some of that, you know, finer details of what this plan looks like. Um, what tweaks we want to make. Oh, we saw this. We really liked, you know, I think at one point there was a, you know, where the bathrooms were at or whatever got
shifted around and all, you know, little things like that to where you can say, "Oh, this this makes a lot more sense to do it this way." Or, you like you said, Jake's idea of that that extra gym should be here, not there, so that it's a continuation. If you're having tournaments, everything's
together type of a deal. or even your practices, you know, when you're maybe you want your, you know, to be able to rotate two spaces or whatever that is. Anyway, there's probably some ideas that are going to come out of that to refine some things. And
do you think the board should go either on these tours or take their own? I think the board should go with a few representatives so you can hear from the teachers, right? I mean to hear the pieces that they were engaged in in case
the community says I'd like to go and look at some of these places. That's why and whether on those trips or on our own and it really makes no difference to me. I think it'd be valuable all the teachers and the community of the task force members if you were able to go I
think just to get that feedback right away so you can say yeah there's great excitement in this space or they've got this piece here that they like or things like that. I think it's appropriate. I don't know if it's got to be all members of the board probably, but you know, maybe like you said Darren, it
might not be a bad idea, you know, especially on the buildings and ground side to see the heating cooling part of it, you know, how is that working on in the new school, you know? Pretty big budget. What should we be putting in?
Yeah, I think that's a good idea. That would be something our teachers may not be interested in. So, it's probably a good idea to be have a board member, you know, one that's on the buildings and crowns and then or whatever just to see, you know, ask some questions like that. Is
electrical, is the air conditioning, is what kind of heat and what kind of issues you have in there? And that do I mean I guess there again you talk about do we want to you know is that something where we try to get Chad
to go with you know like we send you know You can ask some questions about where do you guys store your, you know, how's your, you know, what's your storage or again, maybe like you said, maybe there's different, you know, maybe
that's a, you know, Kevin needs to go to look at how their tech is set, you know, all those things. Maybe they can make their own trips to I think all, you know, I think all that's important is sometimes some of that stuff gets left out, forgotten. in my world is street
lights. Like we plan this giant project that's a half a million dollars and then we forget eight street lights because it's not the big thing, right? It's not the looking at why didn't we do they weren't on in the daytime, right? Yeah. But
yeah, those are some of the things that not It's good that we're bringing up. I think they all I think all that stuff needs to be all those everybody needs to go. Yeah. All those different areas. That doesn't mean every person needs to go, but
somebody representatives. Yeah. All these different spots. Like you say, maybe it's multiple trips and you know, maybe I'll stay back. You guys watch this. Take the kids in the gym and we'll take everybody else with. Perfect. They'll
all be in band before we know it. There we go. That'll work. Um, okay. So, that So, obviously, we'll, you know, I don't know that we need to get too much farther forward in our timeline at this point. You know, we got a lot of things that we have to do. Some of this
is going to shake itself out as we start to some of these other pieces fall into place. you know, we don't necessarily have to finalize the scope and budget in, you know, March or April, but we just know what's going to probably happen as things start to shake out and we start to look at these other items.
Um, we know we're going to be able to figure out the review and comment date. There is a drop dead date. I think at one time it was June 28th for one of our, you know, like it was this date, but it's so many days back from the election cycle. 87 days plus or minus
any what whatever that is. So remember that spreadsheet that they had Lindsay's recommendation because we that was thought that maybe she should put that together for tonight but she thought it was just overwhelming information that the first time you look at it and go oh where do we even get started? So I think that's why we went with the one
pager. I think her plan is still to put everything in that spreadsheet, right? That you guys had that sample from another district to say, "Here's our overall, here's how some of these overlap, here's our, like you said, deadlines, milestones, whatever you want to call it, those are on there." So, I
think they're still planning to put that spreadsheet together. So, it's a visual. We just thought tonight if we brought this, you guys say we're out already. This looks way too overwhelming. So, that's why we wanted to go with this. But I I think so. Yeah. For maybe that next meeting, Brent, do you think our next board meeting, maybe
that's something that I can just share with the board would be that spreadsheet that we kind of had laying this detail in there maybe a little bit. Yeah, we can lay that in there. I think the biggest piece for me would be how do we want how do you want me to
communicate with the community through newspaper? We've got Destiny. You know, I've talked to her a few times already. She lets me know that there's ways to track. I was kind of mentioning how other districts were tracking how people were using those tools or how many times it was being accessed. She goes, "Oh yeah, you just do it this way." And I
said, "I don't know how that works." So, she's going to help with that piece there, but maybe we do those videos. Then we can come back at board meetings and you can say, "Yeah, I didn't get any response. Nobody cares or they want other people or they want this." And so, I think that's our, you know, what what
does our three-month plan look like to communicate with our community? That would be the other big piece there as well. I had somebody today stop me at the grocery store and said, "Hey, appreciated the article hearing the plan. This is a good idea. Let's move forward." So, so they are saying that
one thing I do know that's used a lot and obviously probably everybody know it but I know like when you put that one page put a little QR code on there that somebody can scan and they can read all the information you know like or they can go to the you know this social media that social media comes you
get all that stuff off of one little scan and people use that ridiculously at this point. you know, it seems like everywhere you go now, you're taking a picture of somebody's QR code so you can access their Yep. you know. Okay.
And so that would be a huge way to be able to, you know, have those out to where people can just scan that and get to whether it be a website or a or one pager maybe. One pager or whatever that is. Do the survey. True. You know, and when you come to an event Yeah.
you just I mean, here it is. Plug that in and here you go. Survey. Yeah. Um, so anyway, obviously there's ways to do those things and so if there's a tool that you think, like I said, I'll talk to Destiny. We're going to lay that plan out and stuff there so you can see, but just so we can
keep that information being pushed forward to the community. And then I would just say as we move forward in our meetings, you know, this kind of a timeline's probably going to just be continually modified and we're just going to look at, all right, we met this, you know, we met this, we checked
that off our list or this had to get bumped because this happened or, you know, so and so is still working on this. We haven't gotten those numbers yet. Whatever that looks like, you know, there is some wiggle room in here, but we're we don't have a lot of wiggle room. Like it's going to, you know, June
is going to come before we know it. and we had a lot to do before then. So, um, yeah. Is everybody okay with that timeline piece? The only thing I want to have us figure out and I don't know if you maybe
figured out today, but where in the schedule are we going to specifically talk about the specifics of the building, the size, what we're going to have in it because that's going to be probably one of the most conversational
moments of this, I think. So, when is that going to when is that going to be? Who's going to be there? Who's going to be the bigger the bigger spreadsheet timeline has all that broken down. So, this is the date where the plans are going to be
ready to go or they're going to be reviewed or they're going to be, you know, modified or whatever. That's all in that big spreadsheet of timeline. We have to make the plan before we So, when are we going to make it to what it is?
Brent maybe you know so we Darren is wondering you know when do we have our final um drawings of the building completed at what stage is that you would it depends on how you're describing the
final final in terms of concept that aligns with the building program sizes and and spaces that you I expect to get further refined in that January to March window.
So that's after we've already had hired someone. Yeah, I would say after hired our CM hired our CM with that after that. Yeah, would be after that. after we have these tours, after we have this I know it's
after all that those things, but after those when is after those things again and start to think about who's going to be involved in that? Is it just going to be us? Is it going to be and and the width and
right? Yep. Construction managers obviously all be involved in that. But I think Brent they brought up a great point in the fact that we have that mail in balloting which starts in September. I'm not sure that forformational sessions it makes it kind
of difficult, right? Because then that means you're talking July and August and I'm not sure how good that is to get people in to be informed. So, do you have to go all the way back to May to try to get that information? But that's even before the review and comment.
So, how do we that might be something we're going to have to You're going to have a pretty good idea of what this project or what side of the cabinets are on because that's all going to happen after something. Where's the Yeah. Right. Yep. But I'm still thinking if we
have to when are we going to start getting out to the community to share with them? Do we have to start sharing in April and May? If are the summer months going to be okay months to do that if we have our September this makes it different when you have mail and balloting and they can do that in September compared to a November election. That changes how we're going
to have to address that. To me, we have to get going on that portion of it. Yep. I'll go grab one more in my bag here. It seems to be the one that which one of these you got to get down into it and actually
make decisions. Well, I think we're going to have to figure that out by spring to meet, right? But that's again, he's talking about making those adjustments in the January March time frame. So, it's not like
those things are going to be pushed down the road. Yeah. I'm sorry. Right. No, I'm just I'm just saying so you know what they brought like you looked at a plan with square footages with all those things. as we start to look at what are those spaces, it doesn't take long to tweak what he has
currently versus what will the final product be, right? I mean, right, outside of saying, "Oh, we're going to build it in a different town in a different spot on the light or we're going to, you know, whatever." For the most part, there's a pretty good shell constructed right now. We may have to tweak some
spaces and tweak some, you know, whatever that may be, but it's not like he's got to reinvent the wheel at this point. we go through this process, teachers say, "You know what? You're you're right, Darren. We need three, we need 975 ft versus 1,000 ft or we need
whatever that looks like, right? That's not a big fix." Maybe we'll hear, we don't know this, and maybe this isn't a big fix either. I don't think it's necessarily as huge, but I'm sure there's a substantial dollar. Maybe, you know, right now we're looking at a prek4, right? Addition.
Yep. Maybe we end up from our staff that they don't have enough room like we've heard in the last for the last 10 years in this building and maybe that ends up be a prek5 and we're adding two more pieces to that building.
I mean those are some of the things that I Well, it's possible but that's where they looked at the numbers and they reallocated spaces in this building because our numbers are down 100 kids from what they were the last go around. So that's where some of those things were. talked about it now that have have
come up with a concept that we keep using, but now we're going to talk to more people. We're going to have more ideas and maybe the staff that's actually doing it that thinks we do need more space even if we lose a couple. The fine line with that I think. But yeah,
for sure there is. But I mean that's that's why that that's why that portion is going to be the that's the one that sometimes one of those things nobody wants to dive into, but that's the most important one. Well, at some point we're going to have to dive into. But again, that's why we're talking with
staff in October. Yep. And that's all I want to know is when we do these things I'm asking. Yeah. When are we going to do it so we can hold that timeline accountable? This is when we're going to do it. All these other timelines have deadlines
in which we are going to be held accountable because if we don't do it, we don't get it on the ballot, right? That's what we need to do for this too. the larger spreadsheet has a hundred columns in it and it has all of those things in there.
So, and any of that conversation, I feel it's very important to look at what MDE's recommendations are because we all have a lens that's very limited here and some people have too much instructional
space and some people don't have enough instructional space in the district. So really making sure that we're using that cubic foot or not cubic square foot figure as well as overall is important for teachers to hear when they're making
those considerations. So we need we need a package of information for good decision- making. I think I would agree because I would like you said that lens because for us our lens of a class size of 16 to 18 is correct pretty standard but if you go you go to another district that's larger they're
going to say well no we're 24 to 28 is what we operate on you know and stuff like room at North Elementary is big enough for 150 and and the other thing is MDE's guideline of 900 square ft for a fourth grade classroom is based on a 25 to 30
kid classroom right we don't have those No, but we do have but we probably have classrooms that have 18 or 19 students, but four adults in there. Well, that's fine. But still, we don't have the maximum pairs we have in a room. Hopefully don't have three or four. So,
how many do we have? I think we're really in the weeds. Again, these are all things that we have to consider. I'm just simply saying we need to have our teachers perception, but we also have to have what are those guidelines that MDE has shared because
they have a a much bigger lens than any of us have. And I don't want to do it in isolation with just what MDE says or just what teachers say here. We just have to do it all. But, you know, we're not ready yet. Neither do I. All I'm asking is when are we going to do it, right?
Well, it's a part of October. The only question is when are we going to do it? When are we going to have it done? What's the deadline for us to have that done? I would think I don't need that answer today. That's what I'm saying. That's on the bigger calendar that didn't come out today, right? We just talked about it
was an overwhelming spreadsheet. We don't need that today. We're getting a real rough timeline. We're going to get the next three months planned out. We're going to continue to elaborate on that. We're going to continue to adjust those dates and that's what will come next next meeting.
I I would agree. Yep. And probably the CM, do they help with any of that stuff too, Brent? When we get them on December 3rd, are they going to help facilitate any of that? So, we'll have that. And so, then that really it's that January time frame, right? They're going to come in and say, "Hey, we've built here, we've done this, we've adjusted this,
things like that." So, okay. All right. So, then we can just look at this. Is there any question or issue with our request for proposal here? Um,
anything you want to add to that, Brent? Um, no. It it just kind of lays out um the process for them and what we'd be looking for in a submitt. So, you know, it's certainly something that could be further edited this document, you know,
if members of the board have certain things they want to see or make sure get inserted in there. So, you know, right now I think this is a, you know, definitely a draft. you know, we want to make sure it aligns with with what you're looking for. You know, I think
there would have to be discussion for further down the line on terms of how we handle interviews, you know, how those get conducted. I think we'd want to have some discussion on that on how you set that up, who takes part in that and so forth.
So, I think our conversation was does that get tied in with the board meeting? So, we do it all at that same board meeting. So, you can take action and select them. Um, one of the thoughts being if we stream it and you're the third candidate, you can be watching the
stream and then when you come in, your answers could be skewed. I think in the last one we we did not video any of those. And we did them. I'll defer to you guys. We did them on a night and and we had I mean essentially that's what the board meeting was about
but we made the selection like we contacted somebody that evening but that was part of the that process. I don't know that we'll be able to make that decision the same day that we do
the interviews. I think the last time we did it, we did the interviews and then because they all have like little different ways of doing it, like one charges mileage, one charges a percent of something else and something else. So, you kind of got to I think WHIDS
will probably have to be the one that kind of puts those in a spreadsheet to, you know, to line them all up the best for us to make a decision because they're not all going to be we charge X amount for X amount for X amount. Unless you put that in your proposal
that that's how you want it spelled out for the bid in a in a sense. Yep. They're all have a little bit different way that they that they're charging us for this that or the other and how and what parts of the job they're doing
versus what parts they're not doing. And I don't know if any unless you have extensive experience in this. I don't know if anybody here is going to have it other than No, I would. Yeah. I would at least lack of a better terms dumb it down for us for us to make a decision.
Right. Yep. to to make sure it's apples to apples, right? Though we don't think that we got the cheapest to found out that we're the highest. So So Brent, I don't know if that helps a little bit. I I'm assuming similar the superintendent time is what I'm getting at is we got to give we have to do the buildings and
grounds narrows it down with the help of them and then we do the interviews. We have to give them with the time to put together the apples for apples part of it. Well, and they should I mean the
proposal should come in. They should have those before we do an interview, right? We're going to have them ready then. They're going to get all that stuff. I guess that's I'm almost certain on the last go around. We had the four different groups come in and we made our
selection that evening on which at this at that point it was Girtz Construction or what you know and Zerburgg and Girtz have all that done. We should you should be able to if you guys if the buildings and grounds has narrowed it down to four candidates they they should be able to
take those proposals from those four candidates and split that out and say this is what I if they have because they'll have time between then and our that's what I'm saying final interviews right so we should be able to you know have some of that information ask our questions of the individuals as they
come in for that interview and then make that decision based on really what we see from the interview process or how they answer our questions would be my anticipation. I believe that's what we did last time. So, we'll just have the interviews not
streamed. I don't No, that's a good idea. And I think that's exactly what you said is it'll be a public Yep. public can always be because all the board would be there and then um essentially we would after they're all done we would
deliberate and say I like this one or this one or this one stood out or you we'd have those conversations and just say this is the one that we think we should go towards and and because we'll be all there we would have convened a meeting and we would we would make you
know that would be the intent of that meeting would be to select so it' be a special meetings would be separate special meeting. So right now we have it tied into that November 19th meeting. So you're thinking we would potentially do it later or I would guess we would either well
either a we would have to have interviews during that day which doesn't work very well. I think the last time we did it, it was about an hour a piece and you know we did like said it would take an hour five, six, seven, eight or something
like that and we So I would say it's going to have to be on a a non board meeting maybe like Monday the 17th Brent maybe Monday the 17th of November and then the board could still take an option or then
vote on the 19th to keep us on that timeline. Yeah, I think what I do too, kind of here in the discussion on the dates is probably incorporate into the RFP a little bit of this timeline of um short listing and when the interview
would be because that would just give them a little bit of a heads up of how much time they're going to have to prepare for an interview if they get shortlisted. Okay, so the award would happen on the 19th. They'll then we draft a contract or you
help us draft a contract and the final contract is approved on December 3rd. Is that how I read the timeline? Yeah. And I know that's probably that's pretty tight. That might be a little bit aggressive in terms of the schedule. That might have to slide to
the next meeting possibly. When I was looking at the calendar, you know, I don't know if we can get it all lined up in that short amount of time. Right. Yeah. Right. Well, and there again, if we know who it
is, we just wouldn't have a signed contract yet. But we certainly could we do it on Tuesday versus Monday is that would be our council meeting city meeting. Okay. But Tuesday it doesn't look like there's
a junior high there's a junior high girls game that looks like it at away game at girls. Did you hear that Brent? Maybe looking at Tuesday the 18th they would call a special meeting to do the interviews. So
there would be no recording or anything like that. It would be a public meeting an open meeting for anyone who wanted to attend. We would do that and then on the 19th award then the whoever the selected candidate is on the 19th at that board
meeting and then you're saying the timeline between the 19th and December 3rd is one that might be a little aggressive. Yeah, that one could be okay. But I wouldn't be too concerned about that.
you know that you know if that slides to the next meeting I don't think that'll be a big deal couple weeks gonna make a big difference there I would think so especially with the holidays and everything so and if need be if it is we'll have plenty of meetings in on the belt by that point we can
right I have somebody else writing the minutes now so good any other questions or anything on the request for proposals anything anybody picked out that's said anything Ryan
that you have or Nope. But all so I guess really that you know that's our discussion for tonight. Um unless you know there's again I think it's a pretty standard RFP. I think we kind of have the next three months laid out and
obviously we're going to refine all those dates are going to continue to get finalized and and improved as we move forward and see what has to shift and what doesn't but we should uh again I don't want anybody to think because we
have you know 13 months till November we we're sitting you know we're sitting easy street here. We got we got to keep keep going and making sure that you know two week switch isn't big, but a a month
really pushes us down the road, right? So, we could get behind fast. We could get behind in a hurry. Like you said, weather could change all that, too. So, well, I think so. Maybe the homework is look over that RFP if there's something there you see because we'll bring it to
the to the board on October 1. So, if there's something that sticks out, let me know in advance. We can share that with Brent. I'll reach out to both the city of Kensington and the city of Elbow Lake to see if we can get on their agendas for an October meeting or if not then November and start getting
some communication out to the public as well. I think just letting them know that again all these meetings are recorded. They can find them. We'll put any of these documents that we can up on the website so they can follow that and start to talk to staff or I'll work with Brent and Lindsay to get that October
piece figured out where schools that we maybe visit and and get some information there. Maybe get something to the principles just to start to get feelers out for who would be interested in, you know, tours who really wants to be, you know, involved with feedback or whatever. Just
get to know some of that. So okay anything else then I'll look for a motion to adjurnn. You can move you can actually remember we don't take any action on these. We are journ