all right you are live all right good morning it's 7:07 in the West Central media center and we will call a meeting to order and I'll start with pledge alleg IED to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for
it stands na God indivisible liy and jusice for all christon here uh Porter is not with us saol is not with us sad here strong here and is here um Mr Porter will be just running a few minutes
late um are there any visitors that wish to address the board no okay um at this time looking at the agenda we have added um several items here Larry Martini is here to give
us a report from Alice Insurance Agency we've also added 5.3.5 um the agreement with Central Lakes college and 6.6 um to approve the following administrative contracts is there any
other additions or Corrections modifications to the agenda move to approve second second all in favor say I I I all same sign motion carries uh that'll move
us into our reports and there do you want to come to the yeah where would you like um you can just sit right up there in the corner I guess okay we'll put you in the corner that sounds about right um well good morning I think I know most of you my name is Larry Martini I live in
Elbow Lake and uh we have we have one block away from North Elementary School so we've really appreciated that we have four little kids two of them are in school another one will start this year so so that's been good it's great we just we walk to school so thank you guys
guys um so I'm just going to be here I want to give you a little update of where we're at with the school's insurance so we have had Ells insurance agencies had the privilege of representing the school the last several years and most recently we had the school's insurance with EMC Insurance
and we have a partnership with marish mclenon agency they're one of the largest uh brokerages in the country so out of G Valley they do a lot of schools so that's been a good thing it gives us access to a bigger Market um however most of you are probably aware it's
we're in a historically hard market and so we knew insurance companies are doing different things um large property risks have been the area that have been hit the most the last couple years so um we knew EMC basically long story short um
EMC ended up non-renewing us and the reason for that was is that the North and South Elementary School didn't underwriting requirements so Brown and myself worked very hard to try to keep them on it they sent an inspector Brown
worked with them so anyway long story short on that they decided that we didn't meet the underwriting requirements anymore so that's where working with Marshall Clon has been great because they have a very big market and so we have someone that we've been working with and we submitted them
all their uh applications and as Mr Brown Can attest is a very comprehensive application and uh so they've been working on getting us bids ideally we would have had bids by now but because of the nature of a lot of schools
renewing on July 1 and the nature of the harder Market it's just been taking a little bit longer than we would have hoped so I had an email from Marshall Clinton on Monday and I thought oh great we're gonna have some numbers and then it was a bunch of series of followup questions dang it so I answered all
those um because I was hoping to have some numbers and figures for round would present before you guys today so basically I'm expecting them to get back to us any day we have four good options is what theyve said glad filter being the top one that Marshall C would like
us to go with t have a good price from the ones that are available but we have Handover Church Mutual right specialty so and then from there if none of those work out we'd have to go the specialty Market but we're not there yet so anyway I was assured by Marsh mclinton that we
would have coverage it's just coming down a little bit more to the wire than I would like so July one right Larry ju Y and I'd be willing to come back next week to a study session um I know me again next week and give you more those
figures so long story short um not I wish I had more to report but we're working on it and we'll have something so what are the main reasons the underwriting why aren't they um so mostly the roof so EMC came out with
roof year so they anything that had a roof over 35 years they were they were going to go off of we did give them the updates that were done but there were some portions that were a little older still so that's what it really came down to so there was no issues with the
secondary school so here they were fine with so that's why we were trying to see what they be willing just to stay in the secondary school and then go somewhere else with the elementary schools but they weren't he Larry we're hearing some stories from other school districts that the rates
have been incredibly High deductibles have went high that there's is not based dedu based on a percentage so when hail storm million dollars if there's a storm that goes through is that kind of what we should anticipate as well or are we going to have something different do you
think I'm hoping for something different but worst case scenario I'm in the business of worst case scenario so that is a possibility so and that's what they're doing are going to percentage deductibles as some are we're hoping to try to stay away from that um but that would be if we would be more looking
further down so I think with glad felter we were trying to hope for still just a regular up to what 10,000 or 15 but yes and I think we should anticipate some rates going up so they said probably expect about 15 at minimum
percent increase from last year on the property side and like I said the school district is property so I'm not anticipating much with the liability portion of it it's just going to be the property portion of it all right any questions for Mr
Martini other than that thank you Larry uh we will definitely look at if numbers come in or whatever maybe adding new to our agenda for the 26 if there's something to update otherwise U we appreciate your work yeah no and I and with the holiday
yesterday I was I was thinking you know they should have had but then I think okay thanks we could pause and just uh note that Mr Porter joined us on our
minutes we'll move on to the superintendent report okay just a few updates in the report there letters training so we have many of our Elementary staff as well as our special education staff throughout the district that will start that training
here in July River that's why we say is 51 hours of training there's some uh in-person staff training some virtual training that they'll be able to do some independent work uh when they're all done we do have that set at at $30 per hour that's where we increase not just for letters but remember our
professional development training our summer training $30 per hour we are to see some funding from mde for them for this last legislative session so that should take care of that piece but uh I know our new principal has already been trained in letters um and I know we've
got our new people um will be going to that but I also know that our principal will be joining that group too just to make sure that she's trained in and understands how that'll work PLC Institute last Monday Tuesday a week ago Monday Tuesday the 10th and
11th uh Mrs Hendrick and Mrs kton myself went down to the PLC Institute as well as professional learning communities one of the concerns I think it was noted earlier this spring was the fact that we don't really dig into the PLC process like we should so we kind of
re-evaluated that went to that training and uh biggest piece they said is make sure you have all the structures in place the right way so we'll do that they said move slow uh to move fast and so we'll make sure that that's kind of laid out with a Clear Vision and again our new Elementary principal has done
some work as an instructional coach and so she's looking forward to being able to roll that out at the elementary Larry was just here so he kind of gave you the update there the meal program uh what we're looking at for our numbers at North they're lighter than we were hoping for uh just to make sure that we
can keep that program cost at a net neutral now I know Aaron will be joining us later for the business for for the um budget piece she said typically it's not a money-making Venture now I know some cases it can be hopefully for us it just goes net neutral because remember before for our daycare program we were
providing meals uh that we were catering in from the hospital and we weren't certainly going to be able to do that we're trying to just make this to help that fund forward budget go a little farther than it currently is actor threat response Workshop we had actually two board members that are uh firefighters or EMS First Responders
that were there but we had several um folks from the Grant County and Tina linquist LED that meeting I think the biggest uh thing that we need to work on is one door security also having people sign in when they come into the building so I think when people come in now they
kind of checking but they don't sign in and so that was one of the pieces that I think the First Responders want to make sure they want to know who's in our building if something does happen who who are they looking for and things like that who do so we need to have a better uh count on that I think the other piece is just our crisis communication if
something does happen we want to make sure I know Kevin's working on that to make sure that that can get out to families because we realize that could be a very challenging situation uh parents want to know what's going on and if we say well we got them secured here and parents don't know we've got to find
ways to effectively take care of that so we'll be working through that this summer and this fall I know Tina talked about doing a larger scale drill eventually down the road there are some new legislative changes that took place in 23 when parents can opt their child out if they don't feel that it's going
to be in the best interest of their student I believe you know we do really need to practice what the events something does happen so it' be nice to have everybody there we're not in the business to scare students but we just want them to know in case something does happen here and how we're going to respond School Board elections so I just
wanted to make you aware of that that those are coming up of course we will have here at the November election two two-year terms and then four fouryear terms we will need to publish for the filing period already July 16th and then
the filing period is open July 30th through August 13th and of course we're going to work later today to figure out how to appoint a board member because it's more than 30 days away from the election so that's just kind of an update for the School Board elections
work session is next Wednesday um I'll be looking to take vacation June 24th 27th and 28th and our July board meeting is July 7th any questions or comments we will move down into our
approve the payment of claims um was there anything you wanted to address in the claims Mr brownall nope I think they're fairly straightforward there I know that um Maggie did note I believe wet's second payment for the facility
assessment is on there and that was I believe around 19 ,500 so that's a big claim as well as our Midwest special education Cooperative that claim is in the amount of $ 25,661 33 uh and then we also have our workers
comp insurance from Ram Mutual uh is $2 29,185 so those are the large claims that are on this um particular board checks but otherwise everything else is straightforward all right so we would look for motion to approve the payment
of claims of $656,000 [Music] [Applause] um item number two approve the following Personnel items hires for summer daycare um Susie Miller Daniel Marty
Missy fer fer Tiffany Olen student worker also the north director I'm assuming that is some yes um mnam s uh North coaches
Tiffany Olen Payton fager Jaden SBA Macy gross Tracy Brickman Mike Bruns Vanessa MC and brenley olich sou director April Richards sou coaches kayin hedstrom
Malachi Holmes Sydney MCN Alysa stack Mna glowy Wy MCN Landon heidinger Steve Helman Kurt Anderson Sean Carlson Kellen Anderson and Ben sabolic um we also
have follow TR first make sure I'm in the right section still um Tony fuss will go from the North Elementary secretary to the South Elementary secretary um item 5.3 approve the following contract
agreement and memberships um Minnesota rural Education Association Minnesota School Board Association um Interquest detection K9 agreement mstate pseo contract and Central Lakes College
colge CIS and sep agreement also approved the final readings of the following policies with the statutory and recommended changes from msba policy 214 out of state travel by school board members policy 301 District
uh School District administration policy 302 superintendent and policy 303 superintendent election are there any questions or comments on that mle of information and I would look for a motion to approve the consent agenda so Mo and a second
second all in favor say I I oppos same sign motion carries that moves us into new business that item number one is to approve the resolution accepting
donations see if I have those here uh we've got um Elbow Lake Lions Club $5 for fiscal year 25 summer wreck town and land Grant County Town of l Grant County Township L
Township I got you got it thank you $1,000 for FAL year 25 summer W and North PTO $233.6 for field trip donations um can I get a motion to accept the
resolution accepting donations second a second that's a roll call vot we've got Christensen yes Porter y s yes yes and all is a
yes item number two um approve the 2024 2025 resolution for membership in the Minnesota State High School leag believe this is yearly requirement correct in order for us to get participate in see that
just resolved at westal area schools located in the state of Minnesota delegates the control supervision regulation of inter Scholastic activities and Athletics to the Minnesota State High School league and so hereby certifies of the state Commissioner of Education as provided by
Minnesota statute I have a motion for that resolution and a second second call vote Christensen yes Porter yes Sid yes yes and all
Yes it number three we have designate superintendent Brownell as the identified official with authority for West Central Area School District this is also a yearly requirement y um are there any questions or comments comments on
that look for a motion to approve second favor iose same sign carries item number four approve preliminary fiscal year 25 budget yes so
I'll have eron join us here as well so she's been working on this for the last couple weeks and yesterday was a full day of going back and forth getting things organized ready to go that way so as you'll look and see we've also got the revised
fiscal 24 budget if you remember during negotiations I said we probably see a larger decline in fiscal 24 and are plan with reductions and the additional $300,000 in capital project technology Levy should keep us at a net neutral well there's a little difference there
actually we see a better than expected fiscal 24 revised budget I think that could be mainly attributed to the fact that our winter was much less harsh and so our snow removal as well as our utilities for heating or less and so we
had some favorable pieces there um to kind of take care of that and then I would also say maybe a little bit of Staffing some of our staffing pieces that we did fill probably helped there too um you're going to notice that in that uh revised budget we do now see a
negative this is still not positive numers so there could still be some clean up there I think there was some during the time of our in the fall getting some meal claims there were some issues there and so I think we had to get that addressed with MBE to get that
cleaned up and so those numbers could be higher than what we expect I believe and so hopefully that'll put us not at a a negative balance when we end the year otherwise we'll have to do a fund transfer there and then of course the community service fund we know that that's been the ongoing piece right with
one child care to our uh School Readiness our preschool programs because we do not charge for those and so that fund is going to require some attention as well if you look then at the proposed budget um for fiscal 25 you're going to
see that we anticipate a $42,715 um quite honestly I'm hoping that we ended a net neutral for fiscal 24 and the in fund one because we're still conservative um in our special ed uh comprehensive report that we received they tell us we're going to receive more
money but often times an every St Todd Travis He said I would be careful because there can just take one student change or something like that can cause a significant difference there so if you look at uh again fiscal 25 concern again in Food Service um but we're going to
have to re-evaluate that just to make sure uh after we get these numbers cleaned up for fiscal 24 uh to make sure that we have all the numbers in the right spot this will also be fiscal 24 was our first year of free meals for everyone uh typically with that program in place you're going to see that your
district is okay when it comes financially there um but for fiscal 25 and so like I said we'll have to check that for fiscal 25 if you look at some of the considerations I've got on that second page there um I I didn't get that attached so I'll just go through those
I'll get that included to the agenda there but the considerations we're planning on 78 students kindergarten through 12th grade uh then if you add our seven EC students which means Early Childhood special education we budgeted
for 725 students for fiscal 25 there is no cushion there so if we have five students less that will have another impact on the budget um I did glad to hear that letter says he thinks it will only be a 15% increase this budget does
um include a $30,000 increase for insurance because I kind of heard that's where our neighbors had been we did increase Transportation by 5% I'm still waiting to get the numbers back from Palmer on that hopefully that'll be less um we had to restore the expenses in
case we have a harsher winter again with no removal and utilities and then we had we had some planned spend spending of fund balance and the following areas long range Capital Improvements remember that was taking care of our rof repairs and some of those other items that you
approved earlier this spring for 95,200 operating Capital this will take care of our reading curriculum purchase that was going to be at 97,000 that's dropped a little bit down to I think it's roughly 85,000 but the additional money needs to be pushed over
to sixth grade because they're using a different curriculum so 50,000 there that we already had in Reserve safe schools we want to make sure that both North and South Elementary have secure uh security systems when it comes to keop entry so that was also in reserve
and then we do have a conservative estimate for our special education funding according to MBE they tell us to plan a one, 393,000 we've dropped that to 1,2 uh 1,300,000 and so we'll just
kind of want to be safe there so if those numbers all come in differently already know if that that's special light funding does better we' be fine there and then remember we did restore some staffing cuts the main one because of the Reda was re establishing the instructional coach so the budget Target
was roughly 600,000 we come in at about $541,000 uh there and then we did add some money for State uh tournament just because that always becomes kind of a surprise on the budget and did visit with Mr fos just to see um don't want to
jinx anything but want to be prepared as well because going down to the state tournaments is a lot of fun but it also does cost some District dollars to take care of that and then we did increase the Midwest special education Cooperative um agreement cost there by
$30,000 as well and so there could be a change there so that total increase impact is $456,500 so you see without those changes where we were going to be spot on probably a little bit of a positive fund balance there but
again really our student enrollment mbers is going to be the Big Driver there also our staffing we still have roles that we're still trying to fill and so typically back in the day you used to be able to have somebody leave that was at the top end of the salary schedule and you could hire somebody who
would be um lower on the salary schedule that's not always happened I know we have a current position that somebody left and I think they were the far left side of the of the salary schedule about step four and we replace them with somebody who had an ma20 step 12 so
that's about a $155,000 difference but we could see some pieces there that would change and then it would be cost and goods for services to see hopefully those will align where we want them to be um but we also you know have a little cushion
there too so there's no surprises on that and then I'll let Aon jump in but Aon also as I kept going through the budget I think we were still making phone contact until about N9 o'clock last night and Aon finally reminded me at one point she goes you know this is
our best estimate without knowing student number she said we don't have all the information until school starts next fall she said we still have Staffing pieces in place that are not there we don't know student numbers we haven't got our audit cleaned up from fiscal 24 she so we're still trying to
figure finish out fiscal 24's budget and trying to get fiscal 25 and so um I do believe I drove her crazy continuing to call back to say I think we need to check this one more time that's how I operate I think my former business managers would say the same thing I wanted to get as close as we can and and
I think we're there but we realize adjustments will happen so Aaron says we'll probably have something as a revised budget in January which would definitely include I had mentioned October she said have you ever done the audit before I said well yeah last
shelds that's when the audit takes place I said okay that probably won't work so Aon do you want to jump in and add any of your pieces um I think you've covered a lot of it um just wanted to note too on the
sheet that I sent out it was never broken out but we have some Student Activities um that are actually part of the general fund but I do budget for them separately so I just made that little note that the Student Activity portion of the general fund so I just
wanted you guys to be aware of that that um other than that Paul pretty much covered everything there anything you'd like me to add speak a little bit more to no but I did notice the beginning balance total
is not transferred over correctly on the fiscal year 251 so it should be that 29773 26 the ins and outs are fine but the total didn't transfer over right well see you're talking about it's that Student
Activity piece yeah I just have to add that yeah all the other numbers are right it's just the total apologize for that that's still not right no it's the custodial fund it's off by the 20,
290 oh got it it just it's a new category that I added right so it just didn't pull that down far enough I'm sorry no that's all right so Sarah numbers at the bottom
those numbers are inacurate it just the 20,000 isn't added in so it doesn't transfer over so it should be that 2977 326 at the bottom okay it's not pulling the 20 290 in but everything else across is
fine yep I will add that in and send um PA an updated one sorry that no worries all right any other questions or comments on
that one other thing I know that when I did talk to eron about the about the budget Revision in October she said well she'll continue to give her more reports so you can see where expenses are tracking to what we expect so she'll have that and we'll also have a graph to
kind of lay out where the I think that's helpful to see are we trending where we normally are at are we falling below what's our projected ending balance you know I think we've got our fund balance policy set at 10% I believe I do think we need to reevaluate that with our finance committee to say is that an
appropriate number especially if we hear that our deductible goes to a percentage basis that could be a concern there so I think we'll want go through that so I think um what Aaron kind of gets a handle on this probably in the next
probably in August have a fin committee meeting to review those things to talk about fund balance policy and a few of those other areas of the finance committee would like to have reported to them to bring back to the board any other questions or comments move to approve the preliminary
budget second second all in favor say I I same sign motion carries thank you um we'll move on to 6.5 to set the work session meeting for June 26 2024 at
7: a.m. it'll be next Wednesday is that correct fall yes and we will be planning to discuss facilities in that work session we discuss the 25th huh we discussed the 25th and not
the 26th that's what I wrote down but I could be wrong because I think um Gary wasn't able to be here the 26 also and I had res like I was supposed to work the 25th but I rescheduled I switched with somebody else so I could I didn't write
it down I have it down for 7:30 on the 25th 25th yeah at 7:30 you said that's what I have on my yeah okay so does that work 7:30 on the 25th yeah is that where we
are all right so June 25th oh I had eight on the 25th so I I mean I the Right date you put on I'll be here at seven sorry 7 7:30
7:30 730 okay any other questions comments on that so then I'll look for a motion to approve the work session meeting at on June 25th at 7:30 a.m. I will approve
second all those in favor say I I I same sign motion carries uh item 6.6 would be approved the following administrative contracts we have the elementary demon students
Community Ed director um SL assistant Elementary principal Community Ed director we also have the elementary principal for 2023 2024 and then we have the secondary principal for 2325 we have those copies in your
email yes any questions comments concerns maybe just to give some clarification to miss Do's contract there so she is maining her um administrative license so you're going to see that that is a requirement for
the assistant principal's position that does allow her to supervise staff evaluate staff um as well as student management and so her daily uh her day stays the same at the 218 she'll still do the community ed piece and um she
said she you know like a clear job description as well as kind of defined roles and responsibility so people know um what the expectation is and she knows what the expectation is for herself but the nice part is now in both buildings at all times we'll always have a
licensed administrator there so those a p um increase to account for that additional responsibility and then with Miss crash that just needs our standard th threshold of the three 3% and the same thing for Mr wood we just need to
include the ESS earn St SI time piece that's the new law that's C place since January of 202 four any other questions or comments on those contracts I look for a motion to approve
so move second second all in favor say I I I oppose same sign Mo carries that brings us to our discussion item I guess i' like to start out with um did receive a letter from
chair netman um resigning from the board we sure like to thank her for her years of service here I think she had a little over 10 years are in that ballark um did a lot of good things for our school so we want to thank her for that and wish
her well as she moves forward um at this point then we have to discuss filling that vacancy and what I know we talked a little bit about the process similar to what we did when Nathan was appointed um
is there a timeline Mr Brown that would work for posting for those applications um it gives us enough time to be able to look at those before July 21st 21st right 21st meeting
yeah involv there you can post it on Facebook again and on our website last time there was a few questions at the hands answered on a Google form and then that just got submitted I think the board was able to review those applications and then I think we
determined which candidates which all the candidates were called in and able to introduce thems and add anything that they wanted if there's any additional details that they wanted to add and the board of was able to select who they
wanted to be the to fill that vacancy so I have the form if you want to use that one get that out yeah we have up until the 17th um so we can get that out here soon and a deadline probably early part
of July maybe like so the fourth maybe like the week of the 8th give it to like the does it if we if we leave it open till the 12th does that give us enough time that'll be a Friday and our meeting will be on Wednesday
that enough time for everyone to look at those MH so we we open that up and we open till the 12th and then see what we have get those up to the board probably wouldn't be a bad idea to reach out to the ones that put their names in before and just say do you want us to
consider you again and just so they don't have to do the work again if they if they are interested and putting the name back in y certainly do that any other ideas that will
work so you were just talking about when to close it would just be put on a regular meeting is that what you're saying I was saying if we if we close on the 12th that would give us time to review all those before the 17 so that would be the Friday prior to the the
Wednesday do we even need to give it that long I mean it's 20th now it's almost a month sitting out there well out but I guess there's the Fourth of July in there
too it's about right feel like it's about right I guess I'm I'd be more concerned that you have enough time to review them than I think that's just go the so okay so we'll post it through the 12 and then take those and try
to um I think we just reached out to everybody and ask if they'd like to come if they thought there anything else that they wanted to add if they didn't have any conflict so maybe we'll just put that on the application to put that in there that you know if you are
putting an application you know You' like probably like you to be at the 17th meeting introduce yourself if you're not familiar you know maybe those couple questions why do you want to be on the board what else I think there was two of them that we just I think the biggest
piece was if we asked a question of one we had that right just so we make sure we have that standardized so that you tell us your name want be on the board and just reminder that it's a
30-day 30 days after that August 17th before they would be official and the packets Clos for re for election on the 13th so it would not be a sitting board member before they would have to file
for that makes sense so they was their first board meeting would be they would join us let that business meeting be office right so that probably be another piece that maybe should either we'll have to let them know or if it's a way to put it
on there that that file opens Jun was it July 31st and goes to the 13th you had July 30th through August 13th yeah yeah so just so everybody's aware of that that they don't think they
can they want to be on they have to file for that be on that Maya may I approach table just to read the questions that are on the current form in case you guys want anything change absolutely please
do okay so the last one we sent out included first name last name phone number email address then it had a link to uh the msba site for requirements to be
eligible for a school board member and just a yes no or unsure question if they meet the legal requirements above um then the free form questions were why does serving the district as a school board member interest
you what experience qualifications or skills do you possess that have prepared you to be a school board member what is your level of involvement in the school district and or Community is there anything else you
would like to share that should be considered in support of your application and then we we'll I'll work with Mr Brown Lo to change the peripherals around it with dates and times and contact information perfect
thank thanks all right any other additions comments questions that moves us to item number eight on our agenda
motion second allv say I