- Call this meeting of School Board Independent School District 624 to order. Will the clerk please call the role? - Skaar? - Here. - Streiff Oji? - Here. - Thompson? - Here. - Arcand? - Here. - Daniels? - Here. - Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. (people chatting) - What happened? - There's no flag. (people chatting) - Well, that's a first. (people chatting) - You wanna wait or what do you wanna do?
- Oh, we can wait a couple minutes, do you think? - Or what? - We're fine. We're fine. - Gonna check? (people chatting) - I don't know. I've never seen it move before. - Me neither, it's always been there. I don't know, maybe another organization who met borrowed it. No, okay, well. (people chatting) Oh, Amanda's on it. Hmm? - It was always just right there next to the skate one.
- I didn't even notice it when I came in. - Hmm, that's weird. - Yeah, it is. - It is, 'cause why would it leave the room? (people chatting) - Find anyone? - I'll take anyone right now. Scott, why don't we just have like a picture of the American flag on the screen? - It's coming. - Here comes. - Yay. (audience applauding) (people chatting) - Well done. - That's what you figured. (people chatting)
- Oh no. - Oh my goodness. (people chatting) It's okay. - It has to be taller. (people chatting) Okay. This is gonna be, - Put it over here. - I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republican for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. - Thank you. Rachel. - We have before us an agenda. Can I get a motion to approve?
- So moved. - By Thompson. Is there a second? - Second. - Second by Streiff Oji. Is there any discussion? - Yes. - Yes. Mr. Skaar. - I would like to make a motion up to the agenda to allow video streaming of the public forum and also five minutes after the forum to address the comments from the public by the board. - Okay, so the motion is there to video stream the forum, and then five minutes
after to make comments. Do we here for a second? Do we have a second? Do we have a second? Okay, motion fails. Further discussion. And now we still have a motion on the table to approve the agenda up before us. Any further discussion? Okay, then hearing none. I'll move forward. This will be a voice vote. All in favor say aye. - Aye. - Approved. Same sign. - No. - Okay, motion carries. We have an agenda. We also have before us, a consent agenda. This contains a variety of business items that come
to us monthly, including donations. We are truly grateful for the support shown every month to our staff and students. We wanna say thank you for all those have donated. Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? - So moved. - Can I get a second? - Second. - Second by Thompson. Further discussion? Mr. Skaar. - Two things. One, on the approval of the minutes, there was two items that I wanted to raise. One was, it's on page eight.
It is 5G where it talks about the month Thompson moved and Beloid second to approve the monthly invoices, all of which met the standards and guidelines as set forth by the school board and the quarterly revenue and expenditure report. And I would revise that to say that staff represents that the quarterly revenue and expenditure report met the standards and guidelines as set by the school board.
- Any further discussion on that change? Do you have it up? - No. Could you repeat what you're asking us to do? - Sure. Yes, I would like to change that so that staff represents that the quarterly revenue and expenditure report meets the standards and guidelines as set by the school board, because really, in effect, that's what they're doing. We're not, staff is. - Did you find it there? - I've got it, but, - Okay, do we need to get a second to make that change?
- What? I think we need some clarification on that. - What page is it on again? - It's on page eight. I've got it right in front of me. So to approve the monthly, all which have met the standards and guidance as set by the. So you want to say as set by the staff? - No. - I'm not understanding what you want to say. - The way it reads right now, it means that the board is representing that it meets the standards
and the guidelines set by the board. We're not, the staff is. - Right now, it says Ellison moved and Daniels seconded to approve the consent agenda consisting of, and then it lists the items that we are approving in the consent agenda. - I understand that. The way that the minutes, - So we're just approving the consent agenda. We're not saying who said or did, - There is a representation in that that says that it meets the standards and guidelines as set by the school board
and the quarterly revenue and expenditure report. It has a representation in there that staff makes not that we're making. So therefore I think it should plainly read that staff is representing that. - Wouldn't staff be the one who is representing it, because it's in the packet that they helped create. - No, that's not how that reads. - It reads that Ellison moved and Daniels seconded to approve the consent agenda consisting of quarterly revenue and expeditionary report.
So we're approving it to be in the consent agenda. - It says all of which met the standards and guidelines as set forth by the school board and the, - Oh, I was looking at the number that, - We're on page eight, Angela. - That's what I meant. - It's a fairly standard thing to revise that when staff is providing you something that they're representing that it meets the standards and then we approve it. It's pretty standard operating procedure. - The standards go as set by the, I guess I don't see the issue with that. - Where would you like the word staff?
I'm just looking at it right now. You want the school board taken out and staff put in? - No. - Okay. I'm still not understanding then. - I've read it twice. - Okay, can you read it again? - Let's read it again. - Can you read it again? - Is it five? What's the letter? - 5G. - Well it's not, it's down in the paragraph below, which is why I didn't, you were mentioning that, so I was looking at that area. - So, - Okay, read it again please. Mr. Skaar. - Staff represents that the quarterly revenue and expenditure report meets the standards
and guidelines as set by the school board. - I mean, I guess I don't see the harm in that, but I don't understand. - It's a governance issue. - What the deal is with that. And I would probably wanna talk to some counsel before I made that a motion or approved it. - Well, right now we're representing. - Yeah, I know, but I just need to understand what that's gonna do before I, - So then can we table? I have one other one as well on the minutes. B, under public forum, it says Ellison made a point of order that the agenda does not allow for discussion
during the public forum portion of the meeting. It's not that the agenda does not allow, it's that the board policies do not allow for discussion during the public forum portion of the meeting. So I think we should clarify that, that our policies don't allow it. The agenda doesn't empower this. - You're saying policies drive that? - Yes. - Okay, so first, you're gonna start with the,
and what number was that you're saying? - G. - It's on 5G. - Okay. - But he is wanting the paragraph below it to be the area where it's changed. That one I could, I mean, I would table that one, I guess, and come back to it. I would want to just get further clarification. I don't necessarily oppose saying that the policy is what drives the public forum portion of the meeting. I don't see an issue with putting that in there instead of the agenda. - I agree with you Angela. I'm fine with putting policy. I'm not sure I understand.
I would like to table that discussion and look into it a little bit more to change the other minutes. - Okay, so we're gonna look at, let's talk public forum. You wanna say Ellison made a point of order that the agenda does not allow for discussion during the public forum portion of the meeting. And you want to rewrite that to say the policy does not. - Board policy. - Board policy. - Yes. - To change that, do I need a second to change that
in the minutes? - I think so. - Okay. I'm gonna go ahead and second that so we can have discussion right now to change that. So I'll go ahead and second to change it. Do we have any discussion? - My only question is, is it policy or is it practice? - That's a great question. - Okay. - So Mr. Skaar, can you provide the policy that, do you have the number of that policy with you? - This board approved deletion of that policy. - Okay, so it's a practice. - Well, I mean, - Yes, it's a practice as a opposed to,
- Public forum instructions or procedures. - Right. - So we could say procedures. - Yes, that's what I'm asking. Is the practice procedures or policies, 'cause it sounds like a procedure. - Yeah. - So we could put the word procedure rather than policy. - Yeah, keep in mind, this board deleted that. - I understand that. - Right. - So it's a procedure rather than a policy. Okay. - So now we have in front of us, we were saying a board policy, that was what we're discussing right now. Do you wanna amend that? - Yes, I'll amend it to procedures.
- Procedures, okay. - As a result of a lack of policy. - Okay. - I understand that. - And I'll stay with that second with that. So now what you wanted to read is: The procedure does not allow for discussion for the public forum. - I would like to just make a point of clarification. 'cause Ellison made that. - It was her discussion? - It says Ellison made the, so I don't know how we can change what she, I mean she said that. - Okay. - We could, - We we're not gonna, so what we're doing here is this?
- Because I'm going to be changing her words, that she said procedure instead of agenda, but she didn't say that. - So by changing that, you're saying we're gonna change what she said. - So I think we could put we could put agenda in quotes or put that part in quotes and then put procedure parentheses so that if it's in the minutes. - Yeah, if it's not her words. - Right. - That'd be fine. - Okay. - So what do you reckon then we do? How you gonna say it?
- I was gonna say Ellison made a point of order that the agenda, and we'll put that in quotes and then we're gonna put procedure in parentheses, does not allow for discussion. - But she didn't actually make, I don't think we can change the motion she made or any of the language she used. - She just made a point of order. - Right. - Well the way that it's worded, then it's the point of order. - I understand what Dan's trying to say. - The point of order would then would be, the point of order is that the agenda does not include,
- But then again, we're still changing what she said. - Yeah, but, - We could highlight the change - Pardon me for a second. Somebody wrote this. This isn't exactly what she said. - Do you know that? - Yes. - Can you tell me what she did say? - I don't know what she said, but somebody wrote this. - How do you know if she didn't say that? - Somebody wrote this, I don't know if that's what she said or not. - But you just said that was not what she said. - I don't know whether she's, the way that this reads, I don't think it would be a point of order. - I understand what you're trying to say here and I'm not arguing that part.
I'm just saying we can't change what she said. I don't know how we can put in, I get what you're trying to say. I understand. - Then what I would say is somebody go back, - I'm trying to figure out how we do that. - So somebody should go back to the video and see what she said. - And we can do that. So maybe we put this one table as well and we come back to it and we figure out how to fix it properly. - Can we make sure we have her words? - I think that on the second matter, as long as we're talking about that, that's a bigger issue. - We still have in front of us, so we have the what the motion on the floor
is Ellison made a point of order that the agenda does not. And we say that the policy, or procedure, excuse me, does not. That's what we have to work on right now. So either we table it and take it back or we vote it down for now. - Why don't we table it and then put it onto the next agenda so we can listen to the tape as you suggested, because we can get her exact words. - And then we can maybe clarify somehow. I just would like to figure out how we do this
so we can have the proper language in there, but without changing what she did say. - I understand. - So let me get this clear. If we table this, are we gonna approve this agenda but not that portion of it? - Those two items that we've tabled. That's my understanding. - Okay. Are we okay with tabling both of them? - Sure. - Yes. - So G, 5G and B. - Okay, so moving forward, can we approve the consent agenda absent of those two items?
Any further discussion? - On the consent agenda? Yeah, I have one other item. - Okay. - I'd like to have the invoice register, which is 5B as a separate agenda item. - And purpose is what? - Discuss specific items on the invoice agenda. - Did you get a chance to talk to Dr. Kazmierczak prior to this meeting? - It's not a requirement. - Okay. - And then if I do that, if everything is done in closed doors, how does the public enjoy the, or get benefit of the discussion? Where's the transparency with that? - In the board packet.
- But I'm asking questions specific to an item. - But are you asking it for, I would just wanna know if community has the opportunity to also ask that question. I mean it's like saying our students come to school every day and they're required to do all the work in their class on their own because that's what we expect of our students, yet we don't expect that of our adults in the community to do some of that work themselves. - I don't believe, - 'Cause it makes the board meeting not be sufficient and run in a timely fashion, so we can do what needs
to actually be done in the board meetings. - As I've said at prior board meetings, it's not the public's responsibility to make sure that what we present in our agenda is understandable. It's our responsibility. - Are you getting a lot of, 'cause I have never, in all the years I've been on the board, had a community members send me an email asking me anything about our financial report. And I have yet to hear you bring up a point that would make me want to see that there's something
that's being done here. - I've it from a number of people that the invoice register is not helpful. (gavel banging) - So that's the point of order here. He has the right to pull that. - Yes. - And so we will pull that and make that the next agenda item. So right now we are gonna, we have in front of us approval of the, - Well did we get a, we have to have a second. - He has a right to pull anything off the agenda - Without a second? - Oh yeah, right now he does, yes. - Okay. - So he has that right according to our procedures.
And so then before us we have the consent agenda, we've tabled the two items and we're removing the registry. Any further discussion? Hearing, - I just wanna count how many pages that'll be one, two. - So this will be a roll call vote. Mr. Skaar, I just want to make aware that at six o'clock, - I understand. - So we may have to stop. - That's fine. - Do that and come back. I'm not trying to, - I'll try to be as brief as possible. - Okay, so first, we have the consent agenda, we've tabled the two items and we've pulled the registry.
Can we have a clerk call roll? - Sure. Arcand? - Aye - Thompson? - Aye. - Streiff Oji? - Aye. - Skaar? - Aye. - Daniels? - Aye. - Okay, that's been approved. The next thing we have on the agenda then is the registry. - Thank you. - So what questions do you have? - So one of the questions kind of stemmed from the last meeting, where we have decentralized decision making
and I was curious, I saw Arvig which I'm assuming is our internet provider. Is that true? - Yes. - Arvig? - Yes, that's correct. - Does each facility have their own internet provider or does the district do it on a campus wide basis for everyone? - Campus wide basis. - Okay, good. Thank you. And I know that we have LB Carlson, they went through a change and we have a fee for $7,500 for them.
- Yep. - Do we have the same partner that we had last year or did they rotate the partner? - The same. - The same. We're aware that LB Carlson has a requirement to rotate partners. - Correct. - Okay. I would be curious as to why they did not rotate the partner. - Okay. - We also had $7,000 to the regents of the University of Minnesota. What was that for? Do you know off the top of your head? Okay. - Nope. - We can just skip it. - [Andi] If you asked me prior, I'd be able to tell you,
but I don't know. - That's fine. The other thing I was, oh by the way, on your green solar leasing, you still have electricity when I think that was lease payments, is that correct? - [Andi] I'd have to look, but I believe it's correct the way it is. - Okay, thank you. The other one, and I think I'll make a motion on this, is we have so many Amazon expenditures on the invoice register. I was wondering if, I'd like to ask the chair if we could add to the agenda
for either the work session or the next meeting that we have an overview of what controls we have over these Amazon purchases, because there's just a lot of them and I'm curious as to, and it seems to be growing, the number of transactions. So I'd just like to know what controls do we have in place from a district standpoint on those expenditures. - Okay, if that's the will of board, we'd be happy to do that. - Thank you. Okay, either the work session or the agenda.
That's all. Thank you. - So before we have the check registered in front of us, can I get a motion to approve the registry? - So moved. - Streiff Oji. Can I get a second? - Second. - Second by Daniels. Any further discussion? Once again, I'm gonna put this for a roll call vote. - Okay. - Can you call the roll? - Sure. Streiff Oji? Sorry, I'm on the other, I'm sorry, I'm on the wrong one. Sorry, Streiff Oji.
Skaar? - Yes. - Thompson? - Aye. - Arcand? - Aye. - Daniels? - Aye. - Okay, the registry's been approved. All right, right now I'm looking at it. I think I have three speakers. Should we go ahead and start, and if we have to, we'll interrupt? It's now time for the public forum portion of the meeting. The public forum allows up to three minutes per speaker. With one minute remaining, you'll get your orange card held up. With 30 seconds, you'll get a yellow card. At the end of three minutes, I'll let you know that the time is up.
School district policy and data privacy laws preclude personal and student matters of data being discussed publicly. Speakers may not make allegations, charges or complaints against any student or employee. Speakers will be called up to the microphone one at a time and only those individuals who have been recognized will be allowed to speak. Members of the audience may not engage in any conduct that disrupts any part of the school board meeting and that otherwise impedes the school board's ability to conduct business. Presentation of public hearing related to the proposed 2025 payable 2026 property tax levy.
Mr. Wald. - Thank you Chair Arcand. Good evening, members of the board, Dr. Kazmierczak, our student rep, Mr. Reese, and to all of our community members who joined us and are students who are here tonight for this public hearing. Tonight is our truth and taxation hearing for taxes payable 2026. Parameters for this meeting are set by the state legislature and by state statute. Our hearing tonight will fulfill all of the requirements. Following the presentation and the public comment period,
the school board has the authority to officially adopt the final levy. We'll cover background information on school funding. We'll look at the district's current year budget. We'll look at the proposed tax levy for taxes payable in 2026 and then there'll be an opportunity for public comment at the end. Article 13, Section 1 in the Minnesota Constitution indicates it's the legislature's duty to fund public schools and goes on to say that legislature or the legislature shall make such provisions by taxation
or otherwise. Because education is a constitutional duty of the state, funding is highly regulated. The state determines the formulas that calculate our revenue, tax policies, maximum levy amounts. The state also authorizes school boards to submit referendums to voters for both operating and capital needs. I wanna share two examples of historic funding challenges for Minnesota schools. First, this chart illustrates one of the greatest challenges we face in public school finance,
and that is that state funding has not kept pace with inflation since 2003. On the bottom left of this graph, you'll see the per pupil funding level in 02-03 at $4,966. Follow the blue line, which shows that the general education per pupil formula would be if it had only been adjusted for the rate of inflation in each biennium. It'd be at $8,901 per pupil and that would've ensured the same buying power
for school districts over the years. The orange line represents the actual funding on the student formula from 2003 to current, that's at $7,481. The gap between the orange and the blue line represent the delta of $1,420 per student, and that's if the state would've only adjusted for inflation. For the White Bear Lake schools, that gap represents underfunding of approximately $13.3 million.
And inflation has hit our organization, like every other organization and like every household. We're paying more for labor, utilities, insurance, supplies, everything is impacted by inflation. So that inflation gap is compounded by the underfunding of mandated services, particularly special education. The state of Minnesota is mandated to provide programs and services for students with disabilities, but they do not fully fund the cost of these services.
According to the Minnesota Department of Education, the cost of providing special education programs was underfunded statewide by $503 million in fiscal year 2024. This is projected to grow to an underfunding of 524 million by fiscal year 2028. This underfunding requires school districts across the state to make up that funding shortfall through their general fund. This process of being required to use general fund dollars
to fund mandated services is referred to as a cross subsidy. Our special ed cross subsidy in White Bear Lake is approximately $5 million. In the last by end, the legislature made some progress in reducing the special education cross subsidy, but are only funding it at 50%. Special education services are necessary and we'll continue to provide those services. They're not only required by statute, they're important services for our students with disabilities. We'll continue to meet those students' needs,
but I would suggest that the legislature needs to close the cross subsidy for special education by fully committing to funding special education programming. So these two factors are significant contributors to the school districts across the state to rely on local operating limits. For the purposes of funding and reporting, school districts manage separate funds and these funds are legally restricted for specific purposes. We'll look at these in the following slides and our director of finance, Andi Johnson,
will walk us through these. - [Andi] This report is the report that we include in the local newspaper every year. A summary of our previous school year's operations, and then the budget for the upcoming school year. I will present more information on the upcoming budget in the next slides. So first on our operating funds, we have four main funds. The bulk of our operations flows through the general fund at about 74% of our total budget. And then about 4% goes towards food service and community service funds. And then debt service, which is where we make all
of our debt payments, comes in at about 17% of our total revenues in the school district. Delving into the general fund revenue, specifically, for the 25-26 school year, the vast majority of our funding comes to us in the form of state aid at about 72%. Then local dollars account for both property taxes and then other miscellaneous revenue we might receive like donations or student fees, accounts for about 25% of our revenue. And then our federal revenue accounts for about 2.3%.
So in total, the general fund revenue for this school year, the preliminary budget is $146,782,000. Then we look at our expenditures and we're gonna look at these in two different ways. This first way that we look at them is by object code. And the vast majority of our expenses is related to salaries benefits. That comes in at about 80% of our total budget for the year. Then we have about, just shy of 14% of our expenditures goes towards purchase services
and that would include our contracted transportation. That's a big percentage of that chunk of money. And then just about 4% of our expenses goes towards supplies and a small amount towards capital expenditures and other, about 2% in total. The other way that we look at this on the expenditure side is by program or sort of by department level. So starting at the bottom, if we look at regular instruction in green, that accounts for about 40% of our total spending. About just shy of 1% goes towards vocational ed.
Then in the blue, we have special education instruction, which accounts for about 22% of our total spend. And then instructional support services at about six and a half percent. All of those together account for about 70% of the school districts expenditures in the general fund. Then we have pupil support services, which also includes transportation and our counseling, health department, social workers, et cetera. That's about 12%. Then we have sites and buildings that are about 10% and that includes our long-term facility maintenance spending.
And then a small amount goes towards other and then administration and district support services accounts for just about 6% of our total budget. One thing I wanna point out is a change in our tax levy does not always mean that it's an increase in revenue for the school district. The property tax levy is incredibly complex, about 40 pages of calculations that go into this funding stream each year. And sometimes we may see an increase in property tax levy and a corresponding decrease to our state aid.
And sometimes it goes the opposite way as well. And so it's just important to note that when you are looking at our property taxes, sometimes you might see an increase. It doesn't actually correlate to an increase in budget. In December, municipalities across the state of Minnesota are coming to the taxpayers and having this truth in taxation hearing. There's one main difference is that for a school district, our budget year starts on July 1st. And so the property taxes that we're collecting from taxpayers throughout 2026
folds into our 26-27 budget. And that budget will be adopted by the school board in June of 2026. And then for cities and counties, their budget year begins on January 1st, and so the taxes that they're collecting throughout the year actually go towards that calendar year budget. - [Mr. Wald] Okay, all property owners recently received a proposed property tax statement, looks something like this. You received it from the county in which you live. And this shows all of the taxing jurisdictions that levy property taxes, cities, counties,
school districts, and special taxing districts. Each jurisdiction sets its own levy and combined, they make up the total of your property taxes. The county serve as the fiduciary agent, they collect the tax dollars and they distribute 'em to the jurisdictions. In the next several slides, we'll dig into the property tax process. School districts can levy in over 40 different categories, but not all school districts qualify in all of those categories. And the example I always use is that we don't qualify
for taconite levy in White Bear Lake, although some school districts in other parts of the state do. MDE calculates limits for each levee in each category for each district. And these limits are based on state statute and voter approval. This slide outlines the multi-step process of determining the tax levy. Any of these steps may affect the taxes on a parcel of property, but the school board has control over one of the six steps, and that is step five.
But many factors come into play prior to this involving the county assessor, the legislature, the county auditor, MDE, then the school board adopts a preliminary and final levy and then finally back to the auditor of each county to determine the tax rate on each property. This slide looks at the timeline of the six steps. We received the first draft of our levy limit report from MDE on September 8th. On September 26th, the school board certified the levy amount.
In mid-November, the county set out the proposed tax statements to property owners. Tonight we're holding our public hearing on the proposed levy and then following the hearing tonight, the board will have the vote to certify the final levy. The proposed tax levy for taxes payable in 2026 is an increase from 2025 of $3,120,539, increase of 4.4%. And on the following slides, we'll break down the major components of this change. This is a summary of the levee changes in the general fund,
community services and debt service funds and we'll explain each of these in the following slides. $730,000 is attributed to the increase in the operating levy. This is driven by enrollment and an inflationary increase. MDE uses an estimated CPI to determine the operating levy inflationary adjustment. When the finalized CPI is determined, this is always trued up on the following years levy as either a positive or negative adjustment. The estimated CPI that MDE applied last year
was slightly lower than the actual so it's being applied to this year's levy. Additionally, there's a change in prior year adjustments to the general fund of just over 1.26 million. This is a normal state mandated process. MDE calculates initial levies based on estimates and in later years we receive retroactive payments as final enrollment values and expenditures are certified. This ensures districts receive no more and no less than the authorized revenue,
and these adjustments can result in lowering or increasing future levies. The most complex areas is the coordination of debt levies. This reflects us strategic scheduling of bond payments to minimize tax leans. We work with our municipal advisors on a debt payment schedule so as to maintain a generally level tax impact. The LTFM levy in the general fund is increasing by 912,877. There's a reduction in the LTFM levy and the debt service fund of 3,131,000
and that decreases offset by an increase in the voter approved levy debt service payments of 3,567,000. It's important to note that your individual school tax bill might not directly reflect the exact 4.4% change in the overall levy. Many factors can cause a greater or lesser individual properties tax experience. It could be a change in assess value of one's property relative to other properties and changes in total value
of all property within the district come into play as well. Let's illustrate this concept in the most simple of scenarios. If a school district contained just two properties and there of equal value, in this case a hundred thousand dollars, the district had a total levy of $500. Each of those properties would pay the same share of the district levy at $250 each. But in the next year, one homeowner sees a 10% increase and the other sees a 25% increase. If the total levy is $500, the house with a 25% increase
would pay a greater share than the property that saw the smaller increase. Next, we'll look at the trend in property tax over the past four years. We'll look at examples of property taxes on a property with no change in property value and then we'll see examples with the 10.8% change in the value of residential properties over four years. I'll note that examples used are for property in the city of White Bear Lake and our preliminary estimates. This table shows property taxes from 2023 to 2026
and is based on no change in property values. The second to last column indicates the change over four years. And the final column indicates the change from 25 to 26. So if you look at the $350,000 value home outlined in blue. You can see the school district taxes increased $18 over those three years. In every residential home value from 250,000 to 700,000, school district property tax increase from 23 to 26,
show modest increases. This year, all are generally flat. So key here is that the change in the assessed value plays a significant role in the taxable value of the property. This is the same data presented in a bar chart for property taxes over a four year period. On the left, a $250,000 home, and on the right, a $400,000 home. Again, we see generally flat taxes over those four years. But you know, note that if the $250,000 home on the left
made a big addition to their home and it was assessed then that next year at $400,000, they'd see an increase from 1,219 on the $250,000 home in 2025 to $2,060 on their $400,000 home in 2026. Here's the same representation for commercial and industrial and non-residential non-homestead properties from 23 to 26. But we know that property values have not remained flat on most properties. And so most of us have seen increases
in the assessed value of our properties during this four year period. This table shows a change in property values since 2023. Here you can see the home on the left, in the first column is $225,700. Over the four years, the estimated value of that home would be $250,000. These are on typical property and certainly wouldn't reflect any one individual's property. But on the typical property, they'd see the property tax
on that home would've gone from $1089 to 1,220. And the home on the right, that $400,000 property in 2026 worth, where is it? 361,100 in 2023. Of course these are just averages on these properties. You know, individuals may have seen slightly more, slightly less in changes in their assessed value of their property. The state of Minnesota has a few refund programs and a tax deferral program available to property tax owners.
We don't give tax advice, but you can look into this at the Department of Revenue website, which is noted, well, it's revenue.state.mn.us. There's the Homestead Credit Refund, an income based program for homestead property owners whose property taxes are high relative to their household income. The special property tax refund is available for gross tax increases at least 12% and $100 over the prior year,
and homeowner can get refunded 60% of the value above 12%. The senior citizen property tax deferral allows individuals 65 years or older who meet income guidelines to defer a portion of their property taxes. And I believe that income, yes, it's $96,000. Deferred property tax plus accrued interest must be paid when the home ownership is transferred. So it operates like a reverse mortgage. On income taxes, those who itemized deductions for federal income taxes may deduct a portion
of their property taxes paid. And new in 2024, on the Minnesota return, renters can claim their renter's refundable credit right on that return rather than using a additional form, meant to simplify the process. So this completes the presentation. I'll turn it back to Chair Arcand now for these next steps. - Okay, this is a public hearing, so
if there's anyone who would like to speak specifically about the proposed 2025 payable of 2026 payable tax levies, please raise your hand and we'll call you up. Okay, I'll call you up in a second. I just wanna read this to you. You're first in the back there. Basically, we'll follow the same guidelines and audience etiquette for the public forum. School district policy and data privacy laws preclude personal and student matters or data from being discussed publicly. Speakers may not make allegations, charges, or complaints against any student or employee.
Only those individuals who have been recognized may speak and members of the audience may not engage in conduct that disrupts any part of the meeting. Okay, so the gentleman in the back, you may come up. - [Michael] Do I address you guys or, - Yeah, you can sit down and if you could tell us your name, that'd be great. - My name's Michael McCurdy. I am a White Bear resident and I've come to discuss the property tax increase as the levied proposal has raised my property tax by 16.75%.
Being a millennial that was priced out the housing market for a very long time, I just recently got to move into a larger home and you know, this wasn't exactly budgeted for or expected and between all of the tax increases, it came out to be, you know, over $700 of an increase. And with that said, I think it's kind of, you know, so I come from the Laborers Union.
I was a proud member in the laborers union. I got very politically active. I went to the Humphrey/Mondale dinner. And with that, I also know that the Educators Union does try to pass levees on off years, off election years because it has a high success rate. And that's because if you actually go to those elections, you'll see that a majority of them are older and they qualify for that property tax deferral. So they don't get hit until, you know, they die or whatever.
But for somebody, you know, that's still young and trying to get a start in life, I mean, this is a very significant increase. And you know, I think, or I know rather, being in the construction industry and now being on the estimating side of it, I see a lot of these school projects come through. And I gotta say, there's quite a few very frivolous projects that are done. So I don't think that we have a taxing problem. I think we have a spending problem. And with that, I'll pass.
- Okay. Thank you. - Thank you. - Thank you. - Somebody else had their hand up that wants to? Come on up please. - My name is Ralph Tillman. I live in White Bear Township and I brought my tax statement with me and I have a question about the tax amounts for the school district. There's an A that is described as voter approved levies and there's a B, other local levies. What's the other local levies?
And it's a significant amount of money. On my statement it's $580 and there's no explanation on the tax bill at all of what that is or where it even came from. - [Board Member] Are they school related? - [Chair Arcand] I don't know if Andi or Tim if you want to address it or if you want to visit with one of our finance folks, we'd be happy to do that. - Okay, well, - [Chair Arcand] The voter approved are the ones that go to the, there's a ballot question and then there's other categories that aren't voter approved.
They're just part of the way Minnesota has created the school finance system, so not all of it is voter approved. Some of it is state aid, some of it is levy and sometimes there's a share with different categories. So there's a variety of categories that make up the other. - But do they all pertain to the school district? - [Chair Arcand] In in that category, yeah. Under the school district category, yes. - So if I add up A and B, A is $648 and B is $580, that ends up to be $1,228.
If I turn this over and look at the property tax for Ramsey County, it's $1,068. And I'm thinking, Ramsey County has a whole lot bigger expense and budget than the school district. How can the levies for the school district be greater than Ramsey County? How can that happen? Anybody have an answer? Nobody has an answer. We ought to have more meetings then if you can't answer that. I agree with this person that was just up here.
Our expenses for the school district are racing out of control. We have school resource officers, we have people working in the cafeteria, we have janitors and bus drivers, we have a really big employment budget and it ought to be looked at. Some of this stuff is getting out of hand. One other comment about the school district, we paid a ton of money to expand the White Bear Lake area high school. We never had an opportunity to go there
for an open house and see where our money went. I never saw that. We ought to have something in the White Bear Press that says, "Hey, we're gonna have an open house for taxpayers that come in on a Saturday and there'll be staff members here to show you what was built and what our high school looks like." No, we never had that. That's an oversight. - We did have open houses related so the community to come and see. - Oh, I must have missed it then.
- We had lots of them. - Yeah, you can always reach out and you know, we'd be happy to show you. - Okay, well, is there anybody that can look at these numbers? You can? Okay. - [Board Member] Thank you. - Do we have any other people who wanna comment in public forum for the levy? Yes, come on up. - Hi, my name's Michelle Casprizen. My kids all went to White Bear Lake, graduated from the school system, did fine, did great for their schooling. But I see expansion on buildings
and changes to restrooms so that instead of just having a men's and women's restroom they can go into, now we have a whole new forum for how they lay out even in this building that is unnecessary. I mean, the expending is on things that are just cranking up the cost and all materials, construction is expensive and it's understood. But where are we getting the controls on what we're spending
and how we're spending it, what we're spending it on. Yes, it's important to pay our teachers, that we have good teachers to educate our children so that they're successful in life. And it does take reasonable facilities, but the new White Bear Lake High School, it looks like a college campus. It's huge. I don't know where the change came in the handful of years since my kids graduated that resulted in the need for that large an expansion.
I'm not sure if it was covered somewhere in a previous meeting, but I will say that it seems like our spending is going out of proportion and a lot of it is to construction. I mean, updating buildings, that's fine. Maintenance of buildings, it's important. Keep your buildings in good shape. But the massive renovation and expansion for the high school and some of these other changes in the building
seems like somebody thinks they just have a unlimited budget to go after and build whatever they want. And it just doesn't seem it's fair to the taxpayers that these projects are being built and we're not really having a say in like where the spending for that is going and the choices on what you're doing to expand and how you're spending our money. I would say spend it on textbooks, spend it on teachers and have enough facilities.
But I look at what was done and it just feels over the top. And that's all I would have to add. I just feel like, my taxes went up, 17% his went up 16, mine went up 17 and a good chunk of it came from the school levy taxes. So probably close to not quite 50%, but close to it. The other tax increases were not nearly as hefty.
They weren't enough to warrant actually going down because they seemed like a minor amount that would've been attributable to inflation. This seems significant. And that's all I have. Thank you. - Thank you. Yes, Ms. Bradfield. - Hi Rebecca Bradfield. I'm gonna try to not repeat some of the things earlier with finances, but I will echo what they've said. I've definitely seen a lot of things that were poor choices that have led to where we're at with these taxes. One thing I've consistently heard complaints about is transportation costs. And it kind of seems like common sense when we moved transportation out
of a central location in the district, that it was gonna cost us more to take students everywhere. And when we chose to put an extra elementary school in Hugo instead of a middle school, so now we're busing kids that pretty much live by Central all the way over to Mariner or kids on the far north end of the district have to come into downtown White Bear. It just doesn't make sense. And I really, I will reiterate what I said earlier with the budget piece. Like you can't pass a budget that has a deficit and you can't expect the taxpayers
to have bottomless pockets. We don't. And as much as they wanna say that, you know, things aren't keeping up with inflation, none of us have paychecks keeping up with inflation. And I do understand that the school district doesn't have control over the valuation, but I don't think spending a hundred percent of a bond is a responsible thing to do in this economy. So going forward, I think it's very wise of all of you to be watching how that money is being spent,
especially on these bigger projects. It's really easy with the volume of invoices going through. It's probably slowed down a little bit as some of those projects have completed, but to be looking, where's the money really going? Is it some silly furniture that nobody's really gonna use? Is it, you know, and I don't know, like the cafe in the high school, I looked at their prices and I was like, "Who's subsidizing that?" Because they're obviously not able to pay for the space with what they're doing. So just think of what really matters. I think we need to get the budget back in check
where more of that is going into the classroom because it's not. There's so much that doesn't make it to the classroom and then the teachers are asking parents for money on top of our taxes. And in my case, I'm paying tuition on top of taxes. So keep that in mind. We don't need to spend all of it. People are getting priced outta their homes because their taxes are getting too high. And that's not fair. And it's not a number of students in the district availability. I've watched the trend, we're still a net exporter for open enrollment just for public schools.
That doesn't even include the number of kids choosing non-public options. So as much as the presentations say otherwise, I would really encourage you to dig for the data yourself. - Thank you. Any other comments from the public? Yes, come on up. - Hi, Nathan Durkas. So I just wanna echo some of the things I heard others say. You know, I love White Bear Lake. I think it's great. It's my family's, you know, best community in Minnesota from our opinion. And we want to support the schools.
We really want to support the schools. But at the same time, you know, our property taxes are going up 15% and it makes it really, really hard to, you know, continue to be part of the community and be part of this and see children go through the school system. So just wanna ask you guys to please be very, very thoughtful about the budget, very thoughtful where the money's going, and save where you can. You know, this whole year, the last five years
through my work, through my budget at work, I'm constantly having to chip away, chip away, chip away. It's awful. I know it is. But you know, to get some of the kind of increases you guys are being able to get or are being proposed, I'd love that for my personal work budget. And I want to help support White Bear Lake, but please be thoughtful about where we can save, where we can reduce the tax burden on us. - Thank you. Yes. - Evening board, I'm Tim Klecker,
wasn't intending to speak but a lot of comments. I just wanted to weigh in a little bit if I could to just share. The concept of budgeting isn't that difficult. There's what comes in, there's where it goes and there's what you're left over with. And if you're not happy with that last one, you have to either increase what comes in or decrease what goes out. I know I'm making that sound super simple and I know budgets are much more complicated than that. But the basic premise and understanding is if we don't have it and we're not happy with where it goes, we have to make tough choices.
We have to have tough conversations or we have to figure out how to increase the money. You would all all know better than most of us as to how we can increase money. Is it enrollment? Where are the enrollment numbers? Which I guess leads to kind of the other question of what's the return on investment. One of those returns on investment is student output, performance, GPA scores, taking us into that academic field of the conversation as well. You know, we spent a lot of money to build a new Viking stadium,
but we have not yet brought home a Super Bowl. So just because we create a new facility that's nice and shiny and flashy doesn't necessarily guarantee we're going to increase the performance of what happens within those buildings. And while I appreciate the upkeep of the facilities and the offerings to the students and to the teachers to do their job, I'm just curious when the return on investment will start to manifest at a slightly faster rate. And I think that's one of the things that we keep coming back here month after month and asking those questions, looking at the goals,
trying to see the trends on where all of those different performances lie. I have a feeling if we were to see some of those trends going up in exchange, we would have a little less tension when it comes to seeing those increases because we would see in exchange, here's what we're getting. And I think that's what a lot of people may be at the core are frustrated about. I don't see what I'm getting on the other side of what I'm giving. So when it comes to what the responsibility is before all of you, which again, I don't envy any of you the choice, I know it's difficult, but those are kind of probably the approaches
that many people are thinking, the return on the investment and the overall impact that it's having on the community, because the output of the school does reflect the community, reflects the students, the families. And the families that we say we wanted to be a destination district and attract people, it's kind of difficult to do that. One, when taxes are higher, but two, when some of those scores are not very favorable and they can go to a neighboring school system at higher proficiencies and decide to move there instead because their students are gonna get a higher impact. So wherever we increase the outputs, I would just encourage,
try to aim for both. Try to aim for more fiscal responsibility, but then better outcomes for those students and those families and overall, the community. - Thank you very much. Anybody else who would like to speak? Okay, so we're gonna close the public portion of this, I believe. Is that what gonna do? This is discussion item D1. Is there any questions by the board members? We can bring that open now? Any questions? Yes, Mr. Skaar? - Well I just want to thank the speakers that came up because I agree that there is a spending issue
and I think, you know, since April I've asked about, you know, when we did the referendum, we had four goals that the referendum was supposed to do. One was to address projected enrollment growth throughout the district. That didn't happen, which that enrollment translates into less revenue. So now we have a bigger cost infrastructure to support with less enrollment and we still don't know why we didn't have that enrollment growth.
Where did the those 20% of students go? Do we have an answer for that? And I haven't gotten an answer since April. Provide safe, secure, and healthy learning environments for all students through investments in our aging facilities and infrastructure. Yes, I believe that that has taken place. But you know, our enrollment procedures at the high school compromised any safety and security and I still haven't heard what we have done to mitigate that risk.
Increase opportunities for students by creating a single unified grade 9-12 high school. We have a beautiful high school and you know, we punched that one. We did a great job on that. Now I think it used what? 70% of the referendum went to the high school. I read that, I didn't get it from the district, but I think it was 266 million, went to the high school. And create flexibility, design learning spaces to support student centered instruction.
And we did that as well. I believe if you've taken a tour of any of the facilities and seen the renovations, we've done that. But the first two, we didn't. And I think we have a potential issue here where we have built this infrastructure to support 10,000 students, which is our revenue base, and we're not there yet. So what happened? What are we doing where we're losing these students? Those would be my question? - [Chair Arcand] Do you have other questions for Mr. Wald? - I do, if you can go back to the chart that has inflation
where we're underfunding, right there. So I don't know if you've ever heard of Ken Wolf or Bob Fallon, but they're experts in education finance in Minnesota. Now, when they looked, I asked them to look at our numbers last year and when they looked at our numbers, this is a 20 year, this is 2023. When they looked at our numbers, and I'll give you this because you know, I'd like the school district to validate or to refute this.
The combined revenue increase over the 20 year period increased 4.43%. And that was over the CPI by 1.48%, which is much different than what this is saying. Our total funding over the last 10 years versus inflation combined revenue increased 5.56% per year over the CPI by 3%. And then per pupil funding versus inflation, again, this is 2013 to 2023.
Combined revenue increased 4.92% per year over the CPI by 2.36%. So their numbers are different. And really, what they're saying is our budget has kept up with the CPI. So I'm curious, you know, - The point I was trying to make was that the state's inability or unwillingness to fund education at the rate of inflation has put additional responsibility
and pressure on local property taxes. Now, the numbers you gave I don't have in front of me and they may or may not be accurate, but that gap is what puts pressure on property taxes. - [Mr. Skaar] Yeah, and I think what these experts are saying is they don't see that gap. - Well, the numbers he has there, I strongly doubt represent state funding. That doesn't sound accurate at all. - Well, these are two noted experts on it, but I'll give you the information. - Yeah, well it just doesn't sound accurate.
I'd be happy to look at it. - And I think second, the other thing I wanted to add is, you know, I've asked for an operational audit of the district, which is different than a financial audit. Financial audit just means you're keeping score in the right categories. And operational audit does a dive into efficiencies and effectiveness of the procedures and the policies that have been adopted by the school district. And that's something that I think that we need,
especially if we're gonna ask taxpayers for increases in levies and so forth. We have to have a baseline that the stakeholders know that our baseline is strong, that we're spending in the right buckets and we're efficient and effective in our budgeting. I think that would be something that would be good. And I want to just thank you for a complete presentation as well. - Okay, thank you. - Other questions? Yes, Ms. Thompson? - I don't have a question, but just a comment based on that.
I just attended the MSBA Delegate Convention this weekend, and our guest speaker was Dr. Lawrence R. Jacobs. And Dr. Jacobs is one of Minnesota's leading political annalist and a nationally recognized scholar on elections, governors and public policy. As the director of the Center for the Study on politics and governance at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey School, he provides non-partisan insight on how political decisions shape public institutions and communities, widely sought to speak
to media policy makers, civic organizations. He is a very well renowned individual and he presented in his presentation, when he was asked to look into the Minnesota State's mandates that are mandated on our schools. And when he looked from 2000 to 2025, he didn't even know what to say. He thought it was gonna be bad, but he did not expect it to be as bad as it is. So it went from, let's see, it says approximate number of mandates in 2000 was just around the 30 mark
to today we are at over 70. Like it went off of his chart, mandates that we are mandated. Could you explain what those mandates due to our district, when they're not funded, which they are most definitely not funded. When they're mandated, they tell us we have to do it, but they don't give us the money. - Well, special ed's a great example of that, but there's also the unemployment bill that was passed a few years ago, that unemployment for hourly school workers in the summer is a significant expense.
And the paid Family Medical leave Act is another unfunded mandate that's putting significant pressure on our school district budget. So as these continue to mount, you know, we have to squeeze so much of what we spend our money on is statutorily required. And so, you know, it just continues to put pressure on important things that we do. - And if you could talk a little bit more on how special education is not funded, but we are mandated
and we want to provide those services to our students who are in special education. - Sure, at both the federal and the state level, there are mandates for special education services. We fulfill those diligently, we have outstanding teams of people who do it. And some of our students have really significant needs and we meet them every day in our schools. And really, our teachers and our paraprofessionals who are in those classrooms are heroes. And they're the most important people in the school district
to those students and families. So when they're funded at 50% and that's just an increase to 50% recently, you know, it puts pressure on the general fund. - Because that's where we have to pull in order to meet those expectations. So we pull out of our general fund in order to make sure we're able to pay for our special education needs. That's just one example of a mandate. There's transportation, there's all kinds of things that we can to discuss on that. - And before that, there was a decrease in the special ed transportation funding.
So we'll get less revenue from the state for special ed transportation. - And then since 2019, when we passed the bond referendum, which is only to be used on construction, it is not used on classroom funds or any of the other needs that we have. It's just for construction. And our voters in our community passed that with pretty good numbers that they wanted this to happen. What happened after 2019 that may have impacted the projected enrollment numbers?
- Yeah, well, yeah, COVID. - I'm just not sure if anybody knows what that thing was called. - COVID had a significant impact on public education across the nation, certainly across Minnesota. And so that kind of changed the game. - Well, the numbers were already declining in the couple millions around that time of students across the nation. This is not just a thing for only our district. School districts across the nation are feeling this impact. And we're feeling a little bit of that enrollment decline
around that time as there's some rhetoric about what public education is and is not that had started to impact people removing their kids out of public schools and deciding to do homeschooling or whatever they feel is best for their families, which is completely understandable. Everybody has the right to do that for their children in whatever manner they feel is best for their families. And we're currently here in even more of that now, which is also then causing people to not have faith in
what our public schools do and those educators that are highly qualified in our schools to ensure that all of our students in our community get the equal opportunity to an education. I don't know if that's a question. I guess it's just kind of a statement. - Let me remind you that we're talking about the proposed 25 payable 26 levies, so making sure we're not wandering too far away. - No, we were asked why the enrollment numbers were down, so I am just addressing some of the reasons that would've led to that. - Okay. Other questions?
Ms. Streiff Oji. - Have you seen the information that Dan Skaar, board member, was referring to? So I wanna one, thank you for the presentation. Thank you for sharing information with us. And I feel like it's very thorough. I feel like, I was looking at the website, we have information on all the facilities updates, all kinds of information on the website. I think all of the audit information is in all of the school board packets. I wanna thank you and also Andi,
and I wanna apologize for the insinuation that your numbers are inaccurate. - [Mr. Skaar] Could I just address that? I didn't insinuate that their numbers are inaccurate. - You said that they don't seem right. You insinuated. (gavel banging) - I was just saying these guys came up with different numbers. We should look into it. - One at a time. One at a time. (gavel banging) Okay, so, have you finished? - Well, I was just saying, I wasn't insinuating that the numbers were incorrect. I think looking at numbers can be different.
- [Chair Arcand] One at a time. - Exactly, one at a time, but we stopped others and allowed somebody else to talk when someone else was already talking. So I'm just making sure that we're gonna put the fair thing across the board for all of us. - Okay, I just wanna make sure. When we're all talking, we can't hear. And I know, Ms. Daniels. - Yeah, I wanna talk a little bit about special education. I spent four years in special education, practiced as a teacher, as a coordinator, as the director.
And you're right, Tim, our people in this district and across the country, do yeoman's work to provide those mandated and necessary services. And when IDEA came in and I was around when 94 142 came in, in the seventies when I first started practicing special education, that was the first federal law. And all of this was supposed to be funded by the federal government at 40%. And as we know, it's been about 13, 14, 15%. So I don't think the burden is on the state always.
It's on also federal government that has these wonderful mandates that are necessary and should include all of our citizens and all of our people. And so, you know, it's expensive. It's very expensive. As you said, we have complex students. We have many categories of students that need that level playing field. So I just wanna say, I mean, we provide terrific services and for anyone to imply other words or to be doubtful about,
I think the way we spend our money, which I know we've worked so hard across the district, not only with the building fund, but the teacher funding, the supplies, the curriculum. We spend hours and hours and hours talking about those things. Looking and turning over leaves, where can we cut but not disparage or cut services for students and make sure we've got everybody in our mind at all times. So I wanna thank you too, and I know a lot of times people do
imply that there's doubt about the way we're handling our finances. I understand. I'm a tax paying citizen. Our taxes went up. I know what you're talking about when people say it's difficult. I have millennial children and only, well, they haven't all been able to buy houses because it's difficult. It's hard. I understand. But I wanna say it's not because we're not looking at budgets and we're not turning over every leaf. It's not that we're not making difficult decisions, we are. And I appreciate what some of the people up here had said,
but we don't have to always imply that there's doubt about the way we're handling our finances or there's something going on that isn't, I don't know, correct or legal. But I agree, we'll always try to do better. We'll try to do better with budgets and we'll try to do better with students. We always do. - Okay. Thank you. Ms. Thompson, I didn't mean to cut you off. Do you have anything else? I just wanna make sure everybody could hear and people were starting to talk over each other. - Well, it was Ms. Streiff Oji
that was stopped from speaking. So I was just noting that. - Okay, Ms. Streiff Oji, do you have anything else? - I'm good. - [Chair Arcand] I didn't mean to cut you off. I have one question and I'm gonna ask it now. So I know that the tax levy about 25% of our revenue that we earn. And I know that I keep hearing that if we had more students, would that reduce our tax levy? Because also, with more students comes more cost. How does that affect the levy?
- Yeah, that's true. More students would increase the, yeah, the local operating levy portion of it that's based on enrollment. - Okay. Anything else? Thank you Mr. Wald for presenting tonight and thank you everybody for coming. If I may, I'd like to then go back to the agenda and go to the superintendent's report. Dr. K. - All right, thank you Chair Arcand, members of the board. So I'm gonna start off my report tonight with an update on our high school's performing arts program.
Our recent fall musical, Cinderella, has received multiple accolades through the Hennepin Theater Trust Spotlight Awards program. As a result of this recognition, the cast, along with members of the crew and pit orchestra, will have the incredible opportunity to perform on the state stage in June. Congratulations to the students and staff who made this excellent production possible. And this year's musical was also a major success in attendance, drawing nearly 4,000 students, staff, family, and community members over the course of its six performances. This is the highest attendance we have ever recorded
for a fall musical and was made possible by the new performing arts center at the high school. So again, thank you to our community for that. I am pleased to share that Otter Lake Elementary principal Angie Nelson was recently honored with the East Suburban Division Leadership Award by the Minnesota Elementary School Principals Association. Principal Nelson has served at Otter Lake since 2023 and previously served in principal and associate principal roles at White Bear Lake Area High School. Congratulations to Ange on this well-deserved distinction. The winter issue
of the district's community education catalog is scheduled to arrive in residence mailboxes in December. The booklet also contains district wide highlights in the Bear's Bulletin and excerpts from the 2025 annual update covering student achievement, finance and district profile information. Printed copies of the full annual update will be available at school buildings and at the district service center in January. Enrollment for the 26-27 school year opens next Monday, December 15th. Enrollment packets were mailed to incoming kindergarten families last week.
The packets include elementary guides, Spanish dual immersion information and elementary experiences, bookmarks in English, Spanish, and Hmong. And once students are officially enrolled at any of our schools, they will receive a kindergarten welcome packet including a special "I'm a Bear" T-shirt. And finally a look ahead, we hope that students and staff members enjoy themselves during the upcoming winter break. School will not be in session from December 24th through January 2nd. And we look forward to welcoming students back on Monday, January 5th.
And speaking of January, we're excited to welcome families into our schools for welcome to White Bear Activities. Our elementary schools will host open house tours for fall 2026 kindergarten families during the first full week of January. And our middle and high school teams will welcome this year's fifth graders and eighth graders as they prepare for their transition into sixth and ninth grade next fall. And details can be found on the district's website. Okay, that's my report. - All right, thank you. - Thank you.
- I'm just trying to get a handle. Oh, it looks like we will be on discussion item D2. This will be the first reading of school board policies 402. 423 and 611. Do we have any questions on those policies? Any questions? Give us a minute. Any further questions. These are just to let you know that these will be bringing forward. These policies will come back on 12th to the agenda for discussion and approval. So these will be coming back and so we'll see these again.
I would like now to go to operational items E1: Action on the Certification of the 2025 Payable 2026 Property Tax Levy in the amount of 73 million is it? - Yeah. - 598,400. Mr. Wald. - Thank you Chair Arcand, members of the board, the school board approved the preliminary tax levy on September 22nd, 2025. Earlier this evening, we met the requirement for the public hearing
and the final step in the tax levy process is for the school board to certify the final levy amounts. The recommendation is to approve the certification of the final 2025 payable 2026 property tax levy in the amount of $73,598,400. - [Chair Arcand] Can I get a motion to approve that levy? - So moved - By Thompson. I mean Daniels. Can I get a second? - Second. - Second by Thompson. Now we have discussion. Any further discussion? Mr. Skaar? - I would like to add to that, that the levy,
what you're proposing is subject to an operational audit that would be conducted next year. - [Chair Arcand] You're trying to amend the motion? - Yes. - Do we have a second to amend the motion? Do we have a second to amend the motion? Do we have a second to amend the motion? Okay, the amendment did not pass. We're back to the original amendment to approve the payable and property tax levy the amount. Any other questions? - Could I ask a, - Yes. - When we pay for things like that, that's an additional cost to the taxpayers
and to us in order to have that audit happen, correct? - Yeah, and unfortunately we don't have that on the discussion right now because that did not pass, so that can be taken up offline? 'Cause right now we're just looking at the levy without that. So any other questions about the operational certification of the 2025 payable 2026 payable property tax levy? Any other questions? Hearing none, this will be a roll call vote. Will the clerk please call the roll? - Skaar? - No. - Streiff Oji? - Yes. Aye.
- Thompson? - Aye. - Arcand? - Aye. - Daniels? - Aye. - Okay, motion passes four to one. Next on the agenda is the action on accepting the Brosious grants. Dr. K. - All right, thank you. Chair Arcand, members of the board. So this will actually be action on acceptance of Brosious grants and Ryan Art grants White Bear Lake area Educational Foundation has forwarded 10 Brosious teaching grants and six Ryan Art grants to me and would request that these grants be formally accepted
by the board. As part of their internal process, prior to consideration of any proposal, the foundation reviews the proposal with our administration and we confirm that proposals are consistent with our curriculum and if technology is used, consistent with our technology plan. So the recommended action before you is to accept the 10 Brosious teaching grants and six Ryan Art grants from the White Bear Lake area Educational Foundation as shown in the attached material in the board packet, in the total amount of $21,778 and 75 cents.
So then the grants are outlined in the packet. So I'm not gonna read through those. You had the chance to do that and I just want to just comment again, thank the, every time we have these types of things coming for us, just a great deal of gratitude for our foundation and the projects that they fund. - [Chair Arcand] Can I get a motion to accept and approve those grants? - So moved - By Ms. Thompson. - Can I get a second? - Second. - [Chair Arcand] Second by Mr. Skaar. Any further discussion? - Just wanna congratulate the people
that received the grants. They did work to fill out the applications and thoughtful questions and requests, so congratulations. - Okay. Any other questions or comments? All right, this will be a roll call vote. I'll ask the clerk to call the roll - Skaar? - Aye. - Streiff Oji? - Aye. - Thompson? - Aye. - Arcand? - Aye. - Daniels? - Aye. - Okay. They've been approved. Carried. Next on our agenda is operational item E3,
Action on the Tentative Agreement. 2025-27 Fiscal Year's International Union of Operating Engineers Local Number 70. I wanna make sure I get it all in there. Mr. Mons. - Well done and good evening. So today I'm here to ask the board to approve the tentative agreement with Local 70, our custodial group. And I just wanna say thank you both to the team that bargained on behalf of our custodians
and also to our team with the district. We put in a lot of time there, had a collaborative process that we feel really good about and the settlement does fall within the parameters that I've discussed with the board. - [Chair Arcand] Okay, can I get a motion to approve the agreement. - So moved. - Okay, Ms. Daniels. Second by Streiff Oji. Any discussion? - I just have one question. - Yes. Mr. Skaar. Is this the last agreement? - No, it's not. We still have several collectively bargained agreements
to bring to the board. - Alright, well thank you. - Absolutely. Thank you. - [Chair Arcand] Okay, any further? Okay, hearing none, this will be a roll call vote. Will the clerk please call the roll - Skaar? - Yes. - Streiff Oji? - Aye. - Thompson? - Aye. - Arcand? - Aye. - Daniels? - Aye. - Okay, carries. All right, we're gonna go to E4, Action on School Board Policies 305, 306, 608, 722. Normally when we do this, we approve them as a total package.
So first thing I want to ask, can we get a motion to approve the policies? - So moved. - By Thompson. Second? - Second. - By Streiff Oji. Now open for discussion and if you have something, if you wanna look at, if you could tell us the page and the number of what you're looking at. Any questions? Hearing none. I'll close discussion. This will be a voice vote. All in favor of accepting those say aye. - Aye. - Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. All right, I think we hit everything earlier
when we kind of move things around from the meeting. So right now we have the board forum and now it's time for the board forum. It's an opportunity for board members to update the school board and the public on committee work, which they have engaged in the official capacity as board members and create awareness of upcoming district and partnership events. Are there any board members that would like to share about your committee work? Yes, Ms. Streiff Oji. - I just wanted to speak to a presentation that I saw
by Dr. Allison Gillespie and Cynthia Mueller that came at the Association of Metropolitan School District's Conference, the MSBA and Brightwork's annual conference. The theme was: Sharper Focus for Stronger Outcomes. I was very impressed with the presentation that you both gave on how we are, having been in education for 35 years, I understand the complexities when we include all students and educating all students and making sure all of their needs are met. And seeing the presentation was on really honing in
and focusing on what's really important and seeing the plan in place here in White Bear Lake that includes professional growth and development, standards based learning framework and collaborative leadership combined as they work together really honing in on principal level leadership and educating the administrators to lead in this work as a district wide focus on high academic achievement. And focusing our efforts right down to the goals of both administrators, our district goals,
administrators and educators. So I wanna thank you and your team for the daily work and being in here just doing what's really hard and complex work every day to meet the needs of every student. It is so appreciated and I see it in the students and families. I attended Cinderella, it was fabulous, just spectacular performance. I also attended the Penguin Project who had a performance at the school district this last year. They'll be doing it again this next year. They had nothing but great things to say about the district support, technology.
Never felt like they were intruding on the district and really felt welcomed in our spaces. And I wanna wish a happy holiday to all of our students and families and our educators that work every day tirelessly to meet the needs of our students. - [Chair Arcand] Thank you. Anything else? - Yes, I had the opportunity to attend the MSBA's Delegate Convention. This is a two day convention that happens every year. School board members are usually nominated to be at this event in order to be able to be there.
And I, along with about roughly 111 other school board members, all gave up our weekend to advocate for resolutions that then the MSBA will bring to the legislature and advocate for. If the resolution passes, it has to pass by the members that are there voting on it. And so this year we had 36 resolutions. These resolutions come in, they're presented, they can be presented by a superintendent of a district,
other members of the district, or by school board members themselves. So we had 36 resolutions that were given in this 354 page book that you get, that you have to go through and study and ensure that when you're there you're prepared to advocate for your school districts. I, along with members of our local community, Still Water, Forest Lake members, all were there together advocating for our students. And it was an honor to be there again this year.
And I echo the end of the year, holidays, celebrations to our staff and students in any manner that they celebrate. - Thank you. - Everything's been said. - I wanna talk about, on Thursday, I have the opportunity to attend the Ramsey County League of Local Government's annual dinner. This'll be at the Keller Grill on Thursday and I'm really excited that Joe Beckman will be our guest speaker talking there,
so I'm really excited to hear what he has to say. And after hearing what I heard today, I think many of us would like his message. He's talking about how we have to communicate and work together and listen and work together as a group. And so I'll be going to that dinner and just for the record, I paid the fee to go there outta my own pocket. That doesn't come out of the school district. So if everybody thinks that I'm riding on the school districts, I'm not and I would pay it because it's a worthwhile opportunity. Those of you don't know, Ramsey County League of Local Governments allows members from school districts,
municipalities, the water district to come together and network. And so it's all those municipalities from Ramsey County that come together and I learn a lot 'cause I think I know something about the school district. Then I hear a lot of how the water district is working and the cities are working together. So that'd be exciting, I'd be happy to go. Anything else? All right, well it looks like, very well we've gotten to the part of the adjournment. Can I get a motion to adjourn?
- So moved. - Okay, by Ms. Daniels. Can I get a second? - Second. - By Ms. Thompson. All in favor to adjourn, say aye. - Aye. - Opposed, same sign. Congratulations, we're now adjourned. (gavel banging)