- [Scott] Clerk, please call the roll. - Skaar. - Here - Streiff Oji. - Here. - Thompson. - Here. - Arcand. - Here. - Beloyed. - Here. - Daniels, here. Ellison. - Here. - All right, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. - [All] I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. - We have before us an agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda? - So moved.
- So moved by Beloyed. Is there a second? - Second. - Second, oh. - Second by Ms. Thompson. Discussion? Yes, Mr. Skaar. - So I would like to make a motion that on the public forum, since we don't livestream that, that we summarize the public forum in the meeting minutes. And then any questions that the public has that we log those so that the board can follow up on those questions to make sure that they're answered. - Okay, we have a motion to amend and summarize the public forum.
Do I have a second? Do I have a second? Do I have a second? Okay, that fails. Maybe we can also still look at it and see about making sure we get something in there. - Yeah, point of clarification. I think that that requires a policy change. - We'll look into it. Okay, any other discussion? - Do you want to move the motion, sir? - That would come. Can you get this done first? - Those came in. - Yeah, I know I missed it. - Yeah. - All right. All in favor say aye. - Aye. - Aye. - Opposed, same sign. Okay, it carries 7-0. All right.
I missed an agenda item. We're gonna also do our mission statement for Ms. Daniels. - The mission of the White Bear Lake School District, the community at the forefront of educational excellence, honoring our legacy and courageously building the future, is to ensure each student realizes their unique talents and abilities, makes meaningful contributions with local and global impact through a vital system distinguished by. Students who design and create their own future.
A culture that respects diverse people and ideas. Safe, nurturing, and inspiring experiences. Exceptional staff and families committed to student success. Abundant and engaged community partners. - Thank you. 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. Thank you for everything you've contributed to us.
Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda? - So moved. - By Ms. Ellison. Is there a second? - Second. - Second, all right. By Ms. Daniels. Okay, point for discussion, Mr. Skaar. - I don't know whether I need to pull the payment of invoices off of the consent agenda. I just have a couple of questions on it. - Okay, you just wanna ask them now while we're in discussion of it? - It's up to you. - Sure, go ahead. - So, you know, one of the things is, is that on our last audit, we had a double payment that we didn't detect,
staff didn't detect. I think it was $545,000, something like that and change. So when I look at the invoice register, and I think I've asked this question before, you know, there's duplicates, you know, with the exact same amount and same date and so forth. They're probably, you know, okay. But my question is, what did we do with our internal controls? I'm assuming everybody knows internal controls are to help safeguard our assets
and our payments and so forth. So we don't do these things again. So what did we do to assure the board and the public that we don't have double payments in this invoice register or any of the invoice registers that we're paying? - [Scott] Okay. I think Ms. Johnson's gonna come up and talk to us. Welcome. - Thank you. We are under, we are in the process of looking at our transactions over the last year. And in our accounts payable process,
every transaction does get reviewed. And so, if there is a duplicate, it is looked, everyone would be looked at. And it wouldn't actually be a duplicate, it would be an intentional payment of invoice. And so it may look like a duplicate, for example, the way that this shows up is perhaps it's a split code, like it might be split between two different departments. And so it might be a $20 payment split between two different budget codes,
and it would look like a $10 payment and a $10 payment with the same exact check number and date. - Did we do anything to our disbursement or payable system to trigger like, this looks unusual, this could be a double payment, therefore, it kicks out for a supervisory review? In our system, in the payables. Have we automated that or are we still, or do we rely on humans? - We don't have programmers. Like that's not an internal software. So we're not able to program our software in that way.
It's a purchase software. And so it does have an automatic trigger that if a invoice number is entered in a second or in a duplicate, or if a duplicate invoice number is entered, then it will trigger it. But it's not able to like elevate that to a higher hierarchy. That's not a like a programming thing that we're able to do. - Okay. But we don't know whether the system has that capability or not. - [Andi] It does not.
- What system is it? - It's Skyward. It's a school district specific. - Okay. The other question I had was, you know, I've been tracking these. It'll be quick. - Yes, sir. - I've been tracking the, you know, the solar leasing costs. And we have these Ideal Energies, and then I saw Anchor Solar Investments, so it kind of threw me for a loop. So is that different? That's a different company then? - [Andi] Each individual agreement that we have has a different name. So like each array that we have,
each solar array has a different name. And so some of them are under solar, under Anchor, some are under Ideal. - Are they different vendors? - Yeah. - Oh. So each school may have a different vendor for. - Correct, and each year, each time we have like summer 2001 or 2021, summer 2022, yeah, for tax purposes, it's a different vendor for them. - Oh, for their tax purposes? - Correct. Because they get an ITC, an investment tax credit on this. - Yeah, I don't know. - Yeah, that's how that works.
- But we just get a different W-9. - Yeah, that's how they make the numbers work. - Sure. - All right, thank you. - Yeah. - [Scott] Anything else? Yes. - I just wanted to- - Ms. Ellison. - Jessica] Yeah, I just wanted to add a brief correction to the consent agenda. And it's a small thing. For in the minutes from the meeting on May 18th, I left at 7:04 to go attend my senior's band concert. And so all of the votes afterward that have my name in it, my name needs to be struck. - [Scott] Okay. - [Kathleen] Apologies.
- No, it happens. - Yeah. - So I just wanted make sure. - Thank you. - All right. - So that's on page 11 and 12 of the board packet. - [Kathleen] Thank you for that. - Okay. So we will strike those in the consent agenda in the minutes. - [Jessica] Thank you. - Any further discussion? All right, if there's no further discussion, this will be a roll call vote. I'll ask the clerk to call the roll - [Kathleen] Skaar. - [Daniel] Aye. - Streiff Oji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye. - [Kathleen] Daniels, aye. Ellison. - Aye.
- Okay, motion carries. (gavel thuds) Okay, now it's time for our public forum portion of the meeting. Public forum allows for up to three minutes per speaker. We have three requests submitted to speak tonight. And with one minute remaining, you'll see an orange card and it would be held up with 30 seconds. You'll see a yellow card. At the end of three minutes, we'll tap the gavel and let you know your time is up. 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. Speakers will be called to the microphone and recognized one at a time. Only those individuals who have been recognized may be allowed to speak. Members of the audience may not engage in conduct that disrupts any part of the school board meeting, or otherwise impedes the school board's ability to conduct conduct business. Item C1, Student Recognition. Dr. K. - All right, thank you Chair Arcand, members of the board. Tonight we proudly celebrate the achievements of boys and girls track,
boys and girls track and field team members and girls and boys golf team members, the girls flag football team, Escape the Vape state video contest winners, and Make48 national invention contest participants. Congratulations to each of you. We also extend a sincere gratitude to the dedicated staff and support of family members who played a vital role in these state and national successes. Please join us in watching a video highlighting their accomplishments. Go Bears. (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues)
(upbeat music continues) (attendees applauding) - [Scott] All right. Next, we're gonna go to informational items C2, Superintendent Report. - All right, thank you again, Chair Arcand. Over the last couple of weeks, schools throughout the district have celebrated the end of successful school year and honor students who are moving on to the next chapter. White Bear Students who completed programs at White Bear Lake Area High School, the Area Learning Center, or the Transition Education Center were celebrated in ceremonies last week. Congratulations to our students
and to the staff and family members who supported them along the way. To celebrate our class of 2026, we asked graduates to share what being a White Bear grad means to them. Enjoy their feedback in this video. (upbeat music) - Being a White Bear graduate means finding a community that is. - Rooted in school spirit. - And shows up for each other. - Being a White Bear grad means the acronym ROAR, relationship, ownership, awareness, and respect. And for me, the strongest one that I built here was relationship with my teammates, my classmates,
and my teachers. - [Students] Being a White Bear grad means. - Learning new perspectives. - From our peers and teachers. - Within our community. - Being a White Bear grad to me means being rivals to Hill-Murray. - To be a White Bear grad means to be proud. We have so many resources to take advantage of in this school, I think the least we could do is to use them fully and to be the best ourselves we can be. - Being a White Bear grad means being better than all the other schools in Minnesota. - [Students] Being a White Bear grad means prospering friendships. - Being a White Bear grad means
supporting all the sports teams. - [Students] Being a White Bear grad means finding your place in a community. - We persevere through the thick and thin of like school life. And we accomplish something that is, you know, extraordinary and like something to look forward to, not forward to but like look back on and be proud of. - And we make lifelong friends along the way. - To be a White Bear grad is to always wear orange, black, and white. - Being a White Bear grad means to have a hometown that you get to. - Come back to and give back to. - [Students] Go Bears.
- [Students] Go Bears. - Go Bears. - [Students] Go Bears. - [Students] Go Bears. (upbeat music) - All right, congratulations again graduates. And that video will be shared out this week. All right, thank you to our retirees who represent more than 749 years of service to the district. Later this week, we will honor our retirees in person with a celebratory event as we commemorate their time in the district. Thank you for all your service to White Bear Lake Area schools and to the community. Free summer meals available for kids age teens through,
for kids and teens age 18 and younger at four district locations. The Area Learning Center, Central Middle School, Transition Education Center, and Willow Lane Elementary. There is no enrollment and no cost. The healthy meals are based on USDA nutrition guidelines. Additional information is available on the district's website. And district representatives will be back this summer at Marketfest, which runs Thursdays, June 18th through July 30th, in Downtown White Bear Lake. Stop by the district's booth for pencils, bear paw tattoos,
and conversation. Also, the district is sponsoring Marketfest on June 25th with White Bear Lake Area School Spirit Night. We'll fill 4th Street with district booth and activities. Please wear orange and join us at 6:30 for the scheduled Orange Out photo that we'll be taking. So thanks for a great year and welcome to summer. - All right, thank you. All right, we're gonna go on to discussion item 1, D1, Alternative Learning Program Name Recommendation. Mr. Wald and Jenni Sjosten.
Yeah, sorry, I'll get it. - You got it. - Okay. I just wanna start by saying it was nice to go to the graduation and hear the stories and see the kids succeed. It was full of hope when they were talking and stuff, so thank you for allowing us to be there. - [Jenni] Yeah, thank you so much for being there. - Good evening, Chair Arcand, members of the board, Dr. Kazmierczak. At the February 23rd work session, Jenni Sjosten, our assistant principal at the White Bear Lake Area Learning Center, along with Dr. Alison Gillespie and Brenton Shavers,
shared a recommendation to change an alternative learning pathway status for Area Learning Center to Alternative Learning Program. As we prepare to begin the '26-'27 school year as an ALP, we spent some time rebranding. And Ms. Sjosten led a naming committee and process for what was the, the name of ALC that is expiring to a new name for the school and rebranding for the school. So, I'll let Ms. Sjosten walk us through that process.
- Awesome. Thank you so much for. Am I close enough? - Yeah. - Okay, awesome. Thanks so much for having us. The first thing I would like to start with is just some great news that our application was accepted to shift from the ALC designation to an ALP designation. So we just got news last week of that approval, so that's really exciting. And one of the, as Mr. Wald started to share, one of the shifts necessary is that we're changing from an Area Learning Center
to an Alternative Learning Program. And really this highlights the partnership that already exists between the ALC and the high school, but it allows us a greater focus on our White Bear Lake students. So we'll still allow for open enrollment as an ALP, but because it really deepens the collaboration and partnership between an ALP and their main high school, it just allows us a greater focus on our White Bear Lake students. And so, just wanted to highlight that.
And so one of the necessary components is to change your name because we're not an Area Learning Center anymore. So it really provides an opportunity for us to look at how we define ourselves and who we want to kind of continue to evolve to be. Those of you who are at graduation, I think heard about how seriously we take our vision of students feeling safe, valued, and proud.
And I think that really shined both in what the advisors said, as well as the student speakers, and how they feel a deep sense of belonging. So really that's what we wanted to capture in our name, is kind of like who we are and what our purpose is. And so that was kind of for me, the opportunity of this to say as we make this name change, like what can we do to help us define who we are and what we strive to be every day. So the process that we underwent,
which aligns with other name changes within the district and with board policy is first generating a list of possible names. And the staff generated that list together. And then we ranked each name on a four-point scale as a staff. Each staff member could vote and say for each specific name. There was over 30 names generated. And then through that process, two names emerged as our top two contenders.
First is Manitou Campus and then the second is Atlas Campus. So I'll talk a little bit more about kind of what that process looked like. So. Oops, did I skip one? No, we're good. Okay, so all ALC students also, so once we had that list and we kind of had these two names emerge, then students were all polled and staff were polled on just those two names. And we also polled community members. And then the final step was that there was a Name Change Committee
that convened to basically seek consensus on our two options and bring it down to one option. So that's basically the process that we went through to get us to. Drum roll, dun, dun, dun, dun. Our final recommendation is White Bear Lake Area High School Manitou Campus. Okay. And the reason that we landed on this is through our conversation is that we feel that Manitou has deep roots in our community.
I think for somebody who's not from White Bear Lake, don't hate on me, I'm not from the area, but I can see the deep roots of Manitou all over town. And it speaks really I think to, the direct translation is the spirit and light force and a connection of every person who carries inherent value and purpose. And again, I think for those of you that were at graduation, you saw the unique stories that come out of the ALC. You got to hear them
and how we really try to capture their potential and tap into their inner resilience to help students get to the finish line. And that we just walk along with alongside students no matter where they are, when they come to us. If they have two credits or they're two credits shy from graduation, like we will walk alongside of them wherever they come to us. And it was really important and really awesome part of this process that the staff came up with including campus with the name.
And I think that it really demonstrates for us the partnership and connection that we already have with the main campus. And I know campus has, we had north campus and south campus before, and we're not trying to replicate that but really just to make sure that we are standing firm and the connection and collaboration that exists between an ALP and their main high school. And I really think it's an important aspect to really signify that connection
between an ALP and their main high school. So that's basically the process and why we are recommending Manitou Campus as the new name of our ALP. Are there any questions? - Thank you. Any questions? Ms. Beloyed. - [Deborah] Just one, where did Atlas come from? - So it came through the process of those 30. And I think it came through like the idea of kind of how an Atlas shows where you are in relation to the larger world. And also, it had connections
with like Atlas who holds up the world, which is what our students really connected with. So a lot of students really liked that name. One downside of that name is that they also called it Atlantis. And so, it was like Atlas and Atlantis, and we didn't want there to have any confusion on the name of our school. So some of them would say like, I really like Atlantis. No, it's Atlas. I really like Atlantis. And we're like that's not the option. So that was an interesting thing that many students did. It was just really funny. But that's kind of the origin of where Atlas was,
which we think also we had a strong connection with that as well. But we didn't feel like it had a strong connection with this area, which I think is really what spoke to the staff and students - Well, I think it's really important that the kids at the ALP do understand and feel that connection to the regular high schools. So they're not just - Yeah. - out in the wilderness somewhere, they are part of the White Bear Lake High School community. - Absolutely. - Thanks a lot. - [Scott] All right, other questions? Yes, Ms. Streiff Oji. - I just wanna, thank you. I love the name.
And I love that each person has inherent value and purpose and shine who the other night at the graduation for each student. So thank you for working on making that more, not that the partnership wasn't there, but making that connection stronger for our students and our families too. - [Jenni] Thank you. - [Scott] Mr. Skaar. - Jenni, thank you. I'm really disappointed though. Nobody asked me. I'm really good with names. But I don't think I would've- - Duly noted. Duly noted. - Okay, thank you. Maybe next time. - Hopefully, we won't be in this spot again.
If it happens, I will ask. - No, that's good. It's a great name. I don't know. Do you need an action from the board to approve the name? - No. - Okay. - [Tim] Are we required for board actions? - [Scott] No. - Well, it's endorsed. - [Jenni] Awesome, thank you. - Okay, other questions or comments? Well, thank you very much. - Thank you so much. - And keep up the good work. We're gonna go ahead add to discussion item D2. This is the first reading of school board policies 210, 515, and 605. These policies listed above will be on the July 14th agenda
or subsequent agenda for a second reading. Are there any questions? Please refer to the policy number and the page of the packet you're looking at. Yes, Ms. Beloyed. - I just have a question for the people on the Policy Committee. The change from. Sorry, the page is 79. And it is under area C, 5C. No. Sorry. Yeah, I guess it would be 5C. The amount to be earned by that school board member
under that contract or employment relationship will not exceed $20,000. That's replacing 8,000 in that fiscal year. Was there something in the statute that somebody, can somebody tell me what that was? That's just raised to that amount or that was the minimum amount? - [Christina] I believe the statute changed. - Or the maximum? - [Christina] I believe the statute changed. I don't know if Rachel's here. Through, yeah, statutory change. - [Deborah] Yeah. - [Christina] So we just align the policy with that statute change.
All right. - I could just add a little. I remember in one of my first couple years at some training, it has a lot to do with some of the districts that are out in the rural areas not having, and like maybe the school board member also is a plow driver in their community and so they plow the school parking lots 'cause there is nobody else. So I think that's really mainly what it was for, is to help those districts have people that could do those services for them but also still be a board member 'cause they don't have a lot of people
volunteering to be board members. And you know, so it was a way that. - Yeah, I just remember we voted on this a couple years ago and I think we set it at eight. And now I was just wondering if the statute was the part that was updated in. So that was it, thank you. - Okay. Mr. Skaar. - Yeah, I had the same question on that. And we're not a rural school district. I would say that we should leave it at 8,000 and not change it to 20,000. Because I think 20,000,
you could have an inherent conflict of interest with that. So I would keep it low where 8,000 is more de minimis. So I wouldn't, I think we keep it where it's at, 8,000. - [Scott] Yes, Ms. Beloyed. - Just, Chair, as clarification, the reason why we added an amount in the first place was because some of us actually worked within the schools. Myself personally I was one of the lunch ladies at Oneka and Hugo
for a period of quite a few years. I never made anything close $20,000. But basically anything that you could do was gonna be an hourly part-time kind of thing. So that was why we did it in the first place. - Yes. - I'm not opposed to 20. I'm not sure that it makes a huge difference because typically board members have not been employed by the district or anything other than something like what I did. - Yeah, Ms. Daniels. - I just have a comment.
When we did the 8,000, at that time there were a few of us that had our teaching licenses still and it was a hard, it was a very difficult time getting subs for the district. So some of us had agreed that we'd sub here and there. And I did sub about four times or five times that year. And I, you know, I don't even know what the daily rate for casual subs are anymore, but I think maybe we should. I mean, I'm okay with the 20,000 but if we wanna bring it back to the committee and discuss it,
I'm okay with the 20,000 because I think, I mean I don't think any of us maybe worked more than maybe three or four times. I think there were two or three people that subbed and that was it. But, I think we could discuss it. - [Scott] Okay. Ms. Streiff Oji. - And I would just say there it is hard to find staffing. We don't know when there will be need for that. I was just talking to someone that came, was hired as an international teacher. So I know that districts are having to go out of the box and find different ways. I'm fine with the 20,000. - [Scott] Okay.
Mr. Skaar. - Yeah, I'm more of a, maybe a little stricter on this. I don't think any board member should have any contract or employment relationship whatsoever, period. That's a clear conflict of interest, so they shouldn't have any. So I would say just eliminate the dollar amount and say that no board member should have any contract or employment relationship with the district. - [Scott] Okay. Ms. Ellison. - I would be interested in seeing exactly what the statute says, and I think we should align with the statute. And that just keeps it clean.
Then we know that we are following state law to the letter. And then we can make decisions as a board about, you know, 'cause I think we do have to approve it, all seven. Correct me, if I'm wrong. If a board member wants to work in the district, all seven board members have to approve it in person. And so that does still give us some leeway to make decisions so that if we feel like there is a conflict of interest or a problem, we still have that power.
But I just, in general, think sticking to the statute keeps it clean. - [Scott] Okay. Ms. Thompson. - It does specifically say that in the policy that the determination as to whether there's a conflict of interest exists is to be made by the school board. And any school board member who has an actual or potential conflict shall notify the school board of such conflict immediately. And the school board members shall thereafter cooperate with the school board as necessary for the school board to make its determination. So the language is already in there.
And I would be comfortable keeping it the way it is. - [Scott] Mr. Skaar. - Just one thing, you know, the statute and the laws are the minimum requirements. We can go above that and be stricter. And actually from a compliance standpoint and from an ethical standpoint, it's better to go strict and above the law on matters like this where there's a potential conflict. - Okay, can I make a comment? - [Scott] And I just wanna say I'm not sure we ever had anybody even hit the 8,000 have we? - [Board Member] Not that I'm aware of.
- Okay. Okay, I'm sorry, Ms. Daniels. - I just think because of the language of the policy, we could do case by case as Angie and and Jessica pointed out. And I think there would be a case where if people were certified and we needed subs, I mean in that particular instance, it was great to have some people step in because we had no adults that were certified to sub. And so we made, we actually named the people on the board
that were certified and that were going to do those, that work for the district. And I think it was a service to the district. And I think we, you know, I think there might be a case where we need to use it. So I don't wanna say let's not do it at all. - And what I'm hearing I think. Can I just say something? - Yeah, go ahead. - What I mean you say is that we don't want to be employing somebody in a position because of a conflict. And when I read this, I'm thinking this is for like a sub or a temporary playground person.
I don't see this as somebody who would be hired to run a building or do anything for that. These are the small substitute-type positions. I think that's what's the meaning behind it. But I can understand what you're saying is, there'd be a major conflict if we took somebody to make 20,000, they were gonna be making building decisions. That would not be appropriate. - Well, I just. - Yes, sir. - Be recognized. I find it really ironic that subbing and so forth is okay,
but when I have volunteered to evaluate the safety program here at the district, which is where I have a lot of experience or the financial controls and things like that, can't do it, right? Can't do it. And I'm not, I'm just, and I'm doing it as a- - Point of order. - As, you know, somebody- - Point of order. - Somebody that has experience to help. - Okay. - But then it's okay. You know, I just see that's a concept. - [Jessica] It's a license and a certification and an opening. We had openings for sub so. - I get it, I get it. - Should I keep it together now?
Yes. - Point of order. That is a governance. That gets into governance, what Mr. Skaar is saying. That is not our role as school board members. We are not to be into the day-to-day business. Being a sub in a classroom for a day doesn't mean you're making any decisions that impact the district as a whole. What you are asking for is not our role. That is not what we do in our position up here as a governing body. That's a whole different thing, what you're asking to do. - I don't know exactly. Well, I don't know exactly what you just said.
- Point of order. - Yes. - I think that we've all had an opportunity to discuss. And I agree that maybe this one should go back to the committee for further discussion, and then it can come back to us for another reading. - I'm fine with that. Do we need to vote on that? I can just send it back. - No, because we don't vote on this at this point. - So we're gonna go ahead and send 210, Conflict of Interest- School Board Members back to the committee to check it out. Is everybody okay with that? - That's fine. - Any other questions? Thank you all. All right, we're gonna head into operational item E1,
Action on Tentative Agreement. Mr. Mons, this is for the '25 to '28 fiscal year Bear Adventure Club staff. - Yes, good evening. So there's been a fairly recent name change here. So just to put this in context for people, we're talking about our employee group that has traditionally been known as our extended day employees who work with our students through the Bear Adventure Club program. And that group is represented by SEIU Local 284.
I want to thank both the district's team and also the team that we worked with there. We had a really good round of bargaining and discussion. We were able to come to the table, share our perspectives, and get that done within two sessions which was lovely. And I think that people felt really good about the outcome that we reached there. We also have a three-year agreement with this group, which will give us a little bit more flexibility moving forward
in terms of how we set our rates for our community members that participate in the program moving forward. And so with that, I make the recommendation that you approve the tentative agreement. - [Scott] All right, we have a recommendation to approve the tentative agreement. Do I have a motion? - [Angela] So moved. - By Ms. Thompson. Do I have a second? - Second. - Second by Ms. Beloyed. Any discussion? Okay, hearing none, this will be a roll call vote. Will you please call the roll? - Skaar. - Aye. - Streiff Oji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye. - Daniels, aye.
Ellison. - Aye. - Okay, motion carries, 7-0. Now we are gonna go to operational item E2, Action on Tentative Agreement, 2025-27 fiscal year Paraeducator School Service Employees SEIU Local 284. Mr. Mons. - All right, for this one, we did not get this done in two meetings. We had a longer process here. A process that went from November of 2025 through to May of 2026. But what I really appreciated was,
you know, nobody took their ball and went home. Everyone kept coming to the table. And it was a tremendous commitment of time both for our paraeducators who were represented by SEIU Local 284 and also for the district's team that kept coming and showing up to continue that dialogue. So I'm appreciative to everyone for sticking it out and reaching the conclusion that we did. And so with that, I'll make the recommendation
to approve the tentative agreement. - [Scott] Can I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - By Ellison. Second? - Second. - Second by Streiff Oji. Is there any discussion? Yes, Ms Daniels. - I just wanna thank you for your hard work and the union for their hard work and coming to the table. I know it takes a long time sometimes to come to an agreement, so thank you for that. - [Matthew] We got there. - We got there. - And I just wanna make the comment that our paraeducators are important part of our school system and we do appreciate them.
And so we're glad that we have this done. Okay, any other? Okay, so this will be a roll call vote. Will the clerk please call the roll? - Skaar. - Aye. - Streiff Oji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye. - Daniels, aye. Ellison. - Aye. - Motion carries, 7-0. - Thank you. - All right, we're gonna go on to operational item E3, Action on Property and Liability Insurance for 2006, 2027. Excuse me, '26 and '27. Mr. Wald and Ms. Johnson.
- Thank you, Chair Arcand, members of the board. The finance team has three operational items for the board tonight. The first of which is the renewal of our property and liability insurance for '26-'27. For a property and liability insurance, the school district is a member of an insurance pool comprised of Minnesota school districts that is called the Minnesota Insurance Scholastic Trust or MIST. And before we dive into the numbers, Nick Lano is with us tonight.
Nick is area senior vice president with Gallagher Insurance. And Gallagher oversees or is the administrator for the MIST pool. Over the years, Nick's been instrumental in working with our school district and guiding us through a very volatile insurance market, as well as on behalf of the entire MIST pool. So thank you for being with us - Yeah. - tonight, Nick. We'll hear from him in just a moment. The expiring premium for '25-'26 was $922,832.
And the new proposed rate is $856,712. That's a 7% reduction over the current year of $66,000. Great news for us, as the property and liability insurance market, as I mentioned earlier, can be very volatile. Nick, or excuse me, Nick Lano is well versed in the insurance industry. And he'll share with us some insights on the new rate, as well as what's happening with the MIST pool, and changes that are designed to reduce
the risk for all members of the pool. - Good evening. - Mr. Lano. - Yeah, thank you, Tim. Good evening, everyone. I know some of you I've met over the years and some there's some new faces. Nick Lano with Gallagher, been the insurance broker for the district since 2016. For some of you, that's when White Bear Lake joined MIST. So you've been a great partner in the program for the last 10 years. Over the years, Dr. Kazmierczak has sit on the MIST board.
MIST is a member-owned Minnesota K through 12 insurance program. So there's nothing else like it in the state. It's ran by the members itself. So Dr. Kazmierczak is on the board. Andi is currently on the board as well. So it's been a great program. Right now, we're insuring just under a hundred thousand students across the state in this type of program. One of the unique attributes at MIST is coming up with solutions for its members, right? Better way to do things.
Over the last couple years, the property market has been significantly difficult, especially within the public entity space. Gallagher, two years ago, we actually created a program called GovPro. It's a property program just for public entities across the country. So we took that same concept this year and said, what if we do that for four of our pools across the Midwest? And this year we actually created, our property program is gonna be moving to this GovPro. And that's where we're seeing a lot of the decrease this year overall.
So it's been a great program. 31 members across the state in it. Roughly about 5 million in surplus right now. So the program is working exactly like we have anticipated it. When White Bear Lake joined, I think you're still probably one of the largest savings we saw with a member coming into the program. In 2016, that was roughly about a 30% decrease plus increasing coverages, reduced deductibles. So it's really worked well for the district over the years.
Any questions to that? - [Scott] Ms. Streiff Oji. - So what drives the cost down? The number of members? - Yeah, so number of members, yup, it spreads the risk across that. Through this type of program, we're able to act almost like an HSA type of way. We have a self-funded but with a protected stop gap in there. So because of that, the program itself, not one individual member but the program itself is able to take on significant risk on a higher level
where no individual member would be able to take on that type of deductible. Right, so now we're telling the insurance carrier, all right, we only want you to start giving us coverage at 500,000 instead of any other program, you know, 25,000 or 50,000 so. - And as Nick said, we're pooled now with different pools in different states. And so when the carriers look at us, you know, if Minnesota gets hit by a tornado, Ohio is probably not going to. And so that's kind of how we spread that risk.
- Yeah. - That's advantageous to the carriers. - Thanks, Andi, yeah. MIST itself is about $9 billion in total insured values, and we created GovPro with these other four. Now, when we go to like the London market, we're buying roughly about $25 billion worth of values. So far greater scale, right, and we're able to drive that down so. - [Christina] It's like the first time I've heard of insurance costs going down. - Yeah, right, yeah. Everyone's experience - It's great news. - is personal. - [Christina] Thank you very much.
- [Scott] Other questions? - Scott, quick question. The equipment breakdown, is that like CarShield? I mean what do we, what is that for? - No, equipment breakdown, anything from boilers in the school to rooftop refrigeration, HVAC units, that's gonna be your equipment breakdown. - So is it just the equipment or is it labor as well? - No, it's labor as well, yup. So if we have a new rooftop unit that gets damaged by hail and that's 500,000 for the unit and another 100,000 in, you know, cost for the HVAC company to replace it,
yeah, 600,000 would be covered by that. - [Daniel] No deductible? - It's $2,500 deductible for individual number. - [Daniel] Oh, okay, that's pretty good. - [Andi] 2,500 or 25,000? - It's 2,500 on that, yup. - So do you do risk assessments of the school district? - Yeah. - Have we asked? - Enlighten me a little bit on that, of what you mean by that? - I don't know like, I don't know like a safety or risk assessment in terms of how our built cyberliability.
Do you do a risk assessment on our cyber profile? - Yup, so back to your initial question of, you know, safety in the building. Yes, every member every year goes through, safety and risk control consulting comes on site. Members have different options. It's almost like a cafeteria plan they can go through. So some members will do an overall fleet safety kind of review of that program. Your district has gone through playground safety.
So they go and walk the whole playgrounds, make sure all the bolts are tight, you know, slides are in working condition. Some years it's just overall physical assessment. So they walkthrough in the individual school, take pictures, you know, outlets maybe that need to be replaced, or certain other - Got you. - safety aspects of it so. - Okay. So on cyber reliability, does it include ransomware? - Yes. - Okay, thank you. - So- - Yes, Ms. Streiff Oji. - So we're doing these safety assessments regularly.
- [Andi] Correct, every year. - Every year. - Mm-hmm. - Thank you. - It's built into the program. - Thank you. - And recommendations for contract language, sometimes the insurance language and contracts we run by Nick and the team, to make sure that the language we have in contracts with vendors and joint powers agreements protect the district in the best way possible. - [Scott] All right. It sounds like the recommended action is to move to approve the property and casualty insurance package
with the Minnesota Insurance Scholastic Trust in the amount of $856,712. It will be effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. Can I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - So moved by Ms. Daniels. Is there a second? - Second. - Second by Ms. Thompson. Any further discussion? Once again, this will be a roll call vote. I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. - [Kathleen] Skaar. - [Daniel] Aye. - Strife Oji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye.
- [Kathleen] Daniels, aye. Ellison. - Aye. - Motion passes, 7-0. All right, we're gonna go to operational item E4, Action on the Workers Compensation Agreement. - Yes, thank you, Chair Arcand. This spring we took quotes for our workers comp insurance, workers compensation insurance, and asked two high-quality firms in Minnesota that specialize in public school districts to compete for our business. One was our current provider, RAS, who we have a long-term relationship with.
And the second is SFM, who is a highly regarded insurer in the Twin Cities here, who we have worked with in the past as well. SFM won the contract with the low bid of $667,948 outbidding RAS by $26,000. So even though they won the bid, if you look at the historical data, you see this still reflects a 14% increase over last year's worker compensation rate. And I wanna explain what's driving the increase. So workers comp or workers comp rates are calculated
by two moving parts. First is that the premium scale automatically with the audited payroll of the school district. So as gross payrolls grow over time, the baseline premiums adjust along with that. So you'll see that small percentage just increase each year just based on your payroll. Second is rates are impacted by our experience mod rate. That's a numeric multiplier based on a rolling three-year average of our past claims. And so, as you can see on the gray table on the slide here.
In '22-'23 and '24-'25, those two years combined for about a million dollars in claims and estimated claims. And so when I say estimated claims in this regard, it is because some of the open, there can be open claims for which the carrier hasn't paid out yet, but they're holding funds available. So the 519 for '24-'25, really, the payout so far has been 352,000 in change
not 519. So it may end up being less than that. But until that year is closed out, the provider needs to hold, you know, hold money just assuming the liability still exists. The good news is that the number of claims has dropped significantly. So you look on the gray table, the right-hand column, number of claims you see in '22-'23, 215 claims went down to 185 the next year. The number of claims has just continued to drop.
And so that's a good sign and I think good reflection on our district safety committee, district-wide safety committee that examines employee safety in the building, and, you know, recommends changes and improvements throughout the year. So that's our workers compensation proposal for '26-'27. And again, Nick Lano has worked really hard with the school district. When we've gone out for quotes, he's done a great job of representing the school district
to get the best rates possible. So I'll turn it over to you if you have some comments as well. - Yeah, thanks Tim. So we've been with RAS since 2016, right? It's been a good long-term partnership. Unlike property and liability, the work comp market had been very, very soft the last few years. When we look back from 2016 to today, one thing that we really like to look at is how much are you paying per $100 of payroll, right? This year, you're paying about 70 cents per 100 a payroll.
If we look back to the 2015-2016 timeframe, the district was paying roughly $1.12 per 100 a payroll, right? So I understand up front, when we look at this type of increase, we have been at the bottom of a bell curve for the last eight to nine years, right? And we're starting to see an upward trend on that premium. Bottom line, when we add MIST and work comp together, the district now sits at about 1% increase year over year for total insurance costs
for property liability and work comp. When we look at it, claim dollars 2014, those are made up of a couple claims that are driving that larger number. So while the mod is a piece of it, it's not the end all be all of it. At this premium rate, it really becomes more of an actuarial function, right? So underwriters at times even throw the mod out, 'cause now it becomes more of what premium do I need
to make up for the claim dollars that historically have been on the books, right? SFM is a great work comp carrier. All they do is work comp in the state of Minnesota. If you ask them, they'll say they probably write 80 to 90% of the school districts in the state. So they know work comp for schools very well. We had a call with them with Kevin, your lead safety, or head of your safety committee and emergency team. They were very impressed with him and everything that the district is doing.
So I think it's gonna be the start of a really nice new partnership with us with them. - Okay. Let's go ahead and make the motion then we can open for discussion. The recommended action is to move to accept the quote of 667,948 SFM mutual insurance for workers compensation effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. Can I get a motion to approve? - [Deborah and Angela] So move. - Okay, was that? Oh, Ms. Beloyed. Any second? - Second. - Second by Ms. Thompson. Now we're gonna open it up for discussion.
Any questions? Yes, Ms. Beloyed. - So the claim history for 2025 to 2026, the year to date total, 190, we think that's a firm number right now with 82 claims. How much of that has been paid up so far? Do we have any that is sitting there in lieu? - Those are numbers from May. - Yeah, so through May of the 190, the insurance carrier has paid 89, just shy of 90,000 of that. So the remaining balance is what their adjusters believe, right,
based on type of injury, type of employee, maybe what the future medical might be of it. What they project would be the outstanding reserves they would need to pay those claims so. - So then each one of these years, so '22 to '23, 475,000, '23 to '24, 293,000, '24 to '25, 519,000, that isn't from what you're saying, Tim, that's hasn't all been paid out necessarily. So some of it is being held? - So in '22-'23, that year is closed out. - That's closed out? - Yeah.
So one thing we really work with districts on and the insurance carriers do is getting employees back, right? The sooner you can get them back, the better. It cuts down on any type of indemnity payment, so lost wages. It also, employees that are working, it's healthier for them, it's better for them and even if it's within restrictions. So really, since '22 all the way back, there are no open claims for the district within the last 10 years.
So '23, '24 and '25 are the only policy years with open claims. - So, just to clarify then. So that 293,000, if that gets closed out and some of that money isn't used, the mod will change next year when that number is included and the lower number would be included? - [Nick] Yup, your mod's always the three previous years minus the most recent. - Okay. - The state of Minnesota has a ruling, aggravated inequities that allow, let's say, we had 300,000 in open claims
for one claim, right, closed out zero, none of that 300,000 was paid, we could actually then run to see what a new mod would be without that. And if the mod moves more than three points, we can actually send a ruling back to the state MWCIA and ask them to recalculate it. It has to move at least three points though. - Okay. So then if next year, if the 190 that we're at right now holds, that rolls into next year's three years worth of mods.
That will help next year. - Yeah, you'll see some stabilization to it, yeah. - Okay. All right, thank you. - [Scott] Other discussion? Mr. Skaar. - So thank you for the review. So our X-mod rate in 2024 was 1.23, 2025 1.25 and 2026, 1.39. And what the X-mod means at 1.39 is that our actual losses are 39% higher than the expected losses for similar businesses
or school districts in our classification, right? - Correct. - So, in the commercial world with X-mods like this, I would not be able to bid construction work for schools or the federal government because you need one or below, or you have to have, if it's above one, you can't be over 1.4. But if you're above one, if you put together a game plan to say, here's what I'm doing from a safety program
to get it down to one or below. So to me, this is somewhat, it's alarming. I understand what you're saying. But part of it goes back to like classification of payroll. I mean, if we don't classify payroll correctly, that can impact X-mod, right? And it can impact how our ratings are. Are we certain that we're classifying payroll properly? - Yeah, so with school districts, you really have two significant class codes.
It's a professional class code and then a maintenance class code, or I should say non-professional class code. And then outside of that, you add in a transportation class code, right? So if there's a public school district in Minnesota that does not do any of their own transportation, there's really two class codes to it. We rely then on the HR department within the district to help run those payroll reports of where do people fall. And we do provide a breakout of, all right, if they're a payroll, they go here,
if they're facilities, they'd go into here. So we do provide that breakout and assistance when needed. And then payroll's audited every year as well. So the audit payroll goes onto the mod. So that's something when the audits come in, we also discuss with Andi or the HR team of, all right, does this look accurate for what you sent in? - So what is our TCIR at this district compared to other district? Our incident, right, that we report to OSHA. - We'd have to talk to Kevin
because as you probably know in the construction field, not every incident is a work comp claim, but could be an OSHA reporting. - Right. - And we do not, as a broker, we do not do any of the reporting. If there's a significant incident and they're questioning, hey, do we need to notify OSHA on this? We'll help guide that and walk through what happened. But that would be Kevin and your emergency team that looks through all that OSHA reporting. - Yeah, that's like a leading indicator for the X-mod I would say.
As well as first aid. So when we're doing our reporting for OSHA. I'm gonna talk about OSHA-related things that feed into our X-mod. Do we have separate? When we report, you can report differently, like you can report centrally, or do we report by each school? Does each school have like a safety officer that reports incidents and so forth that keeps track of all of our incidents, first aid versus things that are incidents,
OSHA reportables as we call them? - Well, yeah. Each building has a representative on the safety committee. And through Kevin Klecker's office, all of the referrals or any claim would go through there. - No, but from a reporting standpoint, is each facility a separate reporting unit under OSHA reporting or do we consolidate it as one? - [Tim] I don't know the answer to that. - I think we would need to have a separate presentation on that. We're presenting on workers compensation specifically tonight.
- Yeah, but it falls into the same category. The workers comp and OSHA reporting are very, they're like this. I don't, you know, I would like to go into some level of detail as far as the incident reporting, how we report facilities, those types of details. If instead of, you know, as well as our X-mod contributing factors to our X-mod, right? But do it separately. We don't have to do it here and people are watching paint dry.
So I would like, what I'm suggesting is I'd like to go in a little deeper on this, on safety and the X-mod in general with the team here. and just get a briefing. And, you know, talk to him about this, 'cause it's significant. - [Scott] I hear what you're saying and the concern we have to think about as I believe, the other policy is expiring on June 30th. - Correct. - And so that would leave us without any coverage if we don't vote on it. - Oh, no, I'm not. Sorry Scott. I'm not saying we delay the decision.
I'm saying- - You would like a presentation by the safety group? - No, I can just go and talk to them. We don't need like a presentation. - Okay. - I'd rather just bring me inside the tent so I can talk to them about this. - Quick. - Yes. - [Jessica] I would say that if there's gonna be a discussion, it should be to the whole board. - [Daniel] Do you really want to do that? Well, I could give a report to the board after I talk to them. - I think if, I think we're moving away from what we're supposed to be talking about here. But I would recommend that any information that we need to understand as a board should come to the full board and not just to one individual.
So- - That's not how all boards work, but that's fine. - Okay. Is there any other questions about the motion on the table? All right, this will be a roll call vote. I'll ask the clerk to call the roll. - [Kathleen] Skaar. - [Daniel] Aye. - Streiff Oji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye. - [Kathleen] Daniels, aye. Ellison. - Aye. - Okay, motion carries. Thank you. - [Nick] Appreciate the time everyone. - We're moving on to operational item E5, Action on the Fiscal Year 2026-27 Preliminary Budget.
- [Tim] Okay, thank you, Chair Arcand. Ms. Johnson and I presented to the board at the May 18th meeting. We also presented I think kind of the foundation of this budget back in February. But most recently at the May 18th work session. And the budget that you'll see tonight is the same budget that we reviewed at the May 18th work session. And so much of this presentation is very much the same. This is the budget cycle. It's a graphic representative of budget cycle
for the school district. And throughout the year, we're really working on the prior year, the current year, and future year budget. And so different dates throughout the year touch different elements of those budgets. This slide here you've seen many times. And it's a reminder of the state commitment to funding public education. And as you look at the blue line in 2003 and follow that to 2027, you can see that the funding level would be.
What does that say? 9,157? - 57, mm-hmm. - [Tim] Yeah, thank you. If you follow the orange line from bottom left to the right, you can see the actual per student funding from the state, which is $7,683, leaving a shortfall of student funding from where we were at in 2003 of $1,474 per student. And the state funding formula student funding formula is the core funding mechanism for public schools.
And so when we look at this gap in funding from the state of Minnesota, it's a significant amount that totals $13 million in purchasing power that school districts are short today compared to where we were in 2003. I'll also note that while the state has made some movement over the past couple years, we're very thankful for that, it hasn't made up the gap to be clear. And it has put significant stress on local property taxes
as a funding mechanism for schools. Districts across the state are often forced to go to their taxpayers to help support public schools. So what was once a state responsibility has more and more so been passed on to local property taxes. In February and May, February, we identified that we would be making a million dollars in reductions for the '26-'27 school year to get to the 8% unassigned fund balance goal.
Those reductions came in the form of total of 1,094,000. Majority of it is in transportation. And that's by making some slight adjustments back to where we were three years ago where it's moving the high school start time up five minutes, and middle school back 10 minutes. A 3.0 FTE reduction is related to a district level administrative position, assistant director of educational equity, two FTE at the Area Learning center, which is to match enrollment. Our high school has been very successful
in keeping students on track for graduation, reducing enrollment at the Area Learning Center. And so we're able to just staff at the same level that we have, and we'll save two FTEs in that. Okay, Ms. Johnson. - [Andi] Okay, today, as Tim had said, we're focusing on the '26-'27 preliminary budget, which is what you see in the gray shaded column. So you see that there's a $10 million increase over the previous year in revenue. Half of that is special education revenue,
which is in response to the increase in special education expenses in the previous school year. And then, the legislature increased the English learner revenue beginning in fiscal '27 as well, which brings in nearly $700,000 of additional revenue. The remainder of the increases are normal property tax and state aid formula increases. On the expenditure side after budget adjustments, expenses are going up about 2.2%, which is based on known salary settlements,
and then inflationary increases were appropriate for utilities, transportation, and then the insurance increases that you approved. In looking at fund balances, you'll see several of the fund balances. We estimate flat until the actuals are known. We have a few small changes, budgeted and operating capital and capital projects areas. And then the main fund balance that we focus on is highlighted in blue, the unassigned fund balance. You see we're budgeted to come in at an ending fund balance of $12,185,000 next year,
which puts us right at our fund balance target of 8%. And then in '27-'28, we're projected to be at 8.2%. And then in '28-'29, we're projected back at our 8% fund balance. So now we'll look at the preliminary budgets for all funds, looking at specifically revenue. For the general funds, the bulk of our operations comes in at about 159 million, so 75% of the total district's funds. The debt service fund,
which is where the district's bond payments are accounted for, is about 17% of the district's total funds. And then community education and nutrition services account for about 4% each. Then we look at our preliminary budget revenues for the general funds specifically. So most of our revenue comes in the form of state aid at 52%. Special education revenue is another form of state aid for a total of about 73% total state revenue for next school year. Then we have a small amount of federal revenue for special education, Title I,
and American Indian Education. And then property taxes, both general at 20%. And then long-term facility maintenance make up the next largest source of revenue combined at 23%. And then rounding out the general fund, we have small amount of investment earnings and others such as donations, activity fees, and gate receipts. Then we look at our expenditures, and we look at those in two different ways. First, we look at it by object area. So 80% of the district's funding goes towards salaries and benefits. The next largest area is purchased services at 13%.
And then this includes our contracted transportation and then a large portion of our LTFM expenses as well. And then finally, just 4% of our spending goes towards supplies. And then the last 3%, towards capital and other miscellaneous expenditures. Then we look at it by program area or kind of by department area. Starting at the right with the regular instruction and then wrapping down and around. We have regular instruction, vocational ed or what we call career and tech ed, special education, instructional support, pupil support, and transportation.
All of those areas are directly involved with student contact each and every day. These programs add up to 83% of our total spending. Then we have our buildings and grounds department, which is responsible for site and LTFM, which includes our custodial grounds and maintenance. That totals about 9% of our spending. Then we have 2% of miscellaneous spending reflected in the other category. And then administration includes all of our building principals and administrative assistants, the superintendent, and then school board budgets for about 4% of our spending. And then finally, district support services includes
the rest of the district center staff at 2% of the district's expenses. So then here we have all of the other operating funds that come before the school board for approval. So we have nutrition services, community services, and debt service. So the nutrition services budget is budgeting a deficit of 220,000 for next school year, which is very similar to the current year, while maintaining a very healthy fund balance at 26.5%. The Community Services Program struggled through COVID when families weren't able to participate in programming in the way that they historically had been able to.
So they've been working their way out of the deficit. And we're proud to report that they'll be back in the black very likely this year. But definitely next school year with a projected deficit of just shy of 250, or projected surplus of just shy of 250,000. And then lastly, we have our debt service fund, which is the fund that reports the activity related to our bond payments. So we report our debt schedule. The Department of Education, they calculate our property tax levy revenue based on that schedule with a 5% cushion. And then this year, we'll have a fund balance of just over 7 million or 20%.
So as I said earlier, all of this was reviewed previously in detail at the May work session. So the recommended action is to approve the fiscal year '26-'27 preliminary budget as presented. - [Scott] Can I get a motion to accept their approval of the fiscal? - So move. - Ms. Streiff Oji. Second? - Second. - [Scott] Second by Ms. Daniels. Any discussion? Any further discussion? Yes, Ms. Beloyed. - [Deborah] Employees are calculated by FTEs, correct? Like a full-time employee? - [Andi] Yup. - So those, an FTE can be split amongst
different job codes, correct? - Mm-hmm. - Can you give me an example of that? - Yeah, so a teacher, for example, may work in the CTE program. They may have some classes that they teach that are CTE approved and then some that are not CTE approved. So their salary would be apportioned out, you know, accordingly. So maybe they're 20% CTE and then 80% regular instruction would be an example. - Does that happen quite a bit, at least within the teaching staff, splitting the FTEs between job codes?
- I would say not real often but every teacher is split or every staff member is split according to their job duties so. - All right, thank you. - Yeah. - [Scott] Other questions? Mr. Skaar. - Thank you. Thanks for the presentation. I just wanted to share with you some analysis that I did over. I looked at the last, well, first of all, let me just say, if you look at the last six years on your general fund revenues, we've exceeded inflation by 3.6%.
So our actual six year increase, and that's all in with the general funds, 28.1%, the six-year inflation, CPI as calculated by the Bureau of Labor statistics is 24.5. So we exceeded that. The other thing- - Sir, with that. - Pardon me. - What's also included in that would be COVID spending. And so those were largely one time. So. - This was all over the six years. So this is six-year trend. - Sure. I would just put an asterisk on that number. - I wouldn't. But thank you for the input. Per pupil fund,
pupil funding revenues. That's a tongue twister. Also six year increase, 31.2% over the six year. And then again, 24.5 was the CPI. So 6.2%. And this all comes from the wonderful report called the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report that's posted on the website. And I can give you the page references. Also, so per pupil spending is 17,665 per pupil.
And then I looked at enrollment. And enrollment over the six-year period declined by 389 students or 4.4%. So the question that I have before I get into the 10-year trends, expenses cost revenues they're tied to enrollment, right? - Not always. So they're also in tied to specific categorical funding. So a good example is long term facility- - I'm talking about, I'm talking about expenses
not funding. - Did you want? Yeah, but can I answer the question? - Sure. - So they're also tied to long-term facility maintenance expenses or revenue for example. And so that fluctuates based on our long-term facility maintenance plan. And so, sometimes that's up, sometimes that's down. And so, we'd have to peel back the onion a little bit and look at the categorical revenue. - So, but 80, 20, 80% driven by enrollment. - There's a lot that goes into that though. I mean the COVID funding was a lot. The LTFM is a big portion of our funds.
- So. - It's not simple. On $150 million budget, it's just not that simple. - I've dealt with budgets larger. - Yup, I'm sure you have. I'm not trying to say you haven't. - Zero-based budgeting. Thanks to Jimmy Carter. I'm showing my age. He kind of instituted zero-based budgeting. Have you guys ever done one? I know at least one zero-based budgeting where you justify every dollar. Have we ever done that in the last 20 years? - No. - No? - Well, I've not been here for 20 years, so I can't place the past but. - All right. - Yes, since I've been here,
we have not. - Thank you. Then I looked at the 10-year trend from the same report, that Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, and I adjusted it for capital outlays and debt principle and interest. Took out the capital, all of that. So what I noticed was, I broke it down into administration, which is like support services, classroom, and then sites and buildings, like our annual costs. That's listed on the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report.
So over the last 10 years, we have spent 5% less in the classroom. It used to be at 60.7%. 2025 was 55.9%. So five- - Point of clarification. How many years? - 10 years, 2016 through 2025. And it's on pages 107 to 108 of the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. So 5% less in classrooms and 3% more in sites and budgets, and then a little bit more in admin.
So what I was getting at is with the less enrollment, and I've been talking about this before, and we, you know, we calculated the bond and the LTFM based on, what was it? Like 11,000 students, we have 8,000. So we have a miss there. So what I'm getting at is, you know, we're gonna need to protect ourselves from, because we're gonna spend more on sites and buildings because that's a fixed cost. You know, there's some variable, but it's a fixed cost.
So that's gonna chew up more of our budget that goes to classroom over time because we have those fixed assets. So what I'm thinking, when I look at the budget. And last year we had like, we had a deficit of 4.6 million overall between revenue and expenses, right? It was like 4.6 according to the fund balances, which I don't know what the page number is, but it's lines 104 to 133. So then we're generating surplus estimated 2016,
or 2026 to 2027 of 2.6 million. So I'm thinking, just to be simple, can we just cut our expenses another 2 million so that in our preliminary 2026-27 budget, we're at a surplus of 4.6 million. So we make up the deficit that we had from the previous year. So that's what I'm, and I actually make a motion to that, that we would direct staff
to reduce expenditures by $2 million so that we generate a excess of 4.6 million to zero out the previous year's deficit of 4.6 million. - [Scott] So you're making, you're trying to amend the motion on the table? - Yeah. - [Scott] Okay, so we've heard that. Can we get a second? Can we get a second? Can we get a second? Okay. It fails. Just for clarity then. Are you speaking in favor of the approval of this
or against approving this budget? - No, I would approve it with that amendment. - Okay, but without it, 'cause we didn't pass it, are you speaking in favor or against? I'm just asking clarity for myself. So if we don't make that amendment then you don't think we should approve it? - Right. - Okay. Yes. - Can I just ask if Mr. Skaar has a plan of where we're going to come up with like which staff members are we gonna release from the district so we can have that 2 million extra dollars in our budget?
'Cause it will require us to, I mean that's how school districts work. We're not a manufacturing business. We're not a retail packaged business where we use a lot of like. In order to have, I mean I don't know a lot about it, so I had to do a quick Google myself on zero-based budgeting. But from what I can see it is an extensive, it says it's a highly labor-intensive process that most corporations use. We are not, again, I don't know how many times we have to say this, we are not a corporation. We are a public school district. We do not profit off of what we do in this district
other than our education of our students. That is the profit of the school district, it's our amazing students who all just graduated high school this past week and showed us how amazing they truly are and how they benefit from the things that our district does for them. This is not. We're not in a- - Can I have a point of order? - We're not a corporate. - I don't need a lecture. - We're not in a corporate environment. - I don't need a lecture on this. - I let you speak. Would it be all right if I let her speak? Are you finished? - Or I guess I would like to know where your background is,
because you always say you have all this experience, but we've never heard actually where you've done the work. - I just want make one point. - Why? Why do I need to talk about that? - I just wanna make one point. - Point of order. You've not been recognized. - What was just said, we were asking someone to do management and we've continually said we're governance. So it would be out of bounds to ask somebody to make a management decision. And I know that you didn't ask management. - No. - You made a budgetary comment. And so, but it would be inappropriate for us to say,
I want you to cut this or tell us where we're gonna cut. - [Daniel] Right. - The motion on the table right now is to approve the fiscal year '26-'27 preliminary budget as presented. Does anybody else have comments on that? Ms. Streiff Oji. - I have a question. Are you asking that we reduce the budget by 2 million for the coming school year in June? - 2020, I'm sorry, 2026 to 2027. Yes, reduce expenditures - So, yes. - by 2 million. - Okay, that was. - Yes. - Just needed to clarify that. So it's a bit late to be making a decision
to cut the budget that starts in like three weeks. - Can I just make a comment? Can I make a comment? - Just a second. Did you have something? Ms. Ellison. - I would say that I appreciate as always the expertise of people who work in school district finance. And the things that change are not always necessarily having to do with enrollment. That's what I'm hearing you say. And for example, transportation. Transportation routes change depending on who needs the bus, right?
And if we have more students who need the bus, transportation routes are going to change, which is going to be an increase, which is not necessarily tied to specific enrollment numbers. And so it's a very complicated formula of trying to educate 8,400 students who have varying needs that might be here one year and might not be there the next. So I would say that looking at what you have done for the budget, and I would say too,
I commend you in that if you look at other school districts having to cut 10, 14, 15, $16 million, it's never fun. It's never easy. And so I appreciate that you look at the specifics of how the nuance makes up this budget so that we can move forward and it's knowing that it's not specifically just tied to how many kids in buildings. I would also say that based on the documents that Mr. Skaar found on the website, it appears that there's a lot of transparency
about how our money is spent and how the documents are shared with the public. So I appreciate that as well. School district finance is incredibly complicated. And so I appreciate your work. - Okay. Ms. Beloyed, did you have a comment? - No. - Okay. Mr. Skaar, I interrupted you. Did you have a comment? - I forgot what the heck I was gonna say. - [Scott] I apologize. - But anyways, that's okay. Age. You know, it's a 1.3% decrease. I mean, it's not like it's substantial. It's $2 million.
If you multiply that 157 million, it's 1.3%. That's not a big ask. Just get us down to where we're whole with last year. - [Kathleen] Can I make a point? - [Scott] Okay, Ms. Daniels. - That translates into positions that serves students. - No it doesn't. We've overspent on purchased service. We purchased- - We would not be- (gavel thudding) - [Daniel] I'm gonna allow her to finish. - Okay, sorry. - Thank you. - When we propose cuts, which we did a million dollars, can we plan way ahead? We look at lots of options, in and out of the classroom.
We do the best we can to make those cuts not impact the students. And at this late stage in the game to come up with a proposal I think is irresponsible. And so I just say we call for the vote. - [Scott] Are you calling for the vote? - I am. - [Scott] Do we have a second? - Second. - Second. Okay, now for us to move forward, this has to be a 2/3 majority of that. So I'd like to do this at roll call so I know we have it correct. So call the roll. - [Kathleen] Skaar. - [Daniel] No. - Streiff Oji. - Aye.
- Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye. - [Kathleen] Daniels, aye. Ellison. - Aye. - Okay, discussion is now closed. We have a motion on the table to approve the fiscal year 2026-27 preliminary budget as presented. Will you please call the roll. - Skaar. - No. - Streiff Oji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye. - [Kathleen] Daniels, aye. Ellison. - Aye. - Okay, motion passes, 6-1. Thank you. We're gonna move on to operational item E6,
Action on the Resolution Establishing Dates for Filing Affidavits of Candidacy. Dr. K. - All right, thank you, Chair Arcand. The period for filing affidavits for candidacy for the office school board member will be from July 14th, 2026 to July 28th, 2026. And the resolution in the board packet has been provided by our elections attorney, Peter Martin of Kennedy & Graven, to formally establish the filing dates for the 2026 School Board Election. So the recommended action this evening is
to approve the resolution establishing dates for filing affidavits of candidacy for the 2026 School Board Election. - Okay. Can I get a motion to approve the resolution? - So moved. - So moved. - Who is it? Ms. Beloyed. - Beloyed. - Second. - Second. - Ms. Thompson. Discussion? I got it right here. Okay, so we have the motion on the table to approve the resolution establishing dates for filing. I'm just checking. This will be a roll call vote. Will the court please call the roll? - [Kathleen] Skaar. - [Daniel] Yes.
- Streiff Oji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye. - [Kathleen] Daniels, aye. Ellison. - Aye. - Okay, motion carries, 7-0. We're gonna go around to operational item E7, Action On School District Population Adjustment. Mr. Maurer. - Thank you Dr. Arcand and members of the board, Dr. K. As stated in the board packet funding for our community ed departments across the state is calculated by total school district population as determined by the US census. On June 1st, we did receive our annual census adjustment reported by the Minnesota State Demographer's Office,
which shared a population adjustment for White Bear Lake Area schools to 76,148, which is an increase of 384. And we are recommending that the board approve the census adjustment with the updated population total of 67,148. - [Scott] Can I get a motion to approve the change? - [Kathleen] So moved. - [Scott] So moved by Ms. Daniels. A second? - Second. - Second by Ms. Ellison. Any discussion? Hearing none, this will also be a roll call vote. Will you please call the roll. - Skaar. - Aye. - Streiff Oji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. - Beloyed. - Aye. - [Kathleen] Daniels, aye.
Ellison. - Aye. (gavel thuds) - Okay, it carries, 7-0. We're gonna go to operational item E8, Action on School Board Policies 203.2, 208, 503, 649, and 902. These motions came to us previously, we're gonna take them in one fell swoop. Can I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - So moved. - [Scott] Ms. Beloyed. A second? - Second. - Ms. Streiff Oji. Discussion? And if there's any discussion or a questions, please let us know what page policy number so we can follow along.
Hearing none, this will be a voice vote. All in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - Opposed? Motion carries, 7-0. We are now on to board forum. This is time for the board forum, the opportunity for the board to talk about, update things they've been doing on their committees or in the public on different things as their official capacity of board members and create awareness of upcoming district and partnership events. Are there any board members who'd like to share? Ms. Beloyed. - Well, I just wanted to congratulate all of the teachers
for making it through another year. So congratulations to you. And congratulations to all the students that graduated this past week. All the parents that supported them and their siblings that put up with them. It's a really big honor to be able to be part of watching all of these kids graduate over the years. So congratulations to students, faculty, teachers, and families. - [Scott] All right. Ms. Thompson. - I had to write it 'cause it's a little bit, but it's all about graduation ceremonies
that I attended last week. So if you bear with me, I should get through it pretty quick 'cause it's quick. But I had a great pleasure of attending all of the graduation ceremonies last week. And it just was reiterating how amazing our students are. So I heard students who overcame addiction and trauma that most of us can't even imagine. And that is a blessing that I hope that we never have to know. At our tech ed graduation, we had students shine on stage. And we had a concert perform by one student who sang "Singing in the Rain,"
and reminded me that even when the clouds are hanging over, it feels like the sun might not come out, we can find joy in the singing of the rain. At the ALC graduation, we overheard some of the stories of our students who overcome hardships and milestones that we celebrated that night. As one student reminded us all, this was a quote from this student, I don't remember their name but, "Be a better person, be a better Bear." I thought that was just fantastic. And then we had our first class who had gone through the new high school
without ever having to transition into any other buildings. And it was fabulous to watch them. And all of the speeches that they gave that night, we had several speeches by our students, and they just reiterated our mission statement in every single speech. They talked about creating their futures in our schools. They spoke about diversity, respect, about feeling safe and nurtured by the staff and our educators, about the engagement of our community and their educational experiences and pathways. They spoke about the bond referendum
and their utmost gratitude for our new facilities and how these facilities have impacted their school experiences. We saw how even though it rained that night, they found celebration in the eventful ceremony. And hearing them sing out go Bears as they threw their caps on their home field, well, it was noted by one student whose parents I think are probably pretty cool because this student quoted Journey, and just reminded students that even when they're feeling scared of what's gonna come in the future and the unknowns that are coming
to not stop believing, don't stop believing. And so all three of those ceremonies reminded me, A, of how proud I am to be a part of this district, of all the hard work and dedication of our district staff, and that includes every single staff member in every single building no matter what their role is. You make a difference. And to our superintendent, Dr. K, who also had a student graduate in this ceremony, it's just a reminder of your steadfast leadership in our community, and how great it is to be a Bear.
So thank you to our entire district and community. It just really was awe-inspiring to watch our students. And the sky glow orange. It was just orange as far as the eye could see that night before then the thunder and lightning came back in. But it was just, it was really wonderful to be reminded. And our students know. So thank you. It's a great year. - [Scott] Yes, Ms. Daniels. - I just wanna congratulate all the retirees and thank them for their years and years of service.
There are many educators in all different roles in our district that retired. And I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for all your service. So thank you very much. Also, I attended the graduations and they were great. And I also attended the "Pride and Prejudice" play at the high school, which is a big undertaking for high school. And they did a fabulous job. and it was a lot of fun. And also Bear Tank in the high school with 10th grade communication class, where they present a problem and they have to solve the problem
and present data and sources and what problem they wanna solve and why it's personal to them. And I'll tell you what. Those students gave me so much hope for the future because they took on some really big problems and they had some great ideas on how to solve them. So I just was so inspired by their presentation. So I was happy to volunteer there. And thank you for asking for community volunteers because I think the more we get into the schools, the more we can see what's really happening and how great our students and staff are
and the people that serve them in this school community. So thank you all and have a great summer everyone. - [Scott] All right. Yes, Mr. Skaar. - I attended all the graduations, and growing up Catholic, you know, you bring back the bulletin to demonstrate to your parents that you actually went to church. So I have them all here. And I just have one word that describes kind of the theme, which was inspiring. The tech graduation was inspiring because of the dedication of our staff, you know, to our kids.
The ALC graduation was inspiring because of our students' determination, really to find the road less traveled and graduate. And while the weather didn't exactly cooperate for the high school graduation, I was inspired by the maturity of the graduate speakers. I can tell you when I was in high school, I could have never done that. And it was just, it was remarkable. And I wanna leave the graduation with a quote from Charles Darwin. "It's not the smartest or the strongest that survive,
it's those with the ability to adapt to change." They thrive. And I wanted to weave this thought into our governance model here at the district using two examples. And I think why we could be more adaptive and move- - [Scott] Okay, just wanna make sure we're talking about your roles- - You know what, I would like to be heard on this. - Okay. - Because I have been lectured about this governance model - Okay. - for the last year. - Please go ahead then. - And I wanna make some comments regarding it and I think it's fair. So I wanna weave that thought,
adapt into our governance model here at the district using two examples, and why we need to adapt and move to a different governance model. First, recently I informed the staff that I intended to ask questions of the district outside auditor. Shortly afterwards, I received an email informing me that I had permission to speak with the auditor. Permission. I understand that the district should be notified when a board member wants to talk to the auditor, but using the term permission is kind of bizarre.
The auditor works for the district, the board hires the auditor, the board is responsible for questioning the auditor, that's how oversight works. But this exchange revealed something I think much larger- - Chair, point of order. This isn't. This has nothing to do with board forum. This is a grievance session. - No, I just- - Again and again and again. - It's not a grievance session. - Enough. - I'm talking about- - It's board forum. - I get like- - What are you aiming for? - Hey, hey, hey, stop. - May I make a- - What have you attended? - I will. - You recognized me to finish. So may I finish? - No. Point of order.
- [Scott] Point of order. - There's no point of order on this. - There is a point of order. And it's mine. - There's no motion. - And it's on the table. - There's no motion. - You are not recognized. - He just recognized me. - I did. - Just, what I'm hearing is the board forum is the opportunity for board members to update the school board and the public on the committee work that they have engaged in their official capacity as a board member and to create awareness of upcoming district and partnership events. It doesn't sound like we're speaking to that. - That's not in the policy if I can be recognized.
And also there's no policy that states that. And the other aspect of this is, on several occasion, board members have lectured me and the public on the governance model. I want an opportunity to respond to that lecture and actually offer something that may be of interest to the public and other board members. - Then point of order. - So what are we afraid of? What are we afraid of for me to talk? - I just think it doesn't fit that portion of the board. - When will it fit? Tell me when it can fit.
What are you afraid of? Why can't I discuss this? - Point of order. - Okay, yes. - If we are going to discuss the way that we operate ourselves, that needs to be an agenda item. It needs to be included on the agenda if you would like to discuss our governance model. The time to do it is not when we're talking about how our committee work and how we are in our community working with students. So I would ask you to please follow the rules that we have set out by the board and ask for it to be added to the agenda.
- I am on the Community Education and Recreation Committee. - Is he recognized Chair? - Yes. - He recognized me. - Go ahead, state what it is. - Yes. So I'm making a comment about that. Can I make a comment about that? - About what? - 'Cause it has something referenced to governance and I'm on that committee. - What committee is it? - It's the. It's Tim, Tim's committee. - Okay. Go ahead and quickly. - Okay, so this gives me the, you know, my second example. The same mindset shows up in the district summer 2026,
Community Education and Recreation catalog. In a section titled Understanding the Role of the Board, residents are told that the board's primary responsibility is to supervise and evaluate one employee, the superintendent. Really, that's not what Minnesota law says. The board's job is much broader, deeper. We're responsible for overseeing the district finances, policies, curriculum, academic performance, and the overall operation of the district. - I don't think. - The district claims to operate under a policy governance model,
a management philosophy developed more than 50 years ago. - I'm gonna cut it off there. I think that we've strayed from board forum. It's something we have to add from our committee. - So, Chair? - Yes, sir? - Can we add this to the next agenda? - I will work and see. Can you send me specifically the agenda item, the exact words that you want. Email it to me and then we'll try to see if we can get some discussion. I can't guarantee, but send it to me. Yes.
Do you have something about board forum? - No, my question is that how we come up with agenda items during board forum? - [Scott] You can suggest agenda items too. - Suggestions, right. - You could send them. I would like just to wrap this up because I have one more thing that I need to do. - Can I just make a comment about the graduation? - [Scott] Sure. - Okay, thank you. It was a wonderful ceremony. And, you know, I had a kid who graduated and she was in fourth grade when I started on this board. And it has been an investment of my family,
my family's time and property tax dollars and commitment. And to see her and her colleagues succeed in the way that they did was such a joy. And I think that's always, always where our focus needs to be. And I appreciated in the weeks before graduation also the celebration of their success. The banquets. There were so many banquets for sports, for performing arts.
There were final concerts where the seniors were honored. There were so many opportunities for us in the community to celebrate our students. And, I. Oh, I cried on stage, I'm not gonna cry here. I think it's really a great honor to be able to serve this district and serve this community. And though, you know, I won't be running for another term, I have appreciated the opportunity to be at graduation and handout diplomas.
That's been the greatest perk of being a school board member. And I'm so proud. - All right, thank you. Yes? - One more thing. Cinderella performs their medley for Spotlight tomorrow night at 7:30, which is a really big deal for us. I will be there. And if you can, please come. - [Scott] Thank you. - [Kathleen] Is that at, the performance? - It'll be at the state theater. - Ooh. - Awesome. - [Board Member] Wow. - All right, I have. (attendees applauding)
(gavel thuds) I have one item I want to bring up and talk about. The 26th Annual White Bear Lake Area Education Foundation Golf Tournament, it is June 15th, 2026. In the past, the board has sponsored a hole. And I spoke with them today and they still have a hole available. If you would like to contribute as a board, see me. And I wanna make it very clear, this is not district money. This would be the school board members donating the money to sponsor a hole.
So if you're interested, stop by today and let me know if you want to be part to sponsor it. - How much? - And then. I think $30 each would cover it. And this is a valuable part to support our community and people come together. So if you want, let me know. And, we've got time. But I'll send a check over for to sponsor it if you're all okay with it. - [Daniel] We trust you with cash stuff. - Sometimes. My wife does, so I think you can. All right, that's what we have. Now, we won't be able to see each other for about a month.
So let's have some great time to spend with family in the outdoors and whatever you're gonna do. And could I get a motion for. - Mr. Chair? - Yes. - I motion to adjourn. - A motion. Do I have a second? - Second. - All in favor say aye. - [Board Members] Aye. - Opposed, same sign. (gavel thuds) Okay, we are adjourned, thank you.