- I now call this meeting of the School Board of Independent School District 624 to order. Will the clerk please call the roll. - Daniels, here. Ellison. - Here. - Streiff Oji. - Here. - Thompson. - Here. - Arcand. - Here. - All right, if we now stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. And I can stand for once. - [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 an agenda before us.
Can I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - All right, Ellison, do we have a second? - Second. - Second by Streiffoji. Is there any discussion? This will be a voice vote. All in favor say aye. - [Members] Aye. - Opposed, same sign. Motion carries. (gavel bangs) 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 all those that made contributions. Can I get a motion to approve?
- So moved. - Okay, we have a motion, second? - Second. - Second by Thompson. Any discussion? This will be a roll call vote. Will the clerk please call the roll. - Daniels, aye. Ellison. - Aye. - Streiffoji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. We have a consent agenda. We had nobody sign up for public forum so we'll just move on past that. We're going to start now with C1 Student Recognition, Dr. Kay. - Thank you Chair Arcand, members of the board. Tonight, we proudly recognize the outstanding achievements
of students from our trap and skeet, baseball, softball, girls wrestling, and boys wrestling teams. Congratulations to all of you on your state and national level recognitions. As a token of their accomplishment, students have received a certificate, a bear pin, and a congratulatory letter. Our dedicated staff and supportive families who made these successes possible. Please join us now in watching a video showcasing their achievements. Go Bears! (bright music) (bright upbeat music)
- Okay, congratulations to all those athletes and participants. Right now, we're going to move on to information item C2, Superintendent's Report. - All right, thank you, Chair Arcand, members of the board. We have a few items tonight. The district recently mailed a Bears update to all district residents. The full-page postcard is sent to residents at the end of each academic year and highlights district graduations, the retirement celebration, notice of free senior activities passes, and updates on our district-wide construction projects. Last week, we hosted our second annual Spirit Night
at Marketfest and worked with the fire department to take an aerial orange out photo. Thank you to those who stopped by to say hello. 4th Street was lined with over 15 district and student activity booths. The night was live with laughter, meaningful connections, and a celebration of all things White Bear. Please continue to find us at the district's booth on 3rd Street each Thursday through July to pick up a pencil and a Bear paw tattoo. Tickets to Mamma Mia, a summertime production offered through our Community Services Department, are now available. The show will run July 24th through the 27th
and will be performed at the High School Performing Arts Center. The link purchase tickets can be found in a news post on the district's website. The school district's students, family, and community engagement team is hosting a free ready for school event from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Saturday, August 9th at White Bear Lake Area High School. A limited number of new backpacks and school supplies will be available along with free school vaccines and sports physicals, food, important district and community resources, and fun activities for the whole family. White Bear Lake Area Schools Nutrition Services
is sponsoring free summer meals for kids and teens at several locations in the district. The meals are open to all children aged 18 and younger. The program has no enrollment requirement and no cost and the healthy meals are based on USDA nutrition guidelines. Find locations and hours on the district website. We continue to hire for the 2025-'26 school year. We need substitute teachers, bus drivers, para-educators, extended day nutrition services staff members and more. We offer competitive wages, flexible work hours
and a chance to make a difference for kids in our community. Find job postings on the website under employment. All right, and finally, as we prepare for the '25-'26 school year, we want to remind families that we are currently accepting enrollment. Please give your child enrolled today, please get your child enrolled today so we can welcome them into the White Bear community and get them prepared for a terrific school year. Find information on the district website under enroll. That's it. - Thank you, Dr. Kazmierczak. Moving right along then, we're gonna go to discussion item D1.
This is the first reading of school board policies 418, 501, 503, 515, 516, 534, 621, and 707, 709, 802, and 806. I just want to say that I want to thank the policy committee. These policies have been reviewed by the policy committee and they do a great job of continuing to update. There's a lot of work done there so with that, I'll open it up. Do we have any questions about those? If you do you can tell us the page it's on so we can look. - I don't have any questions, I just have a couple comments. I appreciate the resources when you read the policies
and at the end of the policies, they give not only the state statute, but they give resources that helped the policy committee and the district make good decisions about the policy, so I was thinking about the read act one and how they included immersion, education and I really appreciated that and also the one on school crisis where they talked about the I love you guys and the safe and sound schools training that many of our district employees have attended and really helps formulate those policies.
So thank you to the committee and also the resources. - Okay, anything else? I just want to remind everyone that these policies help guide the superintendent and the cabinet to create and run the district so this is the guiding principles that they use so we appreciate all the work. These will come back to us on August 11th for approval so you still got some time to go through and look at it. If you have any questions don't be afraid to give us a call or talk to Dr. Kazmierczak
with any questions before that time. All right, we're gonna move right along to procedural item A1 or is it? Sorry, I gotta turn this over. E1, Action on Resolution to Renew Membership in the Minnesota High School League for '25-'26, Dr. Kazmierczak. - Yeah, this is an annual approval item. Allows our teams to compete in the State High School League sponsored activities. So you were sent a link for a video
and your board members are asked to watch that prior to acting on the resolution this evening. But yeah, without going into a whole lot more, it's an annual resolution that ensures our students can participate in the high school league activities. So very valuable resource for us in the state high school league. - [Scott] You've heard the recommendation, can I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - Okay. But Ellison, do we have a second? - Second. - Second by Thompson. Any discussion? Yes, Miss Thompson.
- Just a comment on when we watch these videos. This year really focused a lot on players and our students who are athletes and their wonderful words of wisdom of how parents can support them by being more engaged in like just their child and not really putting all that added pressure on them that parents can often do at a game. The kids know what they're doing, they know what their sport involves and then takes from them and they really do their best
to play their hardest in every single game or activity they participate in. And really just hearing, like I just think all parents or anyone who has kids, or even if you're a grandparent, or a participator who just goes and watches sporting activities would really benefit from watching the video and listening to the students just give their words to wisdom. I'm always just amazed by how, well, I shouldn't say I'm amazed, our students are very brilliant and they're smart young leaders of the future.
So it isn't surprising that they have such great words of wisdom for everybody to kind of follow along by. And it's just always nice to have that reminder of how engaged they are and how much they care about the things that they participate in. - Anybody else? I just want to remind everybody that it's not just athletics, but it's extracurricular. It could be speech and debate. It could be one act play. There's so many things that are out there. Why this is important? Why do we have this in our school system? Well, one of the things that teaches our students,
it teaches them to work hard. It teaches them teamwork. It teaches them some of the work skills they have to have for the world. They learn to fail. They learn to overcome. They learn to continue to move forward. These are the things that our programs are offering these students. And it also gives them an opportunity to be part of the school. And we know that when kids feel like they're part of a school, they're more successful and they feel more belonging, that everything's runs smoother. So these are important activities,
important extracurricular activities for our students. And it's not about winning championships. It's not about how many medals you can win. It's about participating and learning and working as a team. I think that's important to remember. So I just wanted to get that in there. Any other discussion? Hearing none, this would be a voice vote so all in favor of approving/renewing our membership to Minnesota High School League say aye. - [Members] Aye. - Opposed, same sign. Okay, motion carries. (gavel bangs) Operational item E2, Action on the Resolution of Approving
the 916 Long-Term Facility Maintenance plan, Mr. Wald. - Good evening Chair Arcand, members of the board, Dr. Kazmierczak. Annually, the School boards of intermediate school districts approve their long-term facilities maintenance budget and as we are members of the 916 Intermediate School District Northeast Metro, 916 Intermediate School District and its board has recently passed its LTFM budget for FY-27 It is our responsibility as a member district
to pay our share of that. It's calculated using a blended rate utilizing net tax capacity and the ratio of ADM utilization by each district and so that's all broken down in the board packet. You can see what each district is paying. We're paying 9.3% of that $55,376.72. There's a resolution in the board packet today as well. The recommended action is to accept the resolution approving Northeast Metro 916 intermediate school district's long-term facility maintenance program
budget and authorizing the inclusion of a proportionate share of those projects in the district's application for Fiscal Year 2027 long-term facilities and maintenance revenue in the amount of $55,376.72 as presented. - Do we have any questions for Mr. Wald before we move forward? Okay, so you've heard the recommendation, can I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - By Thompson, a second? - Second. - Okay, second. Is there any further discussion? Okay, this will be a roll call vote. Will the clerk please call the roll?
- Daniels, aye. Ellison. - Aye. - Streiffoji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. Motion carries. (gavel bangs) We're gonna move right along to operational item E3, Action on 10-year Long-Term Facility Maintenance Plan. There again, Mr. Wald. - Okay, we'll stay focused on LTFM plans and this time it's our school district's LTFM plan. Annually, the school board is required to approve the district's long-term facilities maintenance 10-year plan
which is then submitted to the Commissioner of Education by July 31st and it must indicate whether the district will issue bonds to finance the plan. Reminder and the purpose of LTFM in statute, to provide sustainable predictable capital funding for facilities maintenance, ADA compliance, as well as health and safety expenses and for improvements in that area. In the board packet tonight is the 10-year LTFM plan,
the revenue and expenditure plans, as well as a more detailed plan breaking down projects, specifically for the first few years and then those become really categorical placeholders as we look out, you know, to year 10. The state authorizes two revenue sources for LTFM. One is local levy revenue and the other is LTFM bond proceeds. Our revenue projections, LTFM levy for FY '26 and '27 is in that range of $5 million each year.
And LTFM bonds are projected to be sold on a mostly every other year basis, beginning in 2026, '28, '30, '32, and then not for two years, and then in 2035. On the expenditure side, we have LTFM expenditures of $22 million in FY-26. Recall that some LTFM bonds were included in the tax impact statements of the 2019 bond referendum and we've been using those funds
to tackle deferred maintenance projects alongside our referendum projects. The remaining balance of those LTFM bonds will be spent down in the next few years. FY-27, we project planned expenditures of 13.5 million. The last page in the packet highlights projects that we'll be tackling in coming years. In 2026, it's a little bit more detailed if Kevin Fernandez come on up. Kevin will just highlight a little bit about in his first few years what projects he'll be taking on.
- Thank you. Mr. Chair, members of the board, good to see you. With this, as Tim stated, we kind of look at some of the knowns that we know are things that we have to do and we kind of look at it, I kind of look at it in a one, three, five-year kind of thing. One is immediate things that we need to address. Three are things that we know are based on forecasted periodic maintenance. Things we know we're gonna have to do in the long run. Roofs and flooring and things like that.
And then the five-year is something we operate off of through a facility assessment that was done back in 2018 that we continue to pick away on as we move forward. Some highlights for the upcoming year. I kind of break it down in the interior and exterior. Interior is going to be things such as, we've got the boiler replacement of Birch Lake Elementary. We have a chiller replacement at Oneka with building automation system, basically what makes it work. A lot of the mechanical, a lot of the HVAC interior air indoor quality kind of items.
We continue an aggressive transfer of our lighting controls and lighting to LED, which is actually come 2026 is a state mandate where you can you can no longer purchase non-LED bulbs and fixtures throughout. And we've been aggressive on that. That's been three years of constant progress in that arena. We have other things that we'll be doing interior with flooring, whether it's carpet, tile, issues like that, that we just know they've run their gamut.
I know we have some elementary focus on maybe some art rooms that we're going to maybe transfer over, so be a room here or there that we take the carpet out of. That's interior. Exterior, we're looking at things such as roof replacement. You know, we've talked about North Campus High School. We have Sunrise Mariner. We have tennis courts we're going to replace at Mariner this upcoming season. Parking lots, we're going to be doing Vadnus Heights Elementary and out here at Sunrise, we have some of that.
Windows are another one. We're at that time of the window life that we need to do some tuck pointing and sealing and items like that. So it's really an indoor/outdoor focus. I really like to make let every school know they've been impacted in one form or another. We've been to your site this year and we've done X, Y and Z and spread that across all the district facilities. So with that, that's pretty much the focus in a broad nutshell if I could. - And we know that along the way,
there will be some unexpected maintenance issues that come up and so this plan can be shifted and they mentioned that some of those funds as you look outward are in categories and we probably will be shifting some of those. Each year, we'll bring a 10-year plan to you and will make those shifts along the way. So that's what we have, the recommended action is for the board to approve the 10-year long-term facility maintenance plan as presented. - Okay, you've heard the recommendation, can I get a motion to approve?
- So moved. - Ellison, okay, a second? - Second. - Second by Streiffoji. Any questions or comments? - So when you make these projections, going out, so many different factors can change these projections. How often do you come back to this or I'm thinking about the tariffs. Is that gonna impact this windows, whatever it is that, you know, any of the maintenance? - We're constantly under review with it. Constantly updating as we work through this project
like I said in a 1 to 3 to 5-year, we don't know, those are those unknowns and that have what it's caused already is we've had to adjust some of that stuff so if we had a project we were planning to do and then all of a sudden the tariff costs went up, we sort of back off, give ourselves a cushion and maybe something doesn't get that done that year, but then it kind of gets pushed back and then we bring it back up and we just trust and hope those don't stay long-term that they mellow out and we're able to get back on track, but it means that something may not get done.
- So you just constantly evaluating. - Constant evaluation. - These budget numbers. - Correct. - Okay. - Yeah and some of items can be back burner items for a while and, you know, when they work their way up to the something unexpectedly works its way to the front burners and, you know, things sit on the back burner a little bit longer, but we remain flexible and this gets reworked every year. - Yes, Ms. Daniels. - I was just going to say the infrastructure, the schools are so important, but they're not things that people can normally see or notice so much, so I think it's I really appreciate the fact that you're so detailed and looking at every school
and see what it needs because it matters even if people don't notice it, it really matters. So thanks. - Any other questions? Okay, well, in hearing none, this would be a roll call vote. I'll ask the clerk to please call the roll. - Daniels, aye. Ellison. - Aye. - Streiffoji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. (gavel bangs) Motion carries. We're now on operational item E4, Action on Official Depositories for the School District Funds and Authorized Bank Accounts and Signatures, Mr. Wald.
- Thank You, Chair Arcand. This is an annual approval we bring to the board every January, but then when we have staffing changes in our finance office we bring it back for approval. So this change is to remove, is in the electronic transfers, we removed Sarah Andre who recently resigned and added April Livers who will serve in the role of finance specialist. So recommended action is approve the list of official depositories for school district funds and authorized bank accounts and signatures for 2025. - [Scott] Okay, we've heard the recommendation,
can I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - Thompson, second? - Second. - Second by Ellison. Any further discussion? Hearing none, this will be a roll call vote. Will the clerk please call the roll. - [Kathleen] Daniels, aye. Ellison. - Aye. - Streiffoji. - Aye. - Thompson. - Aye. - Arcand. - Aye. Motion carries. - All right, thank you. - Thank you. Now we're going to operational item E5, Action on the Designation of Identified Official with Authority for the MDE External User Access Recertification System,
Dr. Kazmierczak. - All right, thank you Chair Arcand, members of the board. So that was a very descriptive agenda item. I don't know if I have to go into it too much, but this is an annual action item by the board authorizing me to be that identified official with authority. Unfortunately, it's an acronym of IOwA, if you're not an Iowa fan you got to put up with that, but anyway, so the recommended action is, I'll read it and then if there are questions about it I'll certainly entertain those,
but move to approve Wayne Kazmierczak, Superintendent and Rachael Markuson, Executive Assistant to the Superintendent to add and remove names only for Rachel's designation there as White Bear Lake area schools identified officials with authority as required by the Minnesota Department of Education. So if there's any questions about that I'm happy to answer them, but this is just an annual thing so we keep up to date with who has who has approval who has access to certain functions on them, the Department of Education website so keeps things rolling. - [Scott] Okay we've heard the recommendation,
can I get a motion to approve? - So moved. - Thompson, second? - Second. - Okay, Streiffoji. Any further discussion? Well, this will be a voice vote. All in favor say aye. - [Members] Aye. - Opposed, same sign. (gavel bangs) Motion passes. Okay, so now we are on operational item E6. It's going to be Action on School Board Policy 702, 720, 729 and 732. These came before us for the first reading in May. Is that right? - Oh, I only see 613. - I only 613.
It's on that tonight. - Okay maybe my notes are wrong, so... - Graduation- - Just double check... Looks like it's just 613. - Okay, let me try again. The action that we're bringing forward policy 613, just came before us in May, sorry about that. I didn't write it down correctly. So can I get any... First off, any discussion on 613? Okay, can I get a motion to approve 613? - So moved. - Okay, Streiffoji. Second? - Second. - Second by Ellison.
Any discussion? I just want to say remind us the reason this is coming forward as we've changed the schedule at the high school so they had to adjust it to make it match. So that's pretty straightforward. All right, so we have a motion in front of us. This will be a voice vote. All in favor say aye. - [Members] Aye. - All opposed, same sign. Motion passes. (gavel bangs) Thank you, Ms. Ellison for catching that for me. Okay, it's now time for board forum. Are there any members that would like to share? Yes, Ms. Thompson.
- I had the wonderful pleasure of attending Marketfest this past week for our Go Bears orange out night. And it's always wonderful to just be there and be part of the community and have so many visitors. We get to put the bear tattoos on young and old. Everybody comes, everybody loves the bear tattoos. And even just seeing how many people come into our community from outside of the community, even from other states that are maybe visiting family or just on a vacation here. and how much they just love White Bear Lake
and the small town feel, but also it's a big town environment. It's just always a great night. So I encourage everybody to go on Thursday nights and just be out and be in the community. It's wonderful. The addition of the Go Bears this year that they made, kudos, that was wonderful. - Okay, anybody else? - Yes, Ms. Ellison. - Just real briefly, I wanted to say that I think it's wonderful that there's opportunities in the district for our students to get jobs
in the district for the summer. I think that helps build a lot of responsibility and then investment back in the schools. And there's many places where students can jump in to get a job in the summer. So thank you for making this available to our students. It's good, get them work and make some money. You want that Switch, go buy it yourself. (members chuckling) - All right. I just wanna mention that, many of you know that I've been on the executive team for the Ramsey County League of Local Governments. And in June, we had a sustainability
for school districts and for city governments. And I put the call in to see if somebody could help. And Mr. Wald stepped up, and he talked about what the district is doing, whether it was our busing, electric buses, or solar panels, other things we do, and he knocked it out of the park. And most of the people that were there, I should say all of them, were extremely impressed on your presentation. And it was well presented, and they were very impressed.
And so I took credit for it. (attendees laughing) But I just wanna thank you, because it's nice to be able to come and ask for things from Ramsey County Legal Local Governments, which we are a part of, and we've always stepped up and done a great job. So I just need to thank you publicly for what you did for us, thank you. Okay, anything else? Okay, well, the next two agenda items will be conducted in closed session. Labor negotiations will be closed to consider strategies of labor negotiations, including negotiation strategies or developments,
or discussions and review labor negotiation proposals conducted pursuant to Minnesota Statute 179A.01 to 179A.25. Also, review of the superintendent's evaluation may be closed to discuss evaluation of superintendent pursuant to Minnesota Statute 13D.05 sub 3A. Can I get a motion to move into closed session? - So moved. - Okay, by Daniels. Can I get a second? - Second. - All right. All in favor? I think this can be a voice vote. All in favor say aye.
- Aye. - All opposed, same sign. Okay, we are gonna go to closed session. So then what will happen is we'll go to closed session, then we'll come back out back into the session to adjourn.