##VIDEO ID:2sH_YsxlN94## 16 2024 and this is a regular school board meeting and roll call all board members are present and we'll start with Pledge [Music] of the United States of America the for it stands na indiv jce for all and we have the mission St Anderson the mission of the fly Public Schools is to bring together students parents staff and Community to provide the quality education with emphasis on developing the full potential of the individual thank you and we have an opportunity for citizens to address the school board is there anyone else that would like to address the [Applause] board hearing none we'll move on with um our meeting and we are state of um approval of our agenda however we have an addition to our agenda um we have a report here is the pre- report um for the um sale of bonds and we have Shel rep Point here tonight that's going to um kind of help us with this report and that will be um after A TRU and Taxation meeting so I would like to add that then as number eight um for convenience just to continue on with that discussion question and then we'll continue subsequently on just move each of those items down down so I would need an approval of the agenda um with this one addition we also have two additions to the consent agenda but we'll take care of that um with our next approval so we have an approval of need an approval of the agenda with the addition of the prale report for bonds and I would need a motion in a second ex me what about this one that's what so motion to approve the agenda with the uh stated additions of changes motion by Patrick seconded by Stephanie all those in by saying I I opposed motion passes um we have the approval of our routine business items which includes a consent agenda board bills and the approval of meeting minutes um so to add to the consent agenda we have two new hires and um this is our normal procedure to have new hires on the consent agenda we have a district Reserve float teacher Jennifer Harris she'll start that position with the district on January the 2nd 2025 up to 7 and a half hours on student C excuse me contact days paid at a rate of 2182 per hour and we also have an intermediate schooled assistant Tracy Wy starting on the same dat January 2nd at Step 2 1958 per hour up to 32.5 hours so I the approval of the consent agenda with those two additions motion to approve consent agenda with the addition stated motion by Patrick seconded by Nathan all those who in favor saying I I opposed motion passes um embedded within our meeting tonight is our truth and Taxation which is a public meeting um we have Erin NOA here as um our presenter she's our Director of Finance we also have Shelby here from Ellers and Ellers is our Public Finance advisor so we'll go through the truth and tab station presentation conversation um we do have the appr and certification of our final Levy tonight which is an action item um but there is an opportunity for um members of the audience to ask questions at this taxation presentation soever you're ready welcome to the truth and Taxation public meeting um I'm just going to go over a first few of these slides are just kind of um notices for the uh public and it's just stating that uh the truth and Taxation Law requires that cities counties and school districts follow certain steps before we do adopt a tax levy for the following year one of those is you receive a mailed statement in the um you received the mail notice in your mailbox uh for each property owner in the county which describes the different tax levies that are happening this year and what percent increase the levies will have second part of the law pertains to a truth and Taxation public meeting for each tax and jurisdiction and that's what we are doing here tonight we're going to discuss the property tax levy for taxes payable in 2025 I discuss information on the current budget and the public will be allowed time to speak and ask questions at the end just some key notes to remember that the revenue new formulas are set by the state legislature for voter approved except for voter approved referendums so it's has we don't make any those decisions it all comes from the state legislature there's local Levy and state aid mix which is called Equalization and those are also set by the state legislature and an increase in local taxes does not necessarily mean an increase in revenues for the school district so on this next slide just shows a little bit um kind of finds what's coming out of our general fund the and what is in the general fund I apologize Reven revenue is based on student enrollment the local referendum Levy is part of the general fund uh we have classroom instructions special education extracurricular activities Transportation facilities operations Capital expenditures and health and safety Code Compliance all come out of our general fund food service is our school breakfast and lunch program community service is a levy that's based on the adult population in the district The Early Childhood Levy is based on the number of children under 5 years of age provides for enrichment programs at any age level that are not part of the K12 education program Early Childhood family education School Readiness and adult basic education all come out of the community service fund and The Debt Service fund is based on annual debt retirement schedules for the district's outstanding bonded edness so annual Levy is for the payment of principal and interest as Bonds on bonds as du this is just an overview of our uh 2324 Revenue budget as well as our current year budget can see we are down slightly in revenue for 2425 and then the next slide shows where our school revenues are coming from so the biggest piece of the pie there 87% is state aid the next biggest one is 7% and natural is coming from uh the taxpayers property taxes 3% comes from federal aid and another 3% are local fees such as like activity fees and other things that we ask parents for this slide is the uh just an overview of the expenditures from last year fiscal year 24 as well as this year again expenditures we have our trending downward for this year compared to last year how are the general fund spent so this is just a breakdown of how um all of our revenue is spent within the district so district and School administration that's 4.6% District Support Services is at 2.2% regular instruction for our um gened students is 40.8% extracurricular activities 4.9% vocational instruction that would be our um Career Tech classes 7% special education instruction is 19.1% instructional Support Services 6.4% pupil Support Services uh Transportation falls under this one uh is 88.9% and our sites buildings and Equipment our maintenance things like that is 11.7% and any other funding that we may have is 8% so what do our expenditures pay for 58% pays for Sal in wages for the district while 20.7% are employee benefits 11.4% are purchased services so anything that we sign a contract for or we uh reach out to somebody to provide a service to the school that's 11.4% 6.1% are supplies 2.8% is equipment and 9% are other expenditures this is just showing all of our um fund balance information the one with the longest line there is 422 that's our unassigned fund balance but all of these other fund balances that you see listed here are restricted meaning that they can only be spent for what the uh legislature tells us we can spend it on we we don't have um the right to take something from say 472 and spend it on whatever we need to spend it on it is designed designed to go to very specific items could you clarify like what those numbers correspond to for people who aren't familiar with them um you know like like each one is what but like just couple so for example like our operating Capital we can only spend that on certain items um we can't use our Capital to go out and buy um think what we can a lot of things we can't buy our Capital that's to fix our buildings basically or to buy big equipment for our building um some of the other items there are staff development thank you staff development there's medical assistance that we can only use on certain items that are eligible for uh special education services a big example that we would use U medical assistance funds for are our school Vans to transport our special education students that need it's required in their IEPs I'll have some examples for friends watching at home as the were so the next few slides are going to discuss the actual Levy itself School District tax levy must either be set by state formula voter approved or board approved up to $724 per adjusted pupil unit the factors impacting the tax changes are inflationary pressure on real estate market abatements property improvements not previously taxed changed in individual assessed market value a possible change in property classification for example your homestead now goes to a rental property how will your 2025 tax school taxes be spent 61% will be spent in the general fund two 2% will be spent in the Community Education fund and 37% in The Debt Service [Applause] fund and this is our proposed uh Levy you can see what we did we paid an act or we received actuals in 23 pay 24 Levy we were about 3. 3,911 73071 our proposed Levy this year is $4,895 199029 an increase of 2.16% and you can see the differences in the general fund uh was a 41.6% from last year Community Services was 8% over last year and 6.08% higher in the debt Redemption so this is just a breakdown of where all of those changes happened our uh referendum and local optional Revenue was a change increase of $10,800 equity and transitional increase by $1,153 our operating Capital Levy also went up um building and land lease went up a total of $2,946 in that building in land leas uh the increase there is a result of Bon Stern's education District they service all of our special education students in uh out of the member district or out of the other District in the area and they are going out for trying to find a new property for our special education students so we can all be Under One Roof rather than two separate buildings um so we went we are trying to locate a uh a new building for that and we asked Our member districts to um Levy for this so that we could afford a higher a bigger building for all of us and for all of the students and not I'm sorry to interrupt you but not only bigger but safer safer correct and up to date up to code yes right the old building that we in was no longer was we were able to get I'm just going to explain for anyone watching so FY and several other school districts are part of what's called Von Sterns educational district and this is basically a big group of of of school districts who form another school district for our special EDS to provide services that are not at all within the realm of what we can afford as an individual District but when we all pull together you know we have a couple students who need this it would cost us an arm in a like here they have a couple more we start pulling together with all these sources we're we're splitting the cost and so if we were like not part of that District for instance and not seeing this number here and having to provide those services on our own it I don't even want to think about what it do to our budget it would be just astronomical and these are our students and so we are basically part of the Cooperative with how many districts six other districts were while splitting this cost and so because of the needs of these students um between their safety and their educational needs and now that we're the the BSE that educational District currently had two buildings which are not servicing the needs that we have whether it's in safety because the buildings are so old um they can't get parts for I think as a boiler that elevator a lot of those things that they just can't do and so when they went to see what it cost to renovate it was actually more than a projected cost for a new building so that's why that's part of this and again we're not looking at building a new building because expense we find that it's more feasible to be able to Losee a space and then rovate that space as more cost effective you toot still so um and so we've been talking about this um at various meetings how long has it been now since June May March March yeah time flies having fun so kind of give a little historical context several meetings with their board with our board representativ going back and forth between thank you for that clarification and I'm board so I see that our safe schools levy went down $432 career in Tech went up 9,736 193 and the long-term facilities maintenance went up $454,900 bond that we are going out for our IAQ project and that is where we're seeing the adjustment is on the long-term facilities maintenance and and may I just give the historical context that we also have been talking about that for quite a while was that also last spring we started talking about that last October I project was it last October so it's been about a year and um we actually can show a map I think we're talking CLE up on the website that shows basically the carbon levels in the high school um and green is good yellow is and red there's a whole chunk of red uh in high school and then the other problems we're having with it um I think is there's there's pieces that can't be replaced it's the original stuff from when the building was so right am I understand thatly numeric controls that are obsolete at this point so they need to be replaced but also our fire panel is non compliant as well so that's also signicant part of the project and then also looking at dehumidification of our bed deification does not exist in the high school um building minus um the auditorium but we've had to fix that and that's been a pretty hefty price tag and there's also a few classrooms but the majority of the building is not dehumidified but we're also looking at pling for the future and so our intermediate building is not dehumidified and so we're putting the infrastructure in this point to be able to have deification in the future and so is it fair for me to say that it's been about 30 years since this whole sector of the school has been touched so 35 since the building was built so I guess it be um 35 for the high school now you out about 25 for the middle school yeah but one pod here has been yeah I guess if we look at that system as being that old we got pretty good use out of it and hopefully we get a lot of use you know that's part of it I think too this is a basic infrastructure piece and I think to address the Cardon intake in the building also is either at a cautionary or alert level so you really do need to be aware of that um I think it's just good learning in some of our interior classrooms and Mr Boss correct me if I'm wrong um it's over 90 de in some of those interior was I mean definitely during the summer but even most September is above thei on we only have students become ill because of the heat we have also had staff as well um and unfortunately we can't open Windows because of school safety as well or CL doors so and I think in Miss n's presentation she'll talk more about the debt and so taxpayers are able to see where that falls off and why it was important for us to maximize this as well because um in the state of Minnesota school boards have the authority to Levy for indoor air quality project it's one of the only few things that we can love full without asking the taxpayer so I'm just gonna kind of summarize um so we've been talking about this for about 13 months we've had a bunch of meetings both um in committee out of committee uh public you know all that and it's really something that hasn't been touched for a long time this is kind of like the moment we have to do something is that the fair thank you let me just add when we built that building I said had put air conditioning in said no it cost too much money the ventilation system will be so good we won't need air conditioning sure of that so then they talk about opening the windows while I explain to the superintendent the windows open out so if you have a fly problem you have no screens was flat claws right from the side if anywhere around that first building open we had we killing flies fast as we remember I remember you remember well thank you okay so then just the other increase are um prior year adjustments $16,917 in in the general other general fund levies of $1 15,26 and to just to make note of why so much this year um part of it is during Co most people saw an increase in the referend their market value of their homes so because of that the state legislature looks at that and this is where Equalization comes in and they look at that and they say oh fly residents have enough money to make some of these payments for some of these larger bills so we're not going to give them as much state aid and instead we're going to put it on the taxpayers so it's a shift that the state legislature had made and that is part of the reason why our Levy is increasing so much because we've received less state aid for and hard to believe that makes any sense because we don't have the tax so SCH based on that Bas do you know what's the equalization that is that beyond that is State they they set all of that stuff so I don't I don't know that but it's all set by them and how because our in because all the referendum market value went up so much we look like a wealthier not like you know we just look wealthier okay so they on paper on paper so yeah so um and you know um Aon I think we'll just let you continue with your presentation because Shelby is here as well as our um Public Finance um advisor so we may have to rely on her when we're through with our hearing here uh community service fund uh Debt Service sorry community service Levy went up $111,000 in the debt service went up $102,000 $583 giving us a total change from last year of $984,000 thank you can I just say a couple things on that uh number one the governor ran on two occasions he promised to fully fund education we haven't got close to and so that was a campaign promise that didn't work out very well when I was done with the legisl of MSB legislative assembly um they talked about how many schools and they actually had some bills concerning that how many schools were getting grants and a lot of money on grants I don't know we're doing any of that grants whatsoever that could make a difference but again the uh whole idea of Equalization we got the loan on High School in the first place we got a low interest rate and it was what our ability to pay was now we're hearing that our ability to pay is actually more than what it is very lot of other schools I also did on the sen I did figuring now 25% if you look on the back you're tax 25% is way above everybody else but that isn't quite correct under the voter approved levy my at least on my bill was down $66 on the uh other loal level it was up 35% which was considerably more so I don't know where they came up with exactly I see where came up 25% but I I'm not good at math but my my percentage came up to about 15% increase more realistic um Shelby can you address that question on the legislation and Equalization yeah the equalization for operating referendum and local optional revenue is based on your referendum market value per pupil compared to a number that they put in statute several years ago and so last year your referend to market value per pupil unit was about 480,000 and this year it's 5 171,000 and of course everyone's just getting high higher but that number that it looks to in statute stays the same so those Statewide averages and values increased pretty um uniformally across the state the legislature did not decide to um change that number and statute to what it looks to to create the variation between Aid and lyers or ERS ers so does that mean that the state's essentially saving money yeah on this I should say on that portion four years AG y this is this is the public portion I'd like to okay so um at this point then we can open it up for questions comments um regarding the truth and Taxation um presentation there anyone that would like to speak on that and if you could your name please Dani 85th Street Northeast fi in first thing off I'd like to see some information in regard to the property values increase since Co I don't where don't know where you're coming up with that information for one thing but um another thing is this gentleman's question never got answered about the HVAC system or whatever the heck is that you guys are doing um I don't know where we got to go and get that answer for the increase of taxes let on property another thing is how many children kids and children do we have on open enrollment in the fley school district right now anybody know um those those people are not paying taxes in in for the fly School busing they bringing their kids in and whatever and whatever we're paying the tax for those kids as well just just so I'm I'm I'm we're receiving funding on those students say it again we're receiving funding on those students yes but a property owner in in this holy School District we're paying for those kids as well as everybody else in school on on open enrollment students because because of that mostly coming from State a we actually get more money for the school on an open enrollment student than uh is paid uh in the taxes we actually those are actually a boom to our budget right now CU I know Sock Rapids actually closed their open enrollment they might have had a saturation point and I'm just you know I'm wondering why the so so it's that big of a dollar factor that that's going to detriment the the school or it's going to be make the school better because you make that much money on a student coming in from let's just say mala or forest or or Little Falls or wherever it's it's been proved we drive in we make money on the deal it's a good deal for the school oh so so our funding each student is about $77,000 just a little bit more depending because they're they're weighted and so for us we definitely gain because of open enrollment and you're right the families don't pay the tax the tax stays back in their home District but we get we get the people amount and so if we lost that per people amount it would be detrimental to our budget we're looking at our exact number right now so we can that well if we could like to see the 400 it's about 430 students so if you think about that as $7,000 times the 430 students that's a significant amount of money that we're we're pulling in from the to address the question about so Rapids it can be common for school districts to close open enrollment and they have a space issue so if we ever got to a point that we weren't able to maintain so for example we border on some of our class sizes currently the board can opt to close open enrollment because we don't have the space for those students um there's a formula in order to do that it's just not something you can Hazard we do but that's not something that the board has entertained to this point so what do you get per student um on a basis is it under $1,000 per student or I like the way that you're thinking I wish you did get $100,000 no $1,000 I said it's 7,000 so oh it's 7,000 per child per year okay it's over $3 million and so if we didn't have that we operated on about $30 million we have to reduce our budget by that so it is significant for us I to answer your question about hbac so HVAC and IQ they're the same project they just they're just um interchangeable words we've been saying IQ indoor air quality because it also encompasses like the fire panels and things like that but that's the carbon all that that's all HVAC that's like all that that's what that is it's the same Pro so you got quotes on it three three different bids and different things or anything or have you been with the local guy because you like them or something or not or what we we have not contracted with we have a site project management company that will go out for bids for us to hire of the contractors but the board will have the oversight to choose who we want to work with so another quick question I haven't been to question earlier oh one one advantage we have is the kids want to come here we will drive into other school districts to pick kids up it's our benefit but also they want to come here because we have a good school and we have when we built these buildings we built them with extra room well as long as they're not troublemakers it's fine and dandy but if I got kids going to school here and you got troublemakers coming in from other schools cuz the other schools don't want them I'm I'm not going to be happy case they come in because they want to come in well I don't know okay one other quick question I like I said I haveen another meeting but is the busing owned by the district or they contracted out now it's owned by the district it's all yeah there's a couple of routes where we didn't have drivers and so we have uh a contract for two routes right with that's simply because we were unable to hire enough drivers this year to pick up all the children do you want to add to that I'm morec the truth taxation from the open for question okay so what's the total cost on your HVAC system I think we're going to get to that in our next okay sorry item on our thank you for your your interest are there any other addition just one quick followup I appreciate Ken uh touching on the uh Grant situation uh during the co period and I'm not sure if that was addressed or not was there something requested did you put put in for it were we denied was there any funds available would those funds be able to be used for what we're looking at now um I'm sorry I didn't catch the first part with the Esser funds but the Esser funds were during Co you're correct Y and because of Co I think the pandemic we've decided to done um thankfully and because of Co and S funds don't exist anymore so when you look at some of the issues within our budget we lost a significant amount of funding because we don't receive the Sesser funds anymore so that was around $800,000 that we lost in in Revenue um looking at this particular project um the inflation reduction act that is Grants and funds but that typically has more to do with geothermal energy and there's also a lot of requirements with that so the requirements would be um you have to put the money forward first um before you get the rebate back and there's a lot of different parts to it where it probably wouldn't benefit us to do that and the other part is other people that have used that the cost of the project has also been very significant just to bring this back um historically the district has looked at this project before probably three or four years ago if we would have done it at that point we probably would have saved $3 million if we hold off on the project things that do need to be replaced it's going to cost us more money so it will cost the taxpayers more if we wait we're in a really perfect spot right now and I think Shelby will address that so hopefully we can um answer some of those questions because you'll see some graphic representation about where um our debt is and where our debt will fall off So eventually the taxpayers will see a um decrease in amount of taxes and we've also been fortunate as taxpayers to um receive some loan forgiveness and so we have three more years to capitalize on that so we really do want to capitalize on that before we see the dip um and I think Shelby I don't want to steal your thunder so um I'm going to stop there and I I'll let you continue then if I just ask real so the the money that was available for ventilation system in schools during the Co period that would not apply to what we're doing here today that is correct so the co fund Esser funds that was quite specific so we could use those dollars to purchase technology so in our district for example um because students needed one toone devices and we didn't have that we um purchased one toone devices um we uh we could use a portion of that funding for air quality products however we only we didn't receive nearly and and don't trying to think of how much we we even received not even a million dollars not even close to where we would need to actually complete a project that was more for like um air quality machines and things like that not not for big projects we only had a limited amount of funds to use I I'm sorry sir when I I misunderstood I was what what we what we received was more um like the personal protective not not fixing mechanical systems okay so we had money for masks we had money for we used it for integration teacher to um help students that were C behind and then the eser funds or the co money was very restricted with what we could use it for and restricted on the timeline you had to spend it by a certain a certain date and I get the mask stuff and all the personal stuff I I looked I mean maybe I'm what I'm looking at is not true in factual I don't know but when you put in ventilation systems it seems like that was one of the big things that the government was pushing is to upgrade ventilation systems in schools um so I'm going to pull up those articles and that information and you're correct we were able to use some of that money for ventilation project but again we only received a total Esser amount for all of the different pots of Esser funding we've received about $2 million that's not that wasn't enough to do a project and buy technology and to buy all of the things that we were required to purchase during Co by the state so they did allow that you had to go through a whole process and get prior approval but it wasn't it wasn't feasible for us to use that because we had so many other things that we had to purchase as well and just so I'm clear and that period of time is also long past now yes those funds are right and correct over and I can't think of one school that used the funds schools were looking at buying technology because we weren't 101 and we were spending $300 a device and plus we had purchased hotpots I mean there was just so many different things in the technology realm that we had to buy that we couldn't afford anything other than that were there any other comments from so what do you have in your budget for a one and fiveyear plan I mean are we not going to because we've already got sticker shock here once with this tax increase is there something else coming up that we should probably plan for or you know to get in the near future cuz typically businesses always have their one to fiveyear plan now I don't know what you guys do and how your business runs but we have a we have a 10e plan but this is the the big item right now that has to get taken care of every school district in the state of Minnesota is required to have a long-term facility maintenance plan we just refer to it as our ltfm so we need to have 10 years of planning so for large scale projects so for example um a parking lot would be part of that um your Fields your roof is another one your boilers fire safety fire saf safy um by the state we're required to um re look at our background so I mean those are certain things that we are going to have to plan for in the future so you don't have nothing on the books now but yeah we do you do oh okay we have to every um school in the state of Minnesota has to um submit a plan to the Minesota Department of Education for their long-term facility plan so um within this project we have an L plan as well that's been submitted is that available to the public or not yes it is okay I want to find out because I make make the comment also the percentages are always relative for example if youare like with sartel they're having a much bigger increase than we are but they're only showing up at 4 and a half% because ours is so much lower to begin with so therefore it appears to be higher you have keep that in in fact in mind also 25% sounds terrible but and fley is the the biggest city that we have in our district and realistically there has been a building perment allowed in fully in what six years so we're not increasing the tax base at all 1% growth rate in the city of holey right now I will tell you this that um malaca schools actually dropped their student cost Ratio or whatever so 1.83 didn't isn't that what there y so I mean you you probably never see that I mean You' be like that'd be a rarity but surprisingly they did for whatever reason they're obviously their books are pretty tight or something we decreed oury last year two years and um Shelby did stay say to me that if somebody has their tax statement here um she's got another presentation next um but she did offer to look at tax statement if you have have it available she would be willing to kind of decipher it with you and and look through it um I think we're at the point where we need to approve and certify the final lby for discussion and our um public meeting is at that point so we would need a motion and a second for certification of our Levy I will make a motion to approve the certification of the final ly now this is the 25.2% I just want to make sure is there a second second second advice Stephanie so there's a motion made by Patrick seconded by Stephanie all those in favor signifi by saying I I opposed Iain so we have a 61 pardon me 51 with one obain motion passes um next on our agenda then is the pre-sale report of bonds and we have Shel here from Ellers our Public Finance advisor hi um been up in front of the board several times to talk about this project um and we're kind of at the the point here where you need some funds to um to actually pay the bills on this project now so um this this formality part of the Bond issuance started in uh July when you authorized your ltfm plan and then authorized the issuance of bonds and then you had sent the notice to the paper notifying the um the district that you would issue up to 13.8 million of uh General obligation bonds and so you as a district of course get your per pupil amount for ltfm but the legislature also grants you the authority to go above that $380 for for certain very limited number types of projects indoor air quality um and health and safety projects being one of those limited um factors or projects so in order to make the payments on these $13.8 million of bonds you will be loving additional which is what Erin spoke to as part of the TNT that increased one time and it'll stay at higher for a short period of time to make the payments on these bonds and then it'll sort of settle in with the once your existing debt expires so this pre-sale report is the informational piece as we go into the sale next month to set expectations of where we anticipate the interest rates to be um so I'll just kind of walk through everything but um you have the authority um to do this by the legislature 123 b595 um the bonds will be General obligation tax exempt bonds so um you will get a lower interest rate just due to the fact that they General Obligations um pledging your full faith and credit um and then uh the authority to issue those bonds is granted to you by the state as well um and tax exemp you're a school district in their public so um we'll issue the bonds for 16 years you as a school district could issue up to 30 but you sort of a threshold at which you end up paying more interest and that doesn't really make sense for you or the tax base so 16 years 11 months um and will'll pay principal um through 20 uh 2042 uh when you issue bonds and sell them on the public Marketplace you'll um guarantee to the bond holders that they'll be able to hold those bonds for a certain period of time we all Bonds in our um um retirement accounts but you will then be able to St um at a certain period of time about eight years that you'll be able to call those bonds if the interest rates are lower and you can save taxpayer dollars we'll do so at that time if not we're locked in at low interest rates we'll just stay stay the course and pay those bonds off um as part of the bond issuance we'll get two types of rating your underlying rating so which um is S&P uh taking in your financial health of the district um and putting that out to the market but you'll also get the State Credit enhancement program and that is the state saying that if you were not able or you or any school district participating are not able to pay the bond um Bond holders the principal and interest that they'll step in on your behalf of course they'll come in the back end and reduce your age but it is an insurance and gives you a better interest rate because you participate in this program um like any Minnesota school district it's good debt out there in the um market so we're going to sell competitively on January 27th and the you'll award that evening to the lowest true interest cost um bitter so the lowest bitter is uh is the winner it's a closed um sale that day they put in their best um the underwriters put in their best um best foot best foot forward and you'll take the lowest um and then the next few sections if we go down um just a little bit you'll um you'll have some obligations to the market as part of having debt out there um continuing disclosure you'll put your audited financial statements out there and should any changes occur to your rating um or paying off or um or just using additional debt you'll you'll tell the market that as well you'll be able to invest the bond proceeds um and use that money as well towards your project so uh the timeline there on the proposed debt schedule um is uh is listed there again I said um the formal part of this started in July when you authorized the sale of bonds adopted your uh 10-year plan uh sent the notice to the paper for the issuance of those bonds uh the due diligence and conf rating call will all happen in January um and then on January 27th is the day will'll actually take this on the bonds you'll have the funds available and we'll be able to start investing those in February so the schedules are um listed on the next several Pages we had an initial project cost of 13.6 million and like any school district project you have to take an estimate at as you go in and then you bid later so um so we're estimating 13.6 you to generate a bond amount of about 13.8 so you could pay pay cost uh underwriter discount legal and fiscal cost out of that leaving you um enough for the project cost the um initial estimates are a little bit higher and then of course depending on how bidding comes in and how the project plays out again very limited in nature and what the projects you can pay for so you can't just go and replace carpet with these bond funds if you have more funds available we'll have to um um uh find either narrow projects that fits this in Meet the bid specifications or um in it several years it'll play itself back in terms of giving it back to the taxpayers so the debt service schedule is on the next page there that is the principle and interest that you'll be paying but if you could take go to the next page to the um this is your long long-term capital plan and of course this is very difficult to see but we are monitoring your in debt for a few more years that the levy R sort of in the middle is the addition that the district had for the um uh in 2017 I believe that position was and then we're going to structure the new debt and I think it's probably best Illustrated on the next page where we can get the pictoral of this as we watch your existing debt come off um over the next several years we'll make some smaller payments in the meantime until that debt is actually reti at which point we're going to um pay the larger component of the debt off while still lowering the tax rate over time with the particular Bond issues so um happy to answer any questions on on the debt structure itself I think there was a comment made about the maximum effort loan Aid and um you can know see that while um while maximum effort loan that reduction that would can only be used to lower debt taxes was not used 23 and 24 we're taking that opportunity now in the next 3 years to mitigate that tax impact in the in the medium term to lower the um the impact that these new bonds would have to some to the extent po so am I understanding it correctly that that if we didn't do this few years to take advantage of the maximum effort load those those orange bars in those three years the green would go up to where the green is correct so it would cost us more than if we didn't yes that was um state aid that had come back from the state after um as a result of participating in the maximum effort program that is now coming back to the taxpayers I thought that loan was over after 30 years and we did that 30 years yeah so the maximum effort loan Aid the MAA the green bars there um are because uh the negotiations that went on with the state to say that um there was not uniformity and how much the state was paid back you were you were they forgave your loan but you were supposed to be paying into the state during that time and some districts paid in more than others so that is your calculation of how much interest you paid into the state over your period of time which you had the maximum offer loan Aid they added that all up and gave it back to the taxpayers we one Bond referend so you that is something you know long have is that one day Bond what's the difference between a bond and a levy so I you know I'll defer to the chair on if this is still an open session otherwise after you did say you would stay active so that might be okay thank you that might be good question to answer very quickly if you would like me to answer that what is the difference between a bond and time be um so a bond and a levy so a levy is just a tax um and so you're tax to either um pay the interest and principal and interest on the bond but I think generally when we think as schools of of a bond versus a levy is an operating Levy so a school district can go to the voters for an amount per pupil to pay operating costs in in addition to any sort of project the district does not have an operating Levy per people amount so a bond um is the debt that a school district incurs and that could either be a voter approved debt or a a voter approved Bond or a board approved Bond I just to say we only Built three great buildings within 10 year period of each and yet one of the things having beautiful buildings like this they have to be maintained so what's the age of the building where the HVAC is going to be replaced 35 pardon me close to 35 okay so if you can figure in the next 5 to 10 years you're going to be replacing the other ones as well that our 25 years old or whatever I'm assuming that's that's in our 10e plan that we can okay were you finished finished okay and this uh is there any questions um from the board for Shelby this is just um presentation I I apprciate only you will need to take action at the January 27th meeting to award the okay I just want long just point out the fact that when we built all these things and I I knew what I told the superintend we need auditory 350 people about enough I told him we need I told them we need a swimming pool we only have six Lanes we can't hold major Meats because we don't have eight Lanes um you know these things cost money it's a lot cheaper if you do it right away than do it what we finding out and you're still willing to stay if anyone has their tax statement or has questions even if you don't have your tax statement okay thank you so much our next um topic here is the vacant horse position that will be um open as of January 3rd 2025 and it is discussion action and so I would open um our meeting up to discussion on that so we we did talk about this set of work session two weeks ago I think it was um and I think we all kind of came away with the idea that we've had this past practice that we've used now a few times of opening up for applications and then interviewing any interested applicants then choosing from the applicant pool um we did that how many years ago we did it once with you well I I didn't I was not SEL but yeah that was probably six this years ago and then two years ago with Wayne so we have two t Happ yeah two times in recent memory personally I think that's probably the fairest thing um and then if people who ran want to come in and and do that again or maybe they decide oh you know not I I don't know but um I I it feels to me like uh we should be consistent that's my thought um I will just say that um Patrick is right we talked about it at the work session about what we've done in the past and doing interviewing and if that should be something we should do moving forward um but the more like I thought about the situation we were in when we the last time is that we had a board member that was resigning but we didn't have a recent election like we have not even canvas our new board members and so I feel that board members are by the public and they appointed by the voters and due to the fact that we just had a recent election that we go with the next highest vote reent on the board versus us trying to determine who's best on the board I think we knew that when we had our board workshop and we came to a consensus that we wanted the interview process we did but as I dug into it as I was acting chair when we did when Emily resigned and we did it for Wayne like he he was vetted he was all the things you know and I feel like why would we not go with what our voters want versus what's going on right now I think there's a lot more things important things to do than having more interviews more questions and then what so say you do this you're 3 months out right so say you do an interview or uh you fill out your pay for and that's got to be approved that's 3 months out a lot of stuff is going to be happening in the next 3 months now you're you're going to be person sh but going off next high entire public have a say on that I would like to see the new income board members at that point that Deion well I won't be here so so we got two new people coming in maybe they should but it was agreed upon to have it on this this agenda we didn't AG to it's on as a discussion action um I'll make a motion appoint the next highest from the most recent election so I'm we having discussion on a motion this isn't supposed to be AC it's a discussion action I yeah it's it's been on our agenda that we received last week so think mad chair you have a motion I was what the motion and then we have further discussion I'll so Stephanie's made a motion to take the next highest vote letter if I'm understanding your motion correct and then um Nathan has second it any further discussion so I'm going to point out the obvious the second the next highest vote hter is Wayne um so I I think it would be appropriate for Wayne to recuse himself on a vote for himself to be on the board that would be my thought on that I don't know it seems a little squishy to me how does everyone feel about that I mean we do all vote to give ourselves um we haven't done it in a number of years but we do all vote to um agree to our our wage that we receive yearly um which we haven't done in a number of years it's stayed the same but well and we're we're voting on two different terms I mean way is at this point hasn't even finished his current term that he's in so he's still entitled to a vote at this point um and the next term will start in January and if it were it doesn't matter who of those who it was the next highest vote it just so happens to be a current board member that's been vetted but say it was wasn't I mean it is what it is he's still serving this term so therefore he should have accept the position existing AC the motion the next because everybody does have to accept the position ver us especially considering the recent election vote what the voters want well yeah the voters did say what they want so a motion is in Nath Stephanie seconded by Nathan to accept the next highest vote getter to complete the V board position in January 3rd 2025 so elbows and fingers if you have something F sure it reminds me just basically of the a few years ago when the a party on the national level wanted to appoint somebody at the Supreme Court and the opposition said we got to wait till the new group come in make that decision and that's what they did but last year we are the last time we went through this we also had a situation where a board member was insistent that we choose somebody based on the fact that they were better and then and now it's different and I'm just that oh and then Ken if you didn't want it to be a discussion action item this agenda came up last week Thursday so you should have connected with me we could have had a discussion well I'm sorry it's available to board MERS on last week so we're ready for our vote with the motion made by Stephanie second by Nathan all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed okay I'm simply opposed to the process not the individual so the vote was 4 to three so the motion passes to accept the next highest vote getter to fill the B position congratulations thank you um we have the dependent search as an agenda item is discussion action um so we've had a couple work sessions regarding this we had to get the ball going with superintendent search um speaking with msba and um their legal team there we will we were able to um form a consensus um at work sessions and move forward with um an entity to start our search but is in the very very very early stages and um so we're going to um finalize that this evening and um it's been um consensus to go with Bruce miles um from the Big River group to conduct the search and I would need a motion and a second on that and there were um four entities that we looked at um as a group and we all did our due diligence and um you know put um put ourselves into action and contacted the entities and um it was decided upon the Big River group so um Madam chair I have a question um are we also going to have the actioning correct one thing on I was going to ask if you would give a little more of an overview regarding the group please all right so um spoilers for our next item which will be about the committee but um I'm on the committee uh for heading out to superintendent search and we're choosing Big River um which is done with Bruce miles now Bruce is actually worked the district in the past before my time um and I've had already several conversations with Bruce um because we said well is there anything we can kind of start before we have our official action and things like that um and it's been really good he's very inquisitive um and he he really is interested in us in um having a really good search but also it's not like the they're not just stopping when the day the search is over right they're also talking about onboarding proces and um and review processes and all all that kind of stuff too to kind of help us have a good transition and and everything and so I I you know last time we went with msba um they were one of the the groups who did look at at this time and I think we were kind of unhappy with the transition Services msba had offered us in the past so uh I I'm very excited about Bruce youo he I sent him an email and I swear it's like three minutes later I'm getting a text or a phone call he's just hyper responsive of everything he's very open to having like stakeholders very involved in other committies you know like similar to what we did last time and previous searches uh making sure that we're bringing a lot of different people and ideas to the table I think he's going to be a good fit for our community well some of our war also know yes so it's not like it's a stranger yeah I only I talk to him on the phone in Georgia I know so we're going to do some zooms and then as necessary when he needs to be here he'll be here um so for instance the the committee which is a non- quorum group of of board members so we don't it's not like it has to be a public thing we're going to have a zoom with him on Wednesday to kind of go over some of these first things one of the things he said the board can do before we we all kind of get going is kind of go through like what are some personality traits What are some uh emphasis what are some project you know what are like three to five year ideas we have for moving the district forward so that our last work session we talked about those things those aren't like hard concrete things those are brainstorming so now we're going to take take these things to Bruce the other other thing he said is hey have the have the board go through the current contract this a publicly available document I think on our website and he said you know go through how you know what do people like about it what people not like what do we need to change you let's make sure it goes through legal and all that so a lot of these proactive things is we kind of um set up for our search that we can do to prep for it and so I think we're going to be hitting the ground running I know I know Bruce he's he's a good guy uh you did ask us on superint contract to go with the green and do that well so that was turned it into me tonight um and then I'm going to coate all that and pass it on to Bruce are there any other questions for Patrick or any other the committee members regarding the big rer group and we're going to vote on the committee like actually give it official whatever but uh the committee right now is myself and Sharon and uh Bruce recommended one of our new oncoming members also be part of the committee and so um his visner wave her hand there has graciously agreed to help us with this as well when when she becomes a new board member so she's already uh got work uh homework set up for her when she joins us so I want to say thank you again to Pam for uh volunteering for something right out the gate like that so I need a motion in a second for the big group I'll make a motion second motion is made by Wayne seconded by Patrick all those in favor signified by saying I iOS motion passes and then we have the approval of the committee which is made up of Sharon K Patrick and Pam so I need a motion in a second for that approve motions made by Ken seconded by Wayne all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion passes and there will be other public committees too that will need to be voted on I think not sure 100% how that's going to work but that'll be time for you know teachers staff employees public parents community members of all kind uh and I think Mr Anderson has graciously said he would be L to uh be part of that at some point too yeah yeah so we're looking forward to everyone being involved does that need to be a formal motion too I think we're not quite there yet and if we need to we'll do it then I'll have to ask Bruce but he didn't even know this had to be a formal motion so I have to check with MBA and we have the F speech language pathologist mou which is discussion action so superintendent car um this last year if you recall of school year we had one of ours had retired and we had the position posted for quite some time for a full time speech language pathologist and we did not receive one application but we had quite a few students that still needed um service for speech and so looking at our numbers we had roughly I think we started with about 60 in the beginning of the year and that needed um some sort of speech service and at the time we have two slps in our district so um we had to be really creative and we had to offer virtual speech um T tella Health speech for our students and um the district and F the teachers Barb unit we work together to create theou and if you had a chance to work through it um you'll notice that we talked about that there was a short shortage of qualified um teachers for this ular position and there's just some guidelines that the union has to follow as well as um the school district um part of that is with a notice of assignment so if that does change that we would convene a meeting of all of our current um speech language pathologist to address what the needs are of the district and that um also in the mou we've discuss that the district needs to contract with a third party um private or public entity in this case we do contract with a service that's called Lighthouse and that was recommended from our Bon Sterns um education District executive director to obtain the services so the services that our students are receiving um they still do receive service from a licensed spee language pathologist and um they have to be highly credential so we're very fortunate that we're able to still meting a very high level of service for our students um you also the employment status because we contract with these with this entity the people that are providing the services to our students they are not our employees so they don't have any bargaining rights or any contractual rights um in in the district and continuing contract rights and then um also there's some language about um how our our students that are um being serviced by other 2s so for example um we worked very diligently on making sure that the students that are receiving virtual student virtual speech services that it's appropriate for them and we do have some students in the district that it is not appropriate that they receive virtual um speech services so that they do have their speech services in house and so that there's some language in the M about what that looks like um you'll see a maximum of five students from outside of their assigned buildings so for example there high school students that's it to go to one SLP and then each SLP is only allowed to um be in two buildings so for example working in um the elementary school and the high school and in this case you'll see that it's outline that the students that are receiving Services if it's from a different building we do have people that walk um those students down to receive the service from our elementary SLP is um as a comp of um speech language pathologist and a student on an individual education plan or an but there are assessments that are necessary and so the assessments are being done in house so the M specifies how we did the out those assessments so it's equal to our current slps and um because of the additional time that that would take we agree that um our early outs and then our um Rea dat trainings that they would use that time because they're not required as slps to be in the phase one training for the rap so they're able to use that time to complete any assessments um this M is for this year the conclusion of this school year now is this making up of the stuff they didn't do no that's different and so are we pausing in our search for an SLP or we're leaving it open or we um we have to evaluate our current students at this time to see if it's appropriate to how was three SLS all right cool thank you so is there any other discussion otherwise we need a motion in a second for the and speech language pathology motion to approve second motion by Patrick seconded by Nathan all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion passes moving on to our policies that were requiring review this is discussion only for first reading and call for public comment on the following policies policy 102 which is the equal Educational Opportunity policy 103 complaints students employees parents other persons policy 104 School District mission statement policy 530 immunization requirements policy 619 staff development for standards policy 704 development and maintenance of an invatory of fixed assets and a fixed asset accounting system is there any discussion from the board regard regarding the first reading on those policies I think it's basically MBA suggestions or so correct he you no further questions or discussion we'll go on to the policies reing review this is um discussion action they these are the third and final reading call for um comment polic 202 School Board officers policy 207 public hearings policy 213 School Board committies policy 423 employee student relationships and policy 519 interviews of students by outside agencies and um the policy committee did meet recently and there was no major strikeouts or really anything different than updating language from um msv suggest questions Mo approve second motion by Canon second it by Patrick all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed motion passes we have the budget and enrollment report M Mas right there it looks like we uh lost about five students this month um couple in the elementary or is it one in the elementary one in the middle school and three in the intermediate what we have currently in our ADM we is pretty close to what we actually have right here we have under we anticipate a lower ADM that's what we project a lower one so that it helps with our um Revenue at at and we'd rather undex Revenue then overstate our number so right now it is seeing pretty even we'll keep monitoring budget um [Applause] currently I if you look at the revenues for this fiscal year compared to last fiscal year it shows our local Revenue was um over 2 was 27.7 Million this year it's $283,000 and I just wanted to point out a big difference in that is how we are recording um a lot of our taxes um originally last year they had recorded differently and I have we changing that so it's not reflecting it goes to a balance sheet so it's not showing as revenues right now so that's why that's such a big difference um we also don't receive as much revenue in um November the month of November because of the taxes coming in but that's just put onto our balance sheets at this time um otherwise our expenditures are less than they were last year at this time which is good and we are on track to as to where we were last year with just a little bit better Outlook this year with the expenditures so far are there any questions from the board for this small um around this time last year we are already talking about um budget adjustments um what are any any thoughts about has any any thoughts been given to that sort of Topic at all yet I'm hoping to have a revised budget it might not happen until um February this year I'm working with Dion our payroll person we're going to try something different with our payroll budget we're going to build it right in smart and um might take a little bit longer than we had anticipated but our audit is not officially over yet so as soon as we get the official word from them I have actually already started on the revised budget um but I don't have um concrete numbers yet at all I do know our Revenue will probably not change very much because what we originally budgeted for revenue is where we're at with our adms currently so it's going to be looking at the expenditures we can see where we're at there thank you moving on to a administrator information and reports Dr do you have things to add this evening I do I just have a few things I wanted to provide um the board with update with the act and I believe the last time that Miss R was here was in October and the Lord has asked for her to come back in January so um we hopefully in January to talk a bit more about what's been happening and the different modules but you should be very proud of our staff because the training is not easy and especially going through the training it's it's very time consuming but there's really a lot of good information that um staff are taking from I heard um last week a teacher in one of the buildings said to the students that we're going to teach vocabulary different this week because everything that we've been doing is wrong so it is making being an impact in the classroom and that's what you want to see and so um we have another professional development day this Thursday and teachers need to be done with module um six and at this point we're at 61% of teachers that have completed module six so they'll have some time in the morning and this was written last week so I have a feeling that that's probably been changed a bit to module five are at 91% and module 4 is at 99% I know plans place for people to spend some additional time so my gut is telling you that everyone is through four and five at this point so that's something to be very very proud of um and again we'll have that synchronous of time on the 19th from 1 o' to 2 o' um the other part that I wanted to update the board very quickly about we've spent a lot of time talking about Endor your quality project and again we continue to have um calls with um site logic and at this point um by mid January um 95% of our um construction documents will be finalized and so when we get a little closer to that um we'll have probably a new board committee and we'll start pulling in um the facilities committee at that point to review some of those construction um documents because we should be complete by January 21st and looking at bid notice we're anticipating that around the week of January 27th um the bid documents are available on February 3rd and then we'll have a pre-bid walk through so we'll have a list of people that um will be invited and then we'll walk through the project with them so they understand what the scope of the project is and of course we want to make sure that we try to keep um the project as local as we can and then um the bid opening is going to either March 11th or the 18th and the part with the bid opening is we won't be making any decisions at that point because um psychologic will have to go through and V the bids to make sure that they're accurate that people really understand what the project is and then um we'll make a bid recommendation March 18th for 25th around that time depending on how the board um meetings fall we may have to have a special board meting because we don't want to wait till April so we want to make sure that we got these things in line and then finally the last thing I'd like to say is happy holidays to all of our staff and our students and community members if you're in the buildings right now it is a very joyous and jolly times so very very busy for everyone thank you Miss Mas do you have anything for yes I just want to clarify I am so sorry I read the wrong number when I was talking about the revenue we received in November of last year it was only 970,000 2 2,774 was our actual yearlong local so I just wanted to make that known to you as I apologize that You' had a lot of [Music] numbers um we do have winter break coming up December 20th through um School resumes then 2 of January and the organizational meeting will be held on January 6 2025 we also have some committees to report um I believe F area foundation met on November 23rd I was not able to attend that meeting um but what was discussed was um fundraising letter we'll be going out to commity members so that was the big discussion Dr per do you have anything else to add regarding that you said because I hly forgot okay it's been a while so thank you for that you're welcome um then health and safety also met so if we have a Committee Member that would like to report on that okay um and policy V and that was discussed tonight with our reviews um we have an opportunity for our administrators to comment Mr Ang do you have anything just a few things to share tonight um each School across the state that's a member of theate high school has the opportunity to hand out uh the Excel and the AAA award uh the Excel award goes to a junior um who is doing well in school participates in associate High School league Fine Arts and Athletics and then has a leadership role uh at the school and then also has a community service component in their Community uh AAA is for a senior um this goes to a student a male and a female student who excels in academics the Fine Arts uh and Athletics uh once schools have selected the application process gets submitted um to different regions and Statewide so we'll find out in the next few months um if our recipients uh have received any additional accolades um our Excel Award winners were Ava trf and Noah Brun and our tripa Award winners were Helen Linsky and Aaron Vander uh the the weit room some of you may have seen some some posts about that that completely fundraised project uh is starting to make some good strides uh we have uh some donations that have been coming in that has met to kind of go over our strategic plan for how we want to approach various different businesses uh and then some grants uh that we have found have also been applied for um the largest of which being the bernick Family Foundation Grant which can be awarded up to 40 ,000 um that goes to Youth and education um and then youth health and fitness so the two main checkpoints that they look for in that one we find out mid January um if we received any funding uh for that particular uh Grant um just kind of the the only other uh things to to kind of touch on all the the coaches and advisers from the grant reach conference met uh early November in PE and to to go through all the policies in the handbook and and provide suggestions to activities directors for changes within the conference um and then one of the decisions if you been to to kind of some of the activities this year is uh the conference it's not just a FY uh decision but the C sad girls basketball declining numbers just depend of across the state of Minnesota um we made the decision that up until Christmas break to as a conference we didn't play any cquad girls basketball games um that will get relooked at in the next few weeks here as the eighth grade season does end that break so you have potential more participants to to get your numbers up now that their eth grade seasons are over that's all thank you Mr yeah I just like to thank both Ken and Becky for years of service on the school board uh it's great uh great work you guys have done and uh there's a lot of institutional knowledge I'll be walking away after these years to thank you for everything you guys have done to for intermediate school and fully schools in general so thank you um tomorrow morning 9th grade choir and Intermediate School CH band are going to be playing in our elementary school hallways for students so little early thank you to them um and Wednesday morning is our December assembly our annual December assembly event I guess so um if you're in the building that's at 9:00 so that would be something to see thank you and we have opportunity for board member comment um Nathan Anderson uh nothing I'm good Patrick um I want to say thank you and farewell Madam chair Becky and Mr Ken Anderson over there many many years of service um to this to this community to the school I'll say thank you very much um I know like it's been really great for my first four years to have uh the depth of knowledge was on this board and still still grateful that you know we're going have some new members coming out but we still have some people more experience um with us but yeah it is the institutional knowledge is going to be missed and I think especially in the case of Mr Anderson who taught here for a number of years and has lived here and his kids went here and all that there's a lot of times when when he'll mention something that only if like you were a student here back in the day you probably would remember those things and that's that's something we're really good to this too is that that holistic knowledge too not just being a Community member parent but also a teacher I appreciate that told me I will be on the board until January 6th because my term that's what my term is so technically I one more board meeting oh you do no you'll be done before that you're done before but anything if something happens up until that point everyone behaves so they they can you have any comments yes I have a bunch of them here I want to congratulate Laur Andi for being a new service Food Service person I think she'll do a great job she's a great tradition to follow but uh she's been part of that along the way uh we have here Ben Sterns I talked to uh our director there that they're going to have to look for some some some you will take that up I've been on there a long time I've seen a lot of things it's a great organization P pointed out it saves us a lot of money things that we couldn't afford to do uh so that's important uh also in the future I know we're we're getting somebody else who was retired I don't know after when to Darwin I hope he has an active part in this new building program because I kind of hope he'd be some of our meetings when we're discussing things and nobody knows the building more than Dar does so I hope we certainly include that you mentioned the AAA selection I was I had a two-year Atty being one of the judges on tripa and it's quite a beautiful wonderful thing to see the people come in and give any of those to the selection process I always go to the district meeting this year in Albany and I've been help since it's great and one of the years we actually picked one of our represent years but it's a lot of responsibility great great kids come that situation uh also want to point out since we had our last meeting and we got our ESS we had two people from three people only two people and it was great great thing going on and I it's an interesting thing about it it was created by superintendents and one of the guys two people in particular uh from one was from Buffalo and the other one was sock Center the Buffalo one is still there and I commended him in front of his board time teachers because it's really just appreciate that we appreciate those people with support staff and sometimes we take him for granted certainly don't want to do that uh I also spent a few days last a couple weeks ago being at the legislative body um for bmsp and there were 120 board members there so it's really unque there were there's no clicks every school basically that that board members there and so I got a chance to meet and talk to a lot of board members from all over the state and uh he just walked in just unbelievably welcome you there was one thing that I was little concerned about the came up that they were trying to uh change the state law apparently the state law says you can't expel kids and they wanted to change that so that he could expel kids and personally problem with that I think he Spelling kids and getting them out of the school doesn't do them a bit of good you know but I listen to schools that came up and said listen we're a small school we have an alternative school but we have a small school and we have a kid that is out of control and then the the parents grade school and they having all kinds of problems and the parents started sending to other schools and it's really could be very harmful both ways I saw both sides but uh youve been to our past so that was interesting but it was very very rewarding and uh I guess that's very it just wish everybody Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year thank you Stephie um I just want to thank the community members for coming and being part of this meeting um there's a lot of information and as much as we would love to be able to engage we can't can't do that um but I do invite you to reach out with questions because that's how we learn we ask questions and we get the right information so I would invite you to reach out to the school district itself before reaching out to you know somebody that maybe just is frustrated so thank you for coming and Becky and Ken I wish you the very best and I wish you endless am alls of time to do what you love to do thank sherff um T the season for concert the fourth concert was indeed a very patriotic concert that stirred the hearts of this wonderful Ro Community um thanks to the district that provided um me with the opportunity for for professional development at the M Summit um it is the best learning opportunity of the year to me congratulations to our education support team resource training and solutions for providing districts the opportunity to celebrate these Heroes the junior high one act was just fun I think it was fast food and and it was just really unique and the students actually wrote one of the scenes and I thought it was the funniest one um our students were um engaged thank you Janelle Hesh for um she just always goes above and beyond I want to thank um The Nutrition department for the great Thanksgiving dinner I got to help serve and it was so um so tasty and I want to thank these people for making it happen I got the opportunity to attend the fs FES band concert for no the FIS for five six seven and 8 and the FHS um concert the FIS sixth seventh and eighth grade Coral concert um also there was the intro to uh guitar I I'm upset about missing tonight um FHS choir concert um our music program is Al and well I want to thank Ken and Becky for their service um Ken's been my go-to for years thank you Ken um I want to thank Sarah daylor for her work at fbes as administrative secretary and welcome to Heidi Miller our new secretary also welcome to Lori landowski as our nutrition direct director and thank you Cheryl Pi for your work and for your phase out as previous director um condolences to the Donnie beer family 58 years he saw our students back in forth to school um good news the water issue for the city is up and running congratulations I think that's a something we've waited for for a long time I want to thank all who showed up tonight and finally Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night I one more thing uh very good dear friend of mine and educator and who's been on the board of for over 28 years her name is uh F solers she's undergoing very serious surgery tomorrow be coule very life and I kept in contact with my vice chair resource and I was vice chair ofs and she's an outstanding person pray a lot for um and I would just um end with a question for for Shelby so um the approval of the certification of the final 11 which was action um item tonight it's my understanding that if that was not certified I mean we authorized all of this back in July so I'm a little confused on the go um because had we not certified that I mean we could have run into major problems with breach a contract I we could be to by cic and those that are already gone forward with all of our sign documents correct correct okay so thank million we would have lost5 million that V okay so that's where I was a little confused believe July pardon me I believe the vot July it was yeah that's why I was confused okay so um that's all I have this evening cor I just want to make sure that people are the board especially with project that of meetings he is pain he probably spends the most time on anyone psychologic and he was just with them recently he's got another building visit coming the beginning of January so he is very very important to that project so involed um I think what Mr Anderson was referring to is the Minnesota for people's dismissal act in Minnesota we are still able to expel students I'm thinking that it's probably non exclusionary discipline thought um with what was discussed at because that was a legisla change that we' discussed I just want to make sure the board is aware that we are able to still expel students if necessary but there is a l process to do that thank you so I would need a motion and a second for second motion