##VIDEO ID:uiHKMlNhAzM## welcome to the Little Falls school board meeting this is August 19th 2024 we are at the Little Falls Community Middle School in the media center please stand and join me at this time for the Pledge of Allegiance 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 our district mission statement is the Little Falls Community Schools work together for each learner to achieve academic and personal growth in a collaborative safe and engaging environment do we have any public comments no we do not thank you I will not accept a motion for the approval of the agenda with the addendum as printed so moveed thank you and a second I'll second thank you we have a motion and a second on the floor for the approval of the agenda in front of you any comments questions or concerns hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed next we'll accept a motion for the acceptance of the consent agenda the consent agenda includes the Personnel approval of the prior meeting minutes and approval of the financial transaction a motion please so moved thank you a second second thank you we have a motion and the second on the floor for the consent agenda any comments questions or concerns about those three items hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed next I'll turn turn the meeting over to Kelsey for the resolution for the acceptance of gifts whereas the following have generously offered to donate to the Little Falls Community Schools therefore be it resolved by the LI Falls Community Schools Board of Education to gratefully accept the gifts Flyers athletic boosters gaming account donation of $3,500 to the Little Falls Community Schools for Four Wind nets for the tennis courts Kathy adamc donation of $7,100 for the Little Falls Community Schools Randall area scholarship fund and flyer athletic boosters gaming account donation of $3,500 to the Little Falls Community Schools for soccer goals can I get a second I will second okay and then a roll call vote Dan yes Mark yes Julie yes Doug yes Sharon yes myself yes thank you Kelsey each board member has in front of you um some of the flyer Pride slips and we're asked at each meeting now to read these off before they are given to the recipient of the fer Pride award um Dan would you please start with yours so first one I have is for Jackie Fritz Abby p and Dr Knight excellent opportunities and experience es for Kinder camp at Dr Knight so much energy enthusiasm and love for their students from Leah rosi uh next recipient is the summer school staff at Lincoln providing a fun and engaging learning environment chrisis recipient Connie gastei for Lincoln secretary grateful for Connie's leadership prepping for registration week Chris dois Janet Toma for early childhood Jana is learning a new role while supporting my learning within Little Falls Community Schools from Carol Potter Kevin Keaton for Dr Knight thanks for holding down the fort at Dr Knight and getting the building in excellent condition for students Mark deal and Chelsea Robinson is HR coordinator Chelsey is exceptionally friendly and approachable making her an ideal representative for new employees as they enter the district her positive attitude and willingness to go above and beyond are truly appreciated thank you for all you do Chelsea Lisa salberg thank you Dan Mark ah Paige Keane student volunteer thank for thank you for your incredible I get that right thank you for your incredible help during the uh Kinder camp this summer you made a big difference in helping the camp ran smoothly you are a great role model for the students we are lucky to have you as a partner of the team and thank you for making a positive impact from our superintendent Greg Johnson and jeie pansky uh secretary Dr Knight jeie has been so helpful in my transition to Dr Nate thank you so much from Leah uh rusy Bonnie Jerry tholan Food Services kitchen manager Bonnie thank you for your flexibility and understanding during summer child care you had you worked it so your hard work is so appreciated I love when I hear best lunch ever from the kids at the child care and kada Gruber made that nomination raal trescal Lincoln School raal is a phenomenal communicator and a great liaison between preschool and Elementary she understands our various Community connections can always Point students and families in the right direction thank you thank you for all you do Rael Janet Thomas made that nomination Glenn saber District w wi thank you Glenn for all of your hard work and dedication to taking care of our School's district grounds the pride in your work and your commitment to our district is awesome thank you made by Rusty GL and to the whole summer school staff thank you for your dedication to students during the summer months your planning are or teaching is much your planning and teaching is much appre appreciated from Nate Miller all right I have Hudson gu student of volunteer thank you for your incredible help during Kinder camp this summer your help made a big difference in helping the camp run smoothly you are a great role model for the students we are lucky to have you as a part of the team and thanks for making a positive impact superintendent Johnson Michelle Carl districtwide thank you for all of the effort in coordination with Summer Transportation by Nate Miller Heather Olen Early Childhood secretary Heather thank you for being being so willing to help with anything I appreciate you and all you do Kayla grber Chelsea Robinson HR Chelsea is such a kind and helpful member of our district office staff she is very patient and understanding she is efficient and knowledgeable I appreciate all her work thank you Leah rosi Jenny brag community services and you soccer coach Jenny is a go-getter she takes a k123 grade soccer like a champ thank you for stepping up and doing such an awesome job Kayla grber Sarah rustad Community Services Sarah always goes above and beyond in everything she does I appreciate her willingness to be a yes lady to help grow our programs thank you Sarah Kayla grer we have Leah Rosy at Dr Knight thank you for the ex exceptional way you've managed your transition to the principal of Dr Knight uh your commitment to the students staff and Community was evident from day one Dr Knight is in good hands with you at the helm Mr Johnson Kelly presser thank you for your positive impact on the district office and support of the school board and superintendent your hard work professionalism and positive attitude make a difference to our entire team thanks for all you do Mr Johnson Chris dois at Lincoln principal Chris has shined in is starting his new role from the public commenting to me on his strength with communication and organization to me receiving requests from him on information pertaining to his building and preparation for the new school year is impressive keep up the great work Chelsea Robinson John soak okay coordinating uh he's a custodian coordinating cleaning teams and working hard to get our building clean and being flexible and accommodating into summer programs Dan fiser uh recipient is staff that attended the Avid summer Institute and I just have a big list of names Leah rosi Dan fiser Rusty gu Lynn gu Lauren stanowski oh boy Addie McCoy um Jonathan LaRon Magie Ruby Megan yep thank you from the stands Michelle gats April El Brent art Kermit yep thank you Christy holiday um Kelly thank you Laura Linder Hill an awesome week of learning and growing from Leah rosi and then Jada elol Aquatics coordinator Jada works hard to provide as many opportunities for our community to use the pool she has great relationships with the pool staff making them want to return year after year she always has a smile on her face and brings Positive Vibes to the pool thank you Kayla Gruber and Sarah rustad Sandy rudak recognized by Dan fiser Sandy has been working hard at getting new students registered and planning for the school year she's been a huge help for me as I transition to my new role Sarah rustad uh is recognized by Greg Johnson thank you for your unwavering positive attitude and deep commitment to Community Services Your Enthusiasm and dedication make a difference in the lives of staffs student and Community thank you for creating a welcoming and supporting environment Greg Johnson is recognized by Lisa salber Mr Johnson is is an exemplary leader whose dedication to advancing the district is truly commendable his supportiveness and approachability have had a significant positive impact on our district making it a better place for everyone thank you Glenda Davis uh recognized by Lea rosi she is a teacher leader and has been very helpful with my transition to Dr Knight I appreciate her Kayla grber is recognized by Greg Johnson thank you for your incredible commitment professionalism and patience as you navigated some difficult transitions this summer your steady guidance and dedication ensured that we continued to move forward and finally Amanda scuza recognized by Christ dois um outstanding lead with summer school planning and preparation thank you I have a recognition from Carol Potter to Nate Miller Nate has worked hard to help me transition and learn the many P many prices of of little Point get the right word here pieces pieces of Little Falls Community Schools with a smiley face sign signature Kinder Camp teacher and staff this is by Chris doas providing a welcoming and fun environment for our incoming kindergarten students which is very important um Larry edgarton is recognizing Peggy rad I appreciate Peggy's leadership of summer school at Lindberg due to Peggy's leadership summer school is one thing I do not need to worry about and I think every principal or Administration appreciates that Lin Schmid is being recognized by Mark deal she is a cleaner at our schools thank you Lorraine for all your dedication and Leadership with the student summer cleaners your ability to push students to do the best job possible in a kind and caring way is very much appreciated by Mark deal Glenda Davis and Mark Fritz of Dr Knight um you are outstanding experienced for students that attended summer school at Dr kn they are both amazing Leah rosi and Christopher M Mich our business manager um recommended by Lisa Suber Chris is highly knowledgeable and a pleasure to collaborate with he consistently demonstrates patience with addressing questions and is exceptionally accommodating when it comes to scheduling meetings thank you for all you do Chris thank you to everybody who has made these recommendations and and recognitions to the staff that we have everybody I really appreciate that you take the time to do this that extra little o kind of makes a people's day we're going to go into presentations now our first one was with Mark deal and Mich Michelle Carl um and it's a transportation updates for us good evening Madam chair members of the board um Michelle Carl and I are here tonight to give you an update on some Transportation things that will be taking place and changes that will be coming uh this fall so what we hope to do is give you an overall an overview of the entire Transportation plan um from the changes we want to talk a little bit about the sale of some Transportation vehicles and annual inspections so first of all I want to acknowledge um these folks on this list um Michelle and I couldn't have done this on our own and uh going to working with uh Heidi and Joe from Palmer and strock was huge um they were very supportive of the changes that we wanted to make the way that we wanted to look at some things differently um the admin team also for being flexible and being willing to think outside the box a little bit uh to try something a little different and then to our grounds crew who's busy trying to get our Terminal Hub uh repaint numbers repainted because of new bus positions and finally to Michelle because she's the one that makes all these routes work and um and gets that going so they're all a huge asset uh to this whole process plus this shows that it wasn't just a market mup idea this was just have a lot of buying so let's talk about uh the transportation plan first we're going to talk about some route changes then we'll talk about the changes to the transfer Hub and finally we'll talk a little bit about changes over at Lincoln Elementary with the bus pickup and drop off I'm glad that Mr doas is here if you have questions about that so route changes for this year um we've eliminated three routes and so by eliminating three routes obviously you have to take those kids and put them on other routes right but um we're very grateful to both Palmer and stro for their willingness to to look at the routes with us and say yeah you know we could probably eliminate this route and um and and help create some more efficiency and help us with some cost factors as well so we're very grateful to them for that um Michelle could you just touch on where those uh three rotes are so Palmer bus route 18 is an in town route um and we were able to open up some other areas for other buses to pick up as they're coming in and it would eliminate that in town bus and we could utilize a couple other buses from uh Northeast and Southeast to pick up those students um one of the other things I should preface this with is we changed our registration process typically every year we roll over whoever was on a route last year if you haven't moved then nothing's changed well the by doing an online registration I only route students that have registered this has brought our numbers down so we know exactly who needs a seat on the bus so that that way we can better control the numbers of routes that we have so Bus 18 was one of them in town that we felt we could eliminate and pick up fill up some of the other buses um route 90 was actually um uh Northwest of Little Falls but not quite to Randall um I think the number of older students that um were on that route started to drive or graduated out and that was a very simple one for poers to say you know what let's take 90 that was their first first route they're like we can eliminate this so and then Bus 55 is a Randall bus a sto Bus 55 did some picking up of students and bringing them to Route 57 and then would pick up some more students and give them to rout 50 and then come in to Randall uh with our numbers again we were able to eliminate 55 and um send those buses right into Little Falls to do their transfers in Little Falls and then um any Dr Knight kids on those routes will be shuttled to Dr Knight which we've had a shuttle bus for numerous years that does that daily so all that to say we haven't reduced like the area that we cover with buses we just reduceed the number of buses that are covering the area so nobody's being forced to walk to school because we're not providing a Routt anywhere I think that's important to recognize I I want to add to that too I did some um numbers here and with the special ed routes last year we had TW because this is only General Ed routes that I covered um the special ed routes we had approximately 20 routes last year 20 different Vehicles going out and doing special Transportation as of right now I've cut that to 13 um granted I don't have all the students registered yet for special Transportation but we are working on that and it looks like it's going to be right around that 15 16 so we may have even cut four roads out of there so that is huge this year with the larger groups going onto these buses now which is very very wise of you how much does it do the students have to get on earlier for them to get the any more pickups done uh I have not noticed that a change in the times and a significant change in times um we have worked hard with the administrative team to uh make sure we know what their start times and you know when they want to start their school day and when they want to end their school day um it has not ex extended the time on the bus one other thing that I am considering during which um I have to look at the numbers yet but our open enrollment mileage is high and that mean I mean we have done a lot of door Todo busing in the past in in the past I feel that it would be better for us to do bus stops like a bus stop in swanville one in Royalton one in Pierce instead of doing all these door-to-door stops for our open enrollment we technically only have to go to The District boundary but we've been generous enough to bust them and I think we need to dial that back a little bit as well so that is one thing that I'm planning to do here this year so so let's talk about the transfer Hub changes because this is probably the biggest change that people will notice um in terms of uh especially for students that ride the bus so the purpose behind making these changes was first of all to improve student Safety and Security so you have to think about the fact that our youngest Learners that ride the bus are all coming over from Lincoln right and so if we were to ask those kids at Lincoln to um you know have to navigate from one end of the bus terminal to the other and I'll show you a map here in a second that would be really tricky and so we we've worked to try to figure out how can we make these buses work in teams of three okay so that uh we can we can make this whole process be more efficient so let me just give you an example I'm going to pull up this uh if you can pull up the next slide keep going one more there you go I realize this is a little bit tricky to see but if you if you notice each one of those kind of colored ovals is represents a bus and so we have three like at the top right you have three uh pinkish colored buses there right and one of them the first top one says High School 12 the next one says Lincoln 14 and the bottom one says M 15 so those three buses are going to work together so all of the students that have to transfer a bus to go to Lincoln so our youngest kids their transfer is only to go to one bus either to the right or to the left they don't have to where before they may have gotten on way down here in the in the bot they may have been on a transfer bus that was down in the bottom left and had to move all the way up to a bus that's on the top right we've eliminated a lot of that by having them go one bus this way one bus that way or they may be staying on that bus because that's the bus that they're going to ride home okay so if I'm a high school student on Route 12 and that's my transfer bus to the high school but my normal bus is Route 14 bus 14 to get home again I'm just moving one I might have to move two if I'm if my normal route home bus is Bus 15 okay so by asking these buses to work in groups of three we're eliminating a lot of the traffic that H that happens out at the bus terminal with kids going from one bus to another bus we're hoping that by doing this we're going to get these transfer buses to our goal is to get these transfer buses into the Hub 5 minutes before we dismiss both Lindberg and middle school students so if we can do that then we can have all of these transfers done before those middle school students come out and the lber students come out thus eliminating the number of bodies um moving around some of them maybe not doing what they should be doing um we're just trying to make it safer and more efficient and hopefully then we can get the buses out of here um in a much more timely manner so for every group of three you've got a transfer bus that's going to go to the high school one that's going to go to Lincoln one that's going to go to ml the only change is if you look at the yellow group down in the corner there's a DK bus and not a high school bus that DK bus will be the shuttle bus that'll run back out to Randle with the kids from town on it and those high school students will just be hopping on to uh from those three buses we'll be getting on to bus 57 so it's again they're not they're not moving very far but we tried to put the DK shuttle bus into the middle of the bus lineup so that we eliminate as much walking as or as much confusion as we can any questions about that are you going to somehow code these buses I mean kind of like color code them or or is it going to be just you're just using that for example purposes we're using this for example purposes right now um I think it'll be for the my understanding and Mr doas back there can correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is that those kids are going to come out of the school with a tag on their backpack that's going to clearly identify which bus number those kids are supposed to be on okay and hopefully the transfer the transfer bus driver will be able to know I need to watch for this student to make sure that they go to the bus to the left or to the right so doing this approach honestly we're sending more transfer buses over to Lincoln than what we need and we're probably sending more transfer buses to Mar of Lords and what we need and probably even the high school too but it allows us to it allows us to improve the Safety and Security of those kids and so we felt that that was worth the tradeoff any other questions so over at Lincoln um historically the Bus drop off and pickup has been along the north side of the building here on uh Second Street Southwest or Second Avenue Southwest excuse me that is now going to change to the south side of the building and that will allow no I'm not going to get into the whole parent pickup and drop off but that will allow for a little bit safer uh parent pickup and drop off process as well and U Mr doas can talk to you at another meeting about so let's talk a little bit about some Transportation Vehicles so we're trying to uh the district is going to be trying to sell uh a 77 passenger bus that we have and a 25 passenger bus that we have those buses are um we we don't have anyone licensed to drive them so right now they're collecting dust for us and so there's no point in US holding on to them um and we'll utilize those resources in different ways but the business office is handling that right now and so if you have questions about that you can address those over to Chris on the next slide we're doing some the buses are going through their annual vehicle inspection with the state patrol this week um we'd like to thank Palmer bus for allowing our vehicles to be go through that inspectional their facility they're gracious enough to make the space available to let that happen um I correct you mark sorry um now that we have a bus garage the Minnesota state patrol does come to our bus garage to do our inspections but still a thank you to Palmer bus service to their mechanics um and their staff for allowing our vehicles to be inspected pre-inspected by them they know the ins and outs of the buses um they do the the repairs for us when it uh when one of our buses has some issues and they know what to look for when it comes to annual inspections that changes their focus changes every year on different parts and pieces of vehicles so um their Palmer bus is a huge help to us getting that done and those will be taking place Wednesday this Wednesday so so if parents have questions about Transportation Michelle's the person that they need to get a hold of and her contact information is there and I'll entertain any other questions you might have my only question was I mean one of the things that came up when we talked about grade level banding about if I have a student to goes to Lincoln and goes to you know the middle school or something I mean time start times all that stuff is is addressed in within this schedule yeah so um the buses are scheduled to arrive at the Hub here in the morning at 7:45 then they are scheduled um to leave the Hub at 7:50 so we're allowing for um 5 minutes for the transfers to happen and uh the um shifting of students now if you've got if you're or three buses are all here at at you know 7:40 could they could they make their swaps sure absolutely they could so we're our intent is that we're leaving at the Hub at 750 so we're trying to so the Middle School um well the Middle School start time is being set by the middle school and they they get to choose if they're going to start right away at 7:50 or or they're going to start later um we're not getting buses over to Lincoln until 8:00 that's our scheduled time and I believe a scheduled start time over at Lincoln Mr dolas can correct me if I'm wrong is 8:10 so um we've tried to build in that flexibility to allow parents time to get across to home okay and it'll with every school year we find the first week to two weeks is that adjustment period where we're doing this everywhere across the district as far as okay the buses are coming in we can get them out this sooner or we need a little bit longer we'll make those adjustments on our end to accommodate the the start times in the buildings and of course watch what the parent drop off looks like in pickup times superintendent Johnson asked me the other day if I'm confident in this plan and I said yes but don't judge me on day one right because you because there's too many variables on day one and it's it's a new process for everybody and it's going to take a little bit of time for them to learn it but once we get into it I think it's going to work really really well I would say with grade level banding the other thing we really heard from parents is this transfer system and like the Hub and all the things so I appreciate you guys working on a a strategic plan that helps us kind of alleviate some of the fears of the the parents those little ones keeping them safer thank you looking at this and the color scheme and everything brings back my awe that I had back when Mr bori did that outdoor graduation and the cars just kept the the flow you guys are amazing thank you for the time and dedication you did to this for the safety of the students so you're welcome thank you thank you guys our next presentation is the one that we've heard so much awesome compliments about so the Kinder Camp team can come up welcome Cheryl can't sit in back all right good evening board members we're here to talk about Kinder Camp it was last Monday through Thursday from about 8:00 to noon um I'm Emily nyow one of the kindergarten teachers KY dois one of the kindergarten teachers chery Moore kindergarten teacher and Brenda Keane also kindergarten teacher so we just wanted to let you know a little bit about how our experience went and really just thank you for supporting us the last couple of years doing this um we wanted to um kind of tell you from the students perspective the parents perspective and us as teachers what the benefits that we've seen in it we had um I want to say 97 or 98 registered out of the 120 kindergarteners not everyone showed up but that just I mean like we this is amazing because like now all these students have had an opportunity to come into the building um they've had an opportunity to learn our breakfast routine our lunch routine hallway expectations they had um many of them rode buses to and from so they now have that experience they got to meet new friends um and just their playground experience and everything and they got to do it without having all of the students and staff there which um we've been doing it for a couple years over at limberg too and just that in and of itself having them be able to come in and experience the building without all of the kids has just really taken a lot off of those first a Jitters um that we've had um lots of less tears the first week and things like that they had an opportunity to go to each of our classrooms we did different themes throughout the week so then they got to meet all of us teachers whether you know so I'm not your teacher but they still know Mrs ke or they'll have all these familiar faces um and we were lucky to have um some other staff members helping us um Miss Allison and Miss Joel from preschool help that was a big help too so um and Rael oh and yes and Rael so we kind of had a really solid team together that really helped um and I just think it just from their perspect from the kids' perspective I think there's going to be a lot less of that nervousness the first week for them and for us so we mentioned that they got to come to each classroom so you'll see up in the corner of each slide that we had a theme in each classroom and bugs was the first slide and then camping now is the second slide so I'm going to talk about the parent who also got to experience a little bit of the separation anxiety in a small dose having them only gone four mornings um they got the experience of doing a dropping off and picking up possibly for their first time at Lincoln Elementary and also uh having the bus pick up their child and drop them off so waiting for them for those first four days so from a parents perspective they got a little heads up away from when all their other kids were leaving or when um their family Dynamic may have been changing so the little one was gone but they may have still had some older ones at home where on Wednesday it's going to be a little bit different when everybody leaves the household um this was talked about a little bit too but from our teacher perspective um we were able like Brenda kind of said earlier to meet all the students so um not only students that'll be in my class I was able to meet all of the kindergarteners especially again they come in on that first day and there's first graders and second graders and they're lost and I think it it'll help that we know them all or a familiar face at least all of us for them to reach out if they're lost um we were able to learn several names and teach and practice so many of the routines without everybody else around and then we just want to thank you for this experience for supporting it it was a really great experience for all of us for the kids um and then we also want to thank you for the sixth section um and is a Le at those numbers um some of our anxiety it looked really nice Kinder camp we had about how many in a room 25 between 26 and 28 in a room it's going to be really nice to have those numbers lower with that six section so we thank you yeah and thank you for Kinder camp and hope that it can be something that's continued on throughout we've just seen so much of the I mean I've heard from parents personally too that have said how awesome it was to for their kids to have that experience so I just think all the way around the experience I we're hopeful that we can continue this experience each year Well we do it for our middle school and high school kids so I don't know why we wouldn't you know and then the last slide is just a little peek at the all the kids that were there fantastic do any board members have any comments or questions for these ladies thank you for your dedication so how many kids did you guys have then in each of your sections then for Kinder Camp how many were there between 26 and 28 depending on the classroom so you had 20 so like they start with us and then they rotate each rotate each day as a different teacher and very 25 so it depended on attends that day so that's where little Paige and Hudson came into play and then also thank you um thank you to allowing um Allison and Joelle and Rael we couldn't have done it without having two adults adults or for those numbers or one or an adult and a helper in our in our classroom honestly it really is too it was really a lot especially cuz they are so new to it so we appreciated that we were able to have some extra hands there too and you know even the cook the cook at the D commented she goes this is so great because now those kids had an opportunity to walk the the lines the way they're doing it and just that and of itself is going to be so just makes that first couple weeks so much well if you would have been in the cafeteria on Monday versus the cafeteria on Wednesday it was like night and day I mean it was chaos the first day and loud and by Wednesday they were going to the table they needed to go to sitting down and just talking to the kids at their table and then getting up and dumping their trays and lining up with us it was amazing the difference just in a couple days so now fast forward to the first day of school and maybe 20 kids weren't at Kinder Camp so they're going to be the only ones that are really going to need for us to focus on what they need to do in the line and stuff so it's going to be super nice now this is your third year doing it four Lindberg is well we were at we're this is our first year at Lake so Lindberg has been doing it four and you this is your this would be so each year have you added something that you thought of afterwards we should try this oh yeah so what are your ideas for next year um more of the organization we talked about having a home room next year where the kids come in and they go to The Home Room that might not necessarily be their teacher but it could be their teacher and that's where they get their sticker for where they're going that day we bring them to breakfast then after breakfast they'll go to their rotation where we tried to do it this year we tried the first day giving them their sticker in the lunchroom which we don't know any of them so that was hard or the next day we started out having where they came to the room did a coloring activity and then they went to to the breakfast so we've already been TW the first year that we had several Transportation buses so the first year we did this I believe was like the co year and so I think we had like one bus maybe two but the rest were all parent drop off and pick off well this time we had six so with the kids going into each room differently at at the end of every day I'm going through my list making sure this kid gets on this bus so that's where that idea came from that they would always leave from the same room so that every day I know with the same kids I know where they're going so you're I mean we made it work but it's just something that could be more efficient and a little less stress for next year I think we talked about doing different um themes themes and then we're also hopeful that maybe to have one more of the kind one or two one or both of the other two kindergarten um team members be able to join in on that too that would make this you know smaller class size and just um so yeah well thank you ladies awesome thank you thank you and just to note they we also hosted Kinder camp out at Dr Knight yeah thank you how many students at Doctor night Mrs Ros good good experence thank you our next we're going to move into the superintendent report for Mr Johnson yes as I begin my report if I could invite Dan fiser and Carol Potter up to the table my apologies Carol we are going to put you on the spot and I'll just start with a couple of updates um just to note this is our last Schoolboard meeting at the middle school beginning in September we'll be hosting Schoolboard meetings at the district office located on Riverwood Drive and we'll also have our student reps join us beginning in September and I had the opportunity to meet with Molly petrowitz and Ellie Larson this summer and talk to them about roles and responsibilities and they are very excited I know they have big shoes to fill but I think they'll they'll be able to do it as you heard tonight uh from our Kinder Camp teachers and with the flyer Pride cards a lot of positive comments and successful summer school programs that wrapped up in the last week really excited to do that we also hosted our registration days again in early August that were very successful we did a little bit of a uh administrative recap and evaluation and we're thinking maybe next year liit limiting Reg ation days to just one day this week also very busy we welcome our new teachers to the district tomorrow and Wednesday we meet with them right away in the morning and then again Wednesday they meet with their building principles and mentors enrollment updates you heard the positive comments from the kindergarten teachers thankful for an extra section of kindergarten but right now class sizes at Lincoln are 20 and 21 in kindergarten first grade 20 and 21 2 grade 24 and 25 at limberg beginning in third grade those are at 24 or 25 fourth grade at 27 or 28 and fifth grade at 27 Dr KN numbers we expanded enrollment for preschool so we're up to 18 preschoolers which is perfect we have 14 kindergarteners 23 first graders 19 2 graders 203d graders 19 fourth graders and in fifth grade we have 17 students and then you don't hear this very often but thanks to a budget surplus the high school league is reducing their fees for member districts if you remember back during Co when they increased their fees how difficult that was so do noted that they will be going down well I want to welcome our new Middle School principal Dan fiser and special education director Carol Potter and if you the two of you could just in a minute or to introduce yourself to the board and welcome okay um as Mr Johnson said I am Dan fiser um a little bit about myself I grew up in central Minnesota I grew up in Pierce so just down the road um so Little Falls friends and family in the area um I started my career as a school counselor in the brainer District I spent 10 years in brainer Public Schools as a school counselor um I spent the last three school years in the Onamia District as a one year as an elementary Dina student and then the last two years as prek through 8 Elementary principal um so yeah I'm extremely excited my wife and two kids we live in Baxter right now um my kids are s and four and my wife is in nurse and we're extremely excited to just kind of be a part of the community here and be a part of um Little Falls Community Middle School and we're just kind of doing a lot of things right now getting ready for the school year lots of new enrollments and getting schedules kind of finalized for kids um we have a lot of really good programs we're focusing on uh some literacy development right now at the middle school and there's some initiatives that I really C uh hope to keep on going here um that have been put in place by previous administration so I'm really excited to to get kids in our doors and to get going so it's nice to meet you all welcome okay thanks T it's hard to follow about that um I just want to start by saying um I feel so honored to be here in Little Falls I haven't worked in a district before that has been so welcoming from teachers to custodians to administrators to everybody wants to team and partner to figure things out which is amazing it is it really really feels good um I come to the school district having been um a teacher myself I was an elementary teacher and then I was a teacher of students with learning disabilities on the special education side and then I was a special education supervisor as I became an administrator an assistant principal a principal um an executive director of student services and and special education and then I um came to little so I'm really really excited to be here and um the things that we're working on right now is um Nate Miller and I and uh Jana as well are really working on building those foundational pieces for what special education should look like or we want to have it look like in Little Falls and so we're trying to build those Pro programmatic pieces and then plug our leadership team into those programmatic pieces and you know kind of divide those responsibilities so we know and teachers know who to respond to and so we're just developing the pieces around that we now have all of our positions filled um they interviewed for some parent Educators today and I'm hopefully hopefully that those will all be filled um as well and so starting the school year with everybody in place feels really good uh focuses this year will be on due process we want to put all those pieces in place and then instruction as well um in the past there may not have been as much training around that due process simply because it it takes a lot of time um to do that but we have figured out some time to plug in and help teachers learn those pieces around du process and that's another one of those layered pieces that we're figuring out and it feels really good we're really making some good progress it feels good so thank you I'm really glad to be here welcome welcome welcome welcome I'm going to borrow a statement that Mr gerby has used every year if you need something let us know if we can help you get it we will and then we'll get out of your way and I kind of paraphrased it Mark say much more eloquently than yeah it's nice you took all the squar words out well we want to live in it a little bit and we're televised but yes we we definitely every board member here is here to help you in any way we can thank you thank you thank you for being here okay we're going to move into new business at this time and the first is an action item that before we have the presentation we'll need a motion and a second so that we can after the presentation we can move on it and that is for the ideal energy presentation so we have a motion please un moved and a second a second are we voting to do this tonight yes that's why we need a motion in a second and we're going to have the presentation and then we can and discuss it then we can have discussion right away so we're moving into the ideal energy presentation on solar energy panels Rich can you hear me Rich hold on one second my volume is maxed out and it's hard to hear we're going to try to adjust that as Rich will explain board members we we've heard about the scho the solar for schools for a little while and the deadline and Grant opportunity from the state was extended to July 31st so we uh Mark began engaging with Rich to look at how this could positively impact the school districts utility usage cost savings and that's why we're really under the wire as far as approval goes in a normal situation we' we'd want to present this and then have you approve it at the next meeting but in order to move this forward it would take approval tonight the deadline is July 31st is that we've we've been given a grace period we've we started the initial process but ideal understands that it takes board action before we can move forward yeah and Greg can you hear me hey there we go we can hear you okay yeah I think uh because there's some additional requirements of this program tonight um the approval that I'm looking for is that you approve that we move uh forward with a full Grant application and um we can at a subsequent meeting have that final approval if and when you guys give that to us so I think that's that's the goal of this one I'll inform you of what what's going on you guys can answer ask any questions and um but I'm really looking to get uh the approval for IDE deal to move forward with the final Grant application that uh is going to be due uh once we uh we're supposed to know in the next uh two weeks whether the Readiness application was approved with the uh funds preliminarily approved which every application that we put in has gotten that approval and so then we'd go to the next step of getting that final Grant application and that's when we can get that kind of final approval from you guys that makesense that makesense yeah thanks Rich okay great so then I'll just kind of go through again my name is Rich ragot from ideal energies and uh our company we've done half of all the commercial on-site solar that's been done in the state to date and uh we kind of have a special focus with schools to date we've done 200 school projects around the state and uh in addition over and above that 200 we have 140 projects in the uh solar for schools uh first six rounds of the program and uh I'll move forward so uh you guys are fortunate to be served by Minnesota Power there's only uh there's only a couple outstate utilities that are non Exel that allow the larger size systems and they have a program that fits nicely with what we're talking about so um we're looking at getting a half a million dollars of grant money uh for this project uh from the the Department of Commerce to help make this a better uh a better solar project and feel free along away if anybody has questions just let me know okay so what we're talking about here is uh using this uh this area here the the Natural Area um putting in a ground mounted solar array uh with some native uh plantings um and we're looking at a 275 kwatt uh size ground Mount And if the kids wanted to go uh go over there and look at it you can walk through the rows if they happen to touch the panels um they're they're not uh they're low voltage so nobody's going to get shocked and uh we're going to have some meshing on the back side of it so the kids can't get in and uh mess with any of the electronics here's a picture of what uh hopefully it'll look like when we get the native grasses and plantings going along with the solar and then here's uh maybe I'll uh there we go so what we're talking about with this um our company um we uh we pay for the system and install it and then all your only obligation is to pay a discount on the energy that's created during the uh 20-year payback and so I'll go from left to right here this 275 kilowatt solar array will create $ of projects already with uh Minnesota Power Paul hellstrom over there and uh this is what you're going to get in terms of uh Savings in year one we're going to pay you rent Revenue um so that we can get uh get out there and operate and maintain that system during that 20year payback so anything that happens will be out fixing it if it happens so you got total revenue of $50,400 in that first year um that's a a monthly payment you can choose to do monthly uh twice a year annually however works best for you guys and then you also have to get a rider on your insurance policy because day one you guys are fee title owner of the system and that hopefully won't cost you more than $600 to get a rider on your insurance policy so you got total expenses of year is here in the second to last column of 35,940 and uh uh the last column is on a cumulative basis so if I scroll down a little bit here uh you're going to save uh over the first 20 years of our payback of $958,000 over the 30-year panel warranty you're looking at about $884 million of savings and over the life of the system we're looking at 3.1 uh $92 million of savings any questions on that yes okay um couple actually have a few questions so um first is is there any learning opportunities with the I I know there's some panels or some programs out there where like science kids can kind of get out by those panels and and it can be incorporated into the kind of the curriculum and stuff is that a POS possibility with this one yes absolutely and that's actually a requirement to this program in our company um we help set up this program uh you have to uh use this in your curriculum somehow some way and we've been providing educational materials that are up to the three current learning standards in the State uh we have uh two programs right now kind of uh it's designed around the fifth and sixth grade science classes and then there's also an 11th and 12th grade uh kind of path ways program for kids that might not want to go to college and they can learn about the other trades and things that they might be able to do after school um and so yes definitely uh uh we have a monitoring platform this is some stuff I'll touch on later on in the uh uh presentation but a great question okay um my second one is do you have are there are there any in existence right now that have been out there 20 years that can bear these numbers that can I mean not projections well uh we have 650 solar arrays that we've installed and we have about 400 of those that are uh we're managing for public uh for schools cities and counties and we know exactly based on our existing um stuff uh what it's going to produce in terms of one water power at your longitude and latitude and uh so our our oldest systems are 12 12 years old okay all right and then my last question and maybe you'll get to it um maintenance repairs how does how is that handled well during the first 20 years we take care of it and then if you go back to the this middle column here if you can see my cursor uh it shows uh after uh year 20 uh 21 you can see that it goes uh well that must be uh yeah uh that's an inverter replacement in year 21 that's factored in these numbers um so what I'm trying to show you is every time uh you might have an expense um it's in the cash flow here and then you can see that after uh in year 29 you got a $6,800 expense that's if you wanted us to continue to operate and maintain the system um you have to pay not only your Rider on your insurance that'll be probably 900 bucks in that year but also another uh 6100 or you know $6,000 for us to maintain the system but you can see the the value of the energy is about 107,000 in that year so it's probably worth it for you to do that we'd be welcome uh we'd be happy to do that if that's something you wanted us to do and we have it in here assuming that but you don't have to do that if you don't want to okay thank you so is the system life then we're between 1 and 40 years is that no it's it's 40 years there's a 30-year warranty with the panels and there's no moving Parts with this whole system and uh we make sure that uh the uh the tempered glass that is used is uh is a strong uh you know 3.2 mm glass we've just found uh you got to find stuff that's resistant to hail because there's been a lot of hail events in the state and if you uh pick cheaper panels that uh don't have a thick glass hum you're G to have some issues potentially so then do you recommend after the lifetime of these panels that we would we have to replace them at full cost well You' yeah you'd probably replace them the uh the racking and the other stuff that's there you could still use that um that should last longer than that but uh if you did get uh um wanted to get different panels uh there the panels are made with no hazardous materials they're considered electronic waste uh so you could uh that would cost you 50 cents a pound at the local uh dump site to to get rid of them um but there's actually a recycling Market that's out there and so whenever you guys choose to do that um somebody will actually come by um and uh probably pay you $10 a panel for the recycling materials in them we're talking 40 years in the future I don't know we know any of those answers you mentioned hail what about um this area most years last year it was an exception the the snow and the ice issue with the panels yeah so in our production numbers um when we first got started back in 2010 um the uh manufacturers didn't factor in snow cover in their estimates when they tell us what the panels would produce so we we smarter about things now and we factor in um in the uh the four winter months two of them uh in uh uh December and January we reduced the output of what they tell us by 50% and then in those uh in February and um November we take a 25% uh reduction in what they're telling us that the panels will produce we like to have happy customers not angry ones and want to make sure that the estimate of what it's going to produce is going to be something realistic what about the actual damage from heavy snow on them um the uh these panels will be at a 30° uh pitch uh angle so uh you're not going to have a lot of snow that sits on there there'll be some snow that sits on there when you kind of get that freeze Tha and you get it iced up but uh it won't be uh it's not going to adversely impact the uh the panels thank you uh so realistically we're paying for these panels over 20 years and after 20 years they're the school districts well they're um you guys are fee title owner the the day the systems turned on your fee title owner and I take it then we work with Minnesota Power I now do do we get all the energy from it or is this going to a grid and it's shared with other people and they buy it from us no no you're this is U behind the meter so we'll connect to your bus bar in your electrical room and so it'll take the energy created from the solar array first and then if you need additional power at the time it'll supplement it from Minnesota power but the great uh thing about this program is they have something that's called annual banking so that uh in the summer months when you're probably not using as much power um and you're creating a lot of energy the uh the solar power that's generated uh accumulates on your bill as a kilowatt hour uh credit so you're not selling it back to uh Minnesota Power at a um at a you know a wholesale rate of like 2.3 cents you're getting the full retail value of it as long as you you use all of the Power that's created then there's no adverse back pattern where you're you know uh getting uh 2.3 cents reimbursed uh instead of the retail rate now the energy that this solar panel produces just goes to the high school or does it go to the other schools also it goes right in to the meter um at the high school there so then it would just be for the high school yes yes correct okay and I'm assuming that you've calculated how many panels we need um well uh you could you could do a larger size system but uh you don't have the space there in that area and um um this is a good size for you okay all right and then you also mentioned that when when we when the life is done with them uh we don't have a a disposable problem no can dispose them this isn't hazardous material where would have to have a special contractor come in and okay no no in fact the the manufacturer has a production based warranty so that uh after um I should step back here that U the panels have something called degradation so in year one we take off 2% of the production reduce the production by 2% and every year thereafter by 0.45% so after 30 years it'll still be producing 85% of what the manufacturer set up uh day one and so you still have a very productive system after 30 years so you're still going to get good production in those uh uh years 31 through 40 and uh even after 40 years you'll people there even uh not only wanting to recycle them but probably take them and use them because they'll still have some good production out them okay um well I understand that we Ure them so if there's hail damage or wind damage that that'll be replaced but what if it's a mechanical breakdown in the panels where a panel has to be replaced who would cover that expense the school district or does your company pick up those we've never really had any mechanical breakdowns um the the solar panels themselves have a very very low um uh probability of being bad panels it's like 0.3% so that won't be an issue but if it does happen who covers it well if it's a warranty claim uh then uh we would come and help take care of it but there'd be some uh some cost to associated with the labor for us to do the warranty claim but we really haven't had any warranty claims in the you know uh 200 school projects that we've done today uh we just haven't had any uh where would this be located right behind the the garages where Glenn stores all of his equipment along the South entrance East entrance to the high school right there can they see the picture here yep we got it up there okay you can see exchange y yep and it's space we we don't utilize right now okay um what if in 10 years we wanted to use that space is the school on the hooks in to move it yeah okay you want to make sure wherever you're putting it it's going to be there for the life of the system gotcha so if I understand what you're what you're telling me is um for about 13,500 bucks a year is our cost and we should more than almost uh double that in savings yeah well you're going Minnesota Power yeah it's almost three times uh you're going to save almost 36,000 in the the first year alone okay all right so then here's kind of uh we've already applied for the uh grant that was due uh July 31st uh we're going to find out here in the next two weeks if the Readiness application was approved and then we'll go for a full Grant application November 30th and uh then it takes a little while for them to formalize that yeah you did everything correctly here's your grant paperwork by the end of the year we should have a you know signed grant paperwork for you and have a building permit everything interconnection worked out with uh Minnesota Power and have this on the docket for a a springsummer installation so just to clarify though for tonight you're essentially getting a vote just to move forward with the full Grant process process and then the actual final board approval will come after that's all done well uh we can do that uh before the November 30th but uh I want to make sure you guys get your funds through the Readiness application and we get uh some other things done and then we'll we can move it uh you know have another meeting and discuss it and get it approved now is this5 half a million dollar is this for each school or is this your total pot of money that you'll get to install these yeah that's the total amount of money that's available that's your maximum Grant from the Department of Commerce so they uh back in 2022 they uh allocated uh $31 million for schools around the state uh 15 million of that was for outstate schools like yours served by Minnesota Power and there's uh I think uh for this round there is uh I think three or4 million left and I'm hopeful that you guys have enough grant money to to be able to maximize that what's the worst thing you've seen happen in your whatever in the 12 years of these systems that you've had so far um well there hasn't been a lot of uh bad things that have happened we have uh we're a vertically integrated company so we do everything in-house so we can control our quality in the people that are doing things and I think we if you would ask anybody out in the market that we uh we do what we say we're going to do and uh we only do this uh commercial on-site solar and I think we do one thing well we don't get distracted with residential or solar Gardens or any other things we're just a rooftop or ground mounted uh commercial solar developer I imagine there's going to have to be a fence around this area and are we responsible for that or is that all part of the setup Fe what I'm sorry it's already we already have there's already a fence there okay oh yeah the fence yeah uh there's a fence that's out there we'll probably have to uh pull back part of the fence to do some of the construction but we'll we'll make sure the fence is back to you know um how it was any other questions at this time sounds like a pretty good deal all we're voting on tonight is to allow them to go forward and apply with the application for the grant so if there's no other discussion at this time we already have a motion in a second to do this all those in favor signify by saying I I I opposed we agree to going forward with the grant process great thank you very much really appreciate for appreciate your time thank you rich thank you thank you Greg have a good night you too I'll now turn the meeting over to Kelsey for the re resolution for the approval of signatures for the Toma trust um first a motion and a second and we'll have discussion on it so move thank you in a second second okay we have a motion in a second um Chris can you give us some background information on this sure Bank Midwest was acquired by in February of 2023 um has been reviewing their files and they want um an updated uh resolution from us um so basically they're just updating their records so it's the same bank just a different name correct no nothing changed but the same people that have been doing the signatures and everything that will remain the same for us the the account manager is the same on the account the uh portfolio portfolio manager is the same so it's is there anybody on the board who does not is not aware of what the Toma trust does for us that this is the monies that we get for our library liary systems and for our books if we have no other comments questions or concerns hearing none all those in favor of this resolution I'm sorry Kelsey taking my thunder tonight oh well you want the long one we got a two-pager you can read whereas the LI Falls Community Schools has transferred and establish the Toma trust account with and whereas it is necessary to authorize indiv idual to sign on behalf of the district regarding transactions related to the Toma trust account now therefore be it resol that the ISD 42 Li Falls Community Schools Board of Education hereby authorizes the superintendent and business manager to be signatories on the TOA trust account held at  Mr Greg Johnson superintendent giving full Authority um and signature Authority uh and Chris muic business office manager signature Authority full Authority be it further resolved that the above named individuals are hereby authorized to execute and deliver all documents instruments and agreements related to the trust account and to perform all acts necessary for the operation and management of the account as required by the bank be it further resolved that this resolution will be effective immediately and remain in effect until amended or revoked by the subs subsequent resolution and upon on a roll call vote Dan yes Mark yes Julie yes Doug yes Sharon yes myself yes thank you Kelsey I'll try very hard not to take any Thunder from you um next we have the approval of the employee handbook it was sent to you online we need a motion in a second before discussion you have a motion a second please a second and we have a motion in a second any discussion this is for the employee handbook if I hear no comments questions or concerns about the employee handbook I'll call for a vote all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed next it's the approval of the district handbooks this includes the High School Middle School Lincoln Lindberg Dr Knight ECC and CC all of these hand handbooks will be in one um vote a motion and a second please it's all moved thank you and a second a second any discussion on any of these handbooks I just like to say I'd like to see that they got more streamlined and more I guess consistent than how they had been in the past so thank you for doing that it's good to hear thank you any other comments questions or concerns about the handbooks hearing none I'll call for a vote approval of the district handbooks all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed and that will pass we had no old or unfinished business on our agenda so we're going to move into the reports from the board members and Dan would you start us nothing to report this month summer is going too fast yes nothing to report M sureff nothing to report me neither me neither I'm just going to say I thought the um chamber last Friday um was very well attended and and appreciated the people that came and checked out our new district office and is it next week we have everybody come on Tuesday Morning correct are I week off yes you're right okay so see you everybody next Tuesday morning bright and early with your smiles for breakfast and to have the opening of school so um unless somebody has something else to bring before the board that needs to be discussed this evening I will call for a motion for adjournment so move and a second please I'll second okay we have a motion and a second for adjournment this evening all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed thank you everybody and we'll see you next Tuesday morning at the High for