##VIDEO ID:0wLGbmowbzw## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e no I got the canceled one but I think you know what happened so when I I yes so I had put that figured out what happened when I answered yes his it took it we'll give Mark here good evening ladies and gentlemen it's 6 pm and we're going to gavl in the uh regular school board meeting of monacello District 882 please rise if you're able and join us for the pledge of allegiance of the United States of America and to the rep it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for we have our tentative agenda and at this point in time we will approve our tentative agenda to be the agenda for the evening so moved second moved by Melissa Curtis seconded by Casey root all those in favor please say I any opposed please say no and the agenda approved 60 um I would like to take a moment talk about citizens comment we have two types of CIT citizens comments this evening um if we have regular citizens comments which I don't think we do that would fall at this point in the agenda and then we have our truth and Taxation hearing tonight and we will have um open comments for people who have registered at the back of the room with devony about the truth and Taxation and that will fall under 7 B on item 7B on the agenda we will have um the opportunity for members of the public to have comment on citizens comment so I will just double check one more time with uh devony we don't have regular citizens comments this evening okay moving on to um item number six um we have a closed session summary from our previous meeting um we uh had a closed session and I'm going to read the summary it's about a minute and a half or so long from that um this is is a summary of the closed session of the board which occurred on the 18th of November 2024 proper public notice was made for a closed session of the board to conduct the midyear superintendent goals and evaluations by the monacello Schoolboard District 882 the session was planned as a closed session as permitted by section 13d .05 subdivision [Music] 3A the superintendent was given the option of an open or close session and requested a close session session the board spent a total of 59 minutes in consultation and closed session with the superintendent the evaluation was for the purpose of determining the mid-year progress on the 24 2025 superintendent goals the regular annual superintendent evaluation will be conducted in May or June of 2025 this is the second year of the 2023 2025 goals cycle which will conclude in May June of 2025 the superintendent performance expectation uh four priority goal areas were reviewed from the annual evaluation that occurred 1 April 2024 the four goal areas um we will discuss number one student academic performance and the discussion summary student academic performance was reviewed in detail with the most recent Minnesota comprehensive assessment data while the 3% Improvement goals in reading and math scores were not met in a number of cohorts monacello academic performance continues to outpa State averages and significant declines are not present progress continues to be documented in small incremental amounts goal area number two student attendance discussion superintendent Olsson discussed and presented attendance data for September and October 2024 for elementary middle and high school students with comparison to end of the year data from Spring of 2024 superintendent Olsen presented detailed attendance interventions he has directed for development which is based on a national best practices model from UC Davis the superintendent highlighted positive attendant rates for our Alternative Learning Program which was recently relocated from an offsite location to New spaces within the high school goal area number three District Safety and Security superintendent Olsen reviewed upgrades to building security he conducted a brief discussion of proposed future building security modifications Building Safety teams continue to meet regularly safety plans are distributed and reviewed with all staff including substitutes and Transportation safety and parent concerns were discussed with new school starttime Transportation schedules goal area number four strategic plan discussion superintendent Olen presented several working areas the first is incorporating the special education Co-op into the current District strategic plan including plans to direct the implementation of regular performance evaluations for all Co-op staff and improved professional development plans the superintendent articulated the need for an audit of the elll program in our district with the development of improved professional development uh training for elll staff the superintendent continues to work with his cabinet Administration on the organizational chart and express that he is anticipating presentation to the board in January of 2025 the superintendent also discussed that he is leading a panel of three superintendant in the search process for a new director for the right Technical Center the current right techn Technical Center Director is retiring at at the end of the 2024 2025 school year performance recommendations overall the board is satisfied with the progress and process of the goals implementation by the superintendent at this midyear point the board expressed deep appreciation and gratitude for the efforts of the superintendent and all of his staff um and then the final uh document will be signed and has been on been presented as a draft document already to the superintendent moving on to um our consent agenda items we have approval of the minutes from November the 18th 2024 and Personnel matters combined members receive these um up to a week in advance and have the opportunity to ask additional questions as needed is there any discussion on the consent agenda I'm hearing none then I'll entertain a motion to approve so moved second moved by Melissa Curtis seconded by Casey root all those in favor of approving the consent agenda as posted please say I I all those opposed please say no and consent agenda passes 60 moving on to uh item eight on our agenda collaborative connections we have a resolution for acceptance of gifts and superintendent Olson will discuss those gifts all right we have uh two gifts to bring forward here tonight uh faith Bible Church um live like Gina Foundation um is bringing forth $500 to our monol high school unified um Club um Bexley Herold um Hannah um for a reverse Walker um a device used um uh for students um with uh needs um valued at $2,000 um and it supports um uh students physical needs so um two great items coming forward uh here tonight today and hopes that we um continue to accept these gifts to improve um the life of our students and we have a resolution therefore be it resolved by the monel school board number 882 to gratefully accept the following donations Faith Bible Church live like genina Foundation $500 for the MHS unified club and Bexley Harold Hannah for the reverse Walker help supports students needs second resolution read by Jeff hegley seconded by Melissa Curtis all those in favor of accepting the donations as presented please say I I any oppos please say no and the motion for donation passes 60 moving on to Item B truth and Taxation hearing we're going to welcome our business director of Business Services Tina Burkholder to the podium and she is going to give us a a review of the taxation situation for this year welcome thank you yes tonight we have our truth and Taxation hearing and with this our agenda we'll go over the meeting requirements that we are supposed to uh cover look at our current year budget look over the proposed tax levy and then allow for public comment so with the truth and Taxation law um all taxing jurisdictions cities townships counties school district must hold truth and Taxation hearing um anywhere from November 25th through December 26th at a regular scheduled meeting at 6 PM or later so tonight is our hearing um it requires that we present our current year budget and also discuss our proposed tax levy look at uh the increase or decrease from the previous year and then go over specific reasons why taxes are being increased but in our case we'll go over some decreases and then like I mentioned allow for public comment so unlike cities and counties our budget year is different we have our fiscal year starting July 1 and it goes through June 30th so our budget is approved six months after a levy is approved and we typically do midyear revision starting in January so the levy that's approved tonight will actually be for next year's school year uh budget the 25 26 school year like I said we uh because our budget legs six months behind we'll go over the current year budget so with school districts we have to have separate funds that uh designate different um monies according to state law so this is our list of funds that we manage we have our general fund that includes our specialed Cooperative activity we have our food service fund community service fund which also includes our hockey fund when the state looks at our information Debt Service fund internal service fund and OPB or other post employment trust fund and the funds that I highlight in yellow are the ones that actually receive property tax money so for the general fund it's about 18% of that Revenue coming in is property tax money community service about 9% and Debt Service has the most about 90% because that is where we have our bonds and that's mainly the property tax money coming in to make those payments so this table is just a very overview summary of our budgets for next for this year um we're spending down our fund balance a little bit in our general fund food service and our OPB trust fund the other funds um are hopefully increasing their fund balances a little bit this year uh we have a more detailed budget report on our website if people wanted to dive a little deeper in our budget we also have to submit a budget form and publ publish that in our paper um it is due on November 30th so this was um in the paper last week on November 28th the next couple pie charts have um our budget by fund so the largest piece of the pie is our general fund budget it's our main operating fund um that has a lot of our activities in it and again that includes the special ed cooperative and a similar view on the expense side the general fund is the main operating fund just diving a little deeper into the general fund on the revenue side our biggest chunk of Revenue that comes in is state aid 77% this pie chart does not include the special ed Co-op activity this is just um a revenue that applies to monell school district the next next largest piece is local property taxes again about 18% of our Revenue Budget on the expense side we're very labor intensive our salaries and benefits are about 80% of our Budget moving on to the property tax levy so a couple of basic things to to cover the state is heavily involved in the process they set the the formulas and the policy and the tax rate that's involved in this um calculation the levies are driven by enrollment counts uh specific eligible expenses population voter approv referendums if uh schools have any ped and property valuations in the district another thing to keep in mind just because the tax levy changes doesn't mean our budget changes there are some equalizing formulas where it's probably new budget neutral to the district so we'll have a case in that um where we might get more Levy but less in state a but overall the revenue impact to the district is the same taking a look at our timeline so in the summer school districts start to enter in information to the state in June we uh give three years of enrollment estimates to the state uh in August we start to input retiree cost unemployment cost cost um leases we go back last year and put in our actual cost for leases then we put in proposed cost for the next year uh we have some questions regarding Community Ed are you going to have a uh Early Childhood Program uh do you have school age care and then you have to review your tax uh your bond payments as other examples of things that schools have to review in the summer and then the state has by September 8th to compile all that information do all the formulas take the valuations and hand out reports on their website to school districts about a 40-page report of calculation and summary of all those calculations then September 23rd we went over the proposed Levy and approved the levy to the Max uh November is a time where school districts could hold referendums we didn't have any referendum elections this year mid November proposed tax statements are mailed out to property owners and and again we have that budget form I didn't put on here that we have to put in the paper December 2nd is our truth and Taxation hearing then the next board meeting December 16th will approve our board Levy we could approve it today but we always approve it on the second meeting in December and then the following the calendar year is when we collect the the property tax money that is being approved looking at the timeline for taxpayers January 2nd of 2024 property values are assessed by the counties in March of 2024 people are receiving their preliminary valuation notices in the spring early summer people have a chance to go to the county or other boards to appeal their valuations if they feel it's it's not that Val that U valuation uh November again if there's elections people can vote and again November they receiving their preliminary property tax statements uh the preliminary property tax statements if there was a a referendum that passed it wouldn't be included in that um and then from November 25th through the December 30th that's their chance to go to all the truth and Taxation hearings you know cities Township counties Etc and then March of 2025 is when people will receive their final uh tax statement that would include uh if a referendum passed but in our case we didn't have anything looking at the proposed Levy for next year it's decreasing 1% or about 157,000 next couple slides has a little bit more breakdown of the levy our general fund is going down to 131,000 or 1.2% our community service fund is going up 4% or about 16,000 and our debt service Levy is also going down 1% or 42,000 and just taking a look at a couple of those major changes our voter approved referendum went down 160,000 our voter appro referendum can be used for General operating expenses um the reason for the decrease is last year our referendum is has an inflation factor and the state uses estimates and so they Tred up what the inflationary Factor should have been and um so we had a bigger increase last year versus smaller increases for this year our operating Capital went up 60,000 this is one where more of the increase came on the levy side and less came on the state aid side we still get about a million in our operating Capital so nothing's changed there it's just how we're getting that money what's the form of Aid our Reemployment or Unemployment uh Levy went down 50,000 is for unemployment costs uh this Levy is based on actual costs and so if costs are less than projected the future Levy will be reduced so for the levy payable in 2023 what I estimated was higher than what we actually paid in 2223 so the state shs up and takes and makes that adjustment and finally uh the reduction excess fund balance had a decrease of 72,000 in our debt service fund these f funds are used to cover delinquency and tax collections so school districts have to Levy 105% of their bond and interest payments just in case people aren't paying their taxes and um there's delinquent tax revenue coming in so on a positive note people are paying their tax bills and so we're getting um property tax money coming in and then the state looks at our fund balance if it gets too high they adjust it down through the reduction of excess fund balance the composition of our Levy um is pretty much similar last year was about 39% of voter approved referendums versus 61 local or calculations uh next year's 38 62 split so again pretty similar compared to the prior year the impact for taxpayers so many things can cause the tax bill for an individual to increase or decrease it could be the change of their individual property value it could be the change in all the the value of the property in the district or could be some increases or decreases in the levy um for example voter approved referendums if something was passed that would increase the tax bill so Ellers our Municipal financial advisors put together some graphs that might show what's happening in our district they use different property values where the values haven't changed changed and then they took that those same um property values and used an average of 21% over those four years in property value so if property values did not would not change people would see a decrease and this is hard to see so with the graphs we're looking at 150,000 250,000 um you would see a a decrease and that makes sense you know if the value is decreasing we're getting more in state aid versus Levy and then uh here we have 350,000 property uh example and a 450,000 property example next it would look at what if people saw an average of 21% in property value over the next couple years um starting with 2022 it had 12% increase then an 8% increase then a 0% change so there have been steadily increases in in the property tax levy and then a slight decrease uh going into 2025 and again the same property examples um the 150 250 350 and 450 and just to illustrate kind of the property value impact um the district levy you just think about it as a pi and depending on the property owner and their property value depends on how big their slice of the pie is so a higher market value increase would be a bigger slice of the pie where a lower market value increase would cause for a sec a smaller piece of the pie and just a very simple example if our school district had a levy of $500 and two households they would and they're both valued at 100,000 they would both split the tax bill where they would pay 250 of that property tax levy in that same example if the gry house or the house on top their value increased 10% and the red house on the bottom increased 25% that red house would have a bigger chunk of that pie because their value increased but the school district is still getting $500 it does it matter if that makes sense and then I just wanted to put a slide in there about uh property values we have referendum market value and next net tax capacity value so the referendum value is basically Residence Apartments or commercial value where um property types of similar values pay similar tax rates where net tax capacity has all the taxpayers so it would include seasonal AG uh seasonal recreational and agriculture land um so just a point here is that our value property value whether it's under the referendum market value or net tax capacity it is increasing so we are seeing more in Levy and less in state aid but it'll just be split differently between the the properties and then uh people have some property tax refunds or deferral programs to go to um if they see a bigger increase but again I think people will more likely see a decrease on their school property taxes uh they should you know consult with their tax professional on accessing those the the homestead credit refund the special property tax refund and the senior citizen property tax deferral again like I mentioned we'll approve the levy at next board meeting do I have any questions from the board before allowing for public comment seeing no no questions from the board we will open it for public comments are there any registered public comments yes please hello um I think everybody kind of knows where I am but I'll just restate I'm DUS linski had two sons that just graduated a few years back and uh been with the district uh a little while here um I just had some questions I guess generally um in in the taxation realm here um I was just wondering what the term or length of the referendum um that was printed on the ballot and voted on in the people that passed in 2014 what was the term meaning was it a 10-year referendum in 2014 okay so it stated that on the ballot as well so that's what the voters were stating I would imagine as well so that's what they're so did it have a renewal Clause written on the ballot for that referendum meaning did it was it going to have ability to be able to be voted on not by the necessarily the people but um another body you know if that was on the ballot not at that time not okay all right so with that said uh District 882 made a binding contract with people back in 2014 that was to expire at the end of next year to 2025 um it looks as from what I heard on the workshop a while back it might be the board's intention to vote at a later date in the upcoming months in to renew the referendum by a simple majority of the board and go past the original 10 years thus breaching that original contract they had with the people starting in 2014 so I asked the board to help the people understand where does the board get its authority constitutionally to break the binding contract they agreed upon with the people in 2014 and I take it there any answer to that I mean I would just say it's a legislative change um so I I mean I understand your point of view of of talking about um the original document but there have been changes both constitutionally um at the uh state level legislative level statutory level um over um time and um and so this is a change that has come that uh could be taken advantage um by school districts and some already have done that so it's something that you know did you say available did you mention constitutionally it was changed uh no I'm just saying that there are changes that have made to like State statutes um that is a process that can come through um uh the organization of government there can be changes and that that has happened so okay and I understand that yes St Paul decided to um enact something aspect on that um but I I do want to kind of give you guys a reminder here um maximums of law which are true rules and principles of law that have been accepted everywhere the last uh the um publication that I use is actually published out of Burnsville Minnesota 1990 so these aren't old things these are actually published aspects um Fel from that document which is uh wisman is the express agreement of the parties overcomes or prev prevails against the law because the agreement of the party makes the law of the contract and then there's another one 24r by a contract something is permitted which without it could not be admitted and I do want to recite the Minnesota Constitution Article 1 Section section 11 the Bill of Rights no bill of attainer exp pass exp poost facto law or any law impairing the obligation of contracts shall be passed and no conviction shall work Corruption of blood or for of the state so there is a u Minnesota Constitution that does talk about expost FAO which means even though you said the statutory the legislative came up on that they can't retro active um something that was already agreed upon by the people back in 2014 for our district so the board is unfortunately breaking the trust of the people when they try to go around the people and trans transgress transgress against the Minnesota Constitution because that's what's happening here so I just I want to um warn you guys don't let St Paul or St Peter with msba District staff or District lawyers tell the board that they can do something that is very clearly unlawful and will transgress against the Minnesota Constitution putting the whole board at liability District had two consecutive failed referendums which you guys are aware of over the past four years alone one in 2020 and one in the following year in 2021 with the same rejection rate outcome of about 65% voting no showing the intention of the people to keep the district within its means so the board as a whole is strongly encouraged to Listen and Obey to the people and do not go down a row that will give the board as well as the district negative consequences for taking unlawful actions from misguided servants and agents of government and I thank you for your time and God bless you a good holiday thank you Mr lazinski are there any additional public comments registered deonie okay I'll just leave that open one more time is there anyone from the audience that has any public comments finding none uh we will Pro proceed among along in our agenda to item C which is our 2023 2024 audit um Director of Business Services Tina Burkholder is going to introduce our speaker for this evening welcome back uh good to see you again and um we're going to be hearing our audit yes we have our principal I know what your exact title is auditor here Mary re Rey here um from Clifton Larsson Allen we had our audit we had a couple days Workshop week normally have our preliminary um audit in July but things were just scheduled a little differently this year so Workshop week we had them here a couple days and then also the final week in September but since then we've had a lot of back and forth trying to finalize these numbers and some last minute curveballs from the state um with different trans Transportation questions that have come up but I think we're finally ready to present our final results from last year you can have that okay again thank you for having me tonight um today will just be a snapshot I figur we might as well just for you with all the numbers we could right at least it's just one meeting um to get it over with we'll go through the PowerPoint um that we've provided again it follows in suit with the financial statements that we issued like Tina had said we usually present the draft we like the board to see it ask questions and then um we'll WR wrap that up as final with your next meeting um so we'll go through the PowerPoint feel free to stop me at any time definitely open for questions within the um documents that we're provided all of our communication is in there at well so I literally am just going to go through numbers um what happened over the year remember Tina is a year in advance she was doing 2425 I'm doing the 23 24 kind of w up so here um a little bit hard to see but this is the general fund it does include the special education Cooperative um up at the top you can see far left is 2024 far right is 2020 we like to see a snapshot of about five years there where you've been and then where the district is currently at down at the budet bottom we show a budget to actual numbers there so revenue is coming in at 70.1 million budget at 69.4 million a difference of positive 750,000 total expenditures of about 69.6 million budgeted for about 69 million so went over budget there about 496000 but overall you budgeted for a change of net position of about 247,000 you came in at 497 th000 so about 251,000 to the good there when you go up to the top graph you can see unassigned fund balance increased um from last year you increase in your staff development and then you spent down some of your um ltfm monies on some of those projects overall your unassigned fund balance is sitting at just over three weeks of expenditures so if you had no more money coming in you could operate the district for about three weeks um about 5% your annual um your goal is to have at at least 6% in there of your annual budget so a little bit under that and actually would like a goal of 8 to 16% in there so right now you're running a little lean on on a sign that's assuming that's assuming you're including the special ed expenditures if you take that out we're more at %. perfect sorry about that the special that always throws you a curveball a little bit in there um so good so then right just above your goal of that 8 to 16% and as you can see your net change in fund balance positive 497 th000 so then um with your budget for next year basically spending you know down what you um banked this year so the next page is your food service fund here you had revenues of 3.5 million budgeted for 3.3 coming in with a positive 233,000 expenditure is about 2 9 UM budgeted for about 2.8 so 167,000 um actually over budget so you budgeted for a gain of 515,000 you came in at about 580,000 so positive 65,000 again Food Service fund um very stringent on what you can spend that on but you definitely will want to spend down some of that um fund balance um since you can't have too much in there um over the year I'm sure there's plans to bend that down the next slide is the community service fund again this includes your hockey fund here so revenue is at about 5.1 million budgeted for 5.1 came in under budget by about a 100,000 there expenditures of about 5.2 um budget about 5.1 so over spent there so both of those going opposite ways um you budgeted for a gain of 50,000 came in at a loss of about 130,000 so when you look at those categories up top you'll see that most of those are positive your unassigned fund balance is actually ne8 98,000 so within there you actually have School Readiness about - 207,000 um and I do have another graph that coming up that will go into a little bit more detail with that so this overall at the top is your debt service fund as Tina mentioned you have to Levy 105% of those principal and interest payments you can see this year pretty significant loss of $834,000 but when you look at 2021 you gained about 97,000 um so again Tina had mentioned that um the state will come in and adjust your Levy as needed that is your adjustment you're spending down um that money that came in in 2021 any can see in 2021 that did come in from your capital projects fund right below that okay so your next one is just your general fund unassigned and nonspendable fund balance um just put it into a chart here a little bit easier to see um so went went down a little bit in 2023 and then back up in 2024 here's your restricted committed and ass signed fund balances again spent down some of that restricted money as we had talked about There community service fund balance you can see since 2022 um you've gone down each year there about 314,000 total next slide is your food service fund balance again looking at spending some of that down this year remember you had free um from state and federal so a little bit hard to judge when that Revenue was going to come in um offset with the expenditures that came in as well Debt Service fund balance we talked about um back down to about the 2020 level there here's your summary of the community service fund um by each of the categories you can see School Readiness coming in at about 118,000 there with a 89,000 overall your sources of revenues the difference here is this is all of your revenues coming into the district so all funds combined um State coming in at about 57% local property taxes at 17 and then your other local in County at 21 1% um state is going to be up a little bit from last year just to change in funding and then your food service had more state revenue come in for the meals so this next slide goes hand inhand with that gives you a bar chart um of each of those categories that I just presented there Federal this year you spent about 403,000 s that should probably wrap up your Esser fund so you're going to see that come back down again um to more levels about the 2020 level there State again it talked about um change in funding there overall in general state aid was more where does that Revenue go out you can see your biggest piece here is regular instruction and then your special education instruction um kind of where you expect it to be when you look at your district and school ad in your District support services at 4% I normally see that between 5 and 10 so you're pry under even that um percentage and here again is the bar chart y last can youe last statement the district and school admin and your District Support Services total 4% of that chart normally I see that between 5 and 10% so definitely operating lean on those two areas the top two yes to the right y can I also um ask is the vocational the red high slide is that um our contribution to right Tech it's right Tech and it's also our CTE courses as well the high school combined together perfect and they said this is the bar chart there you can see regular instruction and special education increasing there pupil support services and then your sites and buildings will fluctuate um in any given year just depending on what U repairs and maintenance and things you have going on so then how does the district get paid your resident adms in wadam so weighted average daily memberships here you can see each of these categories did decrease from the prior year um not surprising with about 90% of my districts all of them have seen a decrease in adms as well so then we just like to show the makeup of that if you look down at the bottom um we start with your residents and then we say your resident weighted average daily membership going elsewhere so those opting out at 821 that did increase then you have your non-residents coming in that actually increased as well just not as much as the going out went so brings you down to the net of that 4,400 okay so then again I like to take those two pieces that I mentioned that are at the four % and compare those um just divided by your um average daily membership of your expenditures you can see it went up a little bit from last year but significantly um under what the similar size districts are doing and in the state as well always been kind of proud of that and then total instruction just about right on um with other districts similar size little bit under okay so like I said brief overview yes yes 14 cou times see in other districts looking at the light green and the orange how do we m match up to other districts in those areas um pretty similar when you do that um your pupil's support services sometimes it depends on your coding but I would say you're probably right in the ballpark of District similar size i' say maybe special education a little bit higher with the co-op in there can you also reiterate what you the percentage of administrative salaries that it's typical that you see 5 to 10% and we're at 4% and I think that's a really important piece of information for the public that we as a board have um paid attention to that and we don't have a lot of um Superfluous administrative roles everyone wears many hats and um I I think our administrative staff performs at a really high level on to keep that number down to help us yeah and is it is it are we under or are they below it I'd like to think that we're efficient we still want to see controls in place right so as us us as Auditors come in to ensure you have correct controls right make sure somebody's reviewing you have two hands doing stuff from what we can tell what we've looked at those controls are still in place and working that kind of goes to my statement is you look at the graph and you know some people might look at it as like we're under but I look it as other districts maybe they're just loaded and they have too many people in those administrative rules and that money could be spent more efficiently more effectively in other places in the district so I think we do a good job here I think it's really obvious when you talk about the objective product that our administrators produce we don't have advice administrator Superfluous advisory uh roles or assistance to assistance to deputies to assistance we we have people that are functioning at a very high level in our district perfect any other comments from Mary thanks for coming again you always bring us oh Mark's got some more okay everywhere go I'll not that next Tina sent you a note about that right that you had to wear red and black if you were going to be under the Big M so all right I have a selfless or selfish question Mary how did the audit go well actually this one goes quite a bit better um than some of our bigger sized districts and it it does go to show that if you have the correct people in place things can operate pretty smoothly um when you lose that you can lose control of your District so highly recommend that keep your high level staff in positions I'd like to thank um Tina as well because I think you're very meticulous on how you uh forecast out and you're very conservative project things out and I think that helps us to make good decisions for the district and helps our numbers and our audits to come out year after year after year we have good reports coming coming so thank you Tina thank you and our district office and even you know principals or secretaries you know when we do ask questions and when we do ask for things it's not because we want to make life hard and and the job tough It's we want to have clean records and accurate information and good controls in place so that when Auditors do come in you know all of us in essence are getting that glowing you so and then just if there's no other questions or comments um this is the action item so that we can have our financial statements go from draft to final so is there any um final comments questions or concerns from the board for either Tina or Mary finding none then we I do sorry Kath go ahead I was busy thinking about my red and black comment and I probably missed what you said what is what is your opinion on the financials are we good or we are we not yes um a lot of districts have fluctuated quite a bit this year with the new funding a lot of that is more restrictive so I think your finance department did a good job at heading that off and being able to spend that in advance whereas a lot of other districts built up restricted fund balance and spent down unassigned which what you don't want to see because those restrictive buckets are very hard to spend sometimes to find the right expenditures to be able to spend those so when you look overall you didn't increase significantly and restricted you were able to put more of it into your unassigned fund balance and I have not seen that a lot happen this year with other districts good so yes that's on the back for Tina I think it's just um when you look at you know the budget side of the house it's um Ena and Rob are doing a great job of leading that side of the house and it's nice to know that you have um hugely competent people um leading that so that we can um move to the side of the house that we're more I'm more familiar with and that's working with students so it's a it's a pleasure to be able to hear you tonight Mary talk about the side of the house that that um is uh as important as instruction um because if you don't have the um the funding side working with the instruction side you're not going to have a school district so it's great to um hear these reports and and know that we're on the right track and we know we have the right people throughout the system it's a pretty that's what I take away today is a pretty smiley to know that we have the right people in the right places one last uh call any comments or questions concerns or compliments from the board finding none this is an act item um we have before us the audit from aers for approval second moved by Jeff hegley seconded by Casey root all those in favor of approving hang on the audit is from Larson I'm sorry sorry I got that wrong let's start that over again we have before us the audit from Clifton LaRon Allen not the other group um for a approval this um so moved by Jeff hegley seconded by Casey root all those in favor of approving the audit from Clifton Larson Allen please say I I I any opposed please say no and our audit passes 60 and I very sorry for thank you signing you to the wrong company all right moving on to item D we have superintendent Olson is going to talk about resource training and solutions and their board of directors and we have a nomination yes um resource training solution is a Minnesota service Cooperative um one of nine in the state um the director Mark schmidtz uh recently reached out to board member um Jamie sein in to share information about openings in their service Cooperative the service Cooperative um is made up of school board members um from uh Central Minnesota in this case um our service Cooperative is Central Minnesota um and it's made up of school board members uh to make up their board um it's a nonprofit um public corporation and it provides services to school districts uh uh cities counties uh governmental agents agencies as well as nonprofits as well as the communities they serve in central Minnesota uh they train teachers they improve schools and Inspire students and uh build safer communities um to uh develop professionals and ensure success resource training Solutions focuses on supporting uh schools through both academic events and um uh testing measures for some of um uh the school the agencies mentioned um as well as providing professional training for certified staff and non-certified sta uh and support staff um resource training Solutions U provides annual recognition programs um and and it's very special evenings for both certified and non-certified support staff um and as a leader in the district just like many of the principes and directors in the audience um we've had the opportunity to attend these events each year and see the impact resource training Solutions has in in central Minnesota and so I believe it's a great honor to have one of our board out to and um I am fully um recommending um because um board member sein has thought about this decision and researched it she believes that she can do this and I think this is a feather in our cap just like the legislative prowess that we've prided ourselves the school board being in the n school district at in in St Paul um I think this um organization does the same thing in central Minnesota it it it gives us um recognition as a school district it'll be a great honor to look up um in that event and see one of our very own Schoolboard members sitting there for the first time that I'm aware of in the history of training Solutions so I think it's a huge asset and um I would propose you moving forward with the uh resolution that we've prepared here tonight I'd like to just extend the opportunity to board member Jamie Sten to talk a little bit about resource training and solutions and your role there can you talk about how big the board is and uh what your term of service would be um some of that and so the terms of service um I if voted in I will will be filling in a term for right now cuz they have an opening and then they'll reelect me um going forward so it mirrors the School Board elections so you have to be an active School Board member in order to be on their board um I thought long and hard about it because I was actually nominated through a relationship um of somebody that I built in a whole different community so it it was surpris me it surprised um uh Eric as well and it didn't surprise me I mean it did you know the nomination and so um I thought about it because um it does take time to do but I think the relationships that'll be built and um what it could do my concern was if I could make a difference and if it would help our district and so um I think there's some things that um could happen that could be of service to our district and um help our teachers the the ongoing um education that sto for our district and um the recognition that's done and so that's why I said yes pending your guys's approval questions I will not be voting on questions from the board for Jamie or Eric I just wanted to say congrats and thank you for doing it yeah it's always good to take advantage of an opportunity so glad to see that you're doing that I'm not going to say how I feel so okay finding no further comments um we have before us the resource training and solutions uh nomination form for Jamie sein um do we have to do a motion in a second okay we need a motion in a second so moved second moved by Melissa Curtis seconded by Casey uh root all those in favor of the resolution appointing or approving Jamie sein to the board of directors at resource training and solutions please say I I I and all those opposed please say no please let the minutes reflect that member sein uh recused herself from voting so the vote is five to zero and the motion passes congratulations Jamie moving right along getting to our safe and healthy culture we have uh the Director of Human Resources Mr Rob Daner with us this evening is going to talk about the uh Technology Group and the collective bargaining agreement that was recently uh agreed to welcome Mr Daner thank you Shar zebra members of the board um as introduced we do have a settlement with our uh Technology support unit to report and for action for the board to consider this evening um the um the tent of agreement was reached with this unit on Tuesday November 12th and uh because they're a smaller unit they were able to turn uh this around and have a ratification uh vote uh quicker than many of our groups because of their size and so they ratified this on um uh Monday November 25th 2024 um the uh and we are recommending that the board approve this agreement um essential changes to the agreement are as follows um for year one on salaries on on wages I should say um it's a 3.75% increase on all cells um there is one deviation from that we have a new position added to um this unit uh through this this round of negotiations and that is the AV Tech position and so that was merged into this unit and um the rate of pay was established equivalent to that of the level one desktop one position which already existed within this unit um on health insurance uh health insurance was increased uh 16% for this unit um as with all of our units uh uh because it's pegged to that teacher rate um $975 a month uh is the uh single coverage maximum um on District contribution as well and then on longevity um this unit this was a a really great conversation and frankly I just step back for a minute this was a wonderful negotiation if negotiations can be wonderful um this took three sessions there was a total of two um total packages exchanged between the groups before we got to a settlement and so we were able to work very quickly very efficiently and some of it because of just really creative uh collaborative thinking and this longevity piece is one um the unit came with a request uh to make some s significant changes to their longevity model um the district had our own counter proposals and ultimately what we settled on was a model that exists currently within the district elsewhere which is in the custodial maintenance group and so we simply cut and paste that one into this group and so it creates some uh continuity and consistency also for District Operations and payroll and things like that as well so um very good there so the the change in longevity it moved the longevity from a a flat annual rate to an hourly differential the majority of employees in this group are hourly employees minus one there is one salaried employee within this unit and then it also move the start of longevity differentials from the 11th year to the fifth year and I didn't include a third point there it uh reduced the maximum longevity contribution as well so they moved up the start of contributions but they actually decreased the maximum contribution available to them so that was the trade-off um in year two um wage scale increases 4% on all cells um and then health insurance is to be determined uh because um the teacher settlement is what drives the health insurance rates for most of our units and of course that is uh that contract expires June 30th of 2025 so any health insurance rate is to be determined off that so what that means for this group is that they will hold steady District contributions will remain in place until that teacher settlement is arrived at and then there will be um retroactively um it'll apply to this group as well in terms of language items this is a year-round group and so uh juneth was added as a holiday for this group much as we have for all of our other year round groups um language cleanup of course we adjusted the years of the uh within the contract we um uh clean up gender references throughout uh we clean up our hours of service language due to the ad of the avtech position in hours of service uh in that article of the contract it referred specifically each individual position that hourly employees might have and so we just cleaned that up and referred to it as hourly employee shell etc etc uh and we also cleaned up references from salary to wage throat minus the wage salary schedule again mentioning that uh this group is universally on a wage basis minus one employee and so we captured that under the wage salary schedule um uh individually and so that would we were able to summarize that uh very concisely uh memorandum of agreement because there is one individual who would be harmed armed by the adoption of the new longevity compensation uh we did write a memorandum of agreement into this contract uh to allow for that person to remain at their current uh longevity step which amounts to $2,000 annually um and that will remain in place until either the employment with that individual severed or uh longevity differentials for the entirety of the contract um at that experience level would exceed $2,000 annually um then finally notice uh we mutually agreed with the unit to reduce the notice requirement from four weeks to two weeks in two areas of the contract one is for employees resigning in good standing that would um they would be required to notify the district with no less than two weeks notice for that and then the tradeoff would be employee subject to layoff um the district would be able to um share that information with employees uh no more than two weeks in advance as well and so a total package over uh this contract um is 9.7 77 msba um for those keeping track that is slightly above where our teachers and our custodian and maintenance workers settle that but is lower than our food service and also our ESS um settle that as well questions for Mr Daner from the board finding none uh this is an action item uh to approve the Technology support Master agreement so moved second moved by Melissa Curtis seconded by Casey Roode all those in favor of approving the technology uh support Master agreement please say I I I any oppos please say no and it passes 6-0 congratulations Mr Daner and our tech support group uh moving on to our first reading of policies Mr Daner is going to uh discuss first reading of a number of policies this evening these are not um up for Action yet and so we do have nine uh policies for first read tonight and again uh as chair zbar noted these are not for Action tonight and then we do have one policy that moves to a second read this evening that was a hold over from our last meeting but I'll start with uh policy 205 uh open meetings and closed meetings uh the purpose of this um uh policy is as follows School Board Embraces a accountability and transparency in the conduct of his business and the belief that openness produces better programs more efficient and less susceptible I'm sorry more efficient administration of programs in an organization more responsive to public interest and less acceptable to private interest the school board shall conduct its business under a presumption of openness at the same time the school board recognizes and respects the Privacy rights of individuals as provided by law the school board also recognized that there are certain exceptions to Minnesota open meeting law as recognized in statute where it has been determined that in limited circumstances the public interest is best served by closing a meeting of the school board and to that extent that's why we're bringing this uh policy back forward tonight this policy was uh reviewed by the board uh fairly recently um in October of uh 24 um however the reason we're bringing it Forward tonight is um really out of nature of necessity and so over the course of the last 12 months we've had um twice where we've had grievances come forward to uh progress through the process that have reached uh level three of the grievance process which is typically Hearing in front of the board of uh education and recognizing that uh we uh have the ability within law to establish ad hoc committees um but we did not have that in this open meeting and closed meeting policy um and so the grievance committee in this case would be such an ad hoc committee with outstanding um dates of meetings um it would be something that would be um the membership would be amended annually things of that nature um and so we are bringing this forward tonight with um some amendments to the language in this policies to allow for um ad hoc committees to exist alongside our standing committee such as budget policy Etc I just want to add a bit of information to what Mr Daner just said that um we've been in uh consultation with our Law Firm over the wording and the conduct and process and procedure for how those ad hoc committees would be uh conducted and have received our guidance from them is there any questions from the board on open meetings and Clos meetings moving on uh the next one for consideration for first uh read tonight is policy 416 and that is uh drug alcohol and Cannabis Testing this is a policy which the district does not currently have and that's for two uh well there's two main parts to this policy I should say the first part is the reason why the district has not adopted this policy um previously and that's because the drug testing um the majority of this policy has to do with federally mandated drug and alcohol testing for school bus drivers as we do not directly employ our school bus drivers it has not been pertinent for the district to um to adopt this policy previously however um the second part of the policy does do pertain to um drug testing for employees and while the district does not make a habit of doing uh drug testing for employees in general uh the fact of the matter is that under Minnesota law if we were to be put in a position that we were necessitated to um provide a drug test towards one of our our employees we could not do so without this policy in place and so it is pertinent for us to have this um in place under in such an occasion where we might have to take that um um take that action um although again uh it's fairly rare that districts would um in addition I should note that the policy committee um did uh add a line in the under the section regarding school bus drivers that while the school district does not currently employ school bus drivers it is the expect expectation excuse me of the school district that contracted School Bus vendors must comply with state and federal obligations as outlined in this policy sorry super and I just want to make sure that people don't feel like we've been um you know in a vulnerable place because our transportation policy itself does have some um drug and alcohol testing within the transportation policy so this just allows it to align um on a standalone just as msba recommends so but in our transportation policy we have had uh some of the very similar wording and also our school bus vendor that's a commercially uh commercial driver entity and so they would uh they already have the state and federal mandate in place y are there any additional questions from the board on drug alcohol and Cannabis Testing okay finding none okay moving on to the third which is policy 425 this is Staff Development and mentoring the purpose of this policy is to establish a staff development program and structure to carry out planning and Reporting on staff development that supports improved student learning uh this is back in front of us because of a change in uh legislation specifically um in terms of um District obligation to confer with certain employee groups in this case uh the amended language from the legislation resulted in the following line the school district must consult the exclusive representative for employees receiving this training uh before creating or planning the training required under this section that's in a paragraph specific to par professionals Title One AIDS and other instructional support staff as well um there was a change in world's best Workforce that is no longer uh a thing in Minnesota statute that label of the uh world's best Workforce has been changed to comprehensive achievement and Civic writin this report so those two changes um on this policy resulting from the legislative action are there any questions from the board okay finding none policy 501 this is school weapons policy um again we are revisiting this one um this one actually we're revisiting because of our uh review cycle um and so the last time this was reviewed by the board was in 2019 um the board has the policy committee is recommending that this largely remain intact uh although we did amend uh two references to Firearms uh to re refer to firearm or dangerous weapon just for clarity sake are there any questions from the board on this policy dangerous weapons school weapons okay finding none okay next is policy 509 um and this one is um again brought forward because of a change in legislation legislation excuse me and um in this case the legislation was amended to um further articulate the rights and privileges afforded to parents and students with disabilities uh and as it relates to open enrollment specifically as they enroll in um pre kindergarten and kindergarten coursework and then uh what that means for um ongoing enrollment in the district after those um initial enrollments as well as uh there was some deletions of um some old legislative references as well later on so that's policy 509 any questions from the board finding none policy 510 uh student AC uh school activities excuse me um and so this is uh uh the purpose of this policy is to impart to students employees in the community the school district's policy related to Student Activity program um we are coming to this one uh simply because of our review process the last time this was reviewed by the board was in 2019 um as currently constructed this um policy has um significant elements uh related to uh local articulation of uh procedures for activities and because um in the interm since 2019 the activities department has made their Student Activities handbook much more um verose and and wide ranging we are able to narrow the scope of this policy and so uh We've reduced many items in it that are again now captured in that Student Activity handbook so that's 510 any questions from the board on school activities okay fining none right policy 511 student fundraising um again this one is brought forward just uh through our review cycle um this was last reviewed by the board in 2017 um and working with our activities director Mr reving on this um we have some elements that are specific to monacello um such that for instance um all fundraising activities relate to activities Department must be presented to an approve by the activities director um and then we also have some language regarding how often uh organizations or activities can fund raise in an active year um so that is policy 511 any questions on student fundraising okay finding none all right policy 512 this is school sponsored student Publications and activities the purpose of this policy is to protect students rights to free speech and production of school sponsored media and activities while at the same time balancing the school district's role and supervising student Publications and the operation of the public schools uh this one is uh up for review because of change in legislation specifically around the First Amendment rights that students have as they uh author materials for school um sponsored media and Publications and so the uh legislature has um broadened the students first um First Amendment rights under this uh area of the law um previously school districts had uniform Authority whe when it came to student Publications and activities um now that's the legislature has attempted to balance that with the First Amendment rights of the authors themselves any questions from the board okay finding none and the last for first read tonight is 513 student promotion retention and program design the purpose of this policy is to provide guidance to professional staff parents and students regarding student promotion retention and program design um this is brought forward because of a change in legislation uh we had the board has recently reviewed this as of uh April 24 um and this is another example of where the world's best Workforce was reference by name in this policy and now again that is called the comprehensive achievement in Civic Readiness and otherwise that is the only change in this policy any questions from the board board members these nine policies that are up for first read will be on the agenda for December the 16th for approval so if you have any questions p in that interim time please make sure you get them to the right person and just to reiterate the policy commit Comm met right before the board meeting like we always do first Monday of the month and we just spent a couple hours going through all these policies one by one so that's why we're so quiet yeah a number of them had been tabled so they've been through several cycles of the policy committee so we're more than familiar with them so moving on to Second reading of policies all right so we did have one hold over uh from our last board meeting that was policy 503 student attendance um one was brought forward because of a change in legislation and as the policy committee and myself and and Miss deonie Moore uh work through the edits on this one we did miss two pieces that needed amending and um one of the board members was kind enough to highlight that at our last meeting and so we have corrected that in both cases uh we just simply followed um our model uh we in policy 503 um we were able to insert some local control and we just referenced um that uh please refer to the student handbook for the specific building for further detail on those matters so um that is the really the only changes for policy 503 and that's up for second read again tonight is there any questions from the board on student attendance okay finding none this is up for Action so I'm open to a motion so move seconded moved by Mark Branson seconded by James sein for policy 503 as presented for student attendance all those in favor please say I I any oppos please say no and student attendance passes 60 thank you Mr Daner finding that our agenda is complete we are adjourned at 7:15 and we will reconvene at 7:25 for our work session thank you very much e e e