##VIDEO ID:gyITnpDgQLY## e e e e e e e e e e no clue he evening ladies and gentlemen before we move into our regular agenda I'd like to direct your attention to the screen over the past month we as a community have faced the challenge of coming together in the face of loss and tonight we are again called to honor the life of someone who has made a lasting impact on our school district and our community Ricky coton Beetle a former student and employee of monel public schools passed away peacefully in his sleep on September 4th we were lucky to have Ricky work for the district from 2019 to 2022 he worked and positively influenced students in the waight room and through his ndvr training programs Ricky pushed athletes to become the best versions of themselves making a lasting impact on the success of the athletes and the entire Athletic program his dedication his energy and his passion for helping others will forever be a part of our district let us take a moment of silence now to honor his memory and extend our love our support and our prayers to his family friends and all of those who have been privileged to know him thank you it is now 5:02 p.m. on the 9th of sat September 2024 I'd like to welcome everyone as I call to order the regular school board meeting of Independent School District number 882 please note that a quorum is present but we are missing Kathy zebar and Mark Branson this evening please rise 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 God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you first order of business is to approve the tenative agenda so moved second moved by Melissa Curtis second by Casey root all those that approve the agenda please say I I I any oppos please say No Agenda passes 40 moving on to our consent agenda under fiscal stability where we have approval of minutes and Personnel matters this is uh action item for consent agenda so moved second moved by Melissa Curtis and seconded by casy root all those in favor for approving the consent agenda please say I I all those opposed please say no motion passes 40 moving on to item number six clect collaborative connections we have a resolution for the acceptance of gifts that superintendent Mr Olsen will discuss all right we have uh three uh donors that have uh brought forth a don donation um Central Minnesota Builders Association uh has brought forward $1,500 to provide equipment that allows for Hands-On learning to students on trades career opportunities and courses in our secondary schools um our United Way um of monacello has brought uh $10,000 for the mindfulness program um we continue to um get through the elementaries first but U making sure that our students um have tools for regulating um their body and and um understanding uh when they're experiencing stress so we've been doing this um going on our um our seventh year um at but we are continue to grow the program um United Way has also brought $5,000 uh for students in need um across the district so um that can be anything from um uh personal items um to clothes to backpacks but just items to help out students when they need that little extra attention um so I bring forth um these three donations tonight on learning for students uh $10,000 from the United Way for the mindfulness program and $5,000 from the United wave to help with students in need second moved by Jeff hegley seconded by Melissa Curtis all those in favor say I I opposed say no motion motion passes for zero we're going to move on to agenda item number seven teaching and learning and super Eric Olson will go over an overnight trip request our activities director uh Mr rnck um brought forth this overnight trip request from our volleyball program um specifically our Varsity Pro players um but this request is uh to stay um this coming Friday over um night um in order to um help the um student athletes who are playing one of the last games of the evening and then have to arrive back as one of the first games um of the morning um and so it's just a um in order for them to uh streamline their evening and be able to uh cont uh condense the their time together um so it will have some team building impact but it'll also help make it easier for the team not to have to travel back and forth um so really it's all about logistics and um timing of of this um um overnight trip request um so are there any questions I know that you've had this for um some time but uh some questions may have popped up and I'm here to answer any of those if you have them the costs are being covered by the booster club awesome yep and they don't miss school so this isn't as um sometimes we have overnight trade requests that are a little bit more in depth and so um boardley talks about uh the booer club uh taking care of this so there is no CA accured to the um activities Department and then also um this isn't um a school night request this is um at the end of the um school week thank you all right this is an action item I'll make a motion to approve volleyball overnight trip request second all right moved by Jeff hegley seconded by Mel Melissa Curtis all those in favor say a i all those opposed say no motion passes 4 Z now we'll move on to the first week of school recap with superintendent Eric Olen and Joel conle from hogland Transportation so as I invite Joel up I'm going to have um Gavin Q our first week of the um school video and then I'll meet uh Joe up at the podium and we're going to go over some of the um positives and some of the concerns that are going on with transportation across the community Thank You Gavin [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] to encourage the community that are watching live stream that if there's any concerns that ever come up um while we may be experiencing some uh wonderful uh pieces of the educational day uh you might be experiencing something that uh you want to share and have us improve and so that's why we're here today is that we want to talk a little bit about the transportation um because we've had a big change in the community will will start time change and we want to make sure that uh always um we're always here to listen to the positives we love when people share the positives but we also want to be here and give you time um and whether you're right next to us and we're trying to solve a problem together or you're sharing a problem that exists we're always here and it's always best to get your information firsthand rather than going to social media I really believe that we have people in in place to um answer lots of questions that um happen every day first week of school I'm going to um start with Joel he's going to talk about some of on positives so one of the the big things for us this year is that we were looking in our student database and Versa trans and one of the things I notice is we have 4920 students listed that doesn't mean we have 4900 kids that means we have 4,900 bus stops or people going to stops it might be be a mom it might be a dad but there's bus stops um that was 500 more than we had last year is it more because people like the start times is it more because we have um families coming together now we haven't we haven't got to the the roots of that of why we have 500 more and I can't believe that we just don't have 500 withdrawals that we don't know about but um kind of exciting that we have more um we're just morning and I go to Pinewood every morning and I go to the middle school every morning I go to East viiew in the afternoon and I go to Pinewood in the afternoon but we had every one of our buses to Pinewood on time this morning except for one um and what happens now if there's there's a hiccup in the route somewhere okay now that one's going to be a little bit late and because it's Elementary it compounds on the others um we are getting to the middle school I think I had everybody here to the midd school this morning I had to look at my she but I think we had one or two that were not by the 8:15 time I did get a call this morning again from our friends in Buffalo and they're wondering how this system is working because our our friends in Big Lake our friends in St Michael our friends in Buffalo um Becker everybody wants our start times everybody wants this but when when they called me this summer about hey how did you do it or how are you going to do it I said let's wait a year let's make sure that we get the the stuff ironed out for you and then we'll make it work because our first Bus left left our first Bus left last year at 5:30 in the morning and our last one got back at 5 p.m. this year our first bus is leaving at 6:35 a.m. and our last bus I think I text you at 4 19 this this afternoon so we're cutting off you know a good couple hours of Transportation time we have one less midday votch bus um we have one L PM votte bus which means that the the first few days we sent one bus over and it was full but I think that um the the proper thing to do is to run full buses we don't want to run buses with 20 kids or 30 kids so um at the middle school high school you know two to a seat is comfortable three can be done it's not illegal to put three middle school high schoolers in se but in the previous years I think that we've been so good to our kids that we had ones in two seats for our middle school high school because we had that time to send everybody out and come back um one of the things that uh Miss green um and I had talked about is that we're we added symbols for our elementary kids or kindergarten preschool kids so if you happen to see a bus there's a picture of a a heart Moon Star Clover Diamond Horseshoe or a alligator a panda or whatever so we know if you see a bus with a shape on it it belongs at a little mountain if you see a bus with a animal on it blings that it belongs at Pinewood and the same thing for the kids so you see on their tag on their backpack that they're a shape but they're at Pinewood that's a it's a wrong mix and I I thought it was very fun that Kristen did catch on I grew up on Lucky Charms pink hearts yellow moons orange stars green Clover blue diamonds purple horses shoes were my first six shapes that I picked um so chist new it was kind of fun um we eliminated all of our kindergarten shuttle well all but four cuz we have our Swan River Nature base at both our community schools and part of that is that was our highest discipline throughout the district was our kindergarten shuttle buses they just never learned how to ride the bus and when you put 60 people on the bus that don't know how to ride the bus they're under the seats they're touching each other they're they're licking each other just all the stuff little people like to do and and that's okay we just got to teach them but now that we have some busted with k through 12 somewhat just um K through 5 I believe we're going to reduce discipline a lot there um like I said we've reduced one hour in the morning uh for most buses we do have a St Cloud route or actually we have two that go to St Cloud because we have a wheelchair person in St Cloud we also have two other people in St Cloud that we go there to get to bring back so obviously I can't I can't get to St Cloud and back without leaving at 540 it's just I can't that's logistically not possible um but the time saving I I thought everybody'd be so happy that hey we're going to start at 6:30 we're going to be done at you know 8:30 we're going to start at 2:00 we're going to be done by 4:15 or whatever but they're stressed with no break you know they were used to having that half hour 45 minutes between routes and they're stressed with that and I think that it'll bring different people into our office for our monthly meetings to before we were always worried about you know the P trip part of it and the the actual physical part of school bus driving but I think that one of the things I didn't think through well enough is a mental part of this change I I don't know how long you've known that we've done um High School busing and then Elementary busing but it's been years years and years and years um and now that we have that swapped and hybred you you just I I didn't know or I didn't think through it to say there's some stress on some bus drivers and once again social media is never my friend but make it I mean we're we're talking through it every day and it's just a matter of bringing different people into our office to help with meetings and that kind of stuff um rowy there it's no magic wand it's time and capacity the more time the more time you go out drop off kids you come back the less time the Fuller the buses and um the when you have more buses and it takes longer to drop more kids off and and we knew that we we've talked about that for a year and a half or longer that we and I want to say for the most part people have a short one of the two is shorter AM or PM one of the two not everybody is that way there are some unfortunates that have you know a 60-minute ride or right in there our goal is to have everybody at 60 or less that's what we want um but there is for the most part half of it is shorter I'm not going to say they're 20 minutes but it's maybe a 30 35 versus a 60 um let's see and we've already uh reworked some of the routes to accommodate uh some longer bus rides to get them under an hour and it's a matter of okay instead of going around the block this way we go around this way because maybe this way we drop off the elementary kids first this way we drop off the high school kids first so they get on last in the PM so let's go this way because we can drop the elementary kids off first and um one of the ones where we go across the river after we leave the elementary school in the afternoon from elementary we've said okay until the bridge is done let's offer to the parents that hey if you want to get your kids on the bridge view side if you meet us at a group stop there yep we'll do that once the bridge is done maybe we don't need to do that anymore maybe they still like that we don't know it's but it's an offer we're we're trying to find solutions for getting people to get off the bus um last year we had 18 midday Vehicles this year we have nine I don't know where those kids are why they're why they are not going and they they're going to come somewhere I think but um bus driver wise um as much as I like having less midday routes bus driver going hey uh last year I had two middays uh what am I going to do this year so we we'll we'll work through it but uh that's that's some positives for sure and I'll jump in on the current concerns U yeah y so 500 more you're so when you started planning new school times and all that I I'm assuming that the 500 new stops weren't expected and I don't even know where these are at we're still we're try to get to school on time home on time so I and I'm a number I love numbers but I I haven't had I don't yeah um well that's just that's I that's very helpful for me to know people reach out to me it's just I that's something you can't plan for if you as much as plan you guys did for this en if a little I think that u a big part of it is that I think that maybe some maybe middle school or high school kids might not a rod before but now because they get to go home with their Elementary people uh why don't you go home with Johnny and get home that way so now it's not that it's another stop but if you put a second for every kid which would be pretty quick for those kids to get off the bus 500 extra seconds has to come from somewhere so that's okay so it's 500 more students or stops it it could be a combination of either I just in Versa trans last year it says 4,000 uh 400 and some odd students this year it says 4,900 but it could be that Joel has a am stop here and a PM stop here um we allow 1 a and 1 p.m. but we've been really nice about that in in the past this year we're trying to be more stringent about it that you get 1 a.m. 1 pm. Stop and when I talked at uh East viiew I said their bus stops to us I get that there's a mom and dad stop sometimes but their bus stops so let's have a bus stop at this address it's not mom's stop or Dad's stop it's the bus stop so in vers trans I'm talking the number of students listed in versatrans the routing software so I don't know and every kid that every kid that's in Versa trans there are some that chose not to walk or not to ride so um they're non riters so it could be that because I think I I think I sent a texture email this morning that Jamie went back to when we um first told everybody to register we need to know who's really riding and who's not riding we received just over 2500 emails on that so it could be that people registered that have always transported their student before just to make sure that they registered in the system knowing they were going to be a non-writer it could be yes okay and the scary thing is that we got 2500 but the scarier thing is that we're missing 2400 remember we asked everybody can you just this year we really really need everybody to tell us we need updated phones we need update are you really riding or not right and but we're missing 2400 of them them so we feel really good about the 2500 but you know we still have the information from last year so it's not like we took them out we just routed and I I would say maybe after October whenever they because I I got the email today that um of when they're going to close the bridge overnight again so they're close um so once we get through that we can kind of go through that say Okay are people really just going I just register but I don't need a bus or I'm registered but just in case I need a bus cuz that's what a lot of our people are um we have book kind of like Airlines do so I would say on a 77 passenger bus we probably have 130 kids listed to it but we know that the middle school high school kids list ride at about a 40 to a 50% rate so maybe they all said just in case I want to ride and maybe they said oh because our elementary kids are there and we want a middle school high school kid there we're going to have them right with but they found out who this bus rides an hour we're not going to do it either way so you don't have either one so currently I haven't run into capacity yet currently right now what is the longest route that you're aware of not County St Cloud correct not County St Cloud um scheduled there's none over an hour once you leave your community school okay so what's the longest route that you're aware of that's occurring right now if our if our last bus was empty at 412 today and I I don't know if there was a student in that last half hour of that one because you know we're leaving um the elementary schools at 2:30ish 235 is so our in our world we want our elementary kids off by 330 335 is so and includes our nature-based Swan River and kindergarten kids so I I would say there there there's probably some kids that are in that that hour 20 you know if you count they're shuttle times but we've we've had shuttles for years and it's been that way it's just that it's more preev pre prevalent now because it's new routing and it's new times and everybody looks at the time the school gets out out not what time we leave the school and the same thing within the morning when we pick up kids there's a drop off window and let's say we drop off at Pinewood at 7:25 but they see school starts at 7:55 so they think they've been on the bus that time but now they're going in and having breakfast at 7:25 or 7:30 so you guys are starting your clock to count the minute the bus leaves that's on myo screen let me pop in cuz that's one of the first things um so I'm going to talk about the first and third bullet right now so in the past we had shuttles um from East viiew and so um we had our shuttle buses uh two went to Pinewood and and one went to um little mountain two no two and three two and three went two went to Little Mountain three went to Pinewood um we did not count that time it was a shuttle time and we just it was one of those things it wasn't like we were doing it on purpose it just was one of those things that we've done for seven years where the Community Schools that's where your time started is from that community school because that was their bus and so now we have you know more we have shuttling going on right now um and it's nature base and and um uh Swan River and then we so you you you still have shuttles going on but you what people have noticed is that they're taking the time that school gets out and so that hour 20 has probably been here for many many years um but um it wasn't prevalent because the shuttle wasn't counted for so we didn't realize that until all of a sudden we get to this um this new science that we're trying to create we're trying to develop new patterns new science everything's new for for as you can hear that's what how I would summarize Joe's thing um his as he talked about the the positives he also was basically showing us that all the data points and and the things that they could predict as Norms um are all new now the Norms that we have to establish new patterns of of uh students behavior and so um so yes some of the routes are still too lengthy and I think it's really important for us to be able to talk about that with everybody that's why we're doing this right now um and that's uh why um we want to also as you'll see here in the last slide but introduce tone hall meeting but I do think it's really important to just look at that the the construction too we have to get through a um a period of time where we can see um where we can work with the people who have problems we we don't want people to be quiet we want people to come forward with very specifics we're diving into those specifics but the bottom line is anybody who crosses 25 or anybody who has to go across the bridge is is going to experience delays it's mathematical if I leave at 4:00 and get on the uh Broadway here it's going to take me 15 minutes longer to get to Broadway than it used to these are all mathematical pieces that we're trying to work through and um I I feel like uh we want to hear people's concerns over the next month but as you can see we got a company here that's transparent they're willing to St sit here and talk about the things that are working and and hopefully we have a school organization a school board School administrators that are going to continue to look at every problem and try fix them throughout the um the construction construction period And then after the construction period I would say the project manager of the Department of Transportation has been phenomenal to work with um just Friday they realized that The Pedestrian lights were still at their same temple on Broadway and so they've lessened those um so that we can um have uh so that it's not stopping traffic for as long so there's a lot of little things that we have to keep pushing on um and and working together but um I know both Joel and I have really appreciated the families that come to and and they they come to us with that disposition of problem solving and knowing that we're going to do whatever we can as a school district to help them solve their problems on on the highway 25 thing um the project manager once we got to times that were consistent I said I need longer green north and south from 230 to 240 okay I'll see what I can do and now 20 cars going through that time we got 40 so I mean that's that's very nice that you know they were able to accommodate us that way and then maybe the last one that we haven't um you know shared as a concern um yet here throughout I guess Joe did but he talked about the prek through grade 12 on some buses and we've talked about that for a year and a half and and when you look across the state um you know school districts have this type of format and really um as Joel alluded to your younger students data would be the ones that are having the most disciplinary inactions I mean our older students really should be good Mo role models and what I've talked with families about is is U buses really represent family structure you have people from all different levels within a family and that works and it works really well and so we can make this work but it's our mindset at home it's our mindset at school um it's that positive spin it's it shouldn't be we shouldn't be scared of of of teenagers I mean they're amazing you get into classes or you get on the cour or field and you watch the things that they're doing and they're absolutely um amazing leaders and we have to draw upon that um and use that over time we're just the second week and I say second week but if you realize we had a day later start to this year and so our students didn't start till Wednesday and so we had only we've only practiced um the um whole District three days now because we didn't have kindergart well kindergarten at Thursday Friday and Monday now so our whole district has only been doing Transportation 3 days this is not abnormal to have people concerned it it just people have new concerns and I think that's really important as a school board to understand we get a lot of emails at the beginning of the year every year but everybody wants to attribute it to the school starttime change and really if we just start breaking down the school starttime change what what it's meant for me is Sher HR from HR and myself stay late until until we get into a pattern where our kids get dropped off at the time they're supposed to as far as length of bus ride and um the first we days of school we have not been able to leave the school because the last bus isn't getting home until after 6 on the first week I know he said five but the first week of school it's been after six we have students getting home after being up from who knows how long and our buses weren't able to get through on a normal day without construction till after 6 and so when I'm getting um a text at 4:18 on last Friday it was 4:18 today it was 4:19 like we're literally like that's a that's an an hour and 45 minute difference of of um time that our buses aren't on the road our kids are getting home to their homes to be with their families and so it's it's challenging but there are also so many good things that um I can already see and I do believe that we're going to be able to see a lot more um positives to be able to add uh to Joe's list as goes on but we're really sticking to the student Focus we're not bringing up any of our staff um positives right now I really want to stick to students I want families to feel heard um and so it's really important to know that we're not waiting till after construction to have Town Hall meetings we'll have two before the construction's done uh but it we should because we should be in very good patterns for what we have to deal with right now by um by the end of September and so continue as families if you have challenges that you're seen in comparison to what you've experienced in in uh previous years please continue to contact both hoglands and myself and we will um look into every email and make sure that uh we um problem solve to try to come up with a better solution and is that correct that the second one is in the morning at 7:00 a.m. to 7:45 a.m. it is just wanted to verify that and that go ahead go ahead no you can and that was my first off you know I'm I'm glad that we've done some serious problem problem solving and because a 6 p.m drop off obviously to you guys is unacceptable as well as everybody else and we understand that this is a new system and we've got the bridge to consider and some other things that maybe we weren't even able to think about or process until we were actually implementing the plan and so what I hear Joe is that the goal is is that the students from the point when they leave like let's say Pinewood you know pinew Elementary to when they get dropped off at home the goal goal is and contractually 1 hour right and so um what I love was that Eric you mention for them to reach out and so if the public does have concerns I do urge them to reach out to hogland transportation to let them know because you only know what you know so if you know you don't know if you've got a student on there that's too long and they might have to work through some issues because I know on Friday even um we were talking about a student that had reached out and was on and then we reworked it and so I think it's important for the public to know that the school and hogland want what's best for the students and so if there's concerns we want you to reach out so that way we can problem solve and figure it out I I would say one other thing that uh Eric and I have learned or talked about and through my umpire officiating the the stuff that I learned is that you observe you make the call you make the signal and in the transportation business we were so good at it for so long we just made the change right now made the change right now so what we would just send letters home tonight we'd make the change tomorrow morning well now we did that we sent the letters home tonight the next morning we go oh those kids didn't ride last night so now we got a better system because devony can send out messages for us right now now so we can we can still get the the quicker response but maybe it's like the umpiring and officiating you go all right I want to fix it right now I want everybody to have a shorter ride but I need to take a breath let's see if I change this bus route around and make a change who does that really impact and you know making compromise and say well yeah you can come do that um one example of that is is a family wanted their student dropped off not door side I don't like it it it doesn't feel good and what was interesting to me is my son Adam said Dad it's not just that kid even though the parents think that's okay to have their kid at risk it's all the other kids on the bus that are going to be if something were to happen it's those kids that that we're trying to protect also not just the one parent that says that's okay you my kid can cross this busy road CU we try not to do that vers trans tells us are you sure you want to do this you got to Mark yes it's okay to let him cross so it's that kind of stuff that when you have you know Adam there and me there and Jamie there we all think of different stuff and that's what I I like I think that through the umpire stuff I just got to take a break take a take a Brea go okay I know I want to fix it right now but let's take a breath and see what happens yeah I think that's really where we're coming from is we want to make sure that we're making progress and making improvements and we don't just stop and on one day and say oh this is all this is the best that we can have or this is the best it is uh we understand there's the bridge bridge construction the traffic um but yeah whatever you guys can do we'll we'll work with you um to Eric and Jamie's point you know we just want to support all the all the uh the students get everyone home get them safe uh but we also want to make sure that we're meeting the contractual obligations for the hour um and and maybe that I don't know if maybe some better communication around when that time starts you know versus his school out or when the bus leaves on there so and remember it's it's time and capacity people can have shorter routes and it's easy for me to say but just buy more buses buy more drivers but you know as well as I do you just don't have just drivers around but you can do it I mean um yeah we we want to support you on there we want to help so I mean it's interesting I mean I in we're trying to show and share as much as um that we've had come up but we've had a couple of solutions um and sometimes you present solutions to families and um sometimes those Solutions um come at a cost where maybe we'd have like um some um one of the child like a child in kindergarten get home at one time and then the child in the elementary at another time um and maybe it's like a 15minute um disparity or difference and sometimes families don't want that 15 minutes and so so you can think of a way to make things better but then all of a sudden you call 13 or 15 people and um only two out of those um was it 15 change you know want that change so like everything has its nuance and and we can come up with a lot of really good ideas and we are coming up with a lot of good ideas and sometimes PE that doesn't fit too so it's really important um just like anything it's important to make sure that we get all the facts um presented and and be able to share that and that's why that's why we're here today is to be able to uh share what we know so far after um the third full day of pre-care through grade 12 uh being transported and um we're not going to stop this type of open transparency and communication you guys deserve that as a board you took a um you know an opportunity to have different uh school start times because of all of us working together and we want to continue to work together to make this work because we we like the school times for many reasons today we're just focusing on the students but uh hopefully over time families also learn to love that for their through their children's eyes so just out of curiosity how how close are you to adding another bus to your to your route I I guess when do you make that decision to say now it's time to add one more bus or two more buses and I I know it's already day three of the day four I could say in the past when we had and I don't I don't remember how long ago we had some construction that was really causing Havoc for the first month of school so they said let's just add a couple buses for the first month or the first two months um and we did that um I don't I would really like to have at least a couple weeks under our belt to see okay really how how close are we to the hour you know and I I don't want to use the bridge as an excuse because I I knew the bridge of construction was coming for years I just didn't know it was going to be 40 minutes someday so the other day we go okay we'll just go 10 minutes early well that the bus was the buses were coming 20 minutes late to Pinewood literally 20 minutes late the next day we started 10 minutes early and they arrived at Pinewood 8 minutes early before we could even drop off not even 20 minutes late from the last of the window so there's a magic window in there and getting across that bridge or getting through town that it's not even a bridge it's sometimes it's 25 it's sometimes um when you got to get from our office down 25 to Broadway or however you get there and bus drivers are pretty sneaky if you want to ever know the shortest distance between or the quickest distance between two points follow a bus because they know the quickest way from our place to someplace else I'll guarantee you that and I appreciate the creativity and I don't think any of us want you to make any hasty decisions I think we would rather have us make educated decisions and um and I think it there's no doubt that what's right for the students is on the Forefront of mind and you're very passionate and dedicated to our district and so I appreciate that and I know as we continue to work together but also the Public's got to notify us and not just complain to your neighbor but you know actually let the bus company know that there's some uh concerns that then we can work through them I that I mean we all know media affects things and I think they they take a 30C soci and they and they immediately assume that is going to change that done and I think from what I've ER there's been lot solutions to help a lot of families out and I think if they understand that we're continually trying to help them and trying to find solutions that are best for them I think that's once they understand that then I think so board member hegley myself um and Joel conle have all talked about social media I urge everybody I'll say this at any time any place but please don't use social media please call one of us email us if it's about transportation we are the two people um or Jamie Crick from Hogan but that is the only way to truly um get to the bottom of a problem but I would encourage you if you have a problem at school like or lunch those issues go through the school system and and call the people if you have you know call the teacher if if it's a teacher related question classroom question call the principal if it's a principal related question call the director of nutrition services if it's a director of of if it's a um nutrition service question we see so many people go to social media and and they'll post a picture of a tray or something like that and have a question about food and and it ends up being 100% false but yet it's a whole bunch of people are taking their energy to respond to things that are 100% not true and that that's just not good it's not a healthy way to do business once again I it wasn't on the agenda of the slide but we've heard three people say it I just want to emphasize social media is not your way to get uh healthy answers any other questions all right thank you thank you Joel for coming appreciate the presentation and update asso I got to go to so I absolutely thank you I appreciate it thank you all right um on to agenda item number eight our Innovation and Leadership we would like to welcome to the podium Miss Tina Burkholder Director of Business Services to review the preliminary property tax levy information skip the changed 7c I'm back here I can I got it oh all right just kidding we're going back to item C Schoolboard recognition with superintendent Eric Olson all right so September is a school board recognition month and I just would like to get a give a plug for our six school board members um the countless hours that they put in um every single week is absolutely um it's crazy to me um but I have never felt uh more supported from a board of six people uh come together as as voted officials um every week whether it's a meeting that you see here in public at this table um or whether it's work behind the scenes to uphold the Integrity of policy and budget across the district and these six individuals need to be commended for um their high quality service uh to our community so a school board recognition month here in September and I just want to um uh thank these six personally at a board meeting so that uh they know how appreciated um how appreciated they are and how much I value their service awesome thank you all right now we're moving on to item number eight Innovation and Leadership we welcome Miss Tina Burkholder Director of Business Services to the podium to review our preliminary property tax levy good evening Gavin if you could bring up the PDF that's Linked In the cover sheet um so in State Statute MD has to give all the state uh school districts their PR property tax levy report by um September 8th of each year so the business day prior to that was Friday September 6 and at 5:116 the monell report was on there Friday night and somebody at mde was describing this that Wednesday before that it's like you're trying to get concert tickets and keep refreshing the page to see is it up yet is it up yet is it up yet finally at 5:16 it was up um so I wanted want to go over some of the preliminary highlights with the report there's still some corrections that need to happen with the state um but with our general fund Levy the overall Levy decreased 132,000 or a minus 1.22% if we could blow that up a little more Gavin um so people in the audience could see it a little better um some of the changes between last year and this year payable the voter approv referendum decreased um 160,000 from what I could tell with the prior year Levy more adjustments were made with inflation because our voter approved um Levy has inflation on it so um the inflation amounts were adjusted in last year's Levy and we don't have quite that much as inflation adjustments happen in uh payable 2025 in our operating Capital Levy that increased 60,000 as of uh the first report and a lot of that has to do with Equalization with the property values increasing so more is coming in the form of Levy versus Aid and then Reemployment Insurance saw a decrease um and this had to do with a negative adjustment um in 2022 our unemployment expenses were 86,000 and in FY 23 our unemployment expenses were 50,000 and so you have to guess ahead of time what your unemployment expenses were so I guessed around that 85 90,000 range so a lot of that has to do with the negative adjustment um from that year because at once it's all sent done they go back and shw up what you report to the state and this is just regular unemployment it's not the summer term unemployment you can't Levy for that um I think there's some least Levy amounts that probably still need to get into the system with like the co-op and right Tech and things like that so I think there might be some increases there once more reports come in on the community service fund Levy that decreased 93,000 a lot of that has to do with it doesn't include our um Child Care disabled Levy amount in there that's missing 110,000 so once that's in there the overall Levy should be around 430,000 or an increase of 4.06% Debt Service Levy is decreasing 42,000 or a minus 1.84% um everything kind of looks normal from what I can see at first glance so overall the levy like I said it's going down 268,000 or 1 Point minus 1.84% once some of those adjustments get in there it's probably going to be maybe still lower than last year by a little bit or maybe close to a zero change so the levy report is 39 Pages the first 30 are all calculations based on enrollment property values Equalization what's Aid what's Levy looking at adjustments for the last two years and filtering them all in um so we'll go into more of a deeper dive at a work session once more reports come in and we get better gauge of what's real and what's not and then um at the 23rd meeting or 25th 20 23rd um it'll be um to ask for approval on the levy and we always approve to the max to make sure that if there are any errors or anything that we get what's the full amount and then you can always adjust it down in December so help me understand this if I'm understanding this correctly uh so basically when we to the community being pretty similar to what we saw last year correct like I mentioned last year that was a one-time adjustment that happened because two years ago we gave back Debt Service Levy and so that swung back up last year to normal levels to 3.3 million versus I think it was 2.5 million somewhere in there so our debt service Levy is that 3.2 3.3 million this year when they their tax s from the county and from the district it should actually be a decrease it's totally dependent on their property values and everything else that's going it's not just what the school levy is doing if their property values are increasing they could see an in increase but the School portion that line item is driven off this one still it's depending on what their property value is doing so I guess what I'm asking is that what value input that last year when it was higher or will constituents that say oh this is better than it was last year so I don't I don't know how to say it differently so if our Levy is 14 million and Excel is a large property owner in our district and they are advocating I think for another property value decrease so they have a large portion of our debt service or our overall Levy so if their Lev if their value is going down it means their property tax portion is going down and so the the axes are going to be pushed towards the other values right so it's just because our Lev is going down doesn't mean everybody's is going down it's based on property values any other questions for Tina all right Tina as always thank you appreciate it tax question Ian we don't usually but yeah just let you go and be a Ambassador for us would be great so who ener value going like who oh I'm sorry okay oh sorry um so who would approve EXL Energy's property value going down in thus their property taxes going down and thus the levy amount that would go towards the school district like the county and the state the county and the state do that okay all right that that was I knew you had a question that would be really good for the public and anybody watching so thank you any other questions for Tina all right thank you Tina all right now we are moving on to agenda item number nine safe and health culture we'd like to welcome up Mr Rob Daner Director of Human Resources to go over first read of policies you guys talk about all these policies tonight yep could you being all productive over there all at once acting chair sein members of the board superintendent olssen uh as uh board member hegley mentioned we uh we were incredibly um uh efficient with our time this evening um a little bit we were efficient but we actually had some easy stuff to go through as well so actually maybe I'll just jump in right there so um what we have tried to do is to create a uh rotation of um uh policy review and so uh basically we've split up the nine sections of policy review into three years and so three um different sections uh each year over three years will get us to those nine total sections and so uh we delved into that tonight starting with the two the 200s and so you see a bunch of 2011 202 Etc um and so many of those there weren't substantial changes and we were able to go through those quite quickly so um that's why there's so many on tonight and uh likely we'll have a little bit of the same for a little while here until we exhaust through all of our um our cycle updates um however the first one on the list for tonight 522 uh this is Title 9 sex non-discrimination policy and grievance procedure and is also followed up by 522 addendum uh this is um in response to the federal government's uh Title 9 UM guidelines which were updated as of August 1st um and have been somewhat in the news because they have um broadened the scope of Title 9 UM possible Title 9 investigations in terms of who is um eligible and then also um uh in terms of the frequency that rises to the level of an investigation so um so as a policy committee we talked a little bit about the fact that we have existing policy on this which reflects the previous guidelines or the previous uh federal government um requirements and so really in terms of adopting 522 and 522 addendum it's not so much that we're agreeing or disagreeing with those Federal requirements it's simply that we are um if we have a title 9 complaint that comes for we're playing off the same sheet of music as the federal government is right now uh whether or not we agree with the direction that that's gone um and so 522 the the um uh the general the the non-discrimination policy Grievous procedures simply lays out general statement of policy uh notice of non-discrimination uh it's fairly succinct um and then it's more broadly uh title the title line process is more broadly articulated in the addendum um and it says the school district has adopted these grievance procedures that provide for the prompt and Equitable resolution of complaints made by students employees and other individuals who are participating or attempting to participate in its educational program or activity or by the title 9 coordinator alleging any action that would be prohibited by Title 9 or the title 9 regulations any questions from the board on 522 and 522 addendum okay all right moving on next one up uh this is starts our sequence of um cycle updates so 2011 is legal status of the school board the purpose of this policy is the Care Management and control of the schools is vested by statutory and constitutional Authority in the school board the school board shall carry out the mission of the school district with diligence prudence and dedication to the ideals of providing the finest public education the purpose of this policy is to define the authority dual uh duties excuse me and powers of the school board and carrying out its Mission and there is no sub substantial changes on this one and questions on 2011 at all all right seeing none we'll keep going on 202 uh this is School Board officers uh the purpose of uh this policy is Schoolboard officers are charged with the duty of carrying out the responsibilities entrusted to them for the Care Management and control of the public schools of the school district the purpose of this policy is to delineate these responsibilities um again no substantial changes on this one any questions on 202 okay 203 operation of the school board governing rules uh so the purpose of this policy is to provide uh governing rules for the conduct of meetings of the school board um again fairly succinct no major changes here any questions on 203 all right moving forward uh 2011 or excuse me 203.000 School Board board procedures Rules of Order the purpose of this policy is to provide specific Rules of Order to conduct meetings of the school board again uh fairly straightforward no major changes on this one any questions on [Music] 203.000 point2 and so this is a new model policy brought forward by msba and we're Rec recommending it for adoption locally here in monello as well as well uh the title is order of the regular school board meeting the purpose uh of this policiy to ensure consistency in the order of business at regular school board meetings um of note uh in article three of the policy under order item a it does state that the school board shall conduct an orderly school board meeting the school board will at all regular Schoolboard meetings follow an agenda order similar to and so that broad language allows for some modification and um adoption as we would locally see fit any questions on 203.27 okay hearing none moving forward to 206 this is titled public participation in the Schoolboard meetings complaints about persons at Schoolboard meetings and data privacy considerations the purpose uh is as stated the school board recognizes the value of participation by the public in deliberations and decisions on school board School District matters at the same time the school board recognizes the importance of conducting orderly and efficient proceedings with opportunity for expression of all participants respective views um it goes on to say the purpose of this policy is to provide Pro uh procedures to assure open and orderly public discussion as well as to protect the due process and privacy rights of individuals under the law and again no major changes on this one any questions okay and I should actually mention um on 206 um uh we do have um on website we do call out our procedures for uh initiating citizens comment and in 206 under uh article 6 procedures section a number eight um it does the school board does reserve the right to impose such other limitations restrictions as necessary in order to provide an orderly efficient and fair opportunity for those present to be heard and so what is on our website is slightly more restrictive than what's in policy but that's a good thing we want to have the ability to um uh as called out by that language that is read have the ability to frame our experience locally as we would need to all right um on 507 uh so this was uh these were brought forward uh largely because msba provided updated um model drafts uh following the conclusion of the legislative session um in the news the last couple of years uh has been um school resource officers and so 507 and 5075 uh were revisions brought forward by uh timely because of the updated statute so the purpose of 507 is uh to describe limitations on the use of corporal punishment and prone restraint upon a student were there any questions from the board on this one okay and then the related 507.00 that um uh there's some leeway provided in the state statute regarding school officer training and that's something that we can work with our um our partners at Wright County Sheriff um to develop a more Broad and consistent understanding of the training that sro's go through before coming uh to serve at monello schools any questions on either 507 or 507.00 officer does that very often um I would say every year it probably happens at least you know we have two officers um it happens maybe one time a year you know could be a u medical leave could be um a um School race surface officer on on a on a maternity or or paternity leave so it happens maybe one time a year for a short that they're not obligated complete their card it's less than 60 days so that that was that was actually the largest portion of our discussion and I did send an email to um Sergeant Migel tonight to see what um you know what what do they require their officers so um from my understanding I don't know that we've ever had somebody not trained but I want to verify that um so I we sent an email tonight I I think it's probably in our best interest to have even if it's a Subs resource officer that is trained in in what we would require for yeah that was probably 90% of the conversation on that one and how do we that's where Eric was talking about um you know working with uh the sheriff to make sure we get someone that already has had the trans for not just grabbing someone and throwing them so and our discussion was too is besides the policy that we have having more stringent criteria um at the district level separate from the policy and making sure that everybody's trained so that would be in the contract then with resource officers so I was able to share with the group at policy that um it was pretty neat to watch right Cony um our right County was actually the training hub for Central and and uh up to the north um North the whole Northland of uh training so the training that last spring was done here at uh monol Middle School this boardroom right here so I know I've been able to take part in and watch what school resour resource training looks like um so I um I have a little bit more firsthand information uh and was excited to be part of that but I think policy committee and you Jeff bring up great questions is what what's really going on with some of those that that training when it um is for a substitute and um I just want to make sure that even a substitute um gets that training so we we'll see I don't I think they always have but uh we'll find out what comes back and I can let you guys know in my Friday communication I think obviously it works as we've been very fortunate to have great Sr off had a lot of really good ones so y if I could just clarify just we've been talking about substitutes um so of course we're talking about substitute Law Enforcement Officers so anybody subbing as an Sr is already a licensed law enforcement officer I just want to point that out for clarity for our public um but the Nuance would be uh the spec specific training to be an SRO which is very powerful training as Eric mentioned and so um that would be very valuable okay and for what it's worth uh board member hegley we that's as board member root and others brought up we did have a good conversation about this and I did point out to the committee that um that 60 days is actually more restrictive than even for instance in teacher world right and so takes 90 days to be um to be given credit for a full year of service as a teacher but they stay in the statute that if you're essentially full service for the year uh and SRO world that's 60 days and so more restrictive so I do appreciate that okay and so and then uh again no action for tonight um however this is an opportunity for the public and also the board at large to have their first uh review of these and we'll come back into two weeks for the second read awesome thank you Mr Daner and as always like Rob mentioned we have ample time now to review and go through it too and ask any more um questions on what we want to do more in addition so all right now we're moving on to uh item number 10 which is adjourning um I'd like to note that our next board meeting will be Monday September 23rd um for those that would like to attend and ask if there's any additional comments or business from any other board members at this time no okay then our agenda is complete can I get a motion to adjourn second moved by Jeff hegley seconded by Melissa Curtis we are adjourning at 608 p.m. and we will have a work session to follow we'll take a be brief break for 5 minutes and we'll come back together for a work session thank you e