##VIDEO ID:sg-tKkcclIs## call the meeting to order here at 6:30 can rise for the pledge IED aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all please take Noto all six board members president and dozen to 15 people in our audience which is wonderful um chair would entertain a motion for approval of the agenda as presented so motion by mats or second second Amy second by Amy all right any discussion see all in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign carries uh we have first open Forum I did not see any thing out there if there's anybody that wanted to address the board okay seeing then we'll move on buting Spirit recognition looks like Randy and Jen are going to go first come on up guys come on up Elementary I'll stand by ter where am I supposed to stand this room is new to us me okay so we have half of our par Mentor staff here tonight and this is something really special to my heart because it's been so valuable the last two years since we implemented it and all of you approved for this to happen and these ladies have taken the par mentorship I've given them our expectations and they've taken those expect ations up to here and have gone above and beyond the Call of Duty on this I had a comment I I met with them at the beginning of the year and one comment was I'm not doing this for the money I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do to help new Paras come into our district and give them good guidance so they feel like this is really a good home base they have somebody to go to answer questions kind of teach them the ropes of our building and help them with any issues they have along the way and I do check-ins throughout the year and get really good feedback from about these ladies right here from their mentees they're checking in with them they're going over paperwork with them they're making sure all the boxes are checked and they just genuinely care about these people getting trained right so those to so the mentees can give back to our students so hats off I'm so happy that all of you do this for us you accentuate our building for Randy and I so keep rocking it and keep being the great people that you are for our building your leaders there for all of the PA professionals and for us too so thank you for everything that you do for this program thank you youate um I wanted to recognize our Nutrition department here at the high school um one of the things that's really important is when people gather I always feel like eating and food is what makes you a family and Mora High School has become a better family through our Nutrition department so Miss Tina here miss Heather who's sitting back there she's right there she doesn't like it but Miss Sandy Miss Michelle Miss Stephanie Miss Laura Mr Kaden and Miss Sue they have stepped up the game and the example I have is one of our new staff this year came up to me I love working here like oh yeah it's so fun to work with the kids he like no your lunches are amazing and that's what he pointed out and so we knew that we had something special going on this year the kids and the staff are just kind of buzzing about the food like it just looks good they've got these salad bars they've got these amazing meals put together kids are eating together a lot of them are putting their phones down and just visiting food is bringing people together and it's because this team is done an amazing job some great leadership um we have an amazing Nutrition department and it's a big part of what makes morea high school the world's greatest high school so wanted to thank our nutrition team a thank [Music] yeah so thanks Tina thanks Heather thank you so this month is School Board appreciation month so I wanted to take an opportunity it they had it in January and February so you get two appreciations in one year and you certainly deserve it um you know one of the things that I think people see this public part of the school board what they don't see is when um we send out the agenda and you dig through the agenda make sure that you're knowledgeable and you understand coming in from uh outside the education world it's a lot of uh different terminology a lot of different budget items um school policy a lot of that is different and I just want you to know that you are appreciated for the extra work that you do one of the things that I really feel um blessed to be able to work along side and for you as a school board is that all of you really have students at the center of your decisions and everyone at this table uh really cares about the success of our students in our district and our community and our staff so thank you so much on behalf of MOA public schools for all the work that you do and the time and and your talents that you share so thank you thank you D appreciate it all right um well thank you uh uh next up then number four we'll go the resol um we've got a resolution from kabic County Proclamation from the city MOA regarding schard Rec alter I'll read that all right yeah so Kelly helped organize some of this um whereas the kabic county uh Board of Commissioners recognized the importance of public education in our community whereas the kabic County Board of Commissioners appreciates the vital role played by those individuals who as school board leaders members establish policies to ensure an efficient and effective school system whereas the school board members serve as a voice that enable enables our community to preserve local management and control of our public schools and whereas the school board members are charged with representing our local education interests to state and federal governments and ensuring ensuring compliance with state and federal laws whereas the school board members devote their knowledge time and talents as advocates for our school children and whereas local Schoolboard members are strong advocates for the public education and responsible for communicating the needs of the school district to the public and the Public's expectations to the district now therefore let it be resolved that the kabic County Board of Commissioners hereby recognizes the the members of all the school board within kabic County by proclaiming September 2024 as school board recognition month so um again kavic County uh thanks and appreciates your work I do know that I have uh Kelly has a certificate for all of you and um the we need to take a picture which I think we'll do at the end of the Schoolboard meetings so Eric you'll I'll take those and then that'll remind me to take the picture at the end for the newspaper so thank you yes thank you um next up number five back school proficiency data 2024 2025 Darcy come on up try [Laughter] [Music] turn all right well thank you um this is one of my enjoyable tasks getting to share a chency data with you every year so um I hope you enjoy it as much as I do so right um I think that um one of the things that we have in place is just a very dedicated staff and so for as much time as our staff put into our students and as much time as our students put into their education I think it's important that we take the time to look at data and I know some people think it's not the greatest thing but I love looking at it and I think we owe that to our staff and our students spend some time with it um it's not the first time that I presented this so I try to keep it as consistent as other years and keep it uh presented in a neutral way as possible so um you can ask me some questions and thoughts but I try to just keep the data as as basic and neutral as you get it right from the Minnesota report card so it is public information and it's out there on the Minnesota website Department of Education it's okay just happened another time all right um nothing has changed at the state level as far as what um what grades get tested so grades 3 through eight is Reading in math um and then 10th grade is reading 11th grade is M they do split up in the upper grades for science it is a banded test so they test once in Elementary in fifth grade once in a junior high setting in eighth grade and once in a high school setting and currently um we test ours at the 10th grade level so nothing has changed here um and I will go back go back um I will note on the side here this is the last year for um our current science test this is the first year now that science standards are implemented and the test in the spring will match the standards so across the state so this is the last time we see this data for the science standards and then there is a change to our mtas test which is a special ed test um not for all spad tests but for um our alternate assessments for students that need that as it's determined in IEP and so they're renaming that and tweaking that a little bit to coincide with um the standards as they come so we'll see that change in the science standards first and then down the down the road we'll see a change for reading amount all right okay so District level and I got to say we've got some some shiny great news for district level data whether it's reading whether it's math or whether it's science this year so it's great to look at this um and really enjoy it take some time to soak it in and enjoy it um whenever I pull data I do like to also have something to compare it to um because if I were to say all right our district has what is it 63.9 or 63.6 um if I didn't have anything to compare that to it might not be as meaningful so I often try to have something to compare it to so that's why I stuff with the state um the state average and that's kind of important to know that we are doing better than the state average right now 50.6 and so I'm going to go down the the road a little bit with um the reading District level data compared to the state and taking a look at some of the years prior to it just to see how are we doing um in the blue you can see that we are historically above the state average in literacy if you look at the two oranges on the right um 50.5 and 50.6 that's the state average it really stayed very neutral and you'll see that it stayed very neutral for math across the state and very neutral for reading and so when you hear the commissioner's comments um he was basically like here's the data it wasn't really a wow which maybe there wasn't an increase but there wasn't a decrease either so maybe a neutral message was okay at the state level to hear that hey we remain the same so um we we'll move forward with that but I did want to highlight that because um as you can see we did go up from our last year's too so I'm going to look at it again I kind of dropped the state out of there and I just wanted to Showcase a little bit how historically we have been above the state and by how much right so you can see we've been 6.9 5.6 9.9 10. and now um we were 13 points above the percentage points above the state average so then I also like to look at like historic data because I if you have questions on historic data I think I have like a dozen years of this stuff so if you have questions I'll take the other requests outside of the meeting too um I wanted to go back to well how about our starting point of that pre pandemic are we back to where we started and we're very close you can see we're at 2.5 um percentage points away from where we were pre pandemic um but the state is still 8.6 away from that and so we're we're going to watch across the state and see what suggestions they have in literacy there's a lot of things coming down the pipe with read act and and the science of reading testing and new standards coming into place within the next year so hopefully we'll see some Wiggles across the state on some of that data so before I transition to the math and I'll do the same sequence for math do you have any reading literacy questions this is good news all right um again here's our uh math now going through the same sequence District we are above the state average for math which is great to see 54.1 compared to a 46.2 and you can kind of see this is where I was really pointing out that um both us and the state stayed very similar in our math scores and I did actually have to go back to the Minnesota report to verify that cuz I'm like that seemed like is that a mistake or not and even today at like 3:00 I went back and looked at it one more time just to make sure because those numbers are so similar the state average was 40 what 6 and 46.2 and we were 54.1 and we were like 5412 or something so um it's it's interesting that the the last two years have stayed very and would very neutral but we were still above State average which is one of our thresholds that I think we always strive for and so I wanted to see how far how far have we been above and you can see that we were 3.4 above but we dipped 03 below then 7.3 above 8.1 above 7.9 above so we're doing well as a district whole and I did also want to see how far away are we from getting back to our pre- pandemic as well um and we're 4.8 away from our math and the state was very similar they were what were they 8.5 is for reading so 8.8 for Math and I will say that um the new standards are coming into play I think in four years so we're going to start working on some math transitioning um across the state and across locally our district as well any questions for math all right science is just a a little bit different than reading in math because like I said it's banded so it's not necessarily a grade level test we'll test them once in fifth grade but it's on content that they learn third fourth and fifth grade it accumulates whereas the reading test is that grade levels reading test science does that again then for six seven and eight so that test covers all three grade levels and then ninth and 10th it covers that content on we give it in 10 gr so it's a little bit unique compared to the reading in the map so here we are are above the state and this one was a big jump that we are super excited about um 47.9 compared to I'm sorry no I look at the wrong one here 47.9 compared to the 39.6 and that is a great increase and if we go to our next slide um we were at the was it 39 39.8 up to 47.9 which is a huge jump um and that's where we get to look at um buildings can dig into that and SE okay by my building what is impacting that what have we put into place what are some of the resources that um might be contributing to that so that's a great great um success to see and again at the state level very neutral again 39.2 compared to 39.6 so very stagnant across the state and then this is a comparison like how how far above have we been um compared to the state in science over the past years this one um I didn't track it back because we will not be tracking back to pre pandemic anymore because now it's going to be a new test so to go backwards um we won't be able to compare it to because it'll be a new test moving forward with new content so questions on that for me on reading math or science [Music] right good good good um I'm going to skip over the schools because like I said we have a lot of data to get through so I'm going to try and speed it up a little bit um but I do have that information and just know that when you go to the Minnesota report card if you look at our schools it is a little bit tricky when you pull it you want to make sure that you're pulling um information for the high school and for the alc and if you ever wanted to compare for like the elementary often times um there's not necessarily a set grade level of what constitutes an elementary versus the high school so often times I pull it by hand because at sixth grade not every Elementary has a sixth grade not every high school has 7 through 12 like we have and not every high school has an ALC so um often times when I do buy the school I do calculate It Out by hand so that all the kids are represented in that number but to move forward um let's go back to our this is again one more snapshot of our district data and now instead of comparing to the state at compared to Tor area schools which I often get a request for this so any questions on that we can kind of see like okay as a district here's how we're doing in literacy as a district here's how we're doing in math as a district here's how we're doing in science and that last column um it's still available on the Minnesota report card our free and reduced lunch rate even though at the state level it's changing a little bit worth the algorithms um but it's still available on a report card so I pulled it up there as well and there's a big vast variety of the the free and reduced poverty rates compared to our area schools just in looking at that really quick I just have one question like the all these schools are in Central Minnesota east to west how do we what are the numbers in southern Minnesota and Northern Minnesota compared to what we have going on you know that's a good question I could look it up individually like if you gave me certain schools I can I can compile it for you but I wouldn't have it like off the top of my head by regions I think it might be like interesting to see it by districts are size like like populations yeah like or just our student student population cuz like us comparing to Albany and Princeton and Becker is a little where we're not the same demographic as those I mean for multiple reasons but they have way more student population than we do so MH I mean it' just be nice to see that along with this information as well because they are neighboring I would agree sure I like that we're hanging with all the new and back great to get one up on Foley once in a while but uh uh it'd be just just a benchmark to see where rting against school's our size you bet I can do that prob would happy to All Right Moving on this is often a question that we get and we get a lot of um students and particularly parents parents interested in special education here at more public schools and so we compiled like well how are we doing that as a district specifically just our SP students and so I compiled that um and you can take a look here's how we're doing for reading as a district for sped here's how we're doing as a district from meth for sped students and the science for our sped students what was this before ads us o good question I can pull up um I probably have last year's day yeah H it's just a random thought that I mean it' just be good to it' be a really good comparison just for the district to see yep I can do that I know I have last year's compile but I can go a little bit back to taking a note on that all right um this really this is um interesting for us because we get a lot of students um not necessarily identified in our district as referring for sped but they come to us already identified and on an IEP and then how do we adjust to those needs that are already requested and man hats off to our sped staff and the people that lead those teams like we have Jenny Barry we have Jennifer fussy we have Nick over there um baky and those three really have a great sped team that are super dedicated in in contributing to how to to best service their students right they're going to dig in on an individual basis like once they get that IP what can I do to make this kid um successful in our our system and it's it's hats up they really do a phenomenal job as do all our staff but it's it's incredible questions on sped Data before we I do have a breaking Broken Out by grade levels too but I I think I skipped over that too I apologize if you wanted I have it all right all right so now we'll go back to grade level data for the MCAS and AMT students and this is maybe my number one requested data point and I get this request from teachers I get this request from parents I get this one from other districts as well and it's public data so other districts can just look it up on their own um but but I've had some requests from different districts like hey can I see how you put it together and um we look at the participation rate we have a great Community that's interested in having their kids contribute to it as well we don't have a lot of opting outs and it shows it's it's very well received so um just for the sake that I couldn't fit it all one slide this is grades 34 five and six for reading and this is grades 7 8 and 10 for reading as well so you can see we're above the state average across the board from math and I I apologize is I'm going quick but you can have access to this if you want um grades 3 4 5 6 for Math and 78 and 11 for math as well and I will say yes we've talked about the 11th grade math um and it's nothing to shy away from We're below the state in 11th grade math yep do we screwed away from it nope right hit it head on what can we do what resources do we need um not only us but at the state level as well and so they're they're doing a lot right now I've joined a cohort for math from mde and it's it's very intriguing that what they're trying to do for the Forefront before these math standards come into play in the next 3 to four years so I think you know what like I said it's not great to have it shined up there but hey it's something that we do have to address and we'll we'll look at that locally with within our districts or building sites all right and then science goes a little bit quicker like I said it's just banded so the only information we have for elementary is fifth grade science and 8th grade and 10th grade for the high school so um to wrap it up like I said all this information is on the Minnesota state report card so it is public data um and I certainly am very eager to pull um any data request that you have and so I can either email the whole board or I can have yep and any others like if you have questions I'm happy to sit down and talk like I said I have 12 years of historic data on us on MCAS and I'm sure I'll be back for fast data and because it's not just the only thing that we look at when we start working with our kiddos we look at all the different assessments whether it's locally in their classrooms or this state standardized test or fast testing and do what we can for the best needs for our students any other questions you might have for that I know you base everything on State Standards is there any standards set by the district like we want to be I know you want to be as high as you can but do we want to be 62 or 63 68% districtwide do we have a goal that we want to meet within our district for this testing you know good question I would say that we have a goal for every specific test but we do have a one of our qon coordinators is here and we do set um goals based on MCA data for whatever content area each building wants to work on and I believe we're both working on reading this this moving forward we can't set a goal lower than what we have as a state uh are not as as a local average so we can't say like we're going to do 60 what how was it 69 something like that we have to go above what we already have achieved we can never set up a lower goal um we tried to Once average like the past several years and then do an increase of like the average of The Last 5 Years and the state sent it back to us and said it has to be an increase of the previous year at least there's a lot of moves but we don't set it for every single content area we decide as a building like okay we're going to focus on math this year this is our math goal um there's other goals though we have world's best Workforce where we'll it's the new name now comprehensive achievement Civic Readiness yes that doesn't roll off my tongue very well good job um and that has some goals on data on uh closing the achievement gaps based on whether it's ethnicity groups socioeconomic groups sped um closing those gaps academically and those have some goals based on reading math and science as well so I don't know if I necessarily answered your question yes we kind of do but not necessarily every that's what's important yeah I mean it's not well I shouldn't speak but from what I understand grade levels will set their own goals and plc's will set their own goals for what they want to achieve as well with their students so yeah the other thing that we also look at is not necessarily just the score but we also look at some of the the factors that might be contributing to that score so Scott you were probably here um this year's I want to say 10th graders are the first all day everyday kid kindergarten group coming through so it's interesting to kind of watch and see did did that have an impact now those Port 10th graders also bam got slammed into Co too so did we do that right um but then looking at like okay where were kids at during Co this year's fifth grade scores up there so this year's sixth grade where were they at when we sent them home for Co end of March first grade so deep heavy reading phonic skills are we seeing a deficit in that area maybe maybe that's something that we need to go back to um seventh and eighth grade kids where where were they sitting for math during this Co they were sitting in second and third grade where you just starting multiplication and division facts is that making an impact right now when they're in seventh and eighth grade trying to learn all these different algorithms so it's kind of maybe I'm too old for them may have been around too long right but it's intriguing to not just look at the score but dig into the why what were some of the factors as well as the success factors like what did we do to get that science score up right what did we do what can we build on that too so it's exciting like I said I enjoyed talking about it I'll be done where's that timer I I got one question for you Darcy so with when the state starts implementing these new standards do you foresee a drop in scores at all until the new standards are are fully implemented and and the district gets caught up with the new standards or do you think things will be able to stay fairly steady you know um based on our our you know last decade of data you can kind of predict um that our literacy is still going to stay up we're we're ready to roll out new standards by next year already so I think we've held strong and that imple implementation is going to be pretty smooth they also didn't change like drastically change the standards like they did for science science they just upset the whole there was a drop done wasn't there right yes Y and math is still to be determined on how much um they haven't they're still in rule making for their math standards so to see how much they're going to change the way kids learn math and that's that's what they did for science literacy like I said they didn't do it as deep as uprooting like they did for science so I would say for literacy no science and optic math I'm still holding strong to see true r how's that for a prediction that that's good enough all right anything else anything else with garc that looks great thank you so much app all right uh number six more school strategic Plan update yeah I uh I received this uh summary from uh Teamworks Mr Paul newow gave this to us we had our first session on September 16th and really this was the story wall so I think on page three was kind of a summary of what the group um um reflected on um or excuse me page two I'm sorry at the bottom page two really did an overall history going back from 1990 uh to the present 30 some years what was interesting is the changes in student population and how more Public Schools was able to adjust and provide different levels of supports for the needs and meeting the students where they're at um you can see over time the overall growth and student achievement um going from a district in need uh all the way up to where we're at today was a huge success uh we talked about the evolution of teaching um going back to the 1990s seemed to be a simpler time um and now some of the more complications with um teaching um improved facilities obviously was another positive that the group recognized and then just the community's overall investment in education was recognized and appreciated so you're able to go through and see what each group from the different time periods were able to identify as uh things that they remembered influential positive and maybe some challenges um and things of that sort Paul um did a a good job of summarizing each of the different groups so I certainly won't go into that but you can take a peek at that and then on October 28th I believe it is will be uh more of an environmental scan is what they call it and we'll look at what is the present day um what does it look like get more of schools present the tents and then after that they'll start doing some student and parent um and staff um sessions um and so that'll be more in November and so they'll gather all that information and and start working that in so um I will provide continue to provide updates to the board and then um if you would like more information I can certainly invite Paul vir to come in and talk a little bit maybe after all the the staff and the students and um parents I think that's more in December I want to say Kelly is that sound about right November and December November so maybe in December Paul could come and give a a little bit more of an update so okay how many people participated in the story wall uh was there 20 some not everybody could make it I think there was about 25 and that was staff that did that that was mainly staff we had a few community members one retired teacher one Community member yep how did you end up I think I asked this a while ago how did you end up choosing or the criteria of who you were going to pick um Teamworks provided the outline of who they suggest having to the to to the table for those on the strategic planning team so they provide the outline and we fill in the Nam they don't know the people you're choosing right they I mean you have to make a decision on what what community members you asked to be present for it and they provided the titles of all the different things and then they encourage to have uh some retired teachers and committee members yeah I'd like to see that sometime okay is that was something that we all that was shared with all of us understand okay I can have Kelly share that all right let's good number seven preliminary Levy pable 2025 here all right good evening um back for another proposed tax levy uh 2425 so this is going to be the step one of the levy process here as we ramp up for our PID 25 which goes into fiscal year 2026 so always looking that year ahead when it comes into taxes uh one of the things I'll just kind of mention off the top is that the document that's enclosed on the on the agenda um I I I never like the wording on it it it says you know we propose the maximum and they put it in big bold letters that says maximum Levy and really what the action that is being requested tonight is that you know we're we're voting for what is ultimately calculated by state legislation um so the state legislators get together they determine what all the rules of the game are and then they they put that down on mde to go ahead and and and be the administrative uh arm of that and then ultimately uh that that turns into a 39 page calculation that they distribute out uh through their website to all the districts and then you either vote yay or nay on whether or not you're going to vote for yep we're going to take that amount or we're going to certify an amount below that um the one thing I just encourage off the top here is just to um consider doing the maximum Levy here this evening uh just because what that allows us to do is as numbers kind of change and things come on and off the levy you know that number will just kind of flow with it and then in December you'll actually have a true number and you'll certify that number that's what goes on to taxes so tonight we're more approving the concept and the categories obviously there's time to uh look at the actual numbers the underlying numbers and and certify an actual Levy when we get to truth and Taxation for the public hearing and then ultimately the certification of the levy uh so with that in mind um agenda's up here on go next slide I like to start off with this because the levy process makes absolutely no sense in school districts um because of where it's at you know we we approved our budget 3 months ago by the time we get to truth in taxation we'll be presenting a budget that's 6 months old and the reason is is because this whole process is written with counties and cities in mind your typical county or city operates on a a calendar fiscal year so you'll spend all of 2024 considering your 2025 budget you'll certify that Levy and then next year when everybody gets their tax bills they're paying to fund that budget that you just approved so it it makes a whole lot more Crown logic sense when you're looking at it from a city and county perspective so that's why it gets a little backwards when we're looking at it here so we're going to look a little historical a little in the future but it's just because of timing because we're on that split fiscal year next slide so this is a little more what it looks like for us and and actually you could take that vend diagram and even put a couple more bubbles on the front end of it for how valuation is determined uh because it becomes valuation then it becomes PID then it becomes certified so on and so forth so really what we're looking at is our uh certification that we'll do in December here uh will go onto taxes on 2025 once that's done that actually becomes School fiscal year 2026 Revenue um I'm being W out by my kids my kids okay um so uh 2026 Revenue so again the money that we're looking at right now isn't money that's effectively going into this year's budget uh any changes that we would make to our tax living would impact uh fiscal year 2026 next slide please sample property tax statement up here uh typically when you open up your property tax statement which will happen in March your eyes are going to be drawn to the very bottom of it to see what do I owe and when you don't like that number then your eyes are going to be drawn to the very top of it where that arrows at because you're going to be asking is my classification correct is my value correct and the reason why I like to bring this up here first off the school district is only a portion of that bill um where that arrow that about 2/3 of the way down the slide that's our portion of the overall Bill uh the count is the billing entity for cities townships school districts special taxing districts Etc so we only have control over that sliver of the budget or or of the property tax bill the other thing that comes in when you get your tax bill is that valuation notice and I always like to highlight that former County auditor here um that's the time to talk about your valuation because if you wait until you get the bill on the left it's too late um so if you have concerns about what your property is being valued at or the classification when you get your 2025 tax statement that the time to be asking about your 2026 valuation everything's always a year ahead next slide please quick review of the budget this hasn't changed this is exactly what the board uh adopted here back in June um so obviously for uh truth and Taxation and the levy process we're required to show our budget so there's our budget nothing has changed next slide please uh quick review of history of ADM uh average daily membership so uh again the there's three really buckets we look at um we have enrolled M that's kind of projecting you know how many how many students we're going to serve EDM is a big number of more or less what we're paid on that's that's the number that we serve and that number is always expressed as a two-digit decimal so um it's a little counterintuitive to say that we have A8 student but that's just because one student that has served on the first day of school all the way to the last day of school is a 1.0 ADM if you disenroll for any portion of that year um or receive uh a portion of your day somewhere else then it impacts that M number um so looking at a quick history here obviously a pretty big dip when we had uh the pandemic years uh the the encouraging thing is that largely speaking we've returned to pre-pandemic levels now keep in mind this slide and the one that's after it is is a year uh looking at a year prior data we're at the 23- 24 final um so as we get our October 1 counts that'll be really our first good look at how many students were serving in the 24 25 school year um the reason we don't put that up at this stage in the game is because the first couple of weeks of school there's a drop period And so students might still be registered with their school district but if they move to say Wisconsin then we wouldn't necessarily get the drop notification through mde and we might be still showing enrollments that aren't real um so that October 1 count is when that drop period is largely expired and so that's our first real look at how many students we actually serving uh next slide please this is the jello uh Jello graph here up just all the different grades um the the kindergarten on the bottom and then uh uh seniors are on the top so you can kind of see how enrollments looked uh really the takeaway is that uh you can see the numbers are a little bit small to read here but if you look at last year's second third and fourth grade the numbers are obviously a little on the smaller side it's kind of representing you know some of those those lower enrollments but if you look at the last couple of years of incoming kindergarten and uh first grade on this chart classes uh those class sizes are largely restored up to similar to what we're seeing out of graduating seniors um when we're looking at our enrollments a lot of the things we're looking at uh birth rates and how they correlate to Future enrollment uh we're looking at obviously our kindergarten classes against our graduating seniors uh we're looking at uh it's not as prevalent here in uh canaba County but uh your private schools a lot of your your private schools uh religious schools will do primary ages but will then not do secondary age education so you'll see some pickups of enrollments often when you're going from your Elementary to your high school ages um we also at PSO so a lot of different things that go into projecting enrollment but just kind of a a glimpse to show where our um our current me membership is at up on the board here is the levy categories now I'm not going to go in depth on what each of these Levy categories are just know that our Levy when we look at what we're uh going to be approving in December is made up of a lot of different components so when we say you know we don't want the levy to go up or we want to limit the amount that the levy goes up um what we need to do is we need to identify identify what areas we're going to cut back at the levy you know some of these things speak for themselves obviously like um you know long-term facilities maintenance is our ability to take care of our facility you know you've got safe schools that pays for SRO and our uh security systems um you know we've got Q comp which is a lot of our um a lot of our development and and what uh Miss qual was discussing is is funed through a lot of that so each of those categories has a has a thing behind it so obviously um when we're talking about not adopting a maximum Levy then we have to really get into the minutia of where do we where do we pull some of that stuff back um next slide please so Equalization is actually kind of the one thing that's really harming our debt Levy uh or our tax levy here if you uh look at the the other document that is enclosed with the the agenda you can see the three-year um and we'll see some Snippets here in the coming slides um the three-year comparison of our Levy and what you'll see is kind of the the the trend is that year year after year um cannabic County taxpayers are are expected to pay slightly more percent every year and what you're not seeing as a result of that is actual increase funding to the school district and the reason for that is because of Equalization largely and what that means is that your tax calculation that 39 VH calculation a lot of the pieces that feed that number you have the number you have the aggregate value of all the property that exists within the district so if I rot one check to buy the entire canic County or the the entire Mora Public School District property this is how much every value property is and then you take that you run that against the number of students that you're serving and between those two what the state looks at is the aggregate property value against the number of students to see are we serving more students than we have economic value in our County or the other way around so what what that means with the the bottom line of that is that as property values continue to go up but our enrollment has stayed largely stable what it shows to the state is that we are more economically advantaged and incapable of paying to fund our own students education um generally speaking the student uh the state comes in and pays about 80% of our of our total expenditure or total revenue sources um so every year they're giving us a little bit less and they're expecting our taxpayers to pay a little bit more and it has everything to do with those ratios so one of the things that you'll see get discussed in the next legislative session among all the other things that goes into the education Bill are going to be what they call Equalization rates and any Improvement they make to Equalization rate then reduces the taxpayer burden and delivers that back to the state so that we aren't uh because what the state is doing is they they equate uh just through the way property taxes are done the property value the value of your home equals Your Capacity to be able to fund Public Services is is essentially what they're saying so um as our property Valu is account is grown they're saying that our taxpayers are more financially capable of funding our schools so therefore that's how that tax levy grows it's not because the district itself is giving me Oney next slide all right um so as we actually get into what changed in our Levy here now the bottom number um that's that's cut off from this slide and on the next as well is that the overall change to the tax levy is 6.46% um from last year to this year um so we break it out into the three different categories we've got our general fund um and some of the main movers there your local optional Revenue has everything to do with those um those Equalization rates so that's just we're getting less state aid we're expected to have our taxpayers pay more towards that uh local optional revenue and and the word optional is a little misleading because that's really just your operating money um we had a pretty significant reduction to our long-term facilities maintenance because long-term facilities maintenance is calculated based off a building age and we demolished a 100-year old building and built a brand new one so that had a pretty uh that's a savings to taxpayers uh it will have an impact to our budget because obviously that's less long-term facilities maintenance money that we're were able to Levy for um and then as youve found during the uh the the uh work session just a couple hours ago the uh Rum River North project is not factored into any of this obviously if the Rum River North project were to be uh started we would then see a lease Levy in a subsequent year that would reflect those new char chares so none of that's reflected at any of this preim L next slide please so the other two categories here um you've got your community ed uh last year during the uh was the first year that we saw actually a reduction in our community ed Levy um it was just the way that they did the equalization formulas where the state took on a greater share of community ed um expenditures and then or the revenues and then uh gave a break to the taxpayers on that one so I on those few times where we actually saw a bit of a a tax break that happened last year um so that was that was good for our taxpayers obviously it's it's help fairly similar uh going into this year and then the last section is the um The Debt Service Levy um this is a really formula ex um uh Levy what we do is um our debt service schedule goes to the state the state basically takes it we get to Levy our annual payment plus a little bit on top and then as we collect that Levy then we get a negative adjust M to uh not allow our fund balance to grow so it's really just an exercise of making sure that we're allowed to Levy at least enough to cover our bills but then if our fund balance starts to grow then they back off and say okay you can't Levy as much because we're we're managing your fund balance as well next slide all right so then the last steps here uh or the next steps I should say uh really we're looking at just approving that document that is enclosed the the maximum Levy document um so once we um vote on that and if it is approved as presented uh then we'll go ahead and issue that over to the county the county will give us uh will issue uh property tax statements or prelim statements to all taxpayers within the county we'll be back here in December to have our truth and Taxation here from any members of the public that want to comment on our budget and then ultimately uh prior to December 28 2024 we have to submit a certified Levy to the state I believe our uh we have our December meeting it's it's what the 13th or something like 14th maybe so it's that it's in December there is when we'll have our truth and Taxation any questions questions Fric thank you for very informative presentation thank you right um with that uh chair would uh like uh move for approval or consider approval of the certification of preliminary Levy for taxes paid 2025 motion by m or second second second by Dakota any further discussion right seeing that and seeing this this is um it's not a resol oh no thank you yeah I'd seen resolution on something else that was up before yeah um seeing done all those in favor signifi by saying I I oppose same sign motion carries is there any request to remove any items from the consent agenda seeing none we'll go over everybody had a chance to go over them for four I see there no retirements there was Parts in there all right chair entertain a motion for approval of the consent agenda as presented so mod motion by Dakota is there a second second second by Canon any further discussion seeing that all those in favor signify by saying I I oppose same sign carries budget calendar review Dan Eric Eric's going to do that okay all right uh so just quick review of the budget calendar right now obviously we're pretty early into the school year right now um so a lot of it is budget adoption understanding staff understanding budgets um planning to you know planning the year to to stay within budget and and really just kind of getting into that Levy planning and and uh and and looking ahead uh just kind of looking ahead at the next couple of months a budget calendar will start to ramp up here probably end of December is is when we really start looking at the data from the first few months of school because we'll have some really good data to show where we at with Staffing how many students showed up with that October 1 count and then we can really start planning our staffing as we go into the prelim uh for next year so right now a lot of monitoring and a lot of um just trying to trying to stay within our means and and keep the keep keep everything going sounds great thank you number 12 um first up we have consider approval of the resolution accepting the following gifts and donations W Architects 20,000 for the betterment of more Public Schools BCI Construction 10,000 towards T field Diane and Ray at pen Warden Celestron astromaster 90 telescope uh for student based learning opportunity you know very nice ones but chair would entertain a motion for uh approval of said resolution some motion by Dakota is there a second second second by Amy right youy further discussion seeing that and seeing as this is a resolution uh we'll start with Ken I Ken is i d i de is I mat I mat is I Scott is I Dakota I Dakota is I Amy I Amy is I resolution passes unanimously um we'll consider approval of the fundraising request for the 2425 school year we turn this sh yes yep so listed uh the staff who are going to do fundraising for the year submit a request uh Kelly um organizes those and puts them in a spreadsheet um and uh the board approves these fundraisers um annually so that's that's kind of what it is thank you Dan with that that being said chair we entertain a motion for approval of uh the fundraising requests for the upcoming school year so Move Motion by can is there a second second second by Amy any further discussion seeing that all in favor second by saying I I I post same sign carries next up consider approval of the EM emm letters memorandum of understanding for the school year yeah so uh if you remember correctly it was on the last month uh agenda and then was um taken off so um with a request to take a little more time to look at it from uh the union so they were able to do that it's um last year we had the same mou and then the state legislature passed where each School District had to uh negotiate this so it was just uh but it ended up being just the same as it was last year um was Staffing having the option to either um take a stien or use uh or earn credits for a lane change so that's that's what it is okay all right with that chair entertain a motion for approval of uh saidou some motion by m or second second get second by Dakota any further discussion seeing then all those in favor signify by saying I I all the same sign carries next up consider approval of the 2425 e-learning plan yeah we discuss this at the work session it's basically the same plan that we had last year with the first potential three days of inclimate weather inclement weather um that we would not make up the school days with students and then after that the e-learning would um be implemented on the Forte and so on so chair would consider uh somebody Li motion for approval of the 2425 e-learning plan so moved motion by dab is there a second second second by Matt any further discussion seeing in all those in favor signif by saying I I I oppose same sign carries next up consider approval of the 2425 e learning mou as part of the e-learning uh statute uh boards must uh negotiate anou with the Union this is the same one that's been in place for um ever since I've been here probably pre uh pre 2020 so um it just outlines what's going to happen on e-learning Days chair would entertain a motion for approval of saidou so Mo motion by Ma or a second second second by Deb any further discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying iose same sign carries uh next up consider approval of Employee Appreciation and recognition events for this school year um yeah I can briefly talk about it you guys um board knows about all of these they're just um they are Awards and recognition for staff and by uh um the board can approve these to to expend dollars from the budget to pay for these so that being said chair entertain a motion for approval of said recognition events for this school year by m or second second second by Dakota need forther discussion seeing in all in favor signify by saying I I same sign carries uh next up we've got board members and we get is [Music] first great okay so we started the Year by introducing ourselves the high school staff back to school workshop and met with Mr baky and Mr Nelson a few days later to set our goals for the year then we helped it open house by welcoming new students meeting Civ Affairs at orientation giving tours and helping in any other ways that were needed on the first day of school we all wore our student council sweatshirts so anyone could know who to ask for help finding their classes knowing which lunch they have or opening the dreaded combination locks on lockers Friday Night of the same week we had a welcome back dance where we had lots of fun dancing the night away the junior Representatives also planned a senior sunrise for the senior class to kick off last year together in a memorable way last week we helped set up and take down and provide traffic control for the college fair hosted in the weia center the Juniors also had their hands full pranking the top five homecoming princes and princesses as well as planning the game show Friday morning Friday afternoon during 7th hour we hosted a new student event for all students who are new to MHS to meet a few of the student council reped from their grades the night after that night after the football game we set up a huge outdoor movie screen and over 100 students gathered to watch Cars in the student section on the bleachers or on blankets on the track throughout last week we decorated the main walkway as well as the walkway between the Bus Loop and locker room entryway with motivational messages for suicide awareness month this week we are equally as busy because it's homecoming week we've been selling homecoming buttons during each lunch hour and we coordinated dress up days we chose Monday SS Fest twinning Tuesday glass color Wednesday jerse day Thursday and spirit day Friday for the bees we also prepared a booth in game for the carnival portion of homecoming day and the homecoming dance that night finally looking towards the future sophomores have started the planning process to host the Schoolboard candidate Forum on October 22nd and we plan to continue hosting the themes for each of our home games or meets on the student council Instagram page to help students stay connected cool thank you any questions first no just a comment I think the the football field movie was awesome whoever thought of that like you guys awesome I thought that was super cool it was great this young lady right here it wasn't my idea single hand her family brought the speakers the project everything like the screen it was amazing huge I thought it was cool like the kids are already there I don't know long list of things that was in one month right I can never remember student council doing that much stuff in one month so it's been crazy you got be not even one full month like three weeks oh good job thank you he uh board member meeting reports anything normal meeting and sounds like it's going to be ongoing for R rivering board that meetings we haven't heard which day they chose item anyway in October to continue with this building well thank you appreciate it yeah so nice to get that information and to have our rep on there too so you have that so thank you anybody I don't for me either uh activities Community yeah Charlie's busy supervising I think so he's got a pretty thorough list of things if you need to look at y we have that one then chip coming up for transportation bu uh Transportation um by far was the best start of the school year we've had since I've taken over U I think Randy and pousy could have you know usually the first three four days it's buses are coming back we got kids on their own bus parents don't know where the kids are um we had almost zero of that this year so my uh the transportation team did a great job pre pre-season I guess you call it um and preschool year and Gail and Cory got everything ready and it was just one of the smoothest um starts to the year um building grounds a lot of the stuff I typed up last week is almost kind of completed they uh they I thought the boiler Stacks um there all the materials delivered a couple weeks ago they came and put those up today um one of the things is we're waiting for these felt guides for I don't know how many months well they came today so there's a lot of things that are happening um but the biggest thing is the air conditioning at the elementary is up and running um I can show you a little quick building automation so pay your attention to the middle part um this used to be red and yellow for two three weeks and now it's all green and a little bit of yellow I'm sure there's those bigger spaces need to cool off but um so the the special ed and the music department that old part of the building has got the three four new units on there um and the three wings are next um because of supply chain we just didn't get those in time to get them done this year but um those are air conditioning the older ones are functioning working so for the most part they're uh nice and cool so that's been a blessing especially this last couple weeks so um and you have any questions thanks right Nick come on all right well we are happy to say at Mora High School we are fully staffed you got some names there um we welcome them said school started and they've hit the ground running and things are going really well here um I want to talk a little a little bit about uh the category of Ned Ned stands for non-exclusionary discipline uh we're working with resource training Solutions with a a big group of Administrators counselors to get more time on task with teachers so kids are not being sent out of school and doing some common sense approaches you make a mess in the cafeteria we call it community service you're helping us clean it up and you're apologizing to the nutrition staff and the custodians for making that mess it's been going really good um we've been doing some peer resolution um instead of like you're in trouble you're in trouble we get them together we talk it out call their families and kind of humanize that and so it's been going really well we've been getting really good feedback from parents already and we are not getting those repeat offenders like we have maybe in the past so that is a really good thing there are monthly webinars a small team at the high school we try to attend together or at least one of us attends and then we share that out and uh it's going really really well um Isabelle stated that we hosted the Minnesota education Fair we had about 11 different schools show up Juniors and seniors we had over 70 colleges represented in the weia center our sophomore J Juniors and seniors got to go it was an amazing opportunity to just generate a lot of Buzz um some my daughter snuck in there a little bit and got got in there and she's all excited about the colleges she wants to explore more so it was a really good event and it was really awesome that we have with this facility to host that many people during the school day and it really did not disrupt anything at all and then lastly uh Isabelle talked about the new student event um that was put on we got about 60 students you can see the photos up here uh they they got to meet some people talk to each other put faces and names together and just really break it down to smaller groups in order to meet each other hopefully build some of those long lasting connections any questions sounds great you the pictures up there Randy welcome uh just want to reiterate what Mr brand said about the great start of the school year uh not very often in the last 78 years we haven't had a referendum or building schedule changes with Fair View to Trail View in the high school so we were able to pick up our schedule where we left off in the spring and that just made it so easy for all of us our staff um I just wanted to highlight the MCA results I think Mr vce said um don't really realize how uncommon these results are we've made it common and just getting emotional thinking about our staff how wonderful they've been over the course of the last 10 years with the growth that we've made you mentioned we were a district in need of of improvement and to see first in four three grades and second and fourth grade um consistently it's pretty awesome and sometimes we don't always say how proud We Are to work with the staff that we do but I sure proud should be it's I can piggyback that because you walk into our building and everybody's nose is to the grindstone and and they just focus on what they need to focus on and they're getting the job done like we they put their heart hats on and they report for work every day they're just ready to go yeah and it's it's amazing to watch them at work and then we just want to outline our attendance highlight our attendance it was in the bar report and it it just you know we were it look it shows the 2223 report um that's the results we got from mde so that legs one year behind but we the year before was at 57 . 68% and now our attendance is up to 76.3% So 20% increase so that feels really good Randy has worked really hard on a lot of different Inc attendance incentives and Endeavors and it truly paid off well and those aren't reflected on this because it it legs two years behind so next year at this time hopefully we see that continued growth for sure yeah so it's really making an impact on students so any questions on that we have the Fun Run coming up um Anis has been kicked off to a great start and family reading nights coming up on the 14th and our title team is working hard on that and to talk about the Fun Run they always meet our goal but I'm not sure I want them to meet the goal this year if uh if they meet the goal on Friday which will be delivered tomorrow at the uh during the morning announcements I get to dress up as a squirrel and she gets to dress up as a chicken and thing the secondary goal we're all going to race Millie around track it'll be a me dressed up as a squirrel she her dressed up as a chicken and Millie just kind of like if you've been to a Twins game before I don't know if we're going to come around that corner to win the win the race and IOP over and I don't have to move so is this going to be live stream yeah know there's no cell phones allowed at the El keep it that way for that day for sure thank you all right thank you right superintend report uh I mean a couple things uh msba advocacy tour msba is getting uh ready for their legislative um uh advocacy so I attended that a lot of um school districts are talking about budget uh challenges that they have in their districts so so um that was certainly something funding still needs to come come through for some for all of us um I went to the superintendent region 6 meeting what was interesting is we had a an expert he was 24 years old on AI and all the different technology AI things that are happening and how to use it um in education so it was it was quite interesting um and you know as we've all heard that that's probably the next big thing that's probably already here happening and will continue so that's all I have all right we have upcoming dates for member that are listed in here everything from homecoming tomorrow their staffing service the various ones there um District advisory coming up on that Monday that's I'm assuming that's Monday the 14th yes Monday the 14th um the MBA break and next regular board meeting on the 24th um correspondents I don't remember seeing anything NOP there wasn't any other board business I did want to take one second and say thank you to all you know five of you for it school board appreciation my bues I truly appreciate having all the the six of us on here we have different opinions we have different maybe ways of looking at things but never ever have I or any of us had a question what they said looking at the kids what's best there's things we may agree or disagree on but just watch that and I truly truly appreciate that I love because there's things I don't even think of they don't even cross my mind like oh yeah why didn't I think you know and I just I truly appreciate that so thank you guys and I guess I don't say enough but should have so thank you that's um second open Forum or all right seeing none uh the chair entertain a motion for adjournment so MO motion by Dakota is our second second second by Ken all those in favor signify by saying I I both same sign we are adjourned at 74 now have picture piure in short