##VIDEO ID:ZheWHdezaSA## you I'm good with one long as you're okay face I'll turn around be out of your yeah you okay it is now 6 o'cl we are live and we are going to start our truth and well don't we usually do that after the when we actually do our call the order right now we're just in our Tre and translation right sounds good so I was just trying to welcome everyone so we could start got it sounds good sorry and then you can go ahead and start so Joe prer Director of Finance right is gonna go ahead and do the truth all right thank you I just don't want I don't want to supered U all right M of the board members of the public welcome tonight uh you're here for the annual truth and Taxation meeting um truth and Taxation law basically there's two main elements to it Counties have to send out their proposed statements in November and everybody that owns a property should receive one of these um shows what their uh value of their property was last year and this year and what their proposed taxes are on all authorities um from one year to the next most jurisdictions besides the smaller ones like Watershed districts have to hold a uh hearing prior cying the final Levy so we just do this hearing now and then we'll there'll be an action item on later on the agenda to approve the final Levy so you're here for the district's annual required hearing uh one thing that um another piece of this is the proposed Levy was approved originally uh in September that has to be approved by September 30th and that can really only change for schools if you have a vote uh in that November obviously we didn't have a vote this year so the the amount hasn't changed since September 30th and the advantage to having a vote like we will um this upcoming February is if that's approved then um that'll be known already in September uh and the notices that people get in November will show their true taxes rather than something less than than what's approved couple elements we're required to talk about tonight the first one is our preliminary budget for this year now our budget unlike other jurisdictions our budget does not drive Drive our Levy I'll talk about some of the elements that drive our Levy later but um for school districts our budget does not drive our Levy at all our Levy actually is the first step in um establishing what our Revenue will be for next year's budget um so the current year budget um includes uh is is shown on the screen um for all of our existing funds so uh this was approved in June of 2024 and includes uh a negative variance of $570,000 in our general fund also a negative variance of about 134,000 in our food service fund um about a break even in community service some spend down in our building construction fund and then an increase in the fund balance of our debt service fund um in the general fund um we'll go through some what kind of makes up the elements of the revenues and expenditures the other financing source is set as offset by expenditures of the the exact same amount and that has to do with the technology lease for refresh of our student devices um in grades five through 6 through 12 this year the Food Service fund although it shows a negative variance um part of that is because we have some major equipment purchases uh that was also kind of before our um known finals were in for the previous year so when you see our we will go through a process to do a budget amendment um this spring probably at the March April meeting and that that will include um a better outcome in the Food Service fund our unassigned F fund balance is how the board policy measures how the health of our general fund um currently at the end of 2023 24 our audited balance was at 14.2% and the board policy is for on assigned fund balance to be at 10% or above uh so you can see that we were slightly below that back in 1819 um we passed an operating Levy in the fall of uh in November of 2019 uh which first impacted the 2021 school year and that's when our um our fund balance increased by about 4% it's been hovering um around that 15 14 15% range since and it's projected to be at 12% at the end of 2024 25 these are the major categories programs that make up our general fund expenditure budget regular instruction is really um everything uh that that would be in a traditional classroom so uh teachers and their supplies um and then and so teachers wages and benefits also the supplies they use if there are regular Ed PA professionals um substitute teachers all those would go into that category special ed instruction accounts for the teachers and fair professionals and everything else that goes into our special ed and in and um those two elements together make up about 2third of our total budget um Administration makes up about 3.9% and sometimes Administration and District support which is like me and Christa um are included as well so admin includes um not only the the school board superintendent but also the building level administrators like principles and their support staff so when we look at um admin we usually talk about admin and District support together which for our district makes up about 5.5% of our budget um the next largest elements are maintenance at about 10% that includes our custodial staff as well as our utilities and some of the repairs and things that the long-term facilities maintenance that go on in all of our buildings um and then instructional support includes technology uh professional development curriculum those types of expenditures our revenues in the general fund are 80% State AIDS um and the levy that we're talking about tonight makes up that blue wedge about 11% of our total general fund revenue and then other would include Federal revenues and other things like fees that we charge for athletics or gate fees um and also things like interest earnings on our investments so the Le is really determined by uh legislature and what their statutory formulas are um so they make they make changes every legislative session uh the department of end then takes these Levy limits and calculates them based on all those formulas the district has some inputs for that we basically have to put in our um enrollment estimates and that's pretty much it we also have to answer some some questions like what type of community ed programming do we have and um and those types of things so there's an input form the district's put in but then the department of Ed takes really most of September or late August early September and calculates what that means for our district um the board we bring that to the board in September to approve the preliminary budget and the final budget or the fin excuse me the preliminary Levy and the final Levy can't exceed that most we got a vote in November again our budget does not drive our ly it's kind of the other way around so our total Levy by fund for this year we're looking at 14, 8259 as compared to 13, 478,000 4817 in the previous year uh for a difference of just over 600,000 or 4.48% now while that's an increase if you look on the left side of this that's the that's uh um last year's Levy is on top and this year's Levy is on the bottom on the left side so you can see that total change 600,000 include uh makes for a percentage change of about 4.48% Aid related to those U we have Equalization AIDS among a number of categories that offset those so that the local property taxpayers don't Bear all the burden of some of these um and that portion really decreased this year by about 665,000 and so the total impact is really a similar amount of Revenue among all these elements from one year to the next um but just uh more of the burden is Shifting towards local Levy versus related Aid it's a trend we've seen the last three or four years here in the general fund our Levy increased about 523,000 or um our operating referendum is the sixth year and the total levies is related to that increased by about 77,000 our career in Tech Levy increased about 184,000 as we have more staff that are becoming eligible uh for that funding source and 33% is uh Aid there and then the other 67% is Levy in that area and then our lease Levy increased if you remembered we um when Aaron was here talking about bet and Stern's possibilities we increased our lease Levy for the possibility of a future lease in place next year that would that would potentially happen next year uh mid year with Bon Sterns so if we end up paying less than we antip ated then the next year's um Levy would be adjusted downward because of that all other categories decrease by about 34,000 Al together uh the community service Levy didn't change much about 1% uh some of the statutory formulas change those a little bit um up and down U made for a little bit more uh less Aid on ECFE and more Aid in some other areas um and then The Debt Service Levy went down increased by about 79,000 we're required to Levy 105% of our principal and interest they reduced that for um the health of our fund balance and then Equalization Aid decreased by 349,000 um so which caused our increase somewh from a personal level about as far as your property tax is concerned you know the assessor really determines the value legislature um St sets sets the formulas for that and then the county auditor looks property by property and applies all those formulas um to each parcel and really that's how levies are spread among market value and tax capacity so really it's kind of how how your property ends up compared to other properties in the district kind of determines whether or not your property tax goes up or down or not in addition to what our Levy does the market value here in Sartell St Sten went up by about 4.23% in 2024 which is not as much of an increase as it had in the previous two years um which is part of the reason why our Lev is not going up overall as much same with our net tax capacity those two kind of follow each other there was some new legislation providing for some property tax relief so on the left is the current law for 2024 and then on the right is taxes are impacted in 2025 so there's really um a market value exclusion which basically takes a look at the total value of your property and then subtract some of that in the form of a state credit and then you pay your taxes on the net amount of that so any house any um residential Homestead that was value that's valued over $414,000 for this year there's no exclusion so you pay tax in the full amount going forward in which these taxes are paid on um as you go over that that upper limit increases to 517,000 so homes valued up to that we'll see some value some measure of exclusion that gets subtracted before from your market value before your property taxes are calculated um just as far as the tax impact goes on our Levy if your house was valued at 300,000 last year and is still valued at 300,000 your taxes are going to go down by about 1.67% if your houses Val was valued at 300,000 and it went up by 4% increase which is about the total what the total increase in the district was your taxes going up by 2.64% the reason it's less than four is because of that market value exclusion I just described it's excluding more of the value of your house from what is taxable this year um that's all I have for now for a presentation um any questions you have related to um this local Levy could be directed at me um any questions that people have regarding the property value I just point them towards the assessor's office because they've got a a better grasp on what that would mean um sometimes I could take a look at the property tax statement tell them but sometimes it's a little a little trickier and all questions right thank you okay so now it is 6:14 and I'm going to call the December regular meeting of the start step School Board to order thank you to everyone that's here in the audience as well as to all those um watching online we um we appreciate and your interest and engagement in our school district the expectation of our community is that all prants and attendees will connect themselves professionally and with respect for the members of our community and the first item on our agenda is the Pledge ofg flag United States of America the stands na for a motion to approve the agenda first by Emily second by Matt any discussion I would like to make a motion to amend the agenda and add a fall activities report as a new item on c number three second any discussion on the am so first we'll vot on the amendment the amendment would add a bctiv report on C3 favor signify by saying I iOS say nay okay Amendment carries now I will go back to approve the agenda is there any other discussion okay so we are approving the agenda with the added Poli activities report all those in favor saying I I those oppose say nay okay motion carries we have approved the agenda we don't have any visitors or public forum tonight so then we going to move on forent agenda so moved second motion by Jason second by Matt any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I Clos say nay motion carries move on to our reports and our first report is our saber staff star and we have some fans in the crowd well thank you for having us here tonight my name is Sarah Nelson I'm the princial at P primary school and I have the great honor of introducing Jean serson AR physical education teacher and like I said it is a big honor to be here today to share with you the sartel St Steven sa staff star our very own Pine metal primary phal education teacher Jean serson Jean is a leader in his class room our school and across the district Gina is incredibly creative designing new physical education activities that meet the physical education standards and also embed the learning happening in our general education classroom with the new English language arts standards and using that new curriculum which is exceptional taking that on in its first year of implementation he's a master at engaging and motivating students to learn skills through physical activities that directly connect to the interest of today's youth if you ask a pine metal student to share their favorite physical education activity you might hear them say things like Ghostbusters Battleship Pirates of the Caribbean Dungeons and Dragons snidle the snake gymnastics or Olympic Games Learning Happens through fun in physical education and jeans classroom oh and let's not forget Winter Wonderland 2 where the gym is fully transformed into a winter wonderland Jean Embraces his role as a leader beyond the physical education classroom at Pine Meadow 2 he supports the social emotional growth of students by meeting with individual kids for morning check-in to set daily or weekly goals and talks strategies of how kids can be successful we lean on staff we lean on Gan 2 as staff in his leadership skills he plays an integral role in developing the Master's schedule which follows a 5-day rotation he willingly takes the long of scheduling asks from teachers and myself and creates multiple options to be considered which is no small task this year Gan also created monthly early out schedules that ensure that kids also receive their specialist time on those days Jean's leadership extends Beyond PL Meadow he's also the District phys Physical content specialist leading the team kindergarten through fifth grade and unpacking standards developing unit plans and aligning instruction across the sites Jean's been an integral part of the P metal staff for many many years Jean Works diligently to grow the love of physical activity and shapes the minds of our Young Learners we know how lucky we are to have Gan on our team Jean is a sa staff star it is with great pride Jean that I present to you with this certificate this evening congratulations thank you very much [Music] app than where's the speech I'll give it to half we will move on to our believe that you're here yeah sorry I miscommunication on uh yeah so we're g to go through this pretty quick I got a bounce down at Oak Ridge they've started their scho campaign so classes have beened and they've successfully F three barrels not sure how big a barrel is but it sounds like a lot so that's gonna be picked up later this week and then in the month of January o is hosting their first family night that's going to be on January 16th from 530 to 7 it's an event tailored for parents and their children ages to to come explore different CL based learning stations the school and then this is also designed to be an opportunity for future saers over at Pine Meadow the Pine Meadow waste Warriors had their first monthly meeting this is a small group of second graders who are partnering with the high school sustainability they did some upcycling so upcycling paper and broken crayons they so they shredded the paper and then donated that to the Humane Society as beding for small animals it seems like and then sorted the broken crayons to create new multicolored the AR High Meadow has also as we heard transformed into their annual Winter Wonderland and students are celebrating winter bringing their or building their fine large and find motor with the winter obstacle and then first graders are studying early civilizations and how cities are built and second graders are just finishing their ancient civilizations over at Riverview the fifth graders had their had their first Ensemble so band choir and Orchestra and students performed for a packaging usual and did a wonderful job a big shout out to Mr lumy Mrs for conducting such an excellent and then the Riverview student council has been making an impact in the community they organized a sock drive and or last month it seems they organized a sock drive and this month they organized a drive which the um they held a competition to see if could donate more and then they had a great level winner to be announced later this week over at the middle school it's also Ensemble choir Ensemble concert season orchestra concert was on December 5th choir is December 12th and our band is December 19th I a big shout out to The Ensemble teachers it's always fun to see that put together the middle school December has also been a month of dress up days it's a little bit of a high school here this past week and participation has been great in sta students and winter sports are still underway at the middle school so wrestling moric ski girls basketball boys and then the activities they have over at the high school we've been kind of following the pattern with some other community service projects we had turkey in a box this year which provides thanksgivings toili we raised 55 boxes or thanks meals and and that greatly surpassed our amount and then Honor Society raised money for for these same families and they ra over $2,000 the holiday season which is awesome and who did win does win a 5 minute early out which is quite a big deal over here we also have winter wonderland this week so that is we have some dress up days a petfest and a dance on Friday we also have a blood drive on Wednesday which is very exciting think we have 60 people signed up so far and to get that close to 100 and then some winter activities so Nordic skiing diving kind of all that fun stuff and then finally as as students we' like to extend our gratitude to J always we've always appreciated the concern of students question this parade probably put something our students are supposed to arrive at 6:25 principal down I don't know if you like to ENT Journey for few minutes or just wait I guess I have one question probably for you sure um how are we promoting the community family IED overd been involved in the discussion it but I haven't been involved inting and why they're doing it that part have discussions with them both showing off how great over is and what those activities look like I'm not sure it mainly not mainly but also the draw interest for Early Childhood too you said January 16 yeah that's my other question for Bennett sorry did you say anything about what like you want to say what the dress up days are or talk about what you guys are doing this week because there's a there's a kind of a big change from last year to this year about winter a dance the winter yeah yeah yeah so I went yeah so we have that dance on Friday at the park Event Center had couple years but it wasn't in December no it's usually end of January so Winter Wonderland is usually end of January this year seems dress I I could be spotty on this is in charge of those but today was com pretty sure tomorrow is mon probably JY and Friday dress like a teacher day which I'm curious to see that it goes the other way too like a teacher teacher is dressed like a student yeah so that's and that's what the high school and the middle school that's going to be fun not sure what I'm we dress up like your favorite teach obviously could no I think I don't know if it's public staff yeah I think most but yeah you guys want to donate feel free to off so we waited hallway just a little bit to build some anticipation for you these are leaders of our fall activities little Sports and the fall play jum we may have a couple coming late from basketball practice so their groups are at the end otherwise their Partners have it all on their own so just want to recognize them for coming it's not always easiest thing to come forward and stand up in front of everybody but really appreciate you being here and your leadership my name's Hy werson and I'm in 12th grade and I'm I'm also and we're both part of the called girl dive team and today we' like to share some of the posi EXP and highlights we' had throughout our 2024 season despite having a young team this year our season has been filled with lots of growth hard work and success from the beginning we emphasized the importance of creating a strong team environment and making sure the season would be a good experience for everyone this ensured a strong atmosphere of support helping lead our team to its successes we were able to finish our season with a 10-1 record for dual meets um in our Championship season we took second at True Team sections and Conference and came in third place the AA section meet we also qualified for and competed at state in the 200 medley relay and the 2003 overall this season was a very positive experience and filled with many achievements we are grateful for our time with this team and all the support we received from our community we look forward to the continued grow and success GRT Allen and I play for sown football on a tight end and defensive end for the team and this year we had a pretty good we had an all right season we finish with a one eight one n record but um we have a lot of young guys a lot of guys that will return next year and we're looking forward to building it up more and just having a better team next year uh one thing that was really successful for us was our tackle cancer game and we raised over $10,000 for the r shaver uh Cancer Research Foundation and so that was good um we actually we won that game against um T Tech our grass Rivals and so overall that was a big success for us yeah hi everyone my name is Jenna jansy and I'm currently a junior in high school and this is Isel Benninghoff and we are two of the four captains of theity soccer team and after graduating 16 seniors last year and only have five returning Varsity players this year we knew it would be a young team and it was our goal to set the tone for all the younger players coming through the program our goal as captains was to create a positive and supportive culture among all three levels we have successful seas in our conference and one with our only L to brers even though we came up losing toid one to Z in where we ended our season we still help held our head knowing we gave everything inital to the end we were successful with a winning record but at the end of the season what really stood out to us was everyone's hard work dedication and the accountability of each and every teammate along with the memories that we made we want to give a huge thank you to Coach B and Ashley sudans along with everyone that worked us throughout the season to push us to be our best um I'm hunman and I am a sop and I was part of the Fall flight this past season um we we did very well I thought um we had a lot of new freshman this year and they did very well excited future highlights I have that had some great performances hello everyone um my name is pton this is Seth Davidson we're both seniors um this past soccer season was a journey that I think red a lot from our players um well it didn't end the way that we' hoped we believe the growth and accomplishments we experienced together not only fun to see but also fun to be a part of um this year we had four captains me Seth kin bman and Drew mclen I know me and Seth talk during the preseason of our goal for our senior year that was um to make it the state and although we came up short of our goal I think we came away with a better understanding of what you need in a team to succeed yeah continuing on to some of the things that shaped our season I think first and foremost winning backto back conference championships was a huge Testament to our hard work dedication and belief in each other winning big games like our shootout against Wilmer a huge second half against Brainard or a shut out win against Morhead I think pull to tell what our what I thought our team was capable of though we didn't reach the final stage of where us captains want to be I think we went through challenges during the season whether that be injuries attitudes or challenges in game like playing 4es I do to a red card or experiencing goals sored on us coming from behind the win uh we really appreciate our coaches Matt Hager and Caleb forberg as we believe they pushed us to try our hardest I think we all were able to walk away knowing that we gain a better understanding on the game friends and it takes to one as a group hello everyone my name is Bri ging and I'm a junior this year and I'm here few accomplishments of the girl cross country team so uh this year we had about 40 girls join the team and several Lars like Alexandria and G um a huge for our girls team was when Ava um as a freshman placed 11 at sections in L our varsity team um we also had so many younger girls step up to year and Excel in races and really just bring in a lot of new talent to our team um and across the board we saw so many personal records um with everyone putting in miles and efforts every workout and you know I really think every girl brings something so special to our team um our energy is unmatched um and we also are incredibly close in it and we um have so much support for each other and we work to create a positive environment on our team and so we hosted so many um Team bondings this um team bonding events outside of practice just to become closer and each other so um in Cross Country we learn um not just better athletes but also we learn mental toughness great teamwork and also this season we worked on setting goals for for ourselves um to push each other and push ourselves to be the best that we can um so yeah I'm excited for another great season next year so much hi everybody I'm benett nice meet you um so on the guys team we have 75 62 which is great in sixth grade and they don't go do any other sports um but so cross country really it may have ended early November but there really is no offseason and any other support is just training cross country after so we started in June June first with Captain's practices that a pretty Captain Le and he has to run a little bit but you know streets and games and team Synergy that really is the foundation really spectacular season across all grade levels 162 um with our Junior High Runners a really young team but still a really with a big win at the monel and a pretty solid season for junior varsity Runners also an incredible season for those guys they were CLC conference Champs back to back if I'm if I'm not wrong and we're really excited to see them move on as the years progress our Varity team we took third confence and six in the section it's not where we wanted to end up but there's always grow there we were excited to have a great team um something notable is that we had nine Runners under 1755 which I don't know if we've ever done and we're really excited to see because very few of those were excited to see those yeah we had a great season I'm I'm Greta and I'm a Spore senior we on the tennis team this year the girls tennis team had 32 girls including four cor exchange students the team had an exciting day at the obstacle course at cley early on in the season and this has been a great teaming event for us for the last two years um we were born 17 this year but considering that we only had one returning position player from the previous season it was a great season for us and we only graduated four off of ours lineup this to continue to be very competitive for the next years to come um I'm Gabby and I'm a junior um I'm live and also a junior um our season turn out really strong we go to Team camp in the summer every year at scsu we get to learn and talk about the players about college and everything like that um our record ended up being 11 to 19 which wasn't where we wanted but we did find success further in the season growing continuously our jb2 team ended up winning all of their games they had zero lost record which was incredible and at a lot of our tournaments we also had winning records which was good to see and it's really fun to compete multiple P throughout the day in this one game we only graduated three seniors so we have a lot of returning players so our hopes are pretty high I'm Kennedy Jake and with girl soccer thank you all for coming this evening did anyone on the board have any question [Applause] conrat we have good evening board members I have a few items to add to and our activities report from this evening um I appreciate you been bringing up the blood drive I did sign up for the blood drive today I invite anyone else who's interested in coming to the blood drive on Wednesday they will be hosted here at SEL High School uh we did over this past month get a robotics Grant uh for upwards of $3,000 this money is going to help with both covering some of our materials costs our competition fees and some mentorship support that we always utilize every year uh during this past month Al had our National Honor Society induction where we brought New National Honor Society members in that was held here at the high school we had roelle Dyer was here as one of our speakers to talk to our new National Honor Society members along with those who are existing and it it was pretty fun to watch these kids and the Excellence that we had High School uh during this last week we did some onboarding orientation with our new school board m um we had some key administrators at the district office spend time with Kelsey excuse me Chelsea to make sure we're on boarding giving her any information that we can this past month we spent a lot of time out doing referendum Outreach and marketing we have been out at the senior center lots of booster clubs um working with our school staff we've released two new videos and uh some podcasts have been uploaded so for those members of our community are wondering is about and what each of the questions are asking um there are many opportunities to get information and anytime anyone does have a question we ask them to just reach out with an email or they can call me directly the last item that I had was about schools advocating for fair funding but I think we'll have a Committee Member the board today so I'll pass on that finally on behalf of the sell Saints team of school district I want to express our deepest gratitude to Jason e 12 years of dedicated Service as a school board member as you heard from students tonight your leadership commitment and unwavering focus on supporting our students our staff our community has left a lasting impact I want to thank you personally for your tireless efforts in shaping the future of our district your contributions will always be remembered and appreciated and most importantly we wish you and your family the very best in the future now I believe a few others have some things to say so I'm going to ask that you chair um at the front for presentation we know you love it when it's all about you so we are just here to say thank you for all of your service on behalf of the district um 12 years ago I think you said you'd never do this for 12 years yet here he is um and we not only want to thank you but we want to thank your family for giving all of their time with you to us um you've been invaluable to us and don't have enough words of gratitude to express thank you but in place just in case description which says the curbage board was made from reclaimed materials from the original gym floor from our district service center for start Elementary School it provided many great years of service to the district supporting students in many ways both academic and athletic just like you have Jason thank you for your many years of dedicated service [Applause] then we will move on to our Schoolboard committee reports was there anything from v um no not really our next board meeting is this coming Wednesday um I'm on the facilities committee I'm hoping to get an update on what's going on facilities we did send out I think I mentioned it our last work session but um we sent out one fer letter to um a real estate company that's looking to Leisa space again I can't mention which one it is specifically but hopefully that goes somewhere because the first two we did few months ago just didn't anywh that's the of bus community and Technology communication Community Education we have one meeting coming up January comprehensive can I ask did has there been talk about like what would happen if there's not a space coming there isn't I mean not specifically but um we went into this knowing it wasn't a guarantee that we'd find something um what I mean I don't want to try to predict you know years down the road if we can't find anything I'm optimistic we'll find something eventually whether it's in the first year I don't know but you know the that became real clear is how much of a stretch it would be to try to find um support from all six districts that are part of this to do any sort of new construction because that would be far costlier take a lot longer to to figure out so yeah we just remain hopeful um we'll deal with it if for some reason we go well beyond a year without finding a place we'll deal with it then but um we're we're optimistic even though the market is very tight um there are and the current building specific long enough hopefully I mean it's been running for a while I mean it's one of those situations where the staff that maintains that building does a great job at it I mean we've toured it as part of the veterns board you know you walk in and you know you're going back way back in time you're looking at a um I think what was an elementary school building from either 40s or 50s even yeah so even maybe earlier than that and you can tell based on the tile work and everything in there it's very much uh integrated but in great shape very clean so yeah it it wouldn't be the best situation to have to keep going at that place but it can happen so in case in point we're approving a roof repair for that building on Wednesday so you know a repair that can't even go beyond the late winter and to Wi the snow melts this year so you know it's something like $16,000 it's not a huge chunk of money but it's something you don't want to have to keep going and doing for a year or two while we continue to look for and this is proba more for Joel but um if the if we don't secure a space this year the levy would essentially show reduction on next year's taxes or next year's payable right y okay oh it's my turn it's your yeah so at our caser meeting would been last Tuesday we essentially got the same presentation from the staff members Administration that we received in the November work section here on um proficiency gra based rating um and just to clarify most of this is just discuss developmental pH where it's not like this has all been implemented but um for anybody curious about what that is or what is going on I would recommend watching the November work session because it's a really really detailed and pretty broad topic so I have absolutely not enough time to cover all of that but the meeting was good there was there was good discussion and the nice thing about caser is there is parents staff um board members Administration all there to have discussions about this so you get input from kind of all points of the community but essentially what proficiency what we did is talk about what it is and the Really base level is it's a different way of reporting a grade especially at the secondary level so um it gives families the opportunity to have more information on what is going into a grade um example like standards um it going to give a breakdown of what standards are being taught and where student demonstrating their knowledge in those standards so you're actually going to have access to more of that information as a parent and as a student on where you're at and what the goal is for the course what do you you know what standards are you attempting to meet but more importantly how are you showing that you've develop the knowledge of those standards so really it's more information it's much broader than that and again I encourage people to watch the November work session to get more detail um just in the developmental stages so nobody panic it's you just infy infy stage right now so that's it the only thing I would add is that we did how we did get to celebrate Rhonda is retiring and it was her last caser meeting and it was 27 years of her serving our community so I just yes so thank you to Rhonda and congrats on her retirement so I'll miss her at the next well I'm still on it I'll miss her at the next meeting yes um then we have safe yes so there was a lot of information I will try to summarize and if you have anything to jump in please do uh they talked about or we had two guest speakers uh one was Senator Karan and the other was um representative UAM hopefully I'm not butchering either of their names um but before we met with those or before those speakers presented we did have a legislative platform update um just if on some of the wording um Platform One Is to make education related levies fair and more consistent by converting all Equalization formulas to fixed percentages of property weal per people instead of fix dollar amounts of property wealth per people um School financing is complicated so if people have questions talk to and then PL two there were multiple things that were with that but basically um to improve the stability of school funding and promote uh greater fairness um make certain that new programs uh that were enacted in 2023 like unemployment insurance and curriculum um acquisition and professional development from the react are fully funded and not um creating new cross Subs cross subsidies um for districts to navigate then we had kind of a legislative update as far as um the number of Republican and Democrat seats in the Senate which isn't really changing much apparently it's 34 Democrats and 33 Republicans the house is split 6767 um there's two court cases that are being litigated um and the prediction was that the session will not be wrapped up by the end of the regular session that it's going to be buckle up and if you have nothing better to do on the first day of the session to tune in because it sounds like there might be some fireworks uh our District's day at the capital will be Fe it's a visit um but that's Thursday February 13th I do not have a time I'm guessing it's just kind of whenever um but if somebody wants more information uh I can try to get some for you if I am on the Comm that day will work and I would be able to attend um let's see from Senator Karan the or Kanan the biggest thing from him was um trying to get all kids in every zip code being the same so changing the base formula um and then also making sure that if you go to the capital the lobby he said make sure you're lobbying the the correct spot um the big one that he pushed was to go to um Education Minnesota and Go lobby at there for fair funding especially with us being a property poor um District uh with representative uim um this part at least for me when I was listening it sounded like this part of the meeting was a little bit more uh frustrating for the people that were in the room it seemed like there was a lot more reminders um that we can't keep taxing our communities because we can't afford to we just we property um and then basically there was some push back on do whatever you have to do to make this problem not be a problem anymore it's been a topic for like 20 years so it was if you have to move money move money um but don't keep telling us to go back to our taxpayers to increase the tax because we just can't continue to uplo that so I think that's it um the other thing if you're okay I did attend the msba delegation um your delegate assembly which isn't a committee on ours but just to kind of update you um Monday March 10th is the msba um and masasa day at the capital and then there was 28 resolutions brought forward 23 of those passed four failed and one didn't get moved forward um and that's just an elected group of everybody for or msba member districts that go um and we discussed different resolutions that we want msda to Lobby on our behalf so i' throw it in there we have finance and personel negotiations tonight we're approving the pair of professional contracts successful reaching thanks guys operations facilities policy we met but clearly we got through some policies and then connection Sor connection well thanks to everybody who uh came to the meeting our last board meeting was first Monday in December and we had Dr rard and his entire team including Joe principal kler Jessie Pagan um yeah Dr and so a lot of people there to inform the seniors who showed up to the meeting about the referendum give their Spiel it was it was the big team not just not just the uh small on so I I thought everybody learned a lot there I thought it was good presentation um was good to see the back and forth the community questions we got very helpful I thought so so that was good um upcoming meetings I wanted to just highlight a couple things going on with the senior connection um save the date Wednesday January 22nd they've done this once already but they're again having um representatives from niron magnetics in to share more details about the plans for manufacturing in town here and then a big uh headline speaker at the sartel senior connection membership night so this is Wednesday January 29th um sports broadcaster Joe Schmidt is going to be their speaker so that's G to be a really good event and hopefully a lot of people show up and people especially looking to become new members of the senior Comm um before we pites I was just to ask if you had anything additional because this was a lot of information on this a meeting was there anything I think the only thing that I'd add to Jen J talked about a little briefly but I think there's this idea hanging out there was talk about related to the formula and we hear a lot about the formula and part of what our Senator spoke about as the representative was the idea of getting rid of formula and just having base aid for student because the formula is one of those things that complicates things in relationships to why some districts get much more state aid than we do person toct okay anything else forit then I will move on to our action items and I'll look for a motion to approve policy 410 412 and 413 motion by Jen second by Emily any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I those say n motion carries I'll look for a motion to motion for resolution appointing election judges and the absentee ballot board members second motion by Jen second by Matt discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I those oppos say n motion carries look for motion to approve the 2024 payable 2025 property tax levy second motion by Jason second by Jen any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I those oppos say n motion carries look for a motion to approve the contract with the Minnesota School Employees Association motion by Jen second by Jason any discussion something for the teachers uh we did because Scott's the spouse of the teacher so that was a special but no I don't believe requ read now okay well on that note for discussion I would just say thank you both for your work and work of our district else um all those in favor signify by saying I I those po say nay motion carries then we have our first reading of board policies 522 606 6061 and 66.1 yeah page 160 of our packet for tonight so this is section B8 and it has to do with um review of media materials Library materials and the step where the review committee's decision can be appealed to the school board in here it says the the school board will review the specific Library material in question the review criteria that are outlined in this policy and then affirm or reverse the review committee's decision I just had a question and a suggestion that clarify since we are an even numbered board what happens if it's a split vote because I don't think it's clear when it says you can affirm or reverse and if three were to vote one way and three the other way I and my suggestion is when something's up on appeal you're essentially voting to reverse or whether to reverse so if it's a split decision nothing happens this is what happens in courts that typically have not number of Judges but if somebody has to sit it out um a split vote essentially doesn't change anything so do we want to just clarify that so it's not like a open question when we actually reach that point I think it would be determined by how the question is on the agenda at that time sustain uphold the decision of the Review Committee if the answer is no well but an appeal is whether you're overturning a decision that's already true you're not to State on the agenda what it is you're just yeah you're just hearing theal and voting I I mean so your suggest just say reverse no actually what I would suggest is just add a sentence that says um v um affirms the decision or something like that just to clarify that that's what happens because the motion would be or the decision would be whether or not to overturn the decision of the Review Committee so if it's a no vote yeah or if it's split it would be a no that would mean to not decision right yeah okay so just clarification in the language there y it the board's pleasure that we adding that say an is isue the school board is final that we have language to being tied V firms the decision of the Review Committee yeah because it would be a no a tide vote would be a no vote and the question would be whether or not we're reversing it so it would be a no to the reversal I correctly M I mean yeah I I think so would have that might be the better way to because it's not like we're reaching a decision if we're a tide vote um so maybe a maybe saying a tide vote would result in affirming decision yeah I think that's what we would be trying to convey what the end result of the would be right question there anything else question okay so we our or meeting on January 6th and I was going to quickly look but I forgot when is our we've already established our January meeting of holiday whatever that's following Monday the it would be January 27 for motion to so motion by Jason second by Emily any discussion I feel like I should like the G one last let's keep it going hearing on all those in favor signify by saying I all those oos say n motion carries and weour for Jason's last meeting at 703 [Applause] I don't even need to think yeah he was kind s well five yes but served under six and two inter I not the same as bigger and better that's coming your way