##VIDEO ID:qEyYevXdXr0## flag the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God withy and justice for all everyone than for coming in tonight and coming in early for the presentations of those outgoing two board members that are here uh I would adop the agenda motion to adopt the agend discuss pass thank you very much at this time I have no consideration of visitor card the audience have a card not turned in and not have one yet okay no consideration of visitor thank you very much we have the consent agenda is there motion to accept the consent agenda B thank you second discussion on consent agenda discussion no discussion all favor say I I oppos motion passes thank you very much and first time up information report we have the truth and dation hearing that's held once a year by all government agencies Miss will be talking about our district yes ma'am thank you thank you chair Star members of the school board superintendent Anderson and community members Tonight's The District's truth and Taxation uh meeting hearing uh for the 2425 payable school year uh for this T tax excuse me later this evening the school board will be asked to approve the levy certification is for taxes in 2025 and for the 25 26 school year so um on the agenda today we'll be talking about um the background of school funding some property tax levy information budgets and then information about the district's 25 um School District budget and proposed taxes as I mentioned for 24 p 25 and then opportunity for public comment afterwards so truth and Taxation requirements before the final Levy certification will take place later as I mentioned um we will have a hearing tonight and it's very specific on the rules and the content requirements uh most specifically that we must talk about the current year budget and that with a proposed tax levy including any percentage increase or decrease and then the special purposes and reasons for the taxes um that they're being increased or decreased um and then at the end there'll be an opportunity to um have some public comment so School District funding um is very uh set in in the manner in which uh we propose and go forward with our funding um it's highly regulated and revenue formulas tax policy and tax levy process are established through state law uh it's important to note that while schools can Levy underneath the amount they cannot more than the amount that's authorized um the school board then will submit referenda to voters for approval if we were T out an operating referenda or a capital referenda as well so in the levy development um under the general Levy you can see the categories that are included that data that we must provide to the state of Minnesota in order to get our Levy developed um for the board's consideration um in the community education you can see the categories there it's mostly based on population of our adults as well as looking at the children that are underage by Debt Service Levy is um specific to bond principal and interest payment those are for uh voter approved um bonds as well as facility bonds that that are authorized by the school board so St Francis area schools tax levy three components of it the general general fund community service and Debt Service the general fund makes up 51.2% of the tax levy community service the smallest at 2.5% of the tax levy and then a Debt Service about 46.3% again you can see on the right hand side what those different categories reflect uh the general fund which is the fund that most people are familiar with it provides all that funding for regular and special education any instructional programs Transportation it includes our facilities um capital projects Administration and all of that and then Community Education Services fall under that Community Service as well as adult basic education and ecfd and then debt Services I mentioned just those principal and interest payments that have been um either authorized by the school approved so the levy certification process takes about six months um worth of work we start off with that data that I mentioned in the earlier slide that we must submit to the Department of Education um in September the school board authorizes a preliminary Levy certification based on the data we've provided based on formulas and the information that the state of Minnesota has already so they Levy at a What's called the maximum and that's just to give the flexibility of the school um either has more information that the state needs or the state has to work out the final details but you'll see tonight that the levy pretty much stay the same as what was projected at the September meeting in November then with all that information it provides the county an opportunity to mail out on the proposed tax statements those have been mailed out to the local um community members for their uh review it also lists on that statement then where the truth and Taxation hearings will be held for all jurisdiction so so we're here tonight in December 9th to have the truth and Taxation here hear in um after the hearing and any public comment then the board will be asked to do that final Levy certification which then has requirements from the business office to send in um a certification that you'll ask Clerk and Kelly to sign as well as then submitting any information to the county um in addition to that so the levy certification process kind of spans over three years and and typical in in school Finance for a number of things it does let's go over several years so the school board adopts the final Levy in 2024 the taxes are collected in 25 um so calendar year that those are collected and that's in May and October and then in fiscal year 26 that's our school year so the 2526 school year which is a fiscal year starting July 1 of 2025 so next when we look at our budget which the board adopted back in June June of 2024 um we're have all of the categories on the S leftand side um based on different funds that we are required to have um for our budgets uh the majority of the budget as you can see is in the general fund that's the majority is consists of all the K12 educational programs next is food service and uh nutrition services community service construction Debt Service and then internal service and that's for our self dental insurance so you can see the revenue and the expense expense a little higher than the revenue um and in different categories there's specific reasons for that um that we looked at at previous um times the biggest portion that's causing the expense to be over is on the construction side and it's not that we're overspending is that we had funds in reserve that are now being spent on the construction projects that we received for either bonds launching facility so the estimated fund balance the reason you see an asteris on it is because we have not yet for formally adopted the final fiscal year 24 we'll have the audit results um they're nearly done will be submitted to the to the state in time but the presentation will take place in January so these have not been adjusted for final 24 audit figures so $22 million estimated for the fund balance in the general fund and it just as a reminder and there's slide coming up with further descriptions on it but there are several categories that fall into the the fund balance and that includes the assigned fund balance restricted fund balance nonspendable and then the assigned those all four categories make up that that total fund balance for the general fund the next slides mostly will be about the general fund since it's the largest portion of our budget um on the left you can see the revenue slide uh 92.8% of our Revenue comes from State sources and local taxes um in in St Francis School District that 81.4% is a little higher than most school districts in not most but a lot of school districts and the fact is is that we don't have an operating referenda nor a capital project referenda which would then change that red pie piece of the pie a little differently the um nice part about having a that bigger P coming from local property taxes is that it's a little more stable than say the state AIDS we're at the whim of whether or not the state has enough funding to move forward with that so anytime we can have um better and more support from the the roal property tax or some more State buties for the school district so grateful for the portion that we do have here then on the expense side um 79.3% of the expenses are on salaries and benefits and as I've said in other um presentations anytime that you are in a very service oriented um situation as we are in a school district your salaries and benefits are going to be your greatest cost next is your purchase services at 99.3% and then another category Capital purchases that's operating Capital whether it's um equipment or some of it is our longterm facility equipment as well then I like to look at how do we spend our dollar every dollar is spent um about 81.3 cents and every dollar goes directly to supporting students so if you take the 72.5 one cents um instruction and instructional support listed on the bottom and couple that with 8.84 cents for people's support that gets you to that 8135 cents and I I like to show this because you know sometimes people dwell on the fact that there's so much Administration but when you really look at this the majority is where it should be spent on Direct support of students or directly educating them 11.23 cents is on operating and fixed costs that would be your maintenance your um utilities all of those things related to operating the school buildings and District buildings and then 3.1 cents is on district and School administration this includes the superintendent's office it includes all of our building principles includes cost associated with the school board as well and then 4.23 cents is on District support that includes uh finance office HR includes any um some of the technology areas as well um Communications the School elections research and elections as well so all of that is part of how we spend the dollars in the general fund so as I promised I to talk a little bit about fund balances fund balance some people might call it a rainy day I I never like that term but I I say that only because I know certain people are familiar with that it's it's the money set aside after your Revenue less your expense and that's your fund balance and so the first category is nonspendable those are consistent with amounts that are not in spendable form such as prepaid items it's inventory and it's long-term assets so it's required it's a small portion of the fun balances that are set aside next is the assigned those are amounts that are intended to be used for just a specific purpose for the district so one category is the uh Auditors require us to set aside money when we've not had a balanced budget and our expenses are greater than our Revenue they will ask us to set that money aside to be used to cover those expenses um on the restricted side when it says constraints andos by state statutes these are mostly U funds where the revenue comes in with a finance code and it has to be spent out of that same category it's set aside specifically an example is Staff Development those funds are set aside operating capital is another long-term fa facility mten are examples of that where the money comes in for specific purpose and we must spend it out of that same ose committed fund balances are those designated for for uh a specific purpose by the school court and we don't have any um committed funds but this one is used um if there's the thought that the school district might be purchasing land for for an example and then might set aside some money for that specific purpose and set that aside it does require board action to put the money in there and it takes board action to take that back on and then uh the last one is the residual after all those categories then the residual classification for that is the unassigned and the unassigned fund balance is the one that most people are familiar with at looking at what what is our funds that are available uh should should we have a shortfall or need to spend U money we have too much u high utility costs or snow removal in a particular year that's one of the categories that would help with that excuse me um so the general fund estimated uh fund balance uh the yellow bar in all of these is the nonspendable the green is the restricted the red is the assigned and then the unassigned is the blue um and what I want to point out when I was reviewing this again today was looking at that restricted category and the unrestricted and those are the two that really have changed the most the restricted um set 21 and 22 in particular that's during Co so a lot of those Esser funds and the funds came in they were very restricted and so that jumped that up and the UN unassigned was at a lower amount because most of our funding was coming in in that category and you're seeing how that kind of balances off just a slight decrease in 2024 from where we were the previous year um and then in 2025 uh now this hasn't been updated to the final audit this might change a little bit seeing that decrease going down a little bit more and part of that has to do with the fact that we are also decreasing in our number of students that we have um and therefore some less funding that's coming in so next if we want to we look at the 24 payable 25 um tax levy we're going to find that um there's a few reasons and why we do the things we do so what caus causes are increases and decreases um there's really four categories that cause this we have changes in state law we have P unit and population changes market value or tax capacity changes and then changes in expenditures so one two and three really the school district has little control any of that changes and expenditures that can be part of what the board authorizes or things that we have going forward that might change um the um the levy to either decrease or increase so the proposed tax levy um coming up for 25 which is for the 25 school year 25 26 school year again um just over $6.6 million um in the general fund 325,000 in community service and uh just over6 million for a Debt Service for just under $133 million and I'll show you a slide coming up this is about a million dollar less than it was a year ago and again I'll describe that and talk about that as well so a 7.15% decrease in school districts from tax levy so first we're going to focus on the uh general fund Levy for um market value I yeah referendum market value excuse me so there's two kind of categories within the general fund referendum Market value and net tax capacity values and the difference between that is is that referent of value it excludes the house garage and one acre for agricultural property so um in communities where there's large farming areas this is really important especially when they want to try to pass a referenda so an operating referenda does not affect their land only the house garage and one acre which is similar to most of us in our homes right so they've trying to equalize that a little bit so the various categories here for the um the levy uh just up a little bit in the local optional revenue and part of that has to do with increases or changes in our our student population but also a change in the um the funding formulas for that as well so sometimes in categories if the state aid decreases the leveling factor is the levy portion of it so to keep the district whole if a if the Law changes where the state aid increases the liy will decrease and then VI Versa the equity and this is um referenda Equity when school districts do not um have an an operating referenda this is a balancing factor to help with that and so as the overall levies for um operating levies go up as more communities either raise their levies or have an inflation factor or pass an additional one it changes that and that provides a little um little bit of extra money for the school district um the biggest thing to look on this slide is that that last col last row excuse me um the adjustments so in 2024 there was a right sizing to the enrollment projections overall for our our Levy and in doing that we had kind of been under enrolling estimates our estimated enrollment was under in previous years and last year I I believe we talked to you all about this we right size that and what that does is it cause an adjustment to make up for the levy you didn't receive in those pre previous years so it's it's a little high now our Levy is is what I would call kind of right sizing right so it's our enrollment is a little more too actual than it was in the past so we don't have that huge adjustment in this year because it's a little more more a little more online with what our enrollment is so it looks like we're losing money and in fact we we aren't losing money we're just not gaining that big adjustment that was really for previous year adjustments so next when we I know this is a little bit smaller when we look at the general fund uh net tax capacity not huge changes on this the one exception would be when you look at the total ltfm and for our community members ltfm stands for long-term facility maintenance and that is going up by 286 almost $287,000 and you're going to see a similar um entry but the other way in our debt service and I'll explain that a little further but the district is eligible for ltfm based on their student population the age and square footage of the buildings that we have and have a certain threshold a certain dollar amount and we can either use that as a ongoing every year type of a levy or we can issue bonds to take care of some immediate needs and so we have a decrease on the the debt side and therefore we're eligible to bring this um the pay as you go kind of work as you go increase that by that 286 so keep that number kind of in mind at come in play in in a few slides going forward next when we look at the community services Levy uh this is the um basic community at early childhood and you can read through the categories uh the biggest changes here have to do with school age child care as well as adjustments um overall decreas is 14.8 um percent uh this is one where the increase in the state aid for basic Community Education is a factor um which lowers the district's Levy and then second they be right siiz the the school age child care so some of this is those adjustments that you see um from previous years based on um that change in state aid school age child care we're getting closer to what we're actually submitting for expenses to be a reverse and then that adjustment um figure of 36,000 that you see in 25 is related to the previous year which was a little higher than it than it could be so we're lowering that amount so overall the $56,000 decrease in our Levy for community services so next when we look at The Debt Service Levy and this is to pay principal and interest payments the first three lines in there are for a regular Bond payment so voter approved bonds that have been issued um and the reduction for debt excess the explanation for you to understand is when we issue bonds and we Levy for the principal and interest we must Levy at 105% of what those principal and interest payments are that's by State Statute that is to assure Bond holders that they are being repaid or that the district has enough money to repay those principal and interest payments at some point in time that 5% becomes a little more than is needed in our fund balance to cover that as well as the district has done some refunding of bonds refinancing bonds when you do that that lowers your principle and interest so the state does a calculation to come up with that number this year it's a little higher at 420 compared to 21 so it looks like a greater reduction which means money's going back to our taxpayers and our communi so lowering our overall um debt Serv for that first portion the second portion and I remind you that I mentioned that 280,000 under long-term facility on the general fund now we're seeing the flip side so we've paid off some of our long-term facility debt um those bonds issued for facilities related to long-term facilities um and therefore the amount of money that we need to recruit to pay that principal interest are decreased but it's over on the general fund so it's kind of a wash between those two and just like the the regular Debt Service then the reduction for debt exis on the facility side same explanation for those bonds as well so we have to Lev 105% then we do a calculation for the state to take back money and it gets returned to um taxpayers with a lower tax so over all 8 half% increase on our debt service Levy um comparing your here so the local property tax levy the state limits the local property tax um uh by those items listed below it's it's our pupil CS the eligible expenditure such as in child care um as well as unemployment is another one our population um any voter authorized um referenda is included and then District property valuations and I'll talk a little bit about that in a minute but those are the items that really um are set by the state and do um manage how our taxes are coming forward and I fully recognize from the back of the room you're not going to be able to read this but let me just walk you through this a little bit so these are two example of tax impact for um um St Francis uh School District so the one on the the left is for a home at valued at 2 $50,000 and the one on the right is a home value at $375,000 so categorically those categories that I just described it's just pointing out of the total tax bill for that um property this is how much it breaks down to so in the first case the $250,000 home the school tax is $64 of that $64 of school tax the first category um the gr portion bar the pink box is um for those operating Capital long-term facility um Community Education leases at it's $108 of that 604 the next category is for any gour approved Levy and that would be those long-term facility bonds that I mentioned that's about $63 of the tax and then next is a voter approved bonds which um is over um that was on that last slide but about 47% of our total Levy that's about $29 of that and then the categorical levies that are um eligible for board approval that's that local oper operation optional excuse me Revenue um the equity the referend to equity that I mentioned 223 and then there's one more category listed at the bottom in that kind of purplish blue box and that would be if we had a voter approved operating referenda or Capital project referenda that would be included in there um the district does not have it so um that's listed as zero so I just wanted to point out I thought this was a nice slide came from our financial advisors um and similar situation on the right hand side I won't belabor this and go through all of those but if you have an opportunity that you are link that's listed on the on the left there you can go in and do it for your own property taxes so so when you get your tax statement you tap at the top it tells you what your market value is you could print put that in there and it'll come out and save activ do so I thought this was a nice little tool for for individuals in our community to be able to see and and try it out um we'll probably put this on our web page so people can can get to that and try that out as well to know so this is the total picture and this is comparing last year's Levy um at just over 13 almost $14 million and the proposed Levy for the general community service and Debt Service for 2025 again just under 13 million the decrease of about 1.1 million um I think I described a fair amount of that but a 5.4% decrease in the general fund Community had about 14.8 it's a small smaller decrease but based on a smaller um base too and then um Debt Service de ining about 88.5 so overall a 7.15% decrease in in tax levy so I've gone gone over some of these but just one more time kind of go through these ltfm uh general fund it increases by that 286 and then as you recall then the The Debt Service goes down by 288,000 due to that change and paying off those bonds local optional Revenue um does go up because of some increasing enrollment and then again this was one of those where the reduction in state eight occurs therefore to make the district full the ly does increase and then overall adjustments and abatements um about $870,000 uh different most of that V I think FAL number is in the general fund um so a significant decrease um due to that as well as some changes in The Debt Service and one thing I want to remind everybody is is that the percent change in our tax levy does not equate to a percent change in our budget so if we were in a district or like last year we had a significant increase by I think it was 9% um it doesn't mean that our budget will go up 9% it's one category was Levy and and then sometimes when there's a decrease or an increase as I mentioned earlier in in the state aid it changes our tax levy as well so that's why there's fluctuations and it's important to know that things can be different than just the pure looking at the number and looking increase and and I thought this chart was really interesting um you can see in 2023 the valuations remember I talked about that referendum market value so um that's all taxes on homes and and accept the um property for a farmer the house garage acre for of agricultural and then the green bar is our net tax capacity and how much that increased in 23 so property owners in this community saw their tax values go up and probably saw some taxes going up with that but in the last two years that has dropped back down and property value increases have been to a lesser degree um more I think they've been they're lower than they were 2017 I didn't go back to see how long it's been since property values increased by just such a small amount but so that will help property taxpayers as well so um I kind of alluded to these but there's three big variables as it relates to property taxes so first is an estimated market value that is done by the county assessor that's not done by the school district we have no say in that um and then the property classification so that's whether it's a homestead whether it's an apartment um it's a commercial building agricultureal there's different PL property classifications and I I think I have a slide coming up that specifies those but that's part of the calculating the property tax and then of course the tax levy by the various um taxing jurisdictions which is not just the school district includes the city county and then townships as well couple of things to note that are um uh nice for our our homeowners is that the Homestead market value exclusion so that's that one where we all want to make sure that we've homesteaded our our properties is increasing so it wasn't I think 475 or 400 and something it's increasing to 517 that'll overall reduce the amount um of the tax now keep in mind your property value is going to go a little bit so there's kind of a a change between the two of them but at least the Homestead Property exclusion will will be up increased and then the agricultureal homestead classification increases significantly um so it'll uh reduce the taxes um for those um homeowner land owners that had a greater than $2.15 million in Homestead um category within the um the a properties excuse me so good news on helping to lower those taxes again set by Statute not not by something that the district can control so again the net tax capacity the majority of the properties pay on that that's 8.86 million of the overall tax the referendum market value the 4.13 for a total of 12 m997 058 and then as promised another really small chart but I these are the different values valuations I kind of described earlier so the top is the Homestead residential the commercial industrial Agricultural and agricultural non-homestead um when we look at year to year and that's what this chart is trying to show you so the First Column after the blue different colored blue charts of the property is the valuation in 25 they increased this this is done by PMA our financial advisor by 2% and as you saw in that last chart it was going up around 2.32 just trying to give you an idea that even with the increase in the valuation our property owner should see a decrease um not as much in the egg and the Egg categories but in our local uh residential heste we should see a decrease in their in their property taxes for the school district portion I want to point we only control the school district portion of the taxes so the recommendation to the school board um and ask you to take action on this later is to certify the amount of 12 million $997,500 per from the previous year and then we will um welcome um members of the community to speak U just a reminder that any comments or questions during public comment uh needs to be relevant to the current proposed tax certification for taxes payable in 25 and be relevant to St Francis area schools not the city or county taxes as we have no control so with that I'll turn it over to chair person up ran speak on taxation that this taxation in general Ryan uh proud parent to three children uh in St Francis area schools and this is one of my favorite ones to sign up for all year because I feel like I get super stressed about whether or not we're going to go after the maximum amount because I know when I look at the opportunities for my kids and I compare regionally we miss out on some opportunities but bang for your buck and I would hang a poster up out in front of County market and yell at from the mountain tops baying for your box St Francis Area Schools is strong we can be critical about test scores but if we do anything short of what's in front of you today I get worried because that's different programming it's different opportunities it's larger class sizes it's other struggles we'll have in other places I just really hope that the board will not just take this opportunity to go to the maximum amount that's available in front of us today but also generate a conversation with our community of what we could do if we did an audit and what we found around us that our kidss were missing out on and try to turn that into an opportunity for future conversations on investment in our schools please be proud of how the taxes went down this year I think it was the only one on the list when I got my tax statement uh just know that there's other years when we're like the only one that goes up though to so you got to play both sides and be cognizant of both of them but I'm excited for what we see in front of us today our community should be excited about what happened this year at least for us while other people are having other things happen to their taxes but um I really hope that when we're all said and done today that you'll take advantage of this opportunity to invest in our uh our kids our staff and our community thank you thank you ran all right well you saw thank you yes ma'am can I ask a couple of questions about her presentation or you maybe I don't know I think you should respond so I'm Mar from o and so when you were giving your uh presentation I wasn't sure if the enrollment change was up or down based on what you were presenting I'll I'll just come up here that okay um so it was pretty pretty flat little bit up little bit up but but not um we're kind of seeing a you know flattening maybe over time going to be seeing a moment going down and that's part of it is birthdays okay okay and then under the Community Service C there was no number for 24 I believe under um adults with disability but there was something for this year under adults disil I don't remember yeah I can remember if it was thousand or Millions I forget yeah 34 what is that um it's it's a category that you can ly I'd have to go back and see what happened in the previous year okay it's programming Community has to offer through the beginning of January didn't didn't they increase the age in special ed it was 18 and now it's 21 or something incre 22 that's okay that's separate okay service I have to do a little research to see what the history has been on that I mean it's $3,000 I know it's not much I just no no a good question I guess my last question was what are the plans for the large fund balance the fund Balan is like a third of what you take in for the general that you have for your general fund so I just didn't know what so what happens with that sure and keep in mind that the the the total fund balance a fair amount of that is earmarked for well they're saying 2 million was unrestricted no it's not no that's what I was trying to describe it's all part of those categories that we were talking about um so right right here it's all of those categories it's not just unrestricted we'll go back to the uned or unassigned I guess well that's that's what I'm saying the unassigned is the blue at the bottom all the 22 million is the the assigned restricted nonspendable it's all of those categor so if you see that number 22883 yeah okay and I'll go back to the budget here uh so that's estimated the number I have is including um so under General say 22 mil right and so it's made up of all of those categories that were done so all those other ones that sorry I was looking at the wrong bar on the right hand side the 21 144 okay yeah I see yeah that's it's all of those categories that make up so the unassigned is that bottom portion and so that's like 10 million yes roughly 10 million and that's um very close in line with what we budgeted for year and where we we thought we would end up so it's uh 12 I didn't write that down and the GRE the green is restricted right and then the non spend so the previous one was the one that um confused me when you had when we went up go back so when it says general 22 it's it wasn't clear that yeah I did speak to it on the slide but I'm sorry it doesn't show it on here why okay yeah so it's a a six if your general fund is about what was it 16 so I didn't know if there were plans fun balance sure so the fund balance is set aside as needed as you know District was in pass so I know it's been here first so I know you probably don't have the details here but I with the um out sign balance going down will we be below the 12% as required by policy at this point do you know no no no because the um the restricted is down lower you see that and our and um fund balance unassigned is pretty close to where it was and that's also before the audit figures the last year been included so yeah we'll be above that we I can update this this for you when we get through the audit then and then we'll do the revised budget for 2425 and then you'll have that as well thank you yeah yeah I was just going to State basically the same thing in policy it just states that we need a fund balance at 12 question I I have a couple of questions but I'll just start and then maybe get to the rest what was the number that you sent over um to the state for enrollment to come up with the numbers that you came up should have brought the actual certification I go back I have of course okay um oh what was my other question that the equity versus ay can you explain that again a little bit so we can't get a ly Pastor our stakeholders you know don't vote for that so the equity kicks in and call the referenda equity Levy so as school districts across the state um can't pass a referenda or are well below what other school districts are that is some addition Revenue that you can get to compensate school district for the of and how that deter form through the state legisl we we don't have any control it just shows up on our certification and I'm pretty sure it's tied to student enrollment as well yeah and we could provide the form to because it's right on the levy certification sheets so we can provide that to you so you can at least have calculated just comment with the fund balance I know there was um talked during negotiations that there was a spend down of the fund balance and you can kind of see that blue line drop a little bit yeah and some of the concern is and hope I hope I hope we're going in that right direction is that we don't want to um become a bank and having that increase every year that we're using those dollars on our staff because we are limited in the amount of money that we get from the state although this is the Avenue I mean a lot of these formulas are set by the state of Minnesota because we as a school board don't set levies we just approve the levy that the state basically went through and um formulated however they formulate but so we're above the 12% where are we at at that number do you own um I didn't write that down I'm sorry that that ly the audit report will be coming but I know it's around that 12% yeah that's where we want to be and I just want that so that is because we know our staff is watching and to make sure that we're not increasing those numbers but yet also keeping a healthy fund balance because that also is important for our district and the health of the district is to have a and your school board policy practice of having certain percentages spot on the board should be doing as well but so as I mentioned January we'll have that audit report that'll be your first indication of where we ended up in 2024 then three weeks later you get a revised budget for 2425 that again will then incorporate any changes in that in the audit findings for the audit results for our levies and then that will be increased so this chart will change for 24 25 both years I just want to make a comment too about the general fund um when we're able to keep it at the 12% we were able to get that lower bond rate also so it makes the health of our of our you know and in case of an emergency if something happens we've got some fund balance that we can take care of things in an emergency but it also helped us lower that Bond uh interest rate and which reduced everybody's taxes so it's good that way just good to have something in the bank not not growing like like the SK but get a solid amount so it's good we stay there Mike and I can remember years sitting on here where we're worried about how many teachers we're going to hire in the fall because that might throw us off in the fall and throw us in the negative we were so close so this it's a good thing to be at 12% and healthy but again we don't want to see those numbers growing substant because that means we're not spending the money where we should that's on what 80% of our budget is is um our teachers it's even higher than that when you throw in everything else so I have one more question are debt service is at 46.3% is that a good place to be I mean where should that be not there there's no set guidelines on that I mean if you're in a district where you are either one building new schools because you're growing you're going to your debt service is going to go up or you're in a district where you need your buildings are old and you need to pass a bond and replenish or you need to add on so there isn't a uh here's the magic number for Deb service yeah we're still pretty low overall I I don't know what the total capacity is that being outed as well of what they estimate what the total capacity is I'm sure you're lot under it I haven't researched it here but it's it's not out of out of line okay yeah okay well you just saw the most complex uh system of school is funding and again I said before govern glinty put together a task force years ago and down msba stand room only to hear the report they could not come up with good way for funding of education and they work months and months in the task force they couldn't come up with a good idea that's all complex years for school district all right well thank you very much any further questions comments all right thank you I'll send enrollment and then to thanks for your questions okay Fran High School coun report no one's here tonight for so add report is next sir all right they just a few um issues to highlight uh first of all at the I believe the November 12th meeting there's a question or comment about painting in one of the rooms in high school that had the word ma um in the lower right hand corner so I checked out the painting and saw it for myself it is a tribute to bang P who uh is leosan was born in lios and he was a a strong Ally of the United States in the war against communist Vietnam incidentally he moved to Montana as a political Refugee and then moved to California but um so he's he's um a hero among among people and was a strong Ally of the United States so a former St Francis stud created the Ping and included her name Ma in the low low right hand corner so the the poster is um highlighting van po but Ma is on the poster because that's the name of this dud who the so I just wanted to to clarify that um the other couple things I'll I'll highlight first of all uh the high school art department is really strong and sometimes you know I or we don't talk about it enough but um they had an art show for first trimester classes and U they announced who won the award so I listed those you know on the chart and then as an ATT or as another attachment there are pictures or of the paintings and drawings they're unbelievable absolutely unbelievable so please take your time to take a look and uh you know if you know any of the students please reach out to them U because it's it's really amazing work so I want to thank the high school art department and the students for everything they do included the the discipline data uh as well as the status of the challenge books uh in the report I'm kind of changing it around as you know I learn better ways I hope of presenting that information few other things that are not listed uh perhaps most important tonight I I too want to recognize the board members who are leaving P Johnson am Kelly and Mike star we had a nice gathering before the board meeting where several people made comments and I just want to Echo those comments again uh you I've been working with schools for nearly well for over 30 years and so I know the pressure that board members are under and it takes a lot of time commitment tough decision making disagreements um but I really feel that our board and our school district is really focused on students as it should be so thank you for your years of service bam with four years Amy with 21 years and Mike with 12 years so thank you um also fox9 uh had a report on St Francis uh that I think there was a report at 5:00 today as well as 6 o' today I did not see either one but it's about the new policy uh that was decided two weeks ago as far as removing books uh and so I'll be anxious to to watch that report to see how transpired but I just want everyone to know that it's felt better um I did hear back by the way a Jill from the nbe today about my well two weeks ago I think at the very end of that discussion you'd asked me to reach out to rury and to the Minnesota Department of Education the better understanding consequences so I reached out to them that night actually you know before I left the meeting or the room here I I emailed both and uh it got lost I think in the nbe's general mailbox so I sent him a follow up today and heard back from their media lead and of course she forwarded it to other people in the department so I haven't heard any official response yet but at least they haven't and they'll look into it let us know um one thing I'll highlight I maybe should have said it during the ly certification uh because there will be some very expensive uh technology needs that really need to be addressed sooner rather than one so I would think that during the revised budget that D provides we'll need to increase our our expenditure budget for technology uh the most significant need right now has to do with the middle school network um you know not only um the the service coming in but the switches that work with the network and uh you know we don't know the cost yet but it is going out all the time and it's going to be a disaster for States testing unless we figure things out that is one example of a whole bunch of Technology needs that we have throughout the district so we're actually going to compile a list of all those needs to fully replace the network in the next 3 to 5 years years and it's uh we're not talking tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands we're talking multiple millions of dollars needs so just to let you know that it's coming our way uh originally we had a plan to address those needs with the U the levy that did pass a year ago uh but the needs are still there so we need to factor some of that into some future decision making uh in addition to that we have to talk about uh at some point considering to replace our student computers uh districtwide because they're about 5 years old now we've got uh many of them as Co started and uh we've had some since then but you know we do have to you know turn those over so anyway just to let you know that's coming up um and I I want to make sure you guys know that that we are aware of it we're concerning we're doing some planning uh and that is all have unless you have some questions uh first question on the technology timeline I'm sure you're going to but when you provide that we have it prioritized as the largest need as we go down yeah or at least the the most immediate and Urgent yes and then um with the media coverage on our 6065 can you um provide us with some guidance on how You' like school board members to respond to inar and then who you would like to see as the designated spokes person for the district yeah unless the board has decided something different that I'm not aware of usually the superintendent is the lead SP with that and or the board CH okay yeah so that's how we typically done it I don't know if it's specific says that in writing anywhere but that's common practice in schools and certainly recommended School Board Association so typically then if we were approach we would we would refer them and not respond so we would not respond we say we we need to talk to the chair about that time Y and then we'll take it from there yeah any other questions for me weing report all add in there uh there was false information put out at our last consideration of visitors and we didn't speak up up at that point we want to verify some information first and the information was completely false there is no pornography in our media center we got community members here we have pornography we do not have it anywhere we do not have hiden uh curriculum or agendas nothing is given parents can all get access to our curriculum there's nothing hidden for curriculum I want to make sure that's public out there because it was put up at that podium we want to verify first before we set so I to make sure we get that cleared up thanks for bringing that up because I had it written down and then I skipped to the art show stuff so I'm sorry about that okay anything else question just a comment to ensure that um as we move forward it's always been past practice that the decision of the board whether you like it or not you move forward and you support the will of the board and if there's any discrepancy it would go then be with the superintendent and the board chair that individual board members um don't have the ability to contact or um you know yeah repres maybe or stir up or just whatever it's if you read our quote of contact it's pretty clear in you so just as you're moving forward remember to follow your Court of conduct and if you have questions or concerns to contact the superintendent and the Schoolboard chair he comments questions if not thank you Mr superintendent uh action items first one up will be the final Li certification is there a motion to adopt thank you Anette is there a second thank you rob discussion Anette I'd like to um PLL 524 for discussion so no not 61 okay any discussion discussed and talked about if not all in favor say I oppos motion passes for the final L certification so what it takes from your forward to the thank you thank you very much okay next up 6.2 approval policy revision there's a whole bunch of policies here uh uh motion yeah let's take a motion to accept first motion thank you second thank you discussion and I'd like to P 524 for sarate discussion 524 you said yes 524 yes okay P 524 for discussion okay so under 503 601 604 608 609 6 15 616 624 and 708 in discussion issues if not all in favor say I I oppose those policies pass I24 go ahead and next I just have questions because it looks like we um redlined one two and three on page nine of policy 524 just looking for an explanation or thought process about why you took it from where it was originally and put it into um the superintendent for some clarification Brandon you catch up go yeah um so I think that's a reflection of there's a new law put in place the last legislature the cell use that recommendation for what um school districts put in place for policy there has to be a policy um this wording meets the requirement to have the policy but it also allows the um administrators in particular from different student levels to refine what the cell phone usage going to be for those students it might vary from age to age it doesn't have to what it might and so it's it's been updated because of that legislation and and um so that's why the three were removed that was prior to the legislation mod language then what was added in place is a result of the legislation so so new legislation says that we can't as school board say um no phones allowed in the buildings or in in the classrooms is what you're you're telling me they're saying that we can't say that as a school board as a whole oh uh say the school board can um but related to that um is is the the underline verbage consistent with what the msba suggested cor correct yeah to answer your question um the school board is able to determine that um the language that's presented um is the recommended language for school districts to adopt that needs the statute but I don't think I didn't read I don't think it says anything about the school doesn't the school and if I can give a little context if right now this uh refers oh I can't read it directs the superintendent and administrators establish rules and procedures you know about cell phone use and so we have that information in the current student handbook and what I think we could and should do is review that current language in the handbook at some point this spring and decide if we want to keep it or if we want to change it or or band cell phones for example you know we can decide that uh because we want to hear from board members in terms of you know what your expectations are and then we can take that into revising the student handbook does that kind of make sense okay yeah statute 12173 directed by the school district charge of schools must adopt a policy um possession and use by March 15 2025 and Elementary School principls and the association of second principls must collaborate to make best practic available so that was that approve this 202 okay so okay that was my question so so it basically says the principles have to be involved is that Elementary School principles Association and Minesota Association of secondary schools must collaborate to make the best practices available to schools on a range of different strategies in order to minimize and impact the cell of the student Behavior mental health andic and so those are two principal organizations one organization represents Elementary principles another organization represents the secondary principles and so they collaborated uh you know and presented a report you know I think it's called called a toolkit um you know I don't remember the exact name but they've already done that work and then shared it with administrators you know giveing options essentially okay so basically what I hear you saying is the statute said there has to be a collaboration and a recommendation not necessarily stating what schools can and can't do because that still lies within the school boards oh yeah definitely okay so that's what I heard I don't know why we do these statutes and stuff that AR really the recommend and so those two organizations did that work okay and they they didn't provide recommendations they kind of gave options it was really well done yeah and so you know that's they got input into it so then so then the school districts can look at that so this basically is just putting it into the superintendent and administration's hands but you're saying you're you're basically saying but we can review that the board can review that in the in the handbook oh yeah and have discussion around that as to whether that's working or not working or what is recommended right and it would be nice to do mid to late spring you know ready for the next year yeah so approving this PO if we approve this tonight then we've met the March 15th deadline we're done with that because we have a policy in place but we can and should still talk about it decide what we want to do do for next year but we already had a policy in place stated here so we did meet the requirement already we've just revised it now because right based on the options yeah but it's not taking the authority away from the local school board yeah that's the last thing we want to do and so I'm thinking probably in late February March maybe April we can have that maybe even as a work session uh to talk about or at least as a a report so we can decide if we want to make some significant changes to the procedure but it kind of does take it out of because here you guys could decide in January to change this doesn't lay anything out specifically whereas the top part did I mean the red line part did so now you're basically Administration now is in charge it did take it out of the school board's hands you guys can do whatever you want based on January February March or whenever right that's this kind of leaves It Wide Open but to change if you think it needs to be changed I'm not saying that's a good thing or a bad thing I'm just saying it is now in your realm of decision making not in the school board and that may be the case but what I'm saying is that I will break correct right I think it's real right just saying leaves it flexible for you guys to make decisions anytime if you need to yes but the board still has the authority you can take that away any time so but yeah what I'm saying is that I want to bring that up you know because I think we need to hear feedback from uh the principles you know and possibly others you know about the impact of cell phones you know it's really a nonissue with the elementaries I I never see cellphones of elementaries and rarely do I have Middle School unless they've been sanctioned for a good reason I see them once in a while in the high school but it's it's not as significant has been in the past but we need to hear from teachers from principles possibly students and parents you know and then you know you can tell us how we should change the handbook if you want us to change it we'll make it happen my guess there will be discussion there's already lots of discussion on um whether or not there should be um cell phones in schools and so I would guess that this will be a topic of discussion but the school board at any time because you do it through policy can change it and I would say our Administration is always as they should be um talking about these circumstances within the buildings of whether or not there should be as they I think it was two years ago we we took out the hats I mean that didn't come from from the school board that came from principls who are in the buildings with the students and saying we think you should allow I think it was hats in the building and we have approved it so this again it was just allowing our um Administration to more flexible makes it more flexible right yeah okay so is there a motion to accept by 24 thank you a second discussion no discussion all fav say I I opposed thank you very much all policies have been approved upcoming meetings andary reports topics I should say new board coming in here in about 3 or four weeks talk to them not me was that your report all right more memory board start over with Miss Amy don't have anything other than it's been a great 21 year run I love this community and um I'll be watching and cheering out from are so keep up the good work and um just continue to um to respect each other at this boort table even during the hard discussions that everyone here has a voice and when you're speaking um that voice deserves to be heard and deserves to be respected so then you make the vote and then as a board since I've been here for 21 years you respect the rule of the board and you move on and and you go on to the next venture that it is and that's how it's always been here and I hope that continues so good luck to the new board members and I trust that and we'll hope that decisions are always made of what you feel is in the best interest of the students because I would hope that's why you sit in those chairs is for the little ones who don't have a voice thank you rob uh last weekend I attended the assembly um if anybody wants to see what passed or wants any more information let me know I can let you look at this or send you to the website and to Pam Mike and Amy just thank you for all you've done districts the last number of years it's been honor to serve with you so thank you um so I just want to thank the community um for allowing me to to sit in this chair the last four years been um educational it's been challenging it's been um fun and all that all wrapped up I hope that in the future that uh we can have more Community involvement and more people sitting in chairs out here so they can kind of see how things run and and get their voices heard thanks so much to the administrative staff you've been um awesome to work with you always there um for any questions no matter how complicated or simple that they have been so appreciate all the support and really appreciate it being able to serve on this board for four years thanks um I would like to also thank Mike and Amy and Pam for their years of service and this is our last meeting for 20125 so I want to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and if you're traveling travel safely and um we will see you in the new year thank you Nate uh just wanted to say that I've personally witnessed between the board meetings um some of our staff go above and beyond their daily duties their daily responsibilities in order to support activities across our district not just sporting activities but band the art show um and really it's really um Makes Your Heart full to see our staff step up and and do that to allow opportun to our students so I think it's one of the reasons it makes our district great so I just want to say appreciative of that and then to Pam Amy and Mike thank you for your years of service thank you for your mentorship and your guidance um even though we may not agree on everything we have good conversations and Amy thank you of the resp thing is that so I appreciate that so I'm ech the sents of my peers thank you all um and and my PR years of service um Amy and Mike we've been on for 10 years together so far I think it is eight years it's been a long time um and so we we brot a roller coaster of agreeing and disagreeing and Amy and I have been on policy for all of that time which um there's only been one one policy that we haven't agreed on which says a lot about us being able to come to a mutual understanding on policies um I'm going to miss the the conversations with you guys um but I wish you all in your new Endeavors your future endeavors and uh don't be Strang come back we had one former board member come back tonight they don't come back very often but um good to see you guys and have a Merry Christmas and safe TR well thank you yeah it's been long 12 years he interesting in 12 years you know way way way back we were statutory debt of and 124 million that was ugly we were together any I get that thing no Bay raises no programs no supplies no nothing cut cut cut cut stay de us five years come out of debt we did it in three years it was a big Pro program for us back there superintendent Mike Wyatt Ed saon toy ctis be G and Carson Anderson I worked with over the last 12 years so that's been an interesting time frame with each and every one of our superintendents we had failed bonds failed levies and then of course the big one came through $860,000 and we all walk through the schools now walk through our building you can see where 80 million went to I think it's fantastic we're still short facilities met here a couple weeks ago looking ahead here down the road we just found all about technology right here a lot of work for the future board members that we have to be understanding what we need to do to keep the school district up and running uh outstanding staff that we have our cabinets are principles assistant principles teachers e Cooks BLB mechanics grounds mainous people and of course the compassion of our board members will make our school district successful I'm firm believer of hiring professional people and let them do their jobs I've been that way in military days for years and my soldiers always told me sir when you left us you let us do our job did not micromanage us and that's why I was successful my military career I let my boys and girls soldiers and Soldier say right do their job and they enjoy doing the job they had out there I didn't interfere with them we have professional people continue to do the job that's why you're there now the biggest all the biggest actually happening for so St Francis has brand new city hall beautiful building and what does it face sooner or later St Franc City Hall is going to say you know what that ugly Bus Barn over there we got to do something so I'm just hoping they come to the table someday and make big agreement with us what can we do to improve that corner of our city they're going to come through it someday they're going to see it every every single day now maybe it's a posi uh two more things I have left here one I'm not going to miss a 3:00 a.m. wake up any more I had woken up many times at 3:00 4 in the morning damn that's nice meeting we forgot about this you forgot that what about what about what about I'm not to list my 3: a.m wake up anymore I'm with you 3:00 what is it with 3 o' that's right and the last thing I have to say is hey don't forget we're our last meeting is tonight that's true we're turning our computers into Vanessa tonight right yep yes if something big happens we're still the board we'll call a special meeting and we'll come back together otherwise January 6 when a new board takes over but something big happens we are still the board and I'll call a special meeting and we'll take care of that problem right away be aware of that don't be surprised well I thought I'm done no you're not done till about 6:30 6:35 on January 6 all right any questions any issues that fin of stuff if not I call our last board meeting for this year at 7:47 748 there we go folks computers in you who leaving us and Sh down short Tim that's right