001All right. Thank you everyone. Um I call to order the uh June 24th, 2005 25 meeting of Columbia Heights Public Schools. If you are able, please rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. Thank you. Um Michelle, if you could call the role. Absolutely. Uh Palmer here. Pway here. Maderas Smith here. P here. Granland here. Superintendent Stick here. Wonderful. Thank you. Columbia Heights Public Schools creating worlds of opportunity for each and every learner. All belong, all succeed. And our core values are community, excellence, collaboration, integrity, respect, courage, and innovation. Moving forward into the agenda. Can I get a motion to approve the
002agenda? So moved by Laura. Can I get a second? Second by Julie. Wonder if all those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Abstained. Motion carries. Announcements. Uh on June 30th at 6 p.m. we have a joint school board and city council meeting here in the community room. July 4th, the district is closed for the 4th of July holiday. July 15th from 5 to 6, there's a schoolboard retreat here in the community room. July 15th at 6:30 we have our regularly scheduled schoolboard meeting uh here in the community room as well. And on August 12th at 6 pm we have a schoolboard meeting in the community room. Moving on to communication to the board. I see there is no communication to the board at this time. So let's move into the consent agenda. Uh to note,
003our consent agenda includes the personnel report, the treasury report, the MSBA membership 2025 2026, uh the meeting minutes, policy second reading. And the policies are 414 mandated reporting of child neglect, 415 mandated reporting of maltreatment of vulnerable adults, 520 student surveys, 541 tea health tea related services policy, 807 health and safety policy and 902 use of school facilities. Can I I'll move that forward. Thank you. Can I get a second? Second. All right. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Abstained. Motion carries. We're making excellent time tonight, everybody. Now we will move into reports from the members of the Yep. Acknowledgement of contributions. Contributions. Yes. Thank you. I did. I scooted forward. All right. Thank you for that. Moving into the acknowledgement of contributions. I will read it and then ask for a motion.
004Acknowledgement of contributions. Minnesota statute 123B.02 permits school boards to receive for the benefit of the district bequest donations or gifts for any proper purpose and apply the same to the purpose designated. On that behalf, the board may act as trustee of any trust created for the benefit of the district and for the benefit of pupils thereof. Therefore, the school district board of Columbia Heights Public Schools Independent School District number 13 resolves to accept with apprec appreciation the $81059 in monetary contributions detailed in the background. Detailed background monetary. The Columbia Heights Athletic Boosters donated $200 to support the Valley View Fund Run. Anonymous parents donated $471 to North Park for yearbook purchases. Anonymous parent donated $12 to North Park for yearbook purchase. Chipotle donated $12759 to the Columbia Heights early childhood program. Value in kind. The
005Columbia Heights Police Department and the city of Columbia Heights donated 18 bikes to Columbia Heights students. The estimated value of $1,800. The total fiscal year 2024 2025 monetary contributions to date $189,396.13. Can I get a motion to accept? So moved. Julie, can I get a second? Second. Second by Michelle. Uh any discussion? We have a question. Mhm. Um when we actually say that total fiscal year monetary contributions to date, does that include our value in kind? Superintendent Ste. Oh, it does not. Okay. I just wanted to understand that. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. So, just uh for for folks at home so you can hear the question was does the monetary contributions include the value in kind? And the answer was it does not. So, thank you. Thank you. Any other discussion? I actually do
006have another question. Um, uh, regarding the the police department in City of Columbia Heights, um, bike donation. Is that an update from the previous Thank you, Laura. I was wondering the exact same thing. And I'm looking at Superintendent Stenic. And thank you, Chair Granlin. Um, and Vice Chair Palmer. Um, when the original donation form was submitted to Stephanie Alvarez, um, the person who submitted the form, um, stated that the donation was priceless, which we all, I believe, agreed to. Um, but we did actually need a a monetary value. So, Stephanie worked with them to obtain an actual monetary value. Much gratitude. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Um, I would just echo that. Uh, every year I am I continue to be pleasantly surprised and incredibly humble and grateful for the um the amount of support
007that our school district receives from our community. So, thank you all very much. Okay, if there are no other discussions, then we will have a roll call vote since it is a resolution. Michelle Palmer I Pway I Smith I W I Granley I motion carries. Thank you very much. And now we will move into discussion reports and information items. And we'll start with reports from members of the board. And I will start. Um, you know, a little over two weeks ago, Minnesota woke up to some truly horrific news. The assassination of Speaker Ammerida Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the attempted assassination of Senator Hoffman, his wife, as well as the attempt on several other of our state lawmakers. Um, it's sobering to think. These are things that we feel like we hear maybe in
008the news in other places. It doesn't happen here, but it does. And the impact will still be um it is still going to be a long time to know exactly how this is going to impact um our local governments, our federal government um but honestly our municipal governments and our school boards. um everybody who's at this table today um as an elected official when we signed up, we signed up because we wanted to support our community and our family and our schools just like our lawmakers wanted to support the state and the city that they're in. Um nobody signed up for that for right to be a target or a possible target. Um, and as all of the information is has been shaking out and things, I think it's really just important to note that
009um, this year more than other years, we spent a lot of time up at the state capital and meeting with our legislators. And um I want to thank everybody who's here for stepping up um and for for choosing to be in this role. Um, and I want to thank our amazing lawmakers for all of the work that they did to support our schools and to support our neighboring schools and schools around the the state. And um, just as a reminder, you know, we are your neighbors and they are neighbors, too. And um, we are we are all people who signed up to do things. um to do maybe hard things, but to serve our community and this was a very sobering reminder that um that sometimes this these jobs come with a risk. And so,
010a massive thank you not only to those of us here, but to our elected officials um who have been dealing with a lot more scary things um as of late. So, I just wanted to take a second and and call that out and share um the gratitude that we have um in our school district for for all of the legislators across the state. Um this is not a party line issue. This is this is this hits everybody. Um and so I wanted to open with that and just just to say thank you. And um you know my husband ran into our representative Sandra Feist at the grocery store and she asked if she could give him a hug because it's been hard and also because um things feel really uncertain for everybody right now. So,
011I guess my ask this week is that, you know, give people more hugs if you can because who knows what who knows what tomorrow's going to bring. So, not to not to start on a downer, but also just to just to say thank you to everybody for for choosing this and to our legislators for choosing this and also continuing to support our communities even when it's hard. So, with that, um, I will pass it on to Laura. I really don't have a whole lot to report, but thank you, Mary, for bringing that up. Um, it's been a it was a kind of a um a difficult um a difficult week um with um the uncertainty there. um you know even getting calls from you know family um outside of state asking you know you know
012what what's going on and you know and being very concerned you know it's it's it's truly an assault on democracy when something like this happens you know you don't have to agree with someone but um this is not the answer we we should always fight at the election box you know that's a lot more effective Um so um other than that I attended the work study session last week and the chair meeting prior to this. Thank you. Yeah, thank you Michelle. Yeah. Um excuse me. So um I spent um some time at my daughter's school at North Park for the last day of school. Um just went up spend some time with the kiddos and um they're leaving fifth grade so it was like a big deal. um got to say goodbye to all the
013faculty and staff who've been there over the last you know five six years um with us and and helping us adjust to uh school life because that's that's where we started and it's where we've only known. So, um that was a really really good positive day. Um the tears getting off the bus, you know, and and and the feelings, right? So, um very very big day for us. So, that was nice to spend time at North Park um for, you know, as a parent for the last time. And then I attended graduation. Um and I attended last week's work session as well. Um, I did some BIPO uh family group planning and um I also had the opportunity to attend uh Columbia Heights first Junth event over at Houston on the 19th and that was
014fun. Some families came out um one of the parent leaders from PTO at Valley View um headed it off with uh Mayor Mada and yeah, it was just a lot of fun um seeing people play in the park at the splash pad and grab a hot dog and paint and and do all the things. Um, so that's all I have. Awesome. Thank you, Karina. Um, I have also attended graduation since the last go meeting, which was fantastic and my first. I'm looking forward to many more. Uh, I've also had some conversations with community members and also attended the work session from last week. Thank you, Julie. Yeah. Um, as treasurer, I met with our external auditor, MMKR partner, Jim Iketon, and we discussed um the report from last year. Um, one of the things that,
015um, you know, we we had a really great conversation, by the way. He was very cordial to talk to um and very receptive to some of my questions and um and he you know I informed him of what I was doing on a monthly basis or lately every bimonthly basis but um reviewing expenses and such and um we just had a really cordial time. However, um we did kind of discuss their audit finding um last year. They pointed out that we had a segregation of duties issue because we have a small department in finance specifically and um he said we had a segregation of duties significant deficiency. Now in my world that's kind of the medium level of deficiency. There's a material weakness which we had the year before. regarding um booking an acrruel basically
016that we needed to it was a large dollar amount so they said look it's material we're going to have to call you on it which is fine staff corrected it quickly and we move on um but they had this significant deficiency in there before and then the next year it didn't go away and so I'm like looking at it asking about the significant deficiency well it goes from material weakness which is the top like the worst. And then significant deficiency is is a control issue that rises to the level to bring it to the board. And then the board the expectation is that the board looks at that and works with staff to possibly correct the issue or decide to take the risk. Um, and in this case, you know, we had it two years
017in a row. I'm like, what's going on? And the the response I got for this, it says, I I'll read the deficiency. It says, "The district has limited segregation of duties in several areas, including the processing of cash receipts and payroll transactions, which we consider to be a significant deficiency. The limited segregation of duties is primarily caused by the limited size of the district's business office staff." And so I asked him specifically and I broke it out and I said,"So what is our payroll problem? You know what is the system not restricting access so that people have segregation duty?" And eventually he just said, you know, we made the assumption because you don't have I know you don't have enough people that the assumption is you don't have segregation and duties and um our standards
018as CPAs require us to in you know you don't throw an assumption out there and don't validate it. Yeah. um if he assumed a segregation and duties issue then he needed to test to ensure first of all if it's just wide open if payroll is wide open then I think our risk is even higher we have 500 employees how do you know somebody's not adding people and paying people all you know it could be them all their themselves so I um pointed out that I expected them to test what our control environment do a walkth through potentially of how the controls work and identify if we really do have a segregation of duties problem and how pervasive it is, you know, how how difficult it is to to because I did I have to admit
019I asked him when he was sitting here at the board meeting, can we correct this? What what can we do to correct it? He says, you can't correct it. It's just it is what it is. And I I was kind of flabbergasted by that. This is my profession. this is I do this for a living. So I was surprised by his answer and this year I wanted to talk to him before we had the audit finished so that we can if we have a chance to mitigate these risks we can do so and then this deficiency goes away. Um, the other part of the deficiency, not just payroll, was cash receipts. And I asked Zena, uh, excuse me, Superintendent Sten about this. You know, how many how much dollars is really coming in that would
020be material to a $60 million budget. Um, I mean, it's pretty small. We already have 180,000 of monetary donations that we know has to be counted come come in manually and probably make a bank deposit, but those are the dollars that they're worried about in here. The other ones that come in come straight from government sources and they go straight into our bank account. So, nobody's touching it. It's there's there's not a a I don't think a control issue there. But they said there was a significant deficiency over cash receipts. And I asked him about he we kind of assume that because you you know you're small and you know the district's small and I'm like I expect you I sent him an email. I said, "I expect you to do the test to verify
021if we really do have a problem with segregation duties and if it's material, if the, you know, I if for instance from a financial statement perspective, we I mean, we certainly want to know if somebody's stealing anything, right, on a fraud basis, but we definitely want them to verify if we have a material problem, you know, that's impacting decisions on the financial cial statements which we have so many eyes on those financial statements. Um, director Hennekins has talked about you know having we have a compliance audit, we have a financial audit, we have budget review, we we do a lot of review and um we also have that independent um organization that gives us a nice little certificate every year saying that we're doing a great job. So I'm I was concerned about that in
022particular and he has agreed that they will do procedures to verify whether we have a a significant deficiency or not. I have a feeling we don't um but it's you know it's their audit. So, I wanted to make sure that they were aware that we're looking at it and um I wasn't really happy with his decision that they assumed something that may not be there. So, um I've asked him to do that. I also asked um so that that's something that I think is really important for the board to know. Um I don't know if they'll charge us additional funds for that. Um but we'll find out. And um so we'll see. I I can't I told him I didn't expect it to be very too too many hours. Um I also talked about, you
023know, kind of what I was doing as a review and um you know, things that I saw that got cleaned up after I reviewed like the voided checks. We finally got that taken care of. Um duplicate payments. I don't know what control was put in place, but it seemed like we didn't have as many. um just some of the things that I had pointed out earlier as treasurer that have been really cleaned up. Um and he you know I talked about where else could I find you know where else is there risk and he had said the revenue recognition process. So revenue coming in has to go into the right buckets right you know that we have to spend it correctly and earn it correctly. And so he said, you know, with competency of staff,
024you know, in the past actually, he said, you know, we know that most districts don't have CPAs working in the in the accounting department and who have government background. He says, but you have actually upped your competency by hiring your new district um deputy director of finance. And so he really was excited about that because he knew that this person had not only the public accounting background but also government accounting background and also school district accounting hands-on. So um he had a lot of good things to say about you know just that structure. Um so it made me feel better about it. And I have to admit, I asked him about journal entries and I said that's a higher that to me from a control perspective that's a high-risisk area moving money back and forth
025between funds and could make errors. You know that and he said, "Oh, Julie, don't worry about it. We run 100% of the journal entries through our AI and we pull out um anomalies." CLA does that, too, but I didn't know they did it. So, I was excited by that. So, I don't even have to look at it. But I was actually really pleased. We we ended on a really good note. Um I felt it was collaborative. There's still some open questions that I have for them, which I can probably ask throughout the year here. So, um I just wanted to give you the update on that. It was it was a really it was a really good meeting. Yeah. So, great. Can thank you for that. Can I? Yeah. Go ahead. Thank you. Yeah. Okay.
026The truth is is that um is that as much as we really want to do a good job in that role, um we we lacked um the the uh we lack the the training um to be able to to be able to pursue that. You know, we don't know what we don't know, right? And so I really appreciate you going to bat uh for the district because they work really hard and they really want to do a good job. Um, so being able to get that assistance from somebody experienced on your own time being able to do that, I'm I'm extraordinarily grateful. Oh, thank you. Yeah, thank you. I mean, I this to me this was a no-brainer because I really I've done this job before. I just haven't done governmental accounting. So Brian pro,
027excuse me, Director Henkins knows more than I do. and I have 20 almost over 30 years of accounting. So, you know, he's been in the role. I have not. Um, but I feel really good about our conversation. The thing is is that a significant deficiency gets reported to the board and there's an expectation we do something about it. So, I thought, well, I'm gonna do something about it. Thank you. Yeah. No, thank you. Thank you. Yep. What Laura said, and I'm grateful for people like you, especially in this role, um, who have a love for numbers and can help us with all of those things, too, because as Laura said, we don't know what we don't know. So, thank you for doing all of that. I'm sure it's much appreciated. And and it's fun seeing
028how happy you are reporting all you're in your happy place. This is my passion, you know, just like you guys have passion about your work. I love controls. I love I love it. And to me, this was just like I said, it is no-brainer. And um Mr. Iiken and I really did get along. It was collaborative. He understood where I was coming from. He admitted that they made the assumption and didn't do the testing. And um that was disappointing, but I just let him know that my expectation is that you you check that out. So, we'll see what happens during this audit. Maybe I can get an update from Director Hanakkins on that. Sounds good. Um, I will just give a really brief update on my end too. I also attended graduation, um, which was
029fantastic. Um, I attended the chair meeting prior to the work session and the work session last week. Um, I did also attend the art and info fair at Houston Park for the with the city which was so much fun. Um, I also had a phone call with the auditor just to um to get a chance to connect and you know if I had any questions or concerns and just to start that process. So that was really great. I had a great conversation with him. Um, and I did talk about the segregation of duties as a as a concern. Um, because that is the one that we always hear. So, but I appreciate you went more in depth than I did with him. So, uh, I also attended or I came in early today and did
030some prep with Superintendent Steenic and, um, Stephanie to, uh, get us ready for the parade this Friday. Um, and then I attended the chair meeting right before this one. And over the past few weeks, I've had several phone calls with Superintendent Steenic, some with Vice Chair Palmer, text exchanges with member HooL, and lots of conversations with students and community members. So, and then we'll move into the superintendent report. Superintendent Stick. Uh, Chair Granland, thank you for your words of reflection. Um, I would also like to acknowledge the work that each of our board members do um, as elected officials on behalf of the school district. Um, you take time out of your busy schedules to govern the district and we really do appreciate all the work you do. So, thanks for those words of reflection
031and it's applicable to all of you. Um, I just have one thing to report on is that kind of what's happening right now, right? We had a strong end of the school year and um we already have some summer programs happening right now. So adventure club, mini adventures, high school credit recovery um and our main summer encore program will start July 7 um and will run for about three weeks and it will be up here on this campus Highland and the high school and we are expecting a very robust a very robust uh participation. And we have more students enrolled than ever before. Like double the number of what we've typically have enrolled. Yes. So we're very very excited um to welcome kids back in July and um have a amazing summer program. That's my
032report. Wonderful. Thank you. Um moving right along, we'll continue with Super Tennis Stick for the 2024 2025 highlights. I'm gonna switch spots here real quick. Um, so oftentimes at the end of the school year, what we like to do is put together um just kind of a photo montage of uh the highlights of our school district. And I'm making sure that my volume is the right one. Well, we're just going to go with it. Okay. All right. There we go. I needed to plug it in first. Okay, so without further ado, let's play this video. [Music] Hey, baby. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Baby, don't feel He back. So, just a look back on all of the hard work that went into this school year. Um, but a lot
033of things to celebrate um as we look back and um there'll be no governance on this item. Thank you so much, Superintendent Stevick, for putting that together. Um, does anybody have anything they want to to add or to say? Makes me smile. Go ahead, Michelle. Yes. Right. Um, I I love the effort that went into that. That was a lot. Um, you know, I know sometimes it gets hard as a district to kind of keep going and provide all the things that everybody needs, but um, I just think that we just saw just all the hard work that goes into providing everything that we do as a district for students, faculty, and staff. I mean, uh, there's things in there I've never even heard of, and I'm just like, wow, we like we do a
034lot. Um, and so I just want to say thank you to um, everyone who who who contribute to teaches, who coaches, who supports, and just I mean it's just so much that goes into so many moving parts and pieces. Um so yeah, I know it's can't be easy. Um so I'm just happy that we we work hard to make that stuff happen. I'm proud of us. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks. Anybody else? It was a fun year. It was a fun heard. We had a lot of kids that were really achieving a lot. And so it's nice to see that from beginning to end just kind of the fun and and the achievements, the academic achievements that have were highlighted. Yeah. So it's not just about fun, it's about hard work. I always say learning is
035fun. And then um looking back at that, it's hard to believe that that I mean that's so much that we have in a year and we are a small district. Um but so much so much love and it just so much happiness uh throughout even while we're learning. Um so yeah, thank you to everybody um for a really wonderful school year. Um, I'm super excited to see what the next year brings us as well. Thank you, Laura. Oh, I I just want to say and and I'm looking up there and I'm seeing all of these wonderful things that happened and I know that's like a tenth of what was actually done here. I and and I'm and I'm like literally not exaggerating, you know, because there were so many wonderful other events as well. Um,
036and I I would have liked to have spent the next two hours watching all the highlights, but um, I suppose in the interest of time, we do need to condense it and thumbnail it a little bit. So, I appreciate that. I uh 100% agree with you. The it could have been two two hours long. Um, so four minutes and 40 seconds was about all I we could squeeze in tonight. Well, and I would just here's a plug for our district Instagram page. Um because if you you know if you were wondering about those things, I know that that is uh constantly updated with a lot of things that um are happening around our district that we may not uh because of where our children go to school or our own connections we may not see.
037But um they do a really good job of bringing all of that to one space. So there's a plug for the district Instagram. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Um we'll move into action items. First up is uh federal title grants with director of teaching teaching and learning uh Tara Tuckil and just Tara today. Thank you so much. Good evening Chair Granland, members of the board, superintendent Denvvic. Hard to follow that for this action item. That's true. I'm sorry. On June 10th, I shared about our federal grants that we received through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which include Title One, Title 2, Title Three, Title Three Part A, and Title 4. Each year, we're required to submit an annual application for these funds with a budget that describes how the district plans to
038use this money. The preliminary federal entitlement for title one and title four have been budgeted so far in the application and the majority of the funding is focused on staffing to support teachers and staff and support in front of our students. As mentioned on June 10th, we still do not have the allocations for title two and title three. So, um the Minnesota Department of Education is still awaiting the allocation from the federal government. Um, our application is still due June 30th without the actual allocation in there, but just a plan if we had that funding what we would do with it. All budgets and activities must be approved by the Minnesota Department of Education prior to releasing the funding. So, I'm here tonight seeking approval of the federal title grants preliminary funding for the 2025
0392026 school year. Right. Thank you so much. Um I know I have a question before we move on to um to this if that's okay. Um do we know if other states have received the title two and title three funding or is that just a um something that's happening in Minnesota? Are you do you know from what I know and I'm looking at director Henkin from why what I know federal government has not released the funding at all the allocation. So from what I'm hearing it's across. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Are there any other any other questions, Laura? Oh, no. Just a comment. I I I always I always love these kind of things where like we're voting on something and it's kind of big question mark, but thank you for like some of the
040assumptions and and you know, so we we can make some reasonable budget expectations on how we're going to do it and be able to do some planning. So, thank you. Thank you. It's it's hard to work on a assumptions. Yeah. Thank you, Julie. Director Zukrell, um, when you submit for the ones that we don't have numbers for yet, are we submitting like a budget to them or is it just a description of what we'll do with the funding? Great question. They temporarily put in half the amount that we received last year as a temporary budget holder, okay? So that we're able to budget it out and have our coding on there ready to go so that when they load it in, we're able to amend it. But there are two amendments during the year. So
041we have a fall amendment and a spring amendment in which their hopes is that in the fall amendment we're able to fix it. Y gotcha. Thank you. Great question. Any other questions? Okay. So this as was noted uh this was discussed in depth at our June 10th um board meeting. So if anybody has uh anybody watching at home has any questions about that, I'd encourage them to go back and listen to that. So, um, at this time, we're looking for the approval of the federal title grants preliminary funding. Can I get a motion to accept? So moved. Julie, can I get a second? Second, Michelle. All right. All those in favor say I. I. I. Oh, wait. Pause for that. We did a roll call. Nope. Discussion. But we did discuss the discussion motion first.
042All right. We'll do it. All those in favor say I. I. Opposed. Abstained. Motion carries. It just wouldn't be a schoolboard meeting if I didn't make a sub rules mistake, right? All right. Thank you. Then we will move into the read act tradingou with uh director Bennett joining director. Hello and welcome. Thank you. Good evening, Chair Granlin, members of of the board, Superintendent Stenick. I'm here this evening with Director Bennett, and we are here seeking approval of the READactou for the 2025 2026 school year. The Reedactou is an agreement between the district and the union to address the time commitment, the compensation, the scheduleuler plan, the training, and the deadlines for teachers required to complete the state of Minnesota mandated redact training. Okay, thank you so much. So, do we So, as a quick reminder,
043can you can you remind us what doesou stand for? Memorandum of memorandum of understanding motion forward first and then discussion. So, can we get a motion to approve um the readact for the 2025 2026 school year? So, moved. Can we get Thank you, Laura. Can we get a second? Second. Thank you, Julie. Uh discussion. So, we clarified what MLOU memorandum of understanding. It's always good to get those said here and there. Uh any other discussion? Just a comment. Yep. Um even though it kind of looks like it's a um it's a resolution, it is not. It is not correct. Okay. So this is just a this is an agreement. Yeah. Go ahead, Julie. And this is basically to ensure that we have a schedule that everybody has to take all this training within a certain
044deadline. Is that correct? It's kind of like, you know, All these people have to take the training. That's a great question. Yes. Um the state of Minnesota requires a redact training and they have it in phases. So throughout last year, this previous year as well as moving forward, we'll have phases of teachers completing or cohorts of teachers completing the required training. The training hours vary depending on the training we're taking and it's difficult to complete within their school day. And so this is compensation to support that as well as more details on that in terms of what the training looks like, the hours it takes, and the agreement with that. Is this the one that we're um we were trying to get that August timeline? Um or is that coming up? I just wanted Good
045question. Good question. This is an update from the previous one. So there was a readactou last school year for the first cohort that completed it during the 2024 2025 school year and thatou expires June 30th. So this one would come in if approved. Thank you. I'm sorry I'm confusing and nope there's a lot of moving parts and the next one is also anou. So Michelle well I may be referencing the next one as well. Um but the reason we need anou is because of like teacher contracts right? like or is that the next one? I I thought we talked about that. This is a good question. It's um just like the next one. It's in legislation that it's a requirement to have the agreement between the school district and the union. Gotcha. Both of them.
046Yay. I got one. Yes. Great questions. Any other questions? All right. Um so following that we will have a vote to accept. Um all those in favor say I. I opposed. Abstained. Motion carries. Moving right into the otherou on our agenda tonight for teacher development evaluation. Directors Bennett and Tucker are still up. Go ahead. I'm Chair Granland, members of the board, Superintendent Stenvik. Back on May 20th at the work session, we presented on the teacher development and evaluation model. Um, it was a collaborative effort of administrators and teacher representatives and we have reached anou with the teachers union to move forward with the 5D plus um model. So, tonight we're here seeking approval of thisou so we can get the training going in August. All right. Wonderful. Um, so we're seeking approval. Can I get
047a motion to accept thisou? So move. Michelle, can I get a second? I'll second. Julie, thank you. Any discussion? Michelle, I'm really happy that um this is uh going forward. It sounds like a really really uh great idea and like difference in like what was happening before to what's going to happen now. Um, I'm not going to ask all the responses of people, but I'm hoping that it's overwhelmingly more positive than negative um to this to this change. Thank you for that. Um, Laura, I do I do have a question. Um, and how long is thisou are we will be revisiting this in a year? Thisou is through so it'll be the 25 26 26 27 school year. So for the duration of the contract the duration of the contract but we will meet next
048year as a committee at least twice the development committee just to see how things are going and if we need to tweak here or there. So it's not this is the absolute way we have to do it but just to meet and see when it actually rolls out. Yeah. Yes. The way the way I understood is is is that since this is so new we're going to be doing a little bit more well we always do a lot more frequent check-ins and stuff to make sure that this is working well for everybody. So, I I do like some of the red reduction and maybe some of the busy work that was with the previous the previous uh evaluation process. So, I'm I'm really hoping that the the staff will will enjoy this and uh find
049good benefit from all the all the hard work that the committee put together to put this put this out. Yeah. Yep. Thank you for that. Any other comments or questions? Wonderful. All right. So, as it's been motioned, um, we'll take a vote. All those in favor of accepting this, uh, say I. I. Opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. And now we say goodbye to Director Tuck. Yes. One more one more. Um, Chair Granley, members of the board, Superintendent Stenvvic, um, back on June 10th, I presented about the teacher apprenticeship program, and I'm happy to say that, um, both the education assistance union and the teachers union have signed off on the memorandum of understanding, um, so we can hopefully get the one person we have going in July with their schooling and then get more people into
050this program um, to allow for education assistance with an AA degree to receive their BA and teaching license in either ABS or ECS. See, so today I'm here seeking approval of this. All right. Thank you so much. Can I get a motion? So moved. Laura, can I get a second? Second. Michelle, discussion. Um I just want to say I'm really glad that um we were able to get to um to a good space with this and the apprenticeship program is fantastic. So I'm very excited for it. So thank you for your hard work. Yeah. and follow up on this too. Um, and I and I think I think that being able to have another avenue for being able to get um to get these certifications is extremely important because this is definitely going to um
051uh allow so many more wonderful people to be able to participate, you know, and not have those constraints that they would have with having to take away from the step away from their life to be able to have the formal schooling. So, um, this this really opens things up and I I think that this definitely without a doubt hits all of our core values and I'd love to see a program like that. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. So, um, we will vote now. Uh, all those in favor say I. I. Opposed? Abstained. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Next up, we have uh Director Henkkins with the preliminary budget for the fiscal year 206. Welcome, Director Henkins. Just zoom this guy in here. I'm just gonna go with that. Oops. Okay. Thank you, Chair
052Granland, members of the board, and Superintendent Senic. Um, the school board this evening is being asked to approve the uh 2526 school year or FY26 school year preliminary budget. Um, the budget was presented in detail to the board at a previous meeting on June 17th. Um I'm going to just kind of step through some highlights on it um um since I have it pulled up on the screen here and um just cover a few things on it. So with the preliminary budget um we um are you know we're building off of the current year and in a sense and uh we have our um projected uh fund balances for the end of this fiscal year which um you know once we get towards November we'll know the reality of that as we work through the
053audit through the year. Um so projected an unassign of about $7.8 $.8 million um with an assigned balance of uh $2.5 million. Um and uh in in the um top category here of the general fund um and then we have the restricted and unsigned areas uh below that um that are signed by um statute um or by um the state of Minnesota. And so, um, really overall with the general fund, um, you know, about a 12 point, um, just under $13 million general fund fund balance. Um, and then for FY uh, 20 um,6 in the general fund. So, overall revenues about uh, just under $48 million and then overall expenditures just over $47 million. Um so um an increase to the fund balance of of about $821,000. So ending in fiscal year 26 of uh
054just over 8.6 million and retaining that uh 2.5 million of assigned and again that assigned um is both is three things. Uh construction uh makes up a majority of that. Um so deferred maintenance um items across the district and uh or capital items um things that may happen across the district um as we do projects um and then uh um cross subsidy u so um conversations special education andor e um so the needs in those areas as numbers of students es and flow um you know we typically see reimbursement or not typically receive reimbursement on the back end of those expenditures um So, in this case, when the students are here, if we need to, um, those reserve funds are there specifically for us to adjust staffing as needed for students in those areas. Um,
055and so again, then overall just under $14 million um, is what the projected is for FY26. Um, you know, we made some some strong assumptions coming into this preliminary budget and and thankfully the biggest one uh this the state of Minnesota and the legislature came through for us really um which was the compensatory aid. Um so coming into this year we had a lot of conversation about the budget and what that meant to us um and the amount of money potentially that we were losing and it almost $4 million. Um so this budget has that in there because we know we receiving that. So it's it's uh no longer a hope um assumption. It's it's a reality. Um but there are other assumptions. We talked uh previously we're presented on title um and there's some
056unknowns in title. Uh the larger title um of title one um we do know we're receiving we know what our award is. So I do have assumptions in there. Um you know at this time I'm making the assumption because we've already made the we've already made the staffing decisions. The staff are here. Um, so those expenses are are here. And so right now I'm assuming that the revenues are there as well. If the revenues don't come in, if they come in at half um like what's currently in the system or if they don't come in at all, um those expenditures uh will go to the general fund or the unassigned um um so uh but I'm assuming right now since we have the staff and we didn't uh make any staffing changes coming in that
057we are going to receive those dollars. Um, so I I think at this point the federal government would have to take action to take that award away because technically that ward has already been given um at the federal level. Um, so we're just kind of waiting and seeing if that's really going to happen. So, um, I think it's a safe assumption at this point. Um, it's not as it's it's a significant amount of money, but in the overall budget it's not as significant. And since we um our expenditures are um right now a little bit under our revenues, um we have we have um we have the money there to take that that risk. So, I feel good about that. Um just really quick, food service uh fund, we we we do need to spend
058down there a little bit. We're working on um our kitchens um and our and our ability to serve food to students and, you know, enhancing our ability to uh uh serve food. We're going to continue to do that work. Um so, uh we we we assume a a spend down a little bit in that category. Um community education, we assu we predict a a rebound to community ed in FY25. Um and then in FY26, um we see um again a little bit of uh spend down in the fund balance that we we're predicting an increase in. Um and uh again, community ed you know continues to be a program that you know is very stagnant in its funding and its aid um and what we can levy for for community ed. Um so if that's
059a stagnant component then you know we have our um fees as well. So, um I mean it is it is a level of concern, but we do have a fund balance there and you know the fund balance is allowing us to to move and we're not we're not a district where we're seeing a negative fund balance and we're having to draw from the general fund at this point. So, we're happy for that. Um building construction fund um that's our that's our capital projects levy and you can see that receiving about two million just over just under $2.1 million. um we're carrying a balance in that category of about 920,000 and um not spending that full amount of the new award in FY26 and so increasing that balance a little bit. We have some big projects
060coming up um very big um at Valley View so um you know this is important to have and we know we have old buildings we know it's going to take time for us to get caught up on those things. Um so having this there gives us that ability for you know that major incident steam pipe break whatever that may be that we have the dollars in reserve to be able to do that and not um have to you know patch it um defer it um you know we could just take care of it. So very happy about that. Um not a lot of no real change in debt service and uh internal um service fund dental um still very stable. Um we were able to hold our rates um for FY26 and not increase them
061and dental um medical is a whole another story but um so very happy about that and OPED Trust again is doing well. Um we receive weekly updates um financial updates from Wells Fargo and uh we have our annual meeting to really go into the details of it um with Superintendent Senic and myself and uh and in Wells Fargo and their team. And so you know very happy with how that OPED trust for postmployment benefits in the future um is doing. Um, so it's it's really maintaining that fund um and we're not having to contribute more to it because it's getting the returns that it needs to. Um, so um overall uh again the preliminary budget for um FY26 um is looking very very good. Um and again um you know very happy that the legislature
062came through for us um and um really made that change. But, you know, this is a reminder as we move forward. It is a one-year um hold harmless that they've given us. Um they are putting a a group together to um decide this. So, we could be talking about this throughout um next school year as a problem depending on how that working group proceeds um because um we could really go back to to that um space where we're really looking at a large shortfall in compensatory area. So that's one to look at. But right now, um um seeking approval of the preliminary budget for FY26 as presented. Thank you very much. Um with that, can I get a motion to accept the preliminary budget for fiscal year 2026? So moved. Julie, can I get a
063second? Second. Laura. Wonderful. Um discussion. I would just like to start by saying um we did have a very very robust discussion at our work session last week um and this also was in our packet so we could go over it and think about it on over the weekend as well moving into here. Um I did have a question you answered it in the middle. I was curious about what to you know how we would weather the um how we would weather the lack of the title funds if we did not get them which you answered. So I appreciate that. Thank you. I know that that was a question that came up for us during our work session as well. Um, so thank you for that. Any other questions or comments? I have a question.
064Go ahead, Julie. Um, so are you anticipating an increase in students this for the next year? Um, and what percentage are you going to? Good question. Um so we in FY25 we anticipated a slight decrease um in students and we anticipated that decrease and we projected out over the next five years to continue that way and uh you know and then once we got out we get out four or five years we see a more significant decrease based on the size of classes that we have at the elementary level versus the size of classes we have at the high school. Um, interestingly enough, this year, um, though we started seeing a dip during the year, it rebounded, um, and we're actually ending the school year, um, a little bit above where we ended the previous
065school year. So, um, obviously that's great from a budgetary standpoint. Um, and, uh, um, and so we we're starting coming into next year in a different place than what we assumed previously. Um but I still like I said I could I predicted a trend down because of the smaller classes. Those smaller classes do still exist even though we received some more students from that January to you know you know February, March, April really those I think four months we saw we saw the most um uh we do still see that progression based on the smaller class sizes coming in and that's what the state of Minnesota is experiencing. there there there's uh there was a there's a bubble of less live births um in the state of Minnesota and really across the country. Um and
066so we're just really seeing that. Um and so currently we just have had kids coming in or students come families coming in that have helped us fend that off more than other school districts and that's why school districts across the state are cutting. So I am predicting a slight decrease in enrollment okay overall for next year. Um it's it's uh um about 38 students. Um so it's not I mean it for our size it it is it is significant um overall in the organization at the building level they won't they wouldn't feel that um but that is what approximately what I predict we will have for next year. So um that this budget does account for that. Um and uh um we'll we'll see what actually happens. But I again we've had that open enrollment
067influx um which you know immigrant population moving in for the two years and and I think we felt that again even though that it wasn't coming from another country it was coming from within the United States and just moving to Minnesota or our area I think is the most recent that we've seen. So very happy about that that they're drawn here um and that our enrollment has actually increased. So thank you. Yeah, great question. And also as of note, we have a building capacity question coming up Lynn too, which also speaks to the fact that um we are continuing to grow and and preparing for that. So um any other questions or comments? Go ahead. Okay. So, if we're preparing to grow and your estimate was to have less students, there's just certain grade levels
068that um are at a capacity at specific buildings that we're looking at and and as we've done in the last couple years, we've, you know, kind of closed grade levels and open grade levels at buildings based on that. So, if a if a family wanted to, let's argue and say we're closing a grade level at um Highland Elementary, um but we still have two the grade levels at the other two buildings are still open. If a family open enrolled, they could enroll into either one of those two buildings still. And so, we're not closing, you know, we're not closing to a third grader or a fourth grader coming into the district. Um it's just that that building we're saying right now the the teacher to student ratio is at its max and we have space
069over here. So we're we the open enrolls would come um and or close to the max because we you know if a family moves into the district they can still they're still going to be in their home school or their neighborhood school their assigned school. So it's we're still allowing those kids to come in. Yeah. I mean, yeah, like thank you very much for that, Director Henkkins. Uh, on behalf of Superintendent Steen, who will not have to say this, you got this. Um, joking. Uh, it's there's a lot of overlap in these things. I think that that's just very clear. It was a good question. It was a great question. Yeah. Any other questions? All right. So, we will move to the vote. All those in favor of accepting the preliminary budget as presented for
070fiscal year 2026 say I I opposed. Abstain. Motion carries. Thank you very much, Director Hkins. Oh, wait. You're still here. Again, thank you uh Chair Granland, members of the board, and Superintendent Seic. Uh the last item I have is uh workman's compensation insurance renewal. Um, and this was presented again at the previous school board meeting, June 10th, um, as an information item. Um, and again, we saw a slight even though our our our rate is doing very well as far as how they calculate a formula. Our payroll has gone up. So, um, you know, our premium went up a little bit because of that. If our rate stayed exactly this or if our payroll stayed exactly where it was, we would actually be paying less of a premium for this year. that. So, it's about
071a 32% increase for for this next year. And in the insurance world, that's really good. Um because our property liability will not be that good. So, um you know, we've been continuing to be very happy with United Heartland and the services that they're providing us and and helping keep um uh working with us to help keep the our our rates low and and our employees safe. So, um, this evening just seeking approval for the 2025 2026 school year for workers compensation. All right. Thank you so much. Can I get a motion? So, moved. Laura, can I get a second? Second. Julie, discussion. Go ahead, Laura. Okay. Um can you explain I guess um just uh for clarification on how we are um uh how how um uh the compensation is kind of um decided like
072what our rates are going to be because it's based on so many incidents or dollar amounts over so many year period and how that how um all the work we do to uh make the environment safer um can affect that. this particular policy here. Yeah. Um so yes, we it's the amount of claims or dollars for uh time employees miss um work and um and and so we're looking over a three-year period. to look back as the three-year period. And um so they're looking at those claims over a three-year period and what's that total dollar amount? And um if our claims are very high in the three-year period, then um that factors into the creation of this modification rate and a modification rate of over one um means that your um premium is going to
073be very high. it means you're risky e because you have a lot of um claims um high dollar claims and so then your your renewal and your premium is just going to be that much higher if your claims are low um you know significantly lower than you know what um typically would happen which ours are currently and have been um over the last three years and are continuing so far with this fiscal year um then our modification rate is below one which is very good, which means we get credits on our premium and our premium is actually significantly lower. Um, so, uh, we're fortunate and if this year closes where we think it's going to be, next year our our, um, modification rate will go down even more, um, again, it doesn't mean that our
074rate's going to go down, our premium is going to go down because our payroll will go up. We know that it always does. Um, so, um, it but that's how they kind of factor that. Um, and you know, we we work very hard on things like slips, trips, and falls. Um, making sure that staff um are if something were happen, we address it quickly. Um, and uh also and that helps mitigate um anybody else getting injured. Um so we work hard to make sure, you know, we do mock OSHA, we do things that um in all of our buildings to ensure that, you know, things are safe. you know, we provide proper ladders so people aren't standing on chairs and falling off of them and getting hurt and missing work kind of thing. So, you
075know, we try to do those things to minimize that that risk and minimize that injury, which minimizes our claims because it minimizes the amount of time staff are out. Doesn't mean that staff don't slip on the sidewalk sometimes or in the parking lot, but it's a matter of mitigating that so they're not missing work and um we're not seeing those claims. Thank you. I wanted to give you an opportunity to brag on all the hard work that goes into making sure that it's safe for for all of our staff and it costing a little less is really nice at the board level. Yes. Y absolutely. um when he presented this on the 10th of June, there was a graph and there was a a part of the graph where um that it looked as though
076we had had um an increase and that you explained that that was because of a change in their formula, the way that the um workers comp insurance um counted different things. And I just wanted to note um that I think that it is incredibly impressive that the following year we had the lowest amount of incidents even with an adjusted um formula change. Uh I think as Laura said, it really goes to show that um that we take our you know the staff safety incredibly seriously and we work really hard. So, um, well, you work really hard and we appre and it's very appreciated. So, I wanted to take a second just to call that out again. So, thank you. Yep. Anyone else? Okay. All those in favor of accepting the workers comp insurance renewal say
077I I opposed. Abstained. Motion carried. Thank you. Building capacity with superintendent Stenvic. Uh, thank you, Chair Granland, members of the board. Um, this evening I'm here seeking approval to close to open enrollment Highland Elementary grades three and four for the start of the school year. Um, Principal Jenkee and her team work closely with the families as we wrap up the end of the school year um on communication about our families going to be planning to return in the fall or not. Um and we're not seeing, you know, a typical mobility um that we might over the summer. People are returning and are planning to stay. Um we do need to ensure that we have space in our classrooms for resident students moving in over the summer. Um so we will be looking very closely at
078enrollment um the enrollment packets that come in through the summer. Um, and so we do have space in grades three and four in our other two buildings for other open enrolling uh, children. So seeking approval to close Highland Elementary grade grade three and four to open enrollment. Wonderful. Thank you. Can I get a motion to close Highland Elementary grades three and four to open enrollment through the August 2025 school year or when numbers increase decrease? So moved. Laura, can I get a second? Second, Michelle. Like, there's only one less person. Why does it seem so? I just feel like I'm like the only one here. Like, dang, I'm done. Um, discussion, Laura. Okay. And um we're we're going to be reviewing this obviously over because it says through um August uh 2025 because then we'll
079have more solid numbers. Correct. Okay. We'd like to monitor as the as enrollment happens over the summer. Um and just making sure that we're starting the school year without, you know, not having um just having a more appropriate class sizes. Yeah. Yeah. We we don't want to be having to like, you know, move into the library like we did in past years. I remember those years where we had to we actually had to have classrooms in the library because we didn't have enough space. But that was before our wonderful public allowed for the um the building and be able to do, you know, do some expansions and the kindergarten pod and beautiful all that beautiful work and extra space, but we're still running out of space. So, thank you. Um I just want to say
080again um to make it really clear that this is only to open enrollment. I think that there's a lot of questions and and people are uncertain about what that means. Um that just means that we really prioritize our um our families and community within our school district boundaries. So if somebody moved into the Highland Elementary school um boundary and also had a third grader, we are saying we're reserving space for those students because they always get to come in even if we've closed. Is that correct? Correct. students who reside within the boundaries of their home school um get to attend their home school and the district by statute has the right to assign open enrolled students to whichever um placement we see fit. Yeah, thank you for that. I just wanted to clarify that because
081that is something that I hear a lot um and people have a lot of questions about that. So, I wanted to make sure that we were um explicitly calling that out. I actually have a question. Um I it just occurred to me. Sorry about that. um if if a because traditionally a lot of these students that are open enrolling their families are following them. Okay, we've seen that we've seen the the the demographics on that and we've had um we you know with the census report and so on you know that they're that they're following their students. Students are starting here and then the families are following if they were to open enroll into say North Park because there wasn't space at Highland and then they move into the Highland district. What happens with the
082status of those students? I'm I'm just just curious. The families would get to choose at that point. Um, we would do what's called a boundary exception. So, anyone who lives in the Highland district but would like to continue attending North Park would receive a boundary exception. Okay. If if they so choose or get a placement in their local school if they chose not to. Okay. So, they they do have options. Okay. I never thought to ask that. So, thank you. Well, that's a great question and that's actually something that my family went through with both of our children. So, Oh, okay. I could have asked you. Well, now we the public knows. It's a It is a great question. Um Michelle, you had a question. Yeah, I just was curious as to um if most
083families who are offered that um that open enrollment option, you know, outside of the school that they wanted to go to, like do you find that most people accept that or like what if someone refuses to, you know, to open enroll at one of the other schools? Like are we losing families or are most people like okay, I just want to be here? We have so as you all know last school year throughout the school year valley View various grades at Valley View were closed. We do get a lot of requests for Valley View because a lot of families want the uniforms. Um we also get the opposite of families who don't want the uniforms. So it's good that we have options. Um I don't have the hard data for you but um you know
084anecdotally we don't lose a lot of a lot of students. Um, you know, we per per board policy, we offer a guaranteed curriculum. So, while each of our three elementary schools has its own culture, they all have the same curriculum, you know, and we all follow the same Minnesota standards. So, um, and all three of our elementary schools have, you know, different positive aspects of them. So, um, no, we don't we don't see a lot of people, um, I mean, they understand we're close to open enrollment and the school, so they understand that. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, great question. Any other questions or comments? All right, we'll move to vote. All those in favor of closing Highland Elementary grades three and four to open enrollment through August 2025 or until the enrollment numbers decrease say
085I. I opposed. Abstained. Motion carries. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. And then we will move into board topics. I have one um and I'll just start out um the last so our last schoolboard meeting and then also our work session we discussed a lot of um the opportunity to attend or to become a member of the negotiation team for the district for the teachers um union for negotiating that contract. Um, and we received information from our legal team as well as um some information from and superintendent Stemic was able to get us from um MSBI, I think, if I remember correctly. Um, thank you. Uh, and so one thing that I think we were all fairly open to is the idea of having um having a joint presence there. uh we discussed the amount of
086people that could be there, board members that could join and what are the pros and cons of that as well as legalities of um having that. So, uh after all of that discussion and the information that was provided, um we had talked about appointing some members to it. So with that being said, um I know Superintendent Steenic had met with the negotiation team with the teachers uh negotiating team and had dis or I'm sorry with the president the lead negotiator. It was during negotiations meeting. So everyone was there and it sounds as though the teachers um negotiating team is open to that to having schoolboard members join um that. So I will plan so I am appointing to the negotiation team for the district. Um me as I'm chair and then also uh Karina who
087would be joining that team and then we discussed having an alternate and um that would be vice chair Palmer. So the negotiation the next negotiation meeting is this Friday from 12 to two and I will be in attendance. Um and Karina we can connect offline about whether or not you're able to make that one. Um as well as the next one's coming up so we can make a plan to be uh to join the negotiations make sure that we can be present. So, and with that, I think the only other board topic I have is I'm very excited for the parade this Friday and um the tattoos. We have new tattoos uh temporary tattoos that are going to be coming out. Super exciting. And also candy, so it'll be a lot easier to hand out
088this year. So, I'm very excited. Gosh, we're going to be naughty. We're going to pass out candy. Nope. It's not mostly mints. Yeah, I know. I know. But I mean, you know, candy was so taboo for so many years that it's just it still is in our classrooms. Yeah. Well, yeah, but it's it's don't look at me. I'm I'm telling you what I'm hearing from the community that that is not entirely true. But anyway, um so I'm very I'm very much looking forward to the jamboree. It's always a really fun time and it's great to connect with families um and students uh and the community at large. So, it'll be a really great time. Um I actually do want to make a comment. I actually completely I mean the the last couple of weeks have
089been so incredibly busy. I did not realize that we had not had a board meeting except for the work study since graduation and I really do want to compliment all of the work that went into um into the graduation moving locations and I mean wow I mean we had so many students uh and I mean it was just it was just absolutely huge. Um I was a little you know sorry to see us leave our home and go else swear but um all in all it really felt like a Columbia Heights night and we felt at home at least I did I know I did and it was just wonderful to be there so I I just wanted to really thank I that had to be an awful lot of work on pulling all that
090together and I'm very appreciative. Yeah. Well said. Thank you. Any other board topics? All right. Uh with that then we will adjourn at 7:24.