3/9/2026: School Board Meeting

001[clears throat] >> Please Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Call meeting to order. Part of the opening, I will always read the district mission statement. In partnership with the communities, the mission of the Delaware Valley School District is to educate individuals in an environment of trust and respect so they become self-directed as possible in a Roll call. Get the roll call here this year. Instead. Um We also have Tracy. Tracy and Katie. And Rose. And my assistant. All right. And various guests. Welcome to everyone that's come to our board meeting. This is the most people we probably had at a in the board

002meeting. So, we're excited to have you all here. Um We'll go on to the agenda to adopt agenda. We have a motion to adopt the agenda. No James. All right. We have a motion to adopt the agenda as presented. So moved. Motion by Nicole, second Seconded by Corey. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Vote. Motion carried. On to number five. This is uh for public comments and verbal recognition. And I know we have just a lot of folks here for public comments and I'll just know we have a policy on um on speaking in front of the board, policy 206. And I just want to make sure everyone knows that there's two things that come to my mind when I think of the policy. One is not to

003make disparaging remarks about anyone. I don't think anybody's going to do that, but I always like to mention that so that uh you don't have incidents where we have to stop the board meeting. The other is privacy. You want to talk about uh private matters related to uh students or staff, please don't do that. You can certainly say nice things about people and I'm sure we'll hear some of that, too, so we welcome that. Um But those are just the two things I like to tell everyone. Sometimes I may want to tell everyone in private, but we have lots of speakers here today, so I just thought I would say that to the entire group. All right. So, I'm going to uh We're going to just call individuals basically as I have on my list.

004You'll have five up to five minutes to speak. You don't have to speak for five minutes, but you're certainly welcome to. Um and I think you Thank you, but Corey will keep time and he'll let you know when you're getting close and you've got a minute left. Let's say that. Fair? All right. We'll start [clears throat] the first speaker. And it's hearing a group, that's fine. If I call somebody um and there's a group of folks that are going to speak at one time, that's fine. Um Uh but the first one is Aiden Marciel. Did I say that right? Marciel. Well, I apologize. I don't know how to use that. Marciel. Marciel. Okay. All right. My first point I would like to make today is very simple. College. While I was studying at the American

005Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, it said that only 11.5% of US colleges require a foreign language. [clears throat] That is a quote unquote vast majority of prestigious institutions do require one. And if you do not have one, almost any college is going to send you down in consideration like any other one. So, why are DGS students being set up with that they mediocre level of performance? As a transition point, if any of you remember John Hoffman, the national famous photographer who met with them last week, the one who could be argued as internationally influential and inspiring to many, well, this highly accomplished and respectful man said that that when asked on this issue, when does not know a foreign language, realizes that it would be highly beneficial in his line of work and

006help him understand the community he's trying to bring together and brought to the people. So, if foreign language is this important, why is it being denied to our My final point I would like to make is has to do with a petition that was put up on February 12th on change.org by a concerned alumni of the high school. In five days, it received 97 signatures online. In one day, it received 20 minutes. From a high school that is 20% foreign language deficient. If the students of DGS care about language this much, shouldn't we now try to tackle moving beyond the yard? Thank you for your time and consideration on this. Thank you, Aiden. All right. Next on the list is uh Joe Heim. This is like reading back in my speech to myself again. I

007get that too. My I'd like to briefly address the decisions you are all about to have to make regarding cutting the speech and language. You will hear from my son and classmates, friends um speak on this shortly. If any of you know my son, Rowland, and his situation, then you will know that I'm just hoping not to embarrass him right now. And the fact that I'm actually reading this instead of memorizing it is probably pretty funny. I promised Miss Steel he and his team would come back. I understand that these are consequences of a failed referendum. We all do. We cannot change that, neither can anyone here. I know there are a lot of people unhappy with how funding was handled previously, and the best thing right now is to show that we are responsible

008with the money that we have, so the next time we ask for this money, it can be passed. That being said, part of using money wisely is understanding that sometimes the value is not something black and white. I'm going to use debates and River Watch as my examples because I know Rowland is in them. And that because debate is not a new problem for Rowland DGS, but River Watch is. And I would like to add he is not the only student impacted by these things. I know him a little better than I do the other students. Rowland is a junior who has excelled in speech and debate. You might recognize him because between the eight speech and knowledge bowl and River Watch plus any others, he lands on the school Facebook page at least once

009a month. Even though we've had alumni even tell us we've had alumni tell us that he's on there more than any quote unquote star athlete. Rowland has been amazingly successful and we are extremely proud of him. We are happy that his school seems proud of him, too. He has been in the national speech and debate competition twice and has qualified to go yet again. This is an opportunity he has earned through competition, not merely by signing up. What other programs have students winning the opportunity to compete nationally in the school's recent history? You can only think of academic programs like robotics, speech, and debate. We recently learned that he and two other debaters have qualified and awarded the honor of academic All-American for their efforts in speech and debate. River Watch, the club that teaches

010students about conservation and their environment, is a new program but already the participants have won multiple awards for their projects and competitions, including gold at regionals just weeks ago. It gets out of the classroom and learning in a real world environment. This is something we are learning is very valuable to students, getting them out of the classroom. There's been a push for that and River Watch does just that. And now we're talking about alumni. Right when we've got them as kids. What we are What are we offering them academically in place of this? What are we offering students who don't fit into the mold of an athlete? What extracurriculars can our students participate in if they are not going to be athletes that they can put on their resume for scholarships and for admission to

011universities? As a school the purpose is to educate. There are certainly life skills that need to be learned from athletics, but athletics doesn't apply to everyone. No one is suggesting that athletics are somehow less. What we're saying is we need to make efforts to keep extracurricular activities available to students that don't have an interest in athletics. What you may not know is like athletics, academic extracurricular kids are practicing after school every day. They're working on projects at home. They're getting on buses at 5:00 or 6:00 a.m. on Saturdays all winter long and off of them 12 hours later. Most of the time in dress clothes. Anybody that grew up here knows that's six, period. Additionally, I requested some information about extracurriculars, including budgeting, what decisions, how decisions were being made. And now we found out

012that the spreadsheet, the information was old and inaccurate. So, have the coaches of these programs been allowed to submit updated budgets? Have they been asked to cut costs to make their programs more affordable to the school? I am told in at least two instances they weren't. They were simply told that they were cut. I had communication with the debate and the cost you can face appears much lower than what was provided to us on the spreadsheet that was from 2024-2025. At the very least, there appears to be a disconnect between what the coaches understand the cost and what the school understands the cost. I encourage you to work with the coaches of the programs that we're looking at cutting. There may be other avenues and uh they are willing to consider them as much as

013for instance applying for grants, fundraising for the community, truly just trimming expenses. Before decisions can be made and motions passed, it's obvious that there needs to be more work done. As a parting thought, please keep in mind that cutting an assistant position from the athletic team does not eliminate the entire program. Those athletic teams are still available to the students. There's nothing left behind the academics. What's that? Time. Oh, shoot. My last line is a good one. Well, save your life. >> All right. Find the word. Thank you. Those children are simply left without. And without is never a place that a school should ever leave children. There we go. Got it. All right. We've got [clears throat] uh Bandy Lambert. Parents have such a hard task ahead. We practice the budget that or this

014budget that doesn't allow very much. We get that. Um I'm coming at it as a parent of uh a graduate from 2023 who uh excelled in that in band. That was her jam. Pep band, jazz band, um my daughter Aubrey here who's a junior. She excels at speech, debate. She excels at um River Watch team. Loves Model UN and um youth government. Everything that has been successful for my children is now being cut. And it bothers me as a parent um to see that there's not other opportunities that will be presented to them. Um And and these opportunities made these my girls feel very connected to the school. And without them, they there wouldn't be a connection. So, I think that that does need to be considered as we look at trimming these costs. Um

015what students probably participate in the school and addressing the needs of the poor Thank you. No worries. And we've got Sophia Williams. I'm just Sophia Williams. Yeah. We can take them in order. Oh, you have an order. Well, just the the debate group that wants to come up. Please do. We have uh That's fine. >> [clears throat] >> I think that's it. Jennifer Tyra You guys can go. I'm sorry. No, you're No, sorry. It's all good. Yeah. >> [clears throat] >> Members of the school board, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Isaac Olson. I'm a sophomore here at Eagan High School. I've been enrolled in this school district since I was a toddler. And through my time so far, I've had the pleasure of being part of more clubs and

016extracurricular activities than I can count with my fingers. I'm already out of chambers. Uh anyway, from robotics to student council to jazz band, there's a high chance that I will be seeing you in your yearbook photo. The reason [clears throat] for my involvement goes further than wanting accolades on college applications. It comes from my deep love of learning and insatiable curiosity that I've gained from being in this district. I come to you tonight in the hopes that you will reconsider discontinuing the funding of several of our great extracurricular programs in our district. A substantial amount of what students like I need to truly thrive in this learning environment is at risk and for all the wrong reasons. Tonight, we will take a look at one program near and dear to mine and many others' hearts,

017congressional debate. After the conclusion of the last school board meeting 2 weeks ago in referencing the result of a vote, my mother asked me what abstaining was. Through my experience in debate, I was easily able to explain what abstaining was, a lack of a vote and its result. But debate is more than just facts about parliamentary procedure. In debate, several representatives from many schools across our region compete in chambers that are similar to the Congress of the United States. Speakers give 3-minute speeches for or against a bill that is written by students. These bills discuss actual current events that need real solutions. And oftentimes, the students are amazing at finding these solutions by weighing the pros and cons of both sides. Personally, I was able to find my true voice through debate because it forced

018me to get up in front of a room of strangers and speak. I was able to be pushed out of my comfort zone. And by doing that since I joined last year, I've grown exponentially in not just my speaking and writing ability, but in my confidence, my ability to stay informed, my critical thinking, my research skills, my perseverance, and my collaboration with others to reach a common goal. I would not be speaking here tonight without debate. When I went to the state qualifier meet in early December of last year at Eagan High School, one particular mantra that was plastered around the school really stuck out to me. Arts, athletics, academics. If Eagan can do it, why is it impossible for our school, DGF, to have an equal balance of each? It's more than possible for

019us to have a great balance between the three. But with significantly more cuts to our academics and arts departments compared to our athletics, we can see that the balance is not present and there is no effort to make it appear that way. Although some of the athletics are facing personnel cuts, there is no complete elimination of programs like we can see for the arts and academics. This is simply unjust and no person should be able to stand for this. To eliminate our nationally qualified debate program, our first place winning River Watch program, and our own pep band among many, many other cuts in academics and arts programs in place of heavier cuts to athletics for the sake of balancing the budget does not make sense in the slightest. Members of the school board, for the

020sake of fairness and for the sake of many students like me who rely on these programs to thrive in our district, please consider voting against item 9.2 on today's agenda. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Isaac. Okay. I think we'll go to the debate group. As Isaac touched on before, debate is an important activity that builds on life skills. It is a foundation upon which leadership skills are developed and strengthened. Through debate, you learn essential skills in being well-informed and considering both sides. This is how we grow and hone our skills to be confident, effective leaders in our community, state, and nation. Debate has taught me how to articulate my thoughts, think deeply on issues, and speak publicly with confidence. We understand this district is facing difficult determinations right now. We know hard choices

021have to be made and there needs to be cuts in some areas. However, the debate program is something that can still continue while keeping costs manageable. We are willing to make adjustments and have already found ways to help reduce some costs. Ms. Martin has been working on getting grants that she's already very likely to receive. This means the debate program would not rely entirely on school funds. In fact, most of the funding needed could come from these grants. There are other ways to cut costs as well. If debate is allowed to continue, the coaching salary would be shared between a head coach and an assistant coach. The assistant coach could also serve as the team's driver to tournaments. This would significantly reduce both the coaching and transportation costs. Difficult choices have to be made. You

022are in a hard position as board members. We want to work with you to find ways to make the program more affordable where we can. Debate is something that is worth keeping. It provides so many important opportunities for students and teaches skills that can be applied in all areas of life both now and in the future. With the grants being applied for and adjustments being and adjustments being made in coaching and transportation, we believe the debate can continue in a way that allows students to have the benefits while being mindful of the district's tight budget for the 2026-2027 school Just out of curiosity, what was your name? Aubrey. Aubrey Lambert? Yes. Thank you, Aubrey. Hello, my name is Sophia Williams. I am a part of the Newton Debate Club, River Watch, and Pep Band. I

023am not usually someone to speak. I often times feel when I am Parliamentarian Officer, I conduct meetings and use other people's voices. Um in lieu of this, however, I will be speaking today. As all of the activities I am involved in at DGF are being cut. But today my focus is on the debate program and particularly the aspects about anxiety, public speaking, as well as familiarity in a world that is ever increasingly polar in terms of parties and beliefs. I personally am someone who struggles with public speaking and anxiety. I am always shaky when I speak and I get nervous when I see people. However, Debate Club has helped alleviate some of that anxiety with how the chapters are structured. It's cutthroat, fast-paced, and you have to be quick on your feet and you have

024to know what to say. And I would not be speaking here today if it were not for the Debate Club, similar to every other member of our club. We have qualified for many athletes, as stated by my fellow debater, Isaac. We are We have Ronald Knuts and he is one of our top speakers in our school, if not our county. The DGF is being cut. A small program with a lot of big potential is being cut due to budget cuts. We could have built something amazing and yet we are being cut today. Let it not be cut today. Let's allow our program to grow. Let's allow us to learn these abilities, these skills to allow us in a world that is increasingly polar and help articulate our voices and our opinions in a way that

025is respectful to others, um acknowledge the opinions of others, and can help, of course, alleviate some of that anxiety that some may feel while face-to-face speaking. Please do not cut the program. It's It's the lifeblood of us. It's something held dear to our hearts and it helps so much with all of the way we develop. It's helped us start building We need to keep the debate. Thank you, Sophia. You have a little clap. Uh I'm Ronald Knuts. My achievement is being Joe Schmo. So we've thrown a lot at you tonight. We've thrown the pros, the cons, but we need to understand a little bit is the context of the program. Now before the mid before the early 2010s, uh our debate program was in progression. It was public forum, meaning you got one person over

026here, one person over here, and they're yelling at each other. But in early 2010s, our local circuit, the schools that competed in within the region, closed down. They all decided instead of competing locally, they were going to take the long trip down to the Twin Cities every weekend. At first, we considered the same same option. The problem, as you probably can guess, that means overnight trips. That means paying for hotels. That means longer time and longer time spent on the bus means more money spent on transportation. So we went with a different option. We worked with local schools such as Underwood and Midgett to create [clears throat] a local congressional debate program, going away from one-on-one yelling to a whole group of people yelling at each other. The benefit was also immense in terms of

027the finances. Because we switched to congressional debate in the local circuit, we cut down travel time, cutting down transportation costs. The way our circuit works as well, the debate coaches paid for food, it paid for awards, it paid for coaching, it paid for judges. Because of that, many schools face low costs with their programs. All it is is transportation. What we have to understand today is that we can change like we did in the early 2010s, but to change, we need to exist. As Isaac has already highlighted, our program is nationally acclaimed. As Aubrey has pointed out, we have the ability to We have the ability to both trim expenses and raise our revenue in ways that does not harm the school's existing budget. As Sophia has pointed out, debate is a key way to

028build lifelong confidence ability. It can be useful not just in school, but beyond it, in college, in career opportunities well into the future. And as I've pointed out, we are a program that has changed before. We can change, we will change, and we do change. And so, what I ask you to consider today, instead of cutting our program this year, is to allow us to implement these changes so as to make it so that we are the best program the next year. But to change, we need to exist. Thank you, Brian. All right. Next on the list is Jennifer Conklin. Hello. I really resent the fact that I have to follow these kids. They really are taking my words and so incredibly. Um and I was just going to wing it, but when my daughter

029told me I had to write something quick, so I did. So um I would just like to cover a few things. Um hello, board. My name is Jennifer Conklin. Um our family has four rebels attending the school um in third, seventh, and two seniors. And I am here to express my concern with the motion to discontinue the fine activities. Um we live in Lyndon, but up until this year, two or more of our kids were open enrolled at Morehead to take advantage of the Spanish Immersion Program because I also find language to be extremely important um and necessary. And I think you will, of course, speaking on that topic. Um at the end of last school year, our family decided to enroll all of our children at DGF because um we felt a smaller um

030closer community would benefit our kids and we really believed in the the school here. Um so far I have found that the teachers and staff are um just putting a lot of heart and soul into this school and it's um that's really really important. Um I am concerned, though, about these dwindling opportunities to participate in school-sponsored activities that provide growth, learning, and connections with peers. Um I printed off lists of non-athletic activities at uh surrounding schools. We're tied with Holly right now. Um Holly and DGF have 20 non-athletic activities offered students. If they cut five, we'll have 15. That's not a great place to be in this competition. Uh Morehead offers 25 and Barstow offers 23. Um so I I think that's really sad. I don't want to be the loser in that competition. Um

031I don't think any of these activities should be cut. I think we should think creatively about them, but I'd like to focus on debate. Um Uh I have noticed, and I'm sure everybody has, that our society is becoming more polarized and belligerent all the time. Debate has never been more important. According to the Stanford National Forensic Institution, debate helps students build confidence in public speaking, as my daughter Sophia alluded to, and expressing their ideas eloquently. Preparing for competitions helps them build critical thinking and research skills. It teaches debaters to look at both sides of an issue. Imagine that. We should try that as adults. To form the best possible argument and give students an opportunity to learn how to find and use flaws in someone else's speech. Being able to articulate your own points and

032consider someone else's is becoming If DGF truly believes in a mission to nurture self-directed, responsible, lifelong learners, I think you have a responsibility to continue to offer debate. I am so proud of my daughters. I have Sophia here and Kyra is over there, I call her. Um They helped teach fellow officers of their 4-H club how to use Robert's Rules to run 4-H meetings. In my own career, I belong to a state association. We had a president one year who did not know how to use Robert's Rules. Our business meeting was frustrating and inefficient as other adults tried to help each other bring order to the agenda. It did not inspire confidence. It was not good for our association. So I think our future is in good hands with these students who really know how

033to use Robert's Rules and be articulate. The five activities you plan or you're voting to discontinue, fine art, cannot possibly constitute a huge portion of DGF's budget. Please do not make cuts for the sake of making cuts. Let's think creatively. Let's reduce spending across all activities and athletics equitably. I think debate's budget is um probably not a huge portion. I'm happy to coordinate a minivan caravan if that's what we need. I have a swagger wagon. You can use it. Um I'd be happy to help seek sponsors, local law firms. I think we can do this as a community. Give us the opportunity to build community, to bring in the families to support this activity. Let's solve it together because making my choices is the rebel way. That's all I have for you today. Thank you

034for listening. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your smart kids. And some of them I didn't write anything down and I won't have any local so I'm just going to speak from my heart. >> [clears throat] >> Today I talked to Marcus and we budgeted information was from the year in one month. This year the district spent $5600. The two cents. Yes, we can give David the two cents. And that would be our plan going forward. When someone said we're not supporting NSBA, I emailed NSBA right away and they gave me a $2000 grant for memberships in NSBA which we covered with our freshmen. And I know that there is a $5000 grant sitting at NSBA and we can probably get that. There are 106 diamond coaches in the United States and I'm

035one of them. And I'm pretty sure they'll listen to me. I reached out to MDTA, that's Minnesota Debate Teachers Association and I was promised 1500. I can't fill out the forms because they won't open yet. But right there we're looking at probably in the money to run it. And part part of what we part the money that we look at is transportation only. And so in order to transport without hiring somebody from the school, I have always always looked for a college kid who wanted to run to be a debate coach and taught them debate and they agreed to drive. So and this year I didn't coach because I have a bad hip whatever. Um but we hired a recent graduate who was willing to drive so that's why our costs were only $16,000. And

036we have some coming debaters sitting in the room here and there's a couple that I've said you really have a great mind after trying. So I think we can manage a $6000 budget and we pay nothing for entrance fees when we go to Bemidji, Pequot Lakes or Fergus. They pay nothing when they come to us. I did one year host a tournament for the people from North Dakota and they had lots of people there. Both schools are so much alike. So you know that was a lot of work with little money to show. Um I haven't yet found an assistant debate coach who's willing to drive but I have some in mind. I'll probably say that. So these kids work really really hard. When they talk about legislation, they're not talking about two bills. They

037will get a stack of eight to 10 bills that they have to work through. And at the tournament, kids decide which bills they will debate on. So you can spend all of your time working on this one and never get to use the speech that you wrote for. So there's a lot of work that goes into it and it's in a two-week cycle. The only other thing that's outside of that is there's a large section conference where all the sections go and that's in Eden and at the same time the Minnesota Debate Teachers Association runs a JV novice tournament. So whatever fits in the van, we will take. There's only two people who are allowed to speak at the section and the rest would go into MDTA. This year um we paid $40 admission which

038is negligible. So I hope you keep this because these are hard working brilliant young people and they really deserve this chance. And there has been a great deal said about the numbers. At one point in time I had 18 debaters and we went in a bus to Brainerd every two weeks and then we went in a bus to the cities. And that was expensive. I didn't like running to the cities every weekend and so we went from going to Brainerd to going to the cities for PF every weekend. And on the way home I just thought one day, well if I teach people how to do congressional debate, we have a scrimmage circle. And really I would like everybody to be much closer physically. Um but we have a scrimmage circle that works. Now there

039are five schools and a sixth one joining next year hopefully so we'll have more tournaments in the van. And thank you for your time. Thank you for your time. All right. Next we have Sam Can you just pronounce your last name? Armbrust. Armbrust? Armbrust. Armbrust. Same Armbrust. Thanks. Good evening school board members. It's great to see you all tonight. My name is Sam Armbrust and I'm a ninth grader at DGF. You might have seen me in knowledgeable or speech and hopefully by next year debate if it stays. And for those who don't know me, uh what you need to know is that I adore language learning. Currently the languages I'm learning are Spanish, French, Russian, Japanese, Lithuanian and Swedish. For many people, language learning isn't a simple hobby. It's years of dedication for the sake

040of fluency. There are plenty of benefits aside from looking really good on a resume. But to be fair, the shiny little label of bilingual or even multilingual looks really nice on your resume. But language learning can also sharpen your decision making, helps your memory, God knows I need it. Sharpens your problem solving, improves your ability to concentrate and feeds your brain. Even when it comes to looking neat on a resume, over 90% of US employers report on relying on employees who speak more than one language. ACTFL 2024. And one in three businesses report a significant language skills gap. But something I've learned while learning a language is that I also tend to learn about the culture with it. And with that breaks down the internal misunderstandings I have about other cultures. And believe me, something

041like language learning being present globally, especially in high school, can help break down the misunderstandings we have for others and bring us closer together. I will hear the most disgusting things said about another race or culture not only in my schools but even in my neighborhoods, in my families. And most of us don't even realize it. But with every little stereotype and unrecognized fear we have of other races and cultures, we stop viewing each other as friends, as equals, but instead as anomalies, as specimens. But learning language alongside learning culture inside the space of a classroom alleviates that. I have learned so much about Spanish culture within my one year of Spanish class. I'm a Spanish two student. I jumped ahead. But the amount I've learned just from being in the classroom rather than doing

042an online app is astronomical. No no app, no online program could compare to this feeling of community I feel within my peers, within my classroom. All of us are united under one thing, learning a language. To learn language is to learn culture. To learn culture is to build understanding. To build understanding is to build relationships. To build relationships is to build community. So why take that away from us? Thank you for your time. ACTFL The Benefits of Language Learning 2024 and ACTFL Making Our Making Languages Our Business 2024. Thank you Sam. All right. Now we have Bruce Roberts. >> [clears throat] >> Thank you Sam. I said thank you for your >> [clears throat] >> Hello. My name is Bruce Roberts. I'm Jody Roberts' husband. I should say I'm her husband. I just wanted to

043make my point very clear to you gentlemen. I too, like Jody, am a teacher. However, I also retired from my teaching career. I love teaching and would continue but I realized that too much had changed about what needed to be done to be done to reach today's university standards. Luckily I had already turned 65 and qualified for both social security and Medicare. My hope was that Jody could also do the same. She turned 64 in April. Meaning she'll still be about a year over before she too qualified for social security and Medicare. I'm glad I accidentally But since Since I left this But since at DGF High School I've been very fortunate. I have my wife as a teacher. Something that still amazes me is that she does not just teach one thing. She teaches

044>> [snorts] >> two different foreign language or foreign languages. I'm a cultural anthropologist, so I think today about that. And this year she's also taking on freshman seminar / career seminar. Frankly, I think the administration has gotten a lot of flak for their thoughts on the job. She loves teaching these things and still gets that high or the thrill of seeing the light bulb go off over their heads. I didn't experience that very much in my last 5 years at MSU I had. But I got to leave on my own terms and I'm very grateful for that. I was also hoping that Joan would be able to do the same. Thank you for your time and your attention. We'll give you Mr. Rowland. Um that was [clears throat] the good topic speaker section. We'll go

045on to Rebel recognition. Did anyone else have anything to add? Oh, Joan, I think I got it. Um well, interestingly enough, this was shared with me today about Ryan. So, congratulations to you, Ryan. Uh I just got this shared with me today. Congratulations, you've earned the Academic All American Award. Fewer than 2% of National Speech and Debate Association student members earn the Academic All American Award every year. This honor is an indicator of your academic achievement and competitive success. Celebrate this achievement. Uh you can opt to purchase and you can you know all that. That's an honor. Sorry, Ryan, you earned it. Purchase [laughter] an award. Anyway, so congratulations uh uh to you and and to Evelyn. Any other Rebel recognition? I have two. Um did you have uh speech place third in a meet?

046I think that was since our last meeting. Um so, congratulations to them. Um and then I want to commend our uh school administration staff, counselors, uh and SRO for when we had our school lockdown the other day. I thought um hearing from staff members as well as my own students, um and from the law enforcement family, I learned that there was good communication to our teachers, to our parents, to our staff. Um speaking from my kids, my kids felt safe and cared for and uh curious, but cared for, uh which I think is natural, right? We're fostering that learning. Um and I'm just very thankful for our school district prioritizing the safety when there's a moment of question. I know there was not certainty that there was a threat, um but knowing uh what could

047happen, I was very grateful and just wanted to publicly announce that to our district that I was very grateful um in the event um something could have happened that was that didn't, that we were safe. So, appreciative of that. Um also, congratulations to TJ, Jacob, and Caleb uh who made it to state for wrestling. I've never been to a large wrestling event, but I took my son down there and I think my blood pressure was higher than I've ever seen it, ever in my whole life, except maybe having to public speak uh like our students did remarkably today. That is probably the only other thing that makes my blood pressure go up. Um that was remarkable. So, uh congratulations to them as well [clears throat] as a great season for our boys and girls uh

048basketball teams. Um they showed up uh fell short, I'm not sure of what they were dreaming of, but um still had terrific seasons. Proud of our Rebels from all different periods. Any other Rebel recognition? Well, I'm a little biased because I have kids that's in rock band, but I just want to give a shout out to those three boys that uh played at the halftime of the girls basketball game for the uh quality. They did They worked really hard. Um I heard a lot of noise downstairs. Wasn't sure what was going on, but um yeah, they're better than I thought they could be. So, really uh I'm very impressed and um just a shout out to those kids. All right. We'll go on to first six reports. 6.1 business manager report. All right. Thanks for

049having me. Um we can first just go to the summary page that you guys have. All right, February. So, uh as far as February's financials, they're pretty uh standard As far as payroll, we're back to it is a normal payroll for this period. This is what it looks The non-certified is for the last half of January and the first half of February and then for uh certified teachers, it's all of February, so um Christmas vacation and such there. So, uh from the last month, it went up about 100,000. This was for the last second half of December, which was pretty much the non-certified. Um as far as the uh revenue, um [clears throat] we didn't have any like uh county payments. It was all state aid. >> [snorts] >> So, that's why you can see

050and because we've had our debt payments, there's not really any fund much 27, so it's mostly just fund one. Um deposits from state generally, so we get kind of caught up from having uh different uh the pool there. Um and because of that, uh because the expenses were pretty standard, there wasn't anything before we get the uh surplus. So. Is there any questions of this half of the summary? Okay, we'll go on to the uh budget versus actual then. Again, February was a regular month. Um there wasn't anything unusual to talk about besides uh you kind of see where we're you know, we're we're trying to create some efficiencies from last year to this year. We've done a good job of uh spending. You might see we've only spent a little over 100,000 through this

051year at this time than we did last year. And because our budget has increased from last year, uh we are sitting in a better position compared to what we would expect. Um last month we were about a percent, 1.2% in the good from budget to actual. We have fallen back to about 0.5%. So, it is closing that gap, which we would expect because we have a better picture of what our final budget is. So, um I would expect that to continue to close, but considering last year, we were behind at this point, so that's something to be careful of as far as like watching our costs. Um and uh yeah, this is how the budget looks so besides that. Any questions on that? Yeah, I don't really have anything with construction budget. There was no

052change. Cost of materials, so >> [snorts] >> Any questions? Anything else? Yep. Mr. Rowland. We'll go on to 6.2, activities director report. Okay, 6.2 Okay. Um so, our winter uh activity programming with exception of speech has been good. Uh and I just have a little bit of info to go through everything I think, but I'll write it up about the executive summary there. Um good. Okay, have some state wrestlers and then we have the Academic All Americans at state. Um spring activities numbers as of today are listed. Spring sports started today for most most of them, all but So, golf. Yeah, >> [clears throat] >> golf. Um but a couple of bigger things. Next year, uh we're having a system change, unfortunately. So, our school which is our activity scheduler is what we use for

053many many years. We got a bottle by something called Arbiter, um which is kind of where the state is going, but many conferences have decided not to go with Arbiter due to its um usability and um customer service. And so, the NH >> [cough and clears throat] >> conference is going to be transitioning to a 12 town. Uh and it's through bound. We will That's where families will sign up for registration for all activities, ticketing, scheduling, all facilities scheduling, um Piper Prairie conference, Moorhead, COP conference are all in the bound. So, it's going to be very hopefully, you know, universal. It'll be nice to go somewhere everybody will be the same thing. It'll be one app, one website. So, that's for ticketing and when you register. Um all of the facility scheduling, you have all

054of those things. If you're a parent or a fan that you use. So, that is coming and um the transition process is slowly starting, but it will be fully transitioned over on July 1st. Uh H 1 L conference update, Frazee >> [clears throat] >> has decided to part ways with the H 1 L, and they have joined the Park and Rec Department. So, they've been a part of H 1 L for a very, very long time. It'll be a big change, but I wanted to let you know about that. There are discussions about adding Beaver Falls, um but it's very early discussions. Um We'll let you know when [clears throat] we decide. So, don't know where that will go yet. And then, Jason will begin training in April and will start transitioning over time. Any

055questions for Katie? Do you know why Frazee left? Um they were getting a lot of pressure. Like, they actually were fairly competitive in a lot of things this year, but it hasn't been like that in the past, and it doesn't look to be like that in the future. Um they're much smaller. That's part of everything. So, they're joining the Park and Rec Department on July 1st. Yeah, I'll probably ask Alyssa when I ask Frazee over here in a little bit or whatever, but what I mean, the ball system or whatever, I mean, has there been any look at where the A rocks are going from A rocks to all the So, it's weird cuz it's kind of like they do connect a little bit in Frazee a little bit. Um but I think the problem

056is more for your um your ex- your high school activities, kind of sort of community education classes, but they do talk. So, I don't know all about that cuz I don't even know all about that. So, >> [laughter] >> I just want Frazee maybe fill fill you in, but yes, there we are hoping. I mean, that's one thing we found is if we're now in the program, of course, we just got them all running, which honestly would be pretty good. That would be bound, which like that, but at the same time if so many people are making it, will we have to make the change? I think that they all going to have to do something on these towns probably under the same umbrella. So, So, you're going to have it on July 1st, so

057we're good for our classes. Yes, everything will be done in there for July 1st. Yep. All right, thanks, Katie. All right, we'll move on to 6.3, Community Education. All right, good evening, everybody. Um my name is Katie. I shared uh the report with you, and just kind of touching base a little bit on um some of the activities that are going on in the community yet. Um and kind of our recap topic for the last couple of months has been we focus now this spring a lot of it that will be focused on summer rec, but overall, you will be seeing some of the classes, the baking holiday classes. A lot of our classes that we saw in like those two areas, they filled up so fast. I think we just need to offer more.

058Um so, we'll continue to do that as we go into summer and into the fall. Um we're partnering with Lake Marion on the 4-H program, and that's offering one class a month a year um for all of our elementary kids. Art Club, we have K through 8, um three different classes um that go on Art Club for us here in the elementary is twice a week. Um we do K through 2 or 3 through 4 Tuesday or Thursday. Um and Mrs. Pepple teaches that, and then we have high school Art Club um but that is busy as well. Uh drivers ed, the point of impact class we have added, too. Right? Um so, we have May 12th and December 1st that will be offered and continue going forward with two classes. Um maybe more of

059the early before we get into busy summer for Val Kellen helps um instruct that with Eileen and Craig Anderson. So, we'll do that twice a year. Youth wrestling will be wrapping up here shortly. Um that started in November. We'll go um until um probably for maybe another week or so. Um working with Katie on facility usage. Wrestling usually wrapped up in January for youth, but they want to be doing more and more and more. So, we're trying that. Make sure we stay out of the way of our softball um as well. Um boys basketball and girls basketball K through 1, uh that will run April and May. Uh second grade uh just started today, and that is um going to be kind of a mirror of our third through eighth grade program. Um we're starting

060younger, and it's offering games on Saturdays, and coaches are coaching to kind of get them ready for FYDL. So, um we tweaked the schedule a little bit with the two um no school days on the 13th and 16th, getting used to the adjusting. So, we sent that revised schedule out today. Um and our third through eighth grade, that started in September. It was all the way to March. Um so, when you think about it, I was kind of just looking at some data here this last week. 39 coaches in that program, six Saturday games. Um and then when you look at facility uses for those um teams, 18 teams, we had 414 nights um that teams were in the gym. Um which and they also participated in 72 tournaments. So, that is all over the

061place. So, um it's a big program. It's um a lot of registrations. Um so, it you know, continue to make it better and continue to grow. Jail volleyball just started last week. We have eight volleyball teams practicing twice a week. We'll have a couple home tournaments on March 25th and April 11th, um where we'll um work with Coach Gisner and um some of our coaches at Cap. Um the holiday ball um we talked a little bit about this at our last advisory council meeting. We'll talk more about it at future ones. Um just due to the enrollment of um boys in the pro in the holiday ball, there wasn't a lot. We had about 25 registered, and maybe less than 20 showed up. And some of the feedback we heard is you really liked it

062being dead at the mall. It doesn't mean you can't offer something um for boys, but it would be another conversation we have with the advisory council to see what um we can maybe offer. Um And just stop me if you have any questions or anything you want to ask me. Into early childhood registration opened for that, and Rebel Kids Care on February 10th. Um that is for preschool readiness. You'll see we have a trailer sign out on Highway 10. Um we have banner roll on the console here. We're going to send out a postcard next week. Trying to blitz our social media. Um we'll have preschool round up on March 30th. The week after the orientation just gets really busy in the building with both orientations. So, this year we decided to split them. Um

063and then also we're up for recertification of our Parent Aware rating, which is DGF Early Childhood is a four-star rating. Um it's kind of given to the highest child care school age programs that are in the state. Um and that requires our staff to do additional CEU training, which uh minimum of 10 hours. Um ours is 20 hours plus what they put in extra. Um so, um we're getting to it. Submitting that in May. Um and that that also allows us to get pathway one, pathway two dollars, and additional um early childhood funding from the state. Uh Rebel Kids Care opened February 10th. This year is a little different for summer. We are opening up Rebel Kids Care to non-DGF families. Uh priority is given to state DGF families, but after that um first window,

064uh first week, um we opened it up to non-DGF, and we really don't have a cap right now. Um we just keep taking them. Um and we review, and um you know, I would say we probably have six or seven that are non-DGF kids that are already enrolled full time in Rebel Kids Care in the summer. So, maybe that would draw them to our district. So, um we'll see. Um when we get to the fall though, then it will be turned back to just DGF kids. Um staffing, we're busy hiring um for summer. Um we have our um lead um that's going to be gone going to be out for about four months. So, we're doing some tweaking of schedules um and staffing and moving people around a little bit. Uh we did have nine

065staff members go through first aid CPR training, which was quite a a lot of online training and on-site training. So, we have that. So, to make sure every single classroom has someone trained in CPR first aid, so we can move on. Um so, that went that went great. Um summer rec, I just want to make sure that you see that the tentative. Our advisory council, I'm going to give them an update here in early part of May or early part of April, I should say, to kind of go through some of the classes that we're going to offer. One thing we're going to tweak is our one of our a couple of our biggest programs is our pre-T-ball, T-ball, and coach pitch at night. A lot of parent volunteers. Um we're partnering with Norman County

066East School in Perham and Hawley this year. So, we're going to have one night games, true games for these four, five, six-year-olds. So, we're going to see how this is going to go. Um so, that will be fun. Um we're adding 30-plus new kids art classes, physical activity classes this summer. Um we're building those in A rocks as we speak. Transportation, I shared with Shannon and Eileen that we won't use the big yellow bus this summer. Um we're going to use those little buses that we have, the white one and the yellow one, and kind of save on some costs. Um and Eileen was going to you know, kind of keep the contractors updated on that as well. Um we shared out an email lastly on course proposals. So, if anybody has a specific talent

067or anything they'd you'd to teach in uh community ed, we share that out. Just like fill out a course proposal, we'd love to have a conversation with you on adding additional classes. Um, I would probably expand a little bit on what Katie talked about with Bound. Concessions is going to go away from Pay Anywhere, which is our platform for credit card usage, and use Bound. We're going to partner with them. From a A-ROC standpoint, it really isn't a model for facilities. It's more for um early childhood, wrap-around, care, things like that. That's kind of the focus over our Rebel Store. So, we'll >> [clears throat] >> we'll um the Pay Anywhere, I should say, is more of the concessions and Rebel Store. We'll move those over to Bound. Just so that we have all one

068platform when we work with Marcus. So, it'll be it's got to be better than Pay Anywhere, I'll just say that, because many times people would come up to use the tap, [clears throat] and we'd get that hourglass, and you'd think you'd come back in like 5 minutes, and then you'd hold up 7 bucks. You know, so we we wanted it to be a good experience, and I've worked with John and brands, and they've worked so hard to try to get it to go, but just it just is really quirky. So, we're going to try to be consistent and use Bound. I have another meeting with them on Thursday, so um it'll it'll It'll be better. But, I will say, you know, when it worked, it was great, because kids would come up and use the

069card for the machines. More high schoolers. You still have those kids that come up that are just want to cash for a ride in. They're buying them at the break of dawn. So, they're offerable, but questions. Does anybody else use the Bound system for concessions at all? I know that was asked. Uh I don't know anybody around us that use Bound really yet. It's all starting next year. So, no. Okay. And I would say, Troy, when you look when we um I know we presented you both on the activities, but the concession side, it'll still give us the reporting features, and how many sold this, how many sold that. And it just with the clicks that we have in Pay Anywhere, by the time we get to the point where we accept a credit card,

070we've tapped the screen six times. Um we wanted this one, you tap a Gatorade, you hit cash, credit card, and boom, you're at the screen. So, it's too many clicks. But, we like the the reporting side of it, but it's just we need to be a little bit more quicker, you know. So, Any other questions for Tracy? I'm all right. Thank you, Tracy. All right, 6.4, uh budget committee report. Uh yeah, so we met right before the last last board meeting. You know, not much to discuss. We looked over and I mean negotiations are going to be occurring here in the this late fall or spring. Looked at both some benefit packages potentially that would do, and extend the conversations. Any questions for Troy? We'll go on to 6.5, superintendent report. Yeah, first thing on

071there is March 23rd, so that's our next board meeting. It's going to have to be in Glyndon, cuz I'm not going to make it back that Tuesday. We will have our book fair stuff, and we also have kindergarten round up that night, so this might be the wrong place to be. It could be. Um it could be a little disruptive. So, we're going to be in Glyndon at the community. So, March 23rd, board meeting will be back there. We'll be in Glyndon then. So, just want to make sure you guys know that. That way Amanda can kind of keep this crazy setup for the book fair going on in the middle. So, that's good. Um and then I just last at last board meeting I read a statement about the budget budget reductions, and and

072I'm not going to read that again. But, the one thing I said last time is that I would talk just briefly about what was said at our referendum meetings regarding um what if the operating referendum doesn't pass, what are we going to do? Which is was a question that was important to ask back then. Um so, I just I went through that, and what was said, and then what the recommendations are from last week with staff at the last board meeting with staff, and and tonight then with extracurricular activities as a focus. So, I'll just read through I'm I'm going to read through just so I don't miss anything. So, at the school board meeting on Monday, July 14th, the school board voted unanimously to direct Superintendent Constan to develop a general fund budget recommendation

073that includes reductions if the referendum plan is not passed by voters in November 4th, 2025. The budget recommendations would include So, we talked about proposed framework for addressing the impact. We talked about increasing class sizes, reducing all these things. So, I'm going to just read through what we are proposing. While we initially identified broad areas of concern, we are now taking specific steps in the cutting 1.1 million from our budget. This includes the difficult reality of staff non-renewals, the reduction of several athletic coaches and academic activities, as well as a reduction in administration, transportation, curriculum, and technology. District-wide cuts impacting addressing that impact is a total of 1.1 million. Some people said, "Why are we cutting 1.1 million if you asked for 850,000?" So, we asked for 850,000 for 10 years this past November. We

074are hoping to not have to cut an additional $600,000 next year to make up for the 1.7 that we will not be receiving due to the failed referendum. And I just want to talk about that briefly. So, if we would have voted yes last November, we would have had money this year. We would have we would have collected the money this year, and we would have had it next year. Since it didn't pass, if the board decides we can go ask again, then they'll collect the next year, and we'll have it the year after. So, in order to bridge the two-year gap of not receiving, I'm hoping [clears throat] that the adjustments we make now is going to be enough so we don't have to do anything. Um the the 850,000 over 10 years, because

075it was over a 10-year span, we figured we can make that work. Some people said, "Is it enough?" Uh we think that we can make the budget work moving forward over that 10-year period. Now, as we get into discussions of whether or not they want to go with another referendum, we'll talk about specifics of that, I guess, in what we need. So, want to say that. One of the things we said we may have to increase class size. We've eliminated four full-time positions here in the elementary, which has an impact on class size. We shifted our ALP. That person's going to go to full-time special ed, so there's going to be some adjustments. Uh reducing non-instructional positions. We said that that might have to happen. We eliminated assistant principal position, and we reduced the district

076office staff. We got we reduced our payroll over in the district office. Um reducing programs and positions. Obviously, we have some things proposed on the board meeting tonight, so everybody knows what those are, and that'll be a board decision tonight. I do want to say that the rationale behind um the the extracurricular cuts, the number one focus is on the number of students that are going to be impacted. Does it make Does it make it right? Does it make it wrong? We just want to impact the least number of students. I also asked Katie to make sure that academics and athletics would have a similar cut. Are they different? Yes, I get that. The numbers, there is more on the athletics side, but the programs we cut is more on the academics side. So, I

077understand that argument from you guys. The other thing that I wanted to make sure is what percentage of our budget is the activities. It's 3.91% of our final budget, and our budget cut in extracurricular ended up being 4.12. So, very close. That was another focus that I wanted to make sure we did. Sorry, can you say that number again? What percent? >> Yeah. Uh athletics was 3.91%, and we cut 4.12. So, yeah. Building maintenance was the last thing that we had in that frequently asked questions from the bond referendum talks. Uh we did not cut in this this area to maintain our buildings. The average age of the DGF school building as of this last fall is 40 year 40.21 years old. That doesn't include our brand new additions and what not. So, we still

078have a very old building our buildings, and that's why the state still is giving us the maximum for long-term facility maintenance, which we know goes to mostly the bond. That's one of our big issues. I just wanted to make sure everything just kind of goes over the things that we said we would do. That's how we addressed them, or are proposing to address them. So, questions for me. John, what as you look at the legislature and what they're sort been telling us the last 2 years, uh what can we expect from the legislature for not the coming year but the following year? Well, we saw the February forecast which was good news. So, it's not the $3 billion deficit they were thinking they would have. It's 377 million is their February forecast deficit in the

079tails of 2021. I had a meeting today with MREA and we discussed a lot of that. And one of the cuts we talked about is they have been mandated by statute in 2023 to cut by 2029 $250 million out of special ed. Part of that is they're looking at the access grants that are out there. They're also most likely they're going to end up cutting the class subsidy which we just got an improvement on 2 years ago. And now they're thinking that they might not be able to pay for now. One of the one of the participants today in this meeting is on that task force for special ed cuts. And he is saying now because of the February forecast was better than projected, they're looking at maybe being able to reduce that 250 to

080some other number so it's not the same. But when they talk to legislators, the legislators told them to carry on with their work, try to get the 250, and then we'll decide if we make that better or not. So, >> [cough] >> that's the information [clears throat] today. This is a policy year, not a budget year. And so, the legislators are worried about running for office again. So, they're more focused on their campaigning than they are on other things, unfortunately. It's also policy year which means they have already set a budget for next year. But we're asking for flexible spending again. $300 here in our district we could use more than just in this district [cough and clears throat] area. So, I'm hopeful for that. Senator Kohopec is getting a lot of pressure from the

081region and he is looking at maybe potentially doing something. I know there's some other from the other side of the aisle are looking at the same thing. So, we're hopeful that they're saying that don't expect much just because of the budget. No, that's yeah. So. Any other questions for Shane? I'm going to ask that question. Yeah, something >> [laughter] >> sorry about that. You know, I'm looking at this as I'm staring at your paper here. I know we talked about 1.1 looking at the 850 and what we if we cut a million dollar 1.1 this year, we're also going to save 1.1 next year that we won't do right? So, it won't be we're not going to we won't be behind. No, we're not. No matter what we're still above the 850. That's that's kind

082of like this year too because we cut 600,000 coming into this year. And to Marcus's report that that's you know, that's why we're in a bad place. Yeah, and and so, hopefully this is enough and we're good. I just don't know what's going to happen moving forward. So, yeah. Didn't sound like anything at all. That was a great question. Any other [clears throat] questions for Shane? All right. We'll move on to 7.1 and this is to approve the regular meeting on February 23rd, 2016. Do I have a motion? Motion by Troy. I'll second. Seconded [clears throat] by Nicole. Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Opposed? On to number eight. This is the consent agenda. 8.1 claims to >> [snorts] >> approve bills for March 2016 in the amount of

083$143,000. Sorry, 143. I think I said that the pressure is getting to me. $143,860.06. Treasurer's monthly budget report to approve the filing of the Treasurer's monthly budget report with the permanent waiver. Approve [clears throat] the resignation of Jenny West, special education teacher effective March 20th, 2016. Do I have a motion? Motion by Laura. I'll second. Seconded by Nicole. Any questions or discussion? Hearing [clears throat] none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. On to number nine, new and unfinished business. 9.1 this is to approve the high school course guide and graduation requirements. Do I have a motion? Motion by Laura. I'll second. Seconded by Nicole. Any questions or discussion? I did ask for clarification and I see CC everybody but CC'ing everybody in here just so you knew that I was asking

084that question. Mr. O'Keefe got back to me the extra requirement is going to be an elective. So. This is yeah. Yeah, it didn't get changed. The other thing and the reason they went back to 24 this is back and you guys this is what I shared or Joe shared with me today that the requirements changed when there was a block schedule and then COVID and some of that stuff was different and it's never been corrected back to 26. And if you guys remember, I think he shared in his report that we have high school seniors that basically are done. They only have like one or two classes. They don't have to take anything else and it's creating a little bit of a So, he said we should we need to get back to 26 and

085so that's the process of getting back to 26 so kids are still in class and they're learning and not having open hours or they don't care about a class if they stand up more because they don't need that elective credit because they're going to graduate anyway which creates some issues. That's the the major reason behind this. But yeah, that document didn't have the where they were laid out. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. Any other questions or discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. >> [groaning] >> Opposed? Motion carries. 9.2 [clears throat] this is to approve the discontinuation of the funding for the following extracurricular programs: debate, FFA, global model UN / youth and government, and river watch. Do I have a motion? Motion by Laura. Do I have a second? Seconded by Nicole.

086Any questions or discussion? I do have a question. So, we talked a lot or listened I guess a lot about the debate and different funding sources if we choose to vote in favor of that if they are able to rally and get funding and it's not affecting our budget is that an opportunity for them to have that discussion later in green state budget? I have no problem re-visiting with it. I think the one thing that we want to make sure of is is that a annual sustainability. If that's the case, then we can do something else. I you know, for sure. It'd be like anything else. If somebody comes and says, "Hey, can we add this program?" Okay, well, how are we going to fund it? How's it going to be managed? That's something we'd

087always be open to. And I think that would be the same thing here. We you know, Kathy had shared some things she's already done. I guess for me as your superintendent, I just want to make sure there's sustainability there. And and what does that look like for the next year to the next year because I don't want to keep having kids like we're going to have it or we're not going to have it. That's not good either. So, I I'd be definitely open to discussion. And then I wanted to commend everybody who was willing to come up and speak today. I think that it's a hard discussion and a hard conversation and I can assure you that when we had meetings to learn about what the budget was going to look like and how what

088courses and programs were going to be um discontinued, a lot of the same questions that you guys asked were the questions that our fellow board members asked and were uncomfortable with. And likely lost some sleep over. So, I just want you to know that these were not made lightly and I can tell you that I came from a larger district where I graduated with 500 plus kids. So, coming to a small district, I was very concerned that my kids weren't going to have a place. They weren't going to have a group. They were going to be on the outside because even in a large district, I saw that that could happen. And so, a lot of you guys speaking about coming to our district and having a place to belong and to feel like you

089can be successful is very important. It was important to me and I was probably more concerned than I needed to be about my kids fitting in. But I want everybody to know that I think it's important to our entire board that all kids find home and a place they belong and we don't take that lightly. And I also like to comment on cross-cultural communication. I teach that to our multicultural partners. I know that it's important and I would encourage my kids to continue pursuing ideas outside of you know, the typical box. So, I just wanted to commend everybody and just wanted to put those out there that I know that those discussions have been had on multiple levels in our board. Any other questions guys? So, a comment was made today about $5600. Is that

090number or not I mean is that the number is that the number is that the right number or is that the number after the number? Yeah, that's that's it today. We don't expect anything even that. All right. So. I'm struggling with this today as I go and find out the conversations I had prior to prior to coming in here tonight that this this program is costing us substantially more per student per student than that and I do the math now and I don't know if it's eight kids if that's the correct number or not now we're looking at a $700 type of cost per student or whatever and there's a lot of information I was given or I received was substantially higher than that so it makes me want to question if we're making the

091right call here because my feeling was that we wanted to look at this and what it was costing the district so it's just my Any other questions or discussion? Well, I would just say nobody wants to do any of this. I mean nobody wants to cut anything [snorts] frankly um and you know the scary prospect for the school board and I >> [clears throat] >> say just have been on it for some time is um you know we're not in a great financial spot with the state and the state's not really I don't blame everything on the state because certainly we probably made some decisions over the last several years that could have been better um but you know what that along with some of the decrease in students that we've seen over the last

09210 years just puts us in a in a tough spot and nobody wants to cut anything and I don't know I think the process that the administration went through to look at the different programs looking at the cost per student the alternatives um I know one of the things that we looked at was I think with the Model UN Youth Government a lot of times that's funded through the YMCA is that right? or through it's a club typically a club yeah it's not it's atypical for this area um so I mean I appreciate the administration it's a difficult thing to ask to do something that you know is going to impact students and nothing that anybody wants to do uh to impact students and I think this district has done a good job of cutting

093without impacting students a great deal and now we're just kind of down to that point where we're looking at some cuts that are definitely impacting students and and potentially staff and that's that's the problem nobody wants to do This is like I'm sorry not from the last Do they have to be voted on the block one? I mean they're all in one Well as as the resolution is set here it is it it it would be the separated if you want to separate it that would have to be the next meeting Yeah Well you Is this in the name of the resolution? It's not a resolution Yeah can I make a motion? You can make a motion Can I make a motion to separate the extra curricular and the separate votes? Motion has been made

094to separate extra curricular and the separate votes do I have a second? Second Second by Nicole Any questions or discussion? I don't think that's a fair thing to do um I think our our administration has worked hard to um make these recommendations and um obviously we had a large contingent out for debate uh but that doesn't mean that some of these other programs don't have kids who are just as passionate um but maybe less um likely to come up and speak in front of our our school board and I just think that that would be um unfair and we just spoke to do that so just think Any other questions or discussion? Um Angela what was your thought? I mean we had a lot of conversation about it as it stands right I mean that

095wasn't a secret um so that one I I feel like has deserved its own separate vote outside of the rest of them Now if others don't agree with that then that's fine [snorts] but the decision for me personally to vote on that one separate isn't a result of the conversations I've had So in essence what you would like to see is debate voted on separately? That would be my preference Yeah Any other questions or discussion? I just think knowing that what Nicole asked earlier like if if we go back and they I mean if they do find funding and it's something that can be a really good program It's not like final and all be all whatever it's not but I mean they're all important and all appreciated by And I think it's good to

096be clear on the original motion is not to dissolve programs but dissolve funding per program I mean it's perhaps a distinction without a difference but I think it is um putting focus right where it should be is this is not a referendum on whether or not the program is excellent we all know the debate program is excellent and uh as well as River Watchers and and Pep Band Belleville West J and Model UN I mean just they're all good programs but this is just about funding just wanted to make sure that was that was clear Yeah just just so and I don't think I said it in the other statement but yeah I mean it's it's an awful deal remember our number one focus was the number of people impacted that was one second thing

097is with debate debate um nobody in our conference has debate the only one that has debate and there's Kathy set up something with with the region but our our conference doesn't have it nor it has it and so that was the other reason for the administration when we looked at the region who has debate uh that's what we found and that's why it's it's not a fun decision to make but it made that decision easier for us as an admin team to say hey since the there are fewer fewer and fewer schools having this program and we're in a budget crunch that made it easier to cut that but it still it doesn't mean it doesn't matter it doesn't matter we get that that's where again back to Nicole's question just like Brennan brought up

098I'm not opposed to saying hey what else can we do because the focus here is like Pep Band we can have Pep Band just not funding an instructor you know I mean he's going to teach Pep Band during the day if we want to do Pep Band at night they can come we had three kids that came and played we didn't pay anybody that we're just cutting the funding of it because the school can't fund it but when you don't fund it anymore it's a cut right and so I get that so someone's going to want to say you want me to do that for nothing? We don't but we don't have the funds so I guess I just want to clarify some of that and it's it's the lack of a better word it's

099awful but it is what it is so Let's go back to what Troy was saying the number that was initially provided to us was substantially higher than the Any other questions or discussion on Angela's motion? All right so Angela's motion is to uh vote on these separately so if you're in favor of that motion you're voting no so all those in favor say I I two all those in opposed say nay nay uh motion fails we'll go back to the motion um original 9.2 motion Is there any uh other questions or discussion on Hearing none all those in favor say I I I vote I motion passes On the 9.4 this is to approve the resolution 9.3 Oh okay sorry thank you 9.3 this is for the resolution reducing and discontinuing education programs and positions

100and I'll just read through the resolution whereas the school whereas the school board of Independent School District 1964 adopted a resolution on February 9th 2016 directing the administration to make recommendations regarding the reduction and or discontinuance of programs and positions and whereas said [clears throat] recommendations have been received and considered by the school board be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District 1964 as follows that the following programs and positions or portions thereof be discontinued from my knowledge The motion for the adoption of the foreign foregoing resolution was made by and seconded by All right so that is the resolution do I have a motion? I motion Motion by Nicole do I have a second? Second by Laura Any questions or discussion? It just goes go back to the same point and

101up. Um sixth vote lately whether apples or not. I know it's a very hard decision and I personally haven't encouraged my kids to take advantage of our foreign language programs. I took Spanish and um ASL sign language in high school as well as in college and I think there's great value in that and understanding um different cultures uh and communities within our uh own culture. And um so I just want to appreciate all that that offers. Any other questions or discussion? I struggle that we don't have a plan for it and I I don't I don't agree that I I think that um the opportunity to take it online and do that I that is not that is not learning purposes. Kids uh I don't I I think that there's an opportunity to do something

102[clears throat] else with the programs that just give it to you. So. Any other questions or discussion? I'll just ask you what what are some of the um options for the students regarding the the one thing that I know [clears throat] you listed some of those before and Yeah, so so we're talking to Mr. O'Keefe. He's done a little homework on that. Uh there's online. Obviously it's not the same. We have a program in our school that we use for credit recovery and momentum and momentum has Spanish as a course that can be offered through that as well. Um it's not the same as having an in-person teacher without a question uh but there are options there. Um Are the options different? Yeah. Are they as good? No. Um but you know when you look

103across the entire high school um and what's going to get cut, that's I can say it's you know it's it's just a difficult decision and so Mr. O'Keefe and his team worked through what began affecting the students and requirements by the state, requirements by the by uh our handbook and our school. And you know there was information provided to the school board to me that there was a a difference or whatever the word would be uh for students um going into college who didn't have the opportunity to take college or to take a language course that there was um a difference. Yeah. Yeah, so for example I was in Lancaster for the last you know 5 years before I came here and we didn't have foreign language. We didn't have one graduate that had foreign

104language and they got into all the colleges because the college the colleges like I shared with you guys at Ohio State University, they just waived that requirement then because you didn't have the option to take it. So since your school didn't offer it, they don't hold that against you. Does it help when you go to places? Yes, but but Yeah. That's what I was trying to thank you for. Thank you for making that more clear. I don't have a problem. >> [laughter] >> Any other questions or discussion? All right, since this is We didn't get a motion and a second. Okay. Um yes, we'll go by roll call. Laura. Nicole. >> Hi. Royce. Nay. David. Hi. Brittany. Hi. Micah. Hi. Angela. Hi. Resolution. Motion to 9.4. This is to approve the resolution proposing placement of

105a continuing contract continuing teacher on unrequested leave of absence. Um this is obviously related to 9.3. Um and I'll just go through the resolution. Be it resolved by the school board of Independent School District number 2164 as follows that it is proposed to be fifth year of Robert continuing contract continuing teacher of said district be placed on unrequested leave of absence without pay or benefits at the end of the 2025-2026 school year effective May 20th, 2026. Said action is taken in accordance with the district master agreement pursuant to Minnesota statute 122A.40 on the grounds described said statute which are specifically as follows, discontinuance of position namely a foreign language teacher. Be it further resolved that notice of the local placement on unrequested leave together with copy of this resolution forwarded to said teacher and then

106after the date of this meeting pursuant to Minnesota statute resolution. Do I have a motion? So moved. Motion by Nicole. I have a second. I >> [clears throat] >> Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, we'll go by roll call. Laura. Nicole. Hi. Royce. Hi. David. >> Hi. Brittany. Hi. Micah. Angela. Hi. Resolution. On 9.5, this is to approve the non-certified contract for Bella Rodriguez, food service class one step six effective March 17th, 2020. Do I have a motion? Motion by Troy. Do I have a second? Seconded by Any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Votes? 10.1, the next board meeting is Monday, March 23rd, 2026 6:00 p.m. in Glyndon site at the DGF community room. Uh the facilities and transportation committee meeting will follow that meeting at the same

107time. Uh number 11, this is to adjourn the regular meeting of the Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton School Board. Do I have a motion? So moved. Motion by Nicole. I have a second. Second. Seconded by David. You said Yeah, this is great. Okay. I will second the meeting. Uh any questions or discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Votes? Motion carried. The meeting is adjourned. >> [cough]