001Oh, okay. We're recording. Okay. We're going to call the Big Lake School Board meeting to order. Show that all board members are present except for Miss Brown, who will join us after the city council meeting, and Mr. Trouin Black. Uh first, uh we need a motion to approve the agenda. >> A motion to approve the agenda. >> Motion made by Hancock, second by Shabilian. Any other discussion? All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. Uh please stand for the pledge. Thank you. 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. Okay. Uh we have an open forum. Uh I'm going to read the guidelines for open forum. Uh the speaker must state their
002name. Each speaker will be guided three minutes. No action can be taken unless the matter addressed is formally on the agenda. Speaker will not make negative comments regarding any employee of the district. The board chair can end the open form at any time. Please note the data privacy laws do not allow for any matters concerning individual employees or students to be discussed. Okay, Timothy, we are ready for you. I'm >> first. You are. [Applause] My name is Timothy Meyers. Um I had a couple of questions but one of the main one was answered. Um, another one is question I have is regarding um, question two on the ballot coming up. How many years are local taxpayers taxed for those bonds for a new building? What is the average 20 years? I mean, does anybody have
003that? >> The person who had that information is at the city council meeting with Mr. Troopin. >> I know. I got to say pledge with twice. >> I did, too. >> All right. and and I can send her an email. So, okay. >> Okay. >> And uh how many in students are students are enrolled uh right now that local taxpayers are >> funding for? And I'll get that in. I know it's about 3150 or 3,200 somewhere in that area. >> Okay. Um thank you. Now, the rest of my comments are directed to the elected school board members. I assume that every every employee of the school district works for you, not the other way around. I also assume that a handful of paid employees drafted this mailing I received and you read and approved it.
004Everyone in the room is smarter than me. I'll admit that. I have no problem with that. Yet I was able to figure out you moved expiring building bond money to operating money so you could get question one approved and make the voters think this is free money. At any time did any of you say or even think that this is deceiving the voters? A 91% increase in per pupil revenue is outrageous. 91%. Also, how is 10 years of additional taxes quote result in no tax increase? Go to your employer and ask for a 91% raise even though they have given you increases each year at the rate of flood inflation and for them to build you a new house with extras. They would say no and no. If the state and federal government are not
005providing the funding you need, pressure lawmakers. Don't come running to us. [Applause] Make the tough, perhaps unpopular decisions you were elected to do. Eight months ago, I provided you and the administration a document with my thoughts on how to avoid the situation you are in. School board, you are listening to the wrong people. The voters were clear ago. We have given >> your three minutes are up. >> What's that? >> Your three minutes are up. Thank you. if you want to email us those questions, we can see if we have those answers for you. >> Yeah, I'll I can send an email, >> okay, >> to get those answers. Okay. Um, and I appreciate your time and I say, Elliot, >> I appreciate what you do. >> I wouldn't want to do it, but I
006thank you for doing it, but I hope you understand where I as a taxpayers come. I'm out of my apologies. >> No, that's okay. Thank you. >> And superintendent, I'm sorry I missed your presentation. like looking forward to that and you went out what I did. >> It was it was great. >> It was brief, but it was great. >> Okay, we're on to the consent agenda. Uh the previous minutes from the August 26 regular board meeting, claims and accounts in the amount of $2,358,188.82. Uh the credit card report, the personnel report, and approval of the one rep policies that are listed below. So moved. >> Okay. Moved by Sixberry. >> Second by Nelson. Any other questions? All in favor? >> I oppose. Motion carries. Okay. On to donations. >> I'll make a motion to
007approve the donations. >> Okay. Motion made by Shabilian. >> Second. >> Go ahead. >> Second by Sixberry. Any other discussions? All in favor? I I oppose. Motion carries. >> Angie, are you ready for the financial report? >> Nothing like coming in and >> I have to take a lot of questions. >> Okay. So, okay. >> And I get more than three minutes, but good evening school board members. We'll start the financial report with an enrollment update. >> Question. We want to thank you. >> Uh so our September 4th and what you'll hear me reference is our day one enrollment. Um we are short of our budget. So our day one enrollment is 3,32. Uh that was data that I pulled as of yesterday. Um our our budget is 3,115 which is 71 less actually 71
008less than last year at this time September 2024. Our kindergarten did come in actually close to budget. We budgeted 222 because we knew we knew birth rates were down and it's coming in at 218 right now and 217 in person and one online. Um I did run enrollment as of this morning and we already have an increase of 11 students. So that's good news. Um and of which mostly are 612 big online. And so um we analyze go to the next slide please. Thanks John. analyzed our our MARS data or MARS stands for the Minnesota Automated Reporting Student System as to what happened. And so from spring from last spring to this fall, uh 212 students um I I I have there left Big Lake or didn't reenroll. of that 212 um 151 moved. Um
009and actually I have up there 40 open enroll but actually that number is 37 because three of the 40 were students that went to our special ed co-op. So they're still and they didn't open enroll. I mean they're still our students just being serviced at at our special ed co-op. And then 21 are homeschooled or private school. We did learn or we know of one family with three kids that did enroll enroll at the new uh private school here in Big Lake. Um I guess in a nutshell uh our fall enrollment did not align with historical trends. Um because when we budget it, we're looking at what's called our grade progression ratios of kindergarten to grade 1, grade 1 to grade two, you know, and some of those progressions we actually see an increase in
010students. So it it is not aligning with our historical trends. Um I don't uh I guess what I should mention too, this will affect our budget. Um I'm not going to adjust anything right now just because we do usually see students we see an increase in students throughout the year. So I want to wait for probably 3 months of data. And that's typically what I do. I mean not not any different anything different than what I normally do. We got a day one enrollment. We'll get our October 1st enrollment and then we'll get our November 1st enrollment. And then in November, which I normally do, I'll come to you with some fall budget. We have to make up a lot of kids, but I'm I am assuming we're going to have to adjust our general
011education aid down, um, which, you know, is our bread and butter of revenue for the school district. But, um, I I just I don't want to say how much it will be yet because I I am confident we're going to see an increase in students like we normally do. So, um, I wish I had better news, uh, but I but I don't in regards to enrollment. And you can see it graphically on the next page. This is our graph that you see every month. So, I think the color is teal. So, the far right bar, that teal bar, that is the current year. And you can see we're way down, as I mentioned, compared to last fall at this time. and also down from uh two years ago because that that blue bar is is
012two years ago data 23 24 data. >> So the open enrolled that you list and the 21 home private schools that you list are those 37 open enrolled that were not open enrolled last year. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Correct. >> And then um so 21 additional homeschool students this year that last year. >> Correct. They would have been enrolled last last spring and then they went homechooling. Okay. Do you do they do any sort of followup such as >> Yeah. >> These numbers are kind of hot off the press. We talked about it at a cabinet meeting today and I'll be calling all 37 families and just kind of get the scoop in terms of if they're willing to visit with me about, you know, oftentimes I've done this before in previous districts and
013um sometimes um families don't necessarily want to talk about to me. You know, there's there's a variety of things. It's kind of So, but in the same respects, I will I will do my due diligence over the next week or two uh to make those 37 calls. And it's not because I'm assuming that some of them are siblings as well. So, it's probably not 37. It's probably like 30 or something cuz there's, you know, so but I will I'll follow up with them and then I'll report back in terms of see if I can't find any trends or anything like that if there's anything. So, >> yeah, we actually were able just to get the data for super super to do that. So, >> yeah. Yeah, I got it. up and >> see if we
014can, you know, get some news or or something maybe we need to change or, you know, and hopefully get some valuable feedback. >> All right. Thank you for doing that. >> Not a problem. I was curious too to be honest with you. Yeah. Yeah. To see what's >> like is a certain like I know I asked like is there a certain trend for grade? You know what I mean? >> Yeah. Yeah. And it was across the board. I didn't see like you know just one particular grade. So yeah. Yeah. So um I'm sure super superintendent will follow up and and uh we'll report back. It'll be basically what we learn. So >> with 151 people moving to the news. >> Yeah. That's a lot. >> Yeah. Yeah. And that actually surprised me. I'll be honest
015with you that that um Yeah, that did really surprise me. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. And then just the only other thing from the financial report, our auditors will be here next week. We're ready for the most part. We will be ready by next week. Um they will present to the school board on November 19th, which is customary board meeting. And that's all I got for this month, unless there's any questions. >> And then you'll have that really nice thick report we can have for bedtime meeting. >> That's right. [Laughter] >> I would too. Nice. >> Did anyone have any questions for Angie? >> Okay. I will make a motion to approve the financial report. >> I'll second. >> Second by Nelson. Any other discussion? >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. And
016then you're up next again. The preliminary levy. >> Yeah. Secretary. Thank you, John. Margin. Yeah. So, actually this is a snapshot of our preliminary levy. So, this would be um pay 20 paid 2026 levy that is revenue to the district in 2627. And I just want to start out by saying and and I know I mentioned this in the chicken taxation hearing as well. The state determines what a school can levy. We really don't have a lot of control over what we can levy. So there's several different categories. General fund, community service, and then um debt service is basically what I always say is our mortgage payments. And so bottom line, why should you scroll down there, John, the levy, the preliminary levy as it stands right now is a 7 12% increase. And I
017wanted to point out under under the general fund and the LTFM which is on the top now that $1.1 million increase that is the roofing projects that we have in the levy that the legislature just this past session authorized school district additional levy authority for roofing projects. Now, if um questions one and two pass, if our bond referendum passes, we are going to take that off or I will be recommending to the board in December, we take that off because then our our operating levy and our bond will come on because we want to temper the tax increase to to our taxpayers. So, as as is customary at the September at certifying the preliminary levy, I am recommending that that the the school board certifies at maximum. What that means is that the levy cannot
018go up after this point with the exception of successful elections. That's really one of the only exceptions there are. Um, but it can't go down. And um also the reason I recommend this is the state is still making changes because they find mistakes or they find some formulas that may be wrong. And there's been years that on September 30th I get a levy change. And if you don't certify at maximum, we can't capture those changes. So the state MDE staff, there's two people at MDE. Um, they work very hard because it I'm I'm going to show you the stack I have. It's a 39page document. I actually got four of them here because I had to have four levy runs because I needed them to make changes or I found something wrong and and um
019they worked very hard to make sure everything's right. So, I I want to give kudos to staff at MDE. Um, I guess with that being said, I do need to announce this is required that our truth and taxation hearing day will be Wednesday, uh, December 17th at 6:00 p.m. before regular board meeting. Okay. Uh, let's see. I think that's all I had unless there are any questions for me. Oh, I should I did I mentioned we met with the finance committee yesterday to actually review um review the levy with them. Tim and I and then Chelsea, Amber, and Tyler. >> I'll make a motion to approve the preliminary ley at the maximum. >> Motion made by Chibilian. >> Second by Brown. Any other questions? All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. District
020goals. >> It's a short one. >> You want me to or? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I'll let you so well. >> All right. Well, thank you all. It is September and that means we come to you and talk to you about our district goals. And so, um, next slide. We just kind of let you know like goals are what we do and we do them well. And so on the next slide, Cynthia Campov shows us that the world's best know what they want and why they want it in the face of adversity and setbacks. They go after their goals with deep commitment. We would like to say that Big Lake Schools is the world's best and we know what we want and that's why we're setting these goals and we are really proud um
021that we are going to come back when we after we do our data dig. Our preliminary data is showing some really good things. So for our goals, you have seen this before. We have our goal structure. We start with our strategic plan and we go to our district goals, our building goals, our PLC goals, our individual goals, and then we even reach out and let people know that they can even make their personal goals. So all of our goals align and connected. So for our district goals, we always focus around our strategic plan. So I do like to call attention to our long-term goals of 5 to seven years. If you notice, our strategic plan, um, it has an end date of 2027. that's not that far away. So, be thinking about possibly a new
022strategic plan coming up soon. Um, so this strategic plan has our focus around students, staff, and family and community engagement. And each of those three areas have our goals and objectives. And so, we like to center in this as we're creating our district goals. We also have our comprehensive achievement and civic readiness in statute. So, this also helps us align our goals. um replacing the world's best workforce. So, we know all students um all children ready for school, all racial and economic achievement gaps between students are closed, all students are ready for a career in college, all students graduate from high school, and all students prepared for lifelong learning. So, I will come back in November and present our 2425 um data and results from these. And um I will also then tell you our
023goals for this year because the data comes in a little late from the state. So we also know that the read act helps focus our goals. And so coming right out of statute, the read act is where that instead of every kid reading at third grade like we used to say. Now we want all of our students reading at every grade and on grade level. And so for us um the read act also helps us know that we're providing evidence um with um evidence-based instruction. We provide all that literacy professional development. We are encouraged to adopt an MTSS framework which we know that Big Lake schools in June had the opportunity to present at an MDE um compass seminar. And so and then we screen all of our students and um for foundational reading skills,
024oral language and characteristics of dyslexia. So for our district focus goals, we have um our first one around students. And so really leaning back into that comprehensive achievement and civic readiness plan. And we know that those goals are ones that we we always want to lean into for our students. But then we also create another goal with literacy. And so um we keep this goal every year. We want all of our students to be uh reading at grade level. So ours is to make sure we're over state average. And then for 50% of our students scoring proficient at grade level. This is based on MCAs which are aligned to our state standards. And then aligned to FastBridge, we say that we want 80% of our students at every grade level to be in that lowrisk
025category. And that's an MTSS data point that we lean into. And with that, 95% of our students who are low risk in the fall continue to be low risk in the spring. So if they're if they're coming in at grade level, are we keeping them at grade level? So these are um data points that we watch all year in our district staff support. We are in year three of really being intentional about staff support. And so continuing to use the team clock metrics. Um, we'll do our baseline in October, but we've done this now for a couple of years. So, we are leaning into the investment quadrant because we're working on collective efficacy this year. And so, that is the one that most aligns with that. So, we have set a high bar goal here
026with having all of our buildings at or above 4.0 on a fivepoint scale. And then that statistical deviation should be standard deviation. Sorry, the standard deviation. I didn't correct it. the standard deviation to be short. So, what we're saying is we want all of our teachers to show that in investment, we all agree and everybody in our buildings. And so, um we're we're really close to being there. So, we're really proud of that one. And then with our district family and community engagement, this comes right from our um our strategic plan and still really leaning into providing that strategic meth um meth I can't even talk anymore. Sorry. um also we'll go with it transparent communication but really what we want to focus on this year is we've talked about engagement and getting that feedback
027back from parents and our community as well. So we've been doing a lot of conversation with that. So after we talk about our district goals align to our strategic plan then we ask our buildings to funnel down into those three areas as well. So, starting with Liberty Elementary, um they have their student, staff, and family and community engagement goals. And this is work that we do back in August. And so, our assessment window, our first assessment window is right now. So, in October, we will do our first data dig at looking how we're doing with this. So, a lot of this is based on last year's data and usually has a spring. So, we're trying to go year to year and then Independence Elementary. >> One more question. >> Yes. So like I noticed the
028phone calls and um was talking about it the principal or who but um and some teachers were kind of I think struggling in the confidence right like like newer teachers communication um which is fine but I'm also curious I mean are they supposed to be reaching out to every family every parent by phone call or because I mean that's kind of a lot too but >> so at our elementaryaries we are we have more of a communication through um Seesaw, but we do also want to make those phone calls and we've actually given scripts to some of our to our teachers. And so that's something we're working especially with our new teachers. We're providing scripts for because it is sometimes awkward when people and let's be honest, not a lot of our parents answer their
029phone anymore. A lot of times they see us a number from the school and then they call back to the school office. So we find that as well. But we do want to have because that's how we get that feedback back with a seesaw we push out. But this the phone calls really allows us to hear back from parents. >> Okay. So more >> it is. Yeah. So um and then that engagement on our engagement nights we have um at Liberty tomorrow tomorrow night we have our popsicle um event happening so families can connect. So yeah um Independence Elementary STEM same thing they have a student goal a staff goal and a family and community engagement goal. And I also like to point out that these are not the only goals that our buildings set.
030I know independence they set their STEM goals. We have a lot of goals and so but these are the ones that funnel down from our district goals. And at the middle school, again, our student, staff, and family and community achievement goal. And at the middle school and high school, because our testing window is still open, we still have a few students that were not here for testing. So, we might tweak these a little bit just because we did use some baseline data preliminarily out of this fall already. And then at the high school, being the high school aligns to many of our Caser goals, they set three student support goals and those are aligned to those Quaser goals. And just as a reminder to the board, our graduation data does come out a year late
031because they have to do all of that filtering for the four, five, six, and sevenyear graduation goals. And then they also have their staff and family and community engagement goals. >> Um on the graduation I'm assuming counselors are probably at no like who who's actively I guess trying to help those kids. >> Oh yes. >> Everybody. Um and I would say this this noticeably. >> Yes. So our our So we have actually three counselors at the high school. Two academic counselors. one more of a behavior interventionist, academic counselor, and she's really there to support those ninth graders um this year to get them off and running well, but at the other end that she does is really watching credits. So, we're trying to catch kids early because if we catch them at 12th grade, it's
032too late for them to earn enough credits. So, she's really working with those 9th graders, 10th graders, 11th graders. And then it really becomes a personalized situation where we're doing everything we can to help kids graduate, but we want a big lake diploma to mean something. So, we're not just something that we're going to just give them, they're going to earn it. And so, um, at some point it becomes a very personalized how can we help kids. And we have we have a lot of, um, systems that we can we've, um, currently started a night school where kids can get additional credits. So, if they're behind, they can attend our school in the daytime and they can attend additional courses at night to make up for some of those credits. So, um, we do have
033a summer targeted services. We have So, we're doing everything we can to help our kids graduate. Do you have participation numbers for the next school or >> I don't yet because it's just starting. It hasn't started yet. So, right now it's zero. Um but yeah, as it as they build it up, we'll we'll let you know because that's something we you know, we did this just to help those kids get those credits. So, um yeah. >> So, I'm assuming like after first try if they're failing some classes and that's when probably more night school would kick in. >> Yeah. Well, we're actually going to get it up and running. Um I think we're going to get it up and running. we're going. >> But you might add more as those things. >> And then we
034we do it from now till the end of the year. >> Um and that is usually not they're not time buckled in. They're more course like they can just get through courses. It's >> um >> do they use egenuity then? >> Yeah. Isn't that open also to some students who you know might be like 18 years old and like haven't graduated but they might have I don't know maybe half of a year left or something and they can also attend that night class. >> We have we have that and then they have other transitional programming they can do and so yeah so this is something that the state is really growing in. So, it's not, you know, trying to help kids achieve all of their high school goals and not just 18 and be