001we're going to call the school board meeting to order so that all board members are present uh first we need a motion to approve the agenda hey motion made by Nelson SE by sixberry any other discussion all in favor I oppose motion carries please stand for the pledge 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 up I know last week it was somebody else though okay okay do we have any open form okay uh having no open form we'll move on to the consent agenda uh the previous minutes from the January 22nd regular board meeting claims and accounts in the amount of $845,000 make a motion to approve the consent agenda items
002okay motion made by shilan second by Brown any other discussion all in favor I oppose motion carries uh on to donations I I will make a motion to approve the donations second second by sixberry any other discussions all in favor I I oppose motion carries American Indian parent advisory committee annual update e for e e for can do you mind expanding on that what um is it just additional um class preparation or assist for the driver's ed yeah they'll cover the cost okay right right absolutely I just wasn't sure if it was a it was like educational component or monetary component or it is it's a it's a substantial yeah for sure and then do you also mind expanding on the events like you mentioned the powwow is that something that um you were able
003to take the students from different buildings to is that like a voluntary like are you able to go so like if you are able to go we take you kind of deal is that something that is travels to different areas I mean I know that um it's wonderful that we focus our American Indian students are able to get that you know that um direct you know um connection but um just for the other students in our in our building um to witness you know that kind of event is there um anything that comes like to the area to invite the rest of the community to oh just by invite I just curious like you know hey there's a power happening in um you know um an NOA and you know if you're interested you know
004you could go I I heard I heard the were're school so that's why I wasn't sure if it was posted on Facebook okay it was you I was looking at the pictur I couldn't tell they were they were after theyed for a while but they're back open I just know that from yeah no I just I I like I said I thought you'd heard it heard it was a school and I so I wasn't sure if that's something that like moves to different schools you know or if it's you know sure sure of course of e yes it is you for so what metrics do you use then to see that it's going well is it the feedback from that parent group or there student specific metrics that you use e thank you thank you
005uh Financial reports good evening I'll start out with uh my regular financial report and then we have our new food service director Alissa wman here and I'll have her come up later and she's going to do a short presentation so we'll start out with a usual enrollment update and we have more good news this month um we have seven average daily membership increase mainly from the Elementary grades um what I noticed this month was like there was a shift of from middle school high school in person learning over to Big Lake online and then Big Lake online also gained some a few students but mainly it was the shift from the iners to Big Lake online um so our average ADM um from September through February we're actually nine over our revised budget so we
006keep getting better and better every month so and then there's the graph that you see every month and you can see that orange line there's a big you know bigger gap between that budgeted that straight yellow line so um so we're in good shape um because as you know that's our bread and butter of our revenue for the district so good news on enrollment it's been a it's been nice to be able to give this good news every month um and then my focus this past month was then on doing a budget revision for food service because I like to do that kind of halfway through the year so I had participation through January and so really small changes um the revenues increase a little over 32,000 and expenditures increase a little over 35,000 um
007I we had like in so from what I budgeted um I I increased basically the participation because at the time when I did the original budget we had factored in an enrollment decline because remember I know if you remember we were forecasting an enrollment decline we didn't have that um but uh Alyssa is going to go over some of our parti participation rates so she'll go over that in her presentation but we're all said and done um that's what I'm projecting the restricted fund balance 690,000 690 it is in compliance with food service fund balance Federal Regulations um the state has waved the normal 3 months of operating expenditures in 2425 they are telling us it's going to come back in 2526 but because we've been and as you know I I've reported on this
008before we've been spending down that fund balance because we've had I think we're in our third year of a of a equipment replacement plan so and actually if you keep go in there yeah that's I just kind of wanted to refresh your M or actually I don't think I've communicated what we've done done now in 2425 but you can see everything we've done in equipment upgrades and so um and these were really needed um so it was really good to see that nice healthy fund balance so we're able to do this and then we're not using general fund money to make some of these upgrades and then if you go on to the next Slide John for 2526 this is what we have planned already um actually just got some quotes on I can't I
009think it was little yeah Liberty Middle School kitchen flooring so we'll get that going for July they're planning to do that work and then um here's some other items that we're planning for 2526 so what I'm basically saying is is that even though that thre Monon operating expenditure maximum that we can have in fund balance is coming back in 25 26 will be fine because we've been spending it down on equipment and Equipment that's been needed so I just want to emphasize that with the board that that that will be fine when that comes back and with that I am going to ask Alyssa to come up and yeah and John's gonna go too she's got a short presentation and I'll let Alyssa introduce herself good evening everybody so my name is Alysa wman I'm
010kind of short kind of my history is I've been in the food industry basically my whole life life ever since I was able to get a job at the age of 16 um I started working in a fast food restaurant and I loved it I was asked to become an assistant manager at the age of 18 can you hear me yeah okay um my first year in management our team won restaurant of the year and I was just excited about that I was able to use the money that I earned and take a trip to haai so that was super exciting and rewarding and I've ever since just loved the food service industry and restaurant management um as my kids started getting older I found that restaurant management was very difficult to have with family
011so that's why I went with the school and started working in food service and school industry and I absolutely love it I am happy to be here and I can't wait to continue to grow with Big Lake School so we can go to the next slide and I'll talk about our participation so for Liberty Elementary School our breakfast participation is at 45% which is 4% less than last year uh the lunch participation is at 80% which is 2% less than the prior year for Independence Elementary School breakfast participation is 29% which is 9% less than the prior year our lunch participation for inde Independence is 79 % which is same as pretty much broken even and next slide for Middle School breakfast participation is at 8% which is 5% less than the prior year lunch
012participation is 79% which is 11% more than the prior year high school our breakfast is 12% which is the same as the prior year and lunch participation is 64% which is 1% more all right Global eats this is something I'm really excited to dive into I have a lot to learn yet before I can get started with getting this rolling but I'm super excited I think this is a very fun concept um can go on to the next and my favorite food is from India so I think that's where I would start on that one and then next slide my first week here I was told that we have a hydroponic gardening system and I think that would be fun thing to utilize and do fresh herbs and lettuce for our schools the herbs I
013think would be great in sauces and spaghetti and stuff like that so that's something that I'm excited to dive into and try to roll out for our schools too and I think that's about all I have um any other questions for about me I have three daughters I have a husband that I've been with for 30 years um that's about it and yeah MH yes yes there we have an extensive special diet menu I was actually out grocery shopping today to restock on the supplies so we do have several different menus for the kids that have special diets y yep yep with the parents and the nurse so have you are what your plan moving forward as far as like feedback from the students is it anecdotal or you know how they're liking different menu
014items or not liking do they get student feedback at all I believe yeah yeah I believe there is a program through Chartwells that has um student um I'm not sure what it is called yet um student eats or yeah yeah yes I've been here for five weeks I've learned a lot but I have a lot to still learn yeah as far as menu options in general doing while those during tasting sessions she kind of solicit feedback I thought she did some electronic surveys too or something didn't she yeah so I think they have a system through Chartwells where they can do that yeah yeah I will still be diving into that yeah well that's sometimes works um I was just going to ask about the hydroponic gardening um is that something that and it's prob
015maybe too soon to ask this question but maybe that could be done with student interaction that was the idea I I'm don't remember the gentleman's name who was running it I believe it was Tim um but that was the Mr okay thank you thank you yeah he said that he had students get involved with that and learning how the gardening and that goes I do believe I would have to get go through the steps and regulations to get it approved and all that kind of stuff to utilize it in the cafeteria yeah that would be great though like arm to table kind of thing yes exactly yeah okay thank you going after that I had a I'm just curious how much pre-made food is being brought in versus how much food is being made on
016site like you had said utilizing some of the herbs and things to make is exciting so I'm curious is is the majority of our lunches are they pre-made and we're just heating them up throwing them in the oven or or do we have our lunch staff like actually making a lot of this stuff there's a lot of there's a lot that I have seen that is made from scratch although there are some items that are pre-made too like a chicken patty or something that you would put on a pan but didn't know that I thought it was all just pre-made and I think yeah y like you guys aren make you're not forming tater tots but when we did the extensive search I we've been for a while but we did the extensive search that
017was part of the attraction to walls because they really push when we did that kind of survey of all the differentes I think they there's a huge catalog yeah I don't believe that is no yeah no yeah and there was more restri a lot there was more rest are are we talking about restrictions as far as carb intake or oh that's still in line yeah I believe there's going to be more changes yet to come with the menu with there's the final rule um starting so there's going to be even more of a decline in sugars and more of a decline in carbs and Y go very good good that's good to here it's a nice selection field you should get on the go than you welcome thank you welcome I'm happy to be here
018thank you I do have uh let's see I had yeah let's uh okay that okay yeah that's the regular um budget report you see every month month which is the change in Food Service um I did have yes we did have one more slide that we need to talk about um we have started um actually looking at Staffing for next year and we have two two additional FTE we would like to bring to the board tonight um one is a high school DCd ASD Teacher DCd is develop help me out development cognitively delayed ASD autism thank you thank you um and then uh reason being is is there's uh next year they're projecting some pretty high case loads and then the other one is a 1ft elementary teacher we will be shifting one at Liberty
019to go to indep because Independence needs two again to reduce those class sizes to within the board approved range so we'll shift one from Liberty but Independence needs two so we have an addition of one FTE ele elementary teacher right now just Shi at the middle school and high school no additional FTE um but we would like the approval tonight because we'd like to get postings out especially for that High School DCd ASD Teacher so is there a larger amount of second graders so that's why there's a shift yeah there's that bubble class right right Janna I always call the bubble class that's coming through yeah yeah oh yeah yeah were yeah y yeah yeah because we've added during the year I know yeah yeah we've added students so so what grade are you foring
020going oh can you help me out J yeah and that fourth grade next year is that I always call it the bubble class yeah that's the big one because I think we're over yeah yeah and it's I want to say there's like 277 or something like that in that grade so yeah that's the kindergarten classes started after covid yeah yeah so um if we just go on to the last slide so the board action I need is to approve the Food Service budget re excuse me food service budget revisions um approve the Staffing addition requests if if so if you so desire and then approve the financial report just clarify on the um you the Staffing increase obvious increased enrollment what's the offset close to covering that by increased revenue or is that so so
021the the high school DCd ASD Teacher so we'll get the special ed funding for that but as you know it's a year later so rule of thumb we get about 60% back yes so partially get some funding for that um and the elementary teacher yeah it like like you mentioned with our enrollment increase I mean that will help offset those costs so um probably almost budget neutral I mean I'm put it this way I'm not concerned budgetarily with these two positions you're not seeing this correct correct now we don't know what the legislature is going to do I'm just going to put that out there but at this point at this point you feel conf you feel comfortable with the Rite yes and and just if I may real quick uh Madam chair members of
022the board too typically we maybe take this to like say a finance committee to kind of review some of these things but in light of the timing and we want to make sure we get everything taken care of as soon as we can especially in some of these hard to fill positions we want to get the best possible candidates we can so that's why we're bringing it forward and because it was relatively cost neutral we felt like this was something we could bring for the full board and and make the request at this time but as always if people are uncomfortable we could pull it back and go to the finance committee but yeah I mean I'm on finance commit make them I'll make the motion to add the additional Staffing I think it's important
023that we we stay within the board approved range I mean that's huge um it's been really important to Big Lake and I think we need to continue that Trend um I think large class sizes would only put our students at a disadvantage so I'll make that motion so it's one FTE to high school and one FTE to the elementary school yeah High School um ASD DCd I say that right yeah do you want to add those other two items up there too sure will make the motion to approve the food Ser service sorry I can't talk Food Service budget revisions and um the financial report yeah we can do it we can do it all in one yeah that's fine um I do want to add just one thing just just so the board is
024aware so there was I think one other position that um the special team had recommended um but I had mentioned to Mr trumbach I want to have further discussion about it um we may come back with that one but I just want to explore could we it's it's a support position that we might be able to partially fill with from within so I didn't want to bring that forward tonight and then I we meet in April um about par Educators because we can't really make a projection yet because kids move in and out all the time so we're going to be meeting in April regarding par Educators so so just want to just let you know that that will may be coming forward too and if I could just interject as well too is that
025this would be the time I would say this month and next month we may be coming forward with more disc right the initial right right and this one again it was just because we wanted to get the postings out well and a DCd teacher is going to be hard to find difficult to find so you get ahead of it well I think a lot of teachers are starting to look in like February March exactly yeah so the for for the next year no no no next school year yeah yeah but that yeah because we we want to I don't know lck of a better word get ahead of the game you know like if teachers are looking and and that worked um boy was that last year we added a speech position we posted early
026and we got somebody and that was rare well and you have all of your special ed positions filled this year correct uh we we do with some right alternative licensing that's kind because there are some districts around the area that do not have corre those positions built correct right okay sixberry made the M for the food service budget revisions approve the 2526 Staffing addition requests and approve the financial report and Mr Nelson just beat you in it a second and is there any other discussion all in favor I oppose motion carries and you're up for the next one yeah my not so um oh you don't have the attachment oh there was in BO there was okay well okay well that's okay yeah that's weird because it was in there there it is there it
027is yep yep um so so yeah we were at the end of our three-year contract so just with our most recent audit our fiscal year 24 audit so I asked Caroline for another three-year quot because we were we were under three-year contract and want to mention that during so during our previous three-year contract they like many other accounting and audit firms increase rates significantly um by 15% and so we were protected from that for two years because we already had a contract that being said they've Incorporated that increase now for this this three so this three-year contract um one other thing they did well little bit different is is they they have like a a fee for like the basic financial statements and then if we need a single audit and then they break it
028out by like what's called each major federal program we will always have a single audit just because of food service food service with a free we we always have a single audit so we will have that and then they give a range because um like Caroline said the the regulations change all the time it just depends on how much work they need to do that the required work they need to do um so I do re recommend accepting this this three-year quote um we know Berg and kdv well they are experts in the industry um they I think they audit I want to say over 60 districts so they know they know schools and so that's and and we've been I mean we've been happy with them I think the board's been happy with them
029I haven't heard otherwise so I do recommend um approval of this quote threee I was just going to add that like for this kind of role we don't typically go out for bid because we want to keep the same company well I I do I do a price I do I do this for a price check so yeah and and and I knew this was coming because I've been hearing this other auditing firms doing the same I know of um well-known auditing firms with school districts not taking on new clients because of Staffing because there there's a staffing shortage there as well so cont uh Bergen kdv yes I'll second okay motion May by shilan second by sixberry any other discussion all in favor I oppose motion carries all right thank you thank you Angie
030Angie I have one question written down I'm sorry on your budget revision it mentioned SVP Grant what was that I just didn't know SV oh that's the cops Grant okay yeah thank you yeah yeah I just I said I just didn't recognize that y y yeah question thank you yep okay on to Independence Elementary radon test results TJ it is I've the hot seat we got questions t e for rep are those two disappeared new thank you TJ appreciate your work yes Madam chair members of the board I know I did send this out to you during my weekly report hopefully you had an opportunity to kind of review it I'm just going to give you a highlevel overview of the proposed calendar for the next school year it is very similar to this current
031year uh with the exception of a few different um PD days falling on a couple different weekends but the big change uh for next year is that we will have for the students a two we window around the holidays off from school um and the reason for that is the timing of the holidays and where they fall um made it difficult for us not to bring students back for say one day which teachers in the audience that would not be good right so so we are we are uh working through that but um as required by our mou with blem we did have an opportunity to review with the teacher group they did provide feedback I also ran it by minda and the principls uh so that we made sure and also um our literacy
032uh teachers um make sure that we were in line with the game plan this is the second year of a two-year program for that literacy required literacy training uh this will uh help facilitate that and get us to an end point with some of our teachers at that point so uh but just a reminder to another big difference with this calendar for next year is that this year we had one day in which it could be a traditional snow day but because we have one fewer one less student contact Day next year we will have our 5e learning days or we will instead of going from a just a traditional snow day we'll move right into an e-learning day right away so we're working that out and again Blen worked with us and um they
033were in support of that plan so uh at this point we've gone through the process that uh uh if there's no questions I would recommend uh approval of this so we can communicate out to our families because we do receive some phone calls right Kim we do receive phone calls about when's Break um and that kind of thing so it will be helpful to get this done yep motion to approve calendar okay motion made by shilan second by Nelson any other discussion all in favor I oppose motion carries uh we have to approve a work session for June 11th uh 2025 at 6:30 in the Middle School yeah Madam chairman I just a couple things uh we we've done this the past couple years it provides us a nice opportunity for our principles to kind
034of give an end of the year kind of review of goals and kind of some highlights for the school year it's a great way to kind of wrap up the school year and move on into Turn the Page uh into the next school year um so this one was not on our organizational meeting uh calendar originally right Kim yeah it is the second Wednesday it's second Wednesday I already have it blocked out second Wednesday so um it's in room 60 session right behind here yeah so um it provides a nice opportunity for us to have a discussion so I will make a motion to approve the work session on June 11th second by Brown any other discussion all in favor I I oppose motion carries uh School Board committee representative updates Finance we haven't had
035a meeting yet uh policy uh we it was a short meeting it was a short meeting and we got everything I was good so you act surprised well for a long time it took a long time we had stuff bumping off yeah we so we are we're good we were good uh buildings and grounds did you have a meeting since last time okay uh any other things that have happened other meetings I can give a quick update on on right TCH just that we are moving forward we uh the committee met earlier this week and um we have some good candidates in place and hope to start interviewing next week so that's what to say about that but it it's looking good that's good next Tuesday so as far as H saf schools advocating for
036fair funding is concerned We There are a list of there was an email that came out I believe about five I think five bills that our lobbyist is kind of eyeballing and looking over um start putting in words about um that do support equilization um and increase L couple of them increase L with the first couple hundred dollars being directly the state option and so there's nothing ground shaking as far as the capital goes at this point um I was able to attend the school's advocating for fair funding day at the capital Mr trach um but because of the start of the legislative session being uh disjointed um there's not a lot of forward momentum to kind of rally behind keeping up with the meetings and updates and um trying to catching up on some
037policies I do I'm sure it's going to be as a department steel Thunder just a tiny bit thank you to superintendent trouin Bach for testifying on behalf of Big Lake Schools um he testified in front of the tax committee the Senate tax committee last week I think it was just last week it was last week last week um did a very nice job um representing um all the great work doing and why a sales tax exemption for that uh building would be beneficial for our school so thank you very much to do that any other committees that any other think so okay on to the student representative rep hello for EXP superintendent report Madam chair members of the board I do have a few items but before I begin we're GNA invite TJ back on
038up because he's got a couple updates that he I know right I know right well I want to get those Cabinet member updates uh TJ's got some just an image to share with you because he's been working hard with the middle school and as you recall we are on ph is it technically phase four is that where we're on TJ final the final phase we'll call it of the 2021 now want to be singing that song TJ uh oh yeah I know I was like High School right anyway uh no but he's got uh a uh drawing of middle school which is the primary focus for this Summer's work John's hiding back there so I don't know what that I I don't know what that means he literally went in the back fin but the
039students will have access to that garage door of dis a lot of AIO dis those are ROP firl gas be that is exciting thank you for keeping the bookful she try on the really cold nights for board meetings will be held in the fireplace and am I correct that the they're supposed to be specialed like Pur special ed so are those classrooms that are listed there are those special classrooms or general classrooms or what okay so they're not within this space okay So within the same shell that we have current okay all right well the excitement the excitement has merely begun because I'm about to give my report so so I will uh I do have just a quick legislative update uh the M Masa and msba Joint day at the capital is on March
04010th Ashley and I do int uh do uh uh plan to attend so if anyone is interested it does require a registration because they do provide some food and snacks and and and to kick it off so please let Kim and myself know if you're interested in attending it's a good day um and hopefully being later in the session we we will be able to have some more targeted bills to speak to some people about so if you're interested please let us know um now from my from around the district uh I need to put a big shout out uh to Bri Hawkins at the high school I I attended her choir concert or their choir concert uh on Monday it was great my goodness they did a fantastic job uh looking forward to band
041uh next next Monday next Monday so I'm looking forward to that so I think they did a really nice job and they really work hard they're really proud and I want you to know too when I go to chamber of Commerce meetings they get sick of me um saying it so much but I always say that we've got some great stuff going on come and check it out I always encourage them to come and check it out because almost every night um there's something fun going on so and also I do want to acknowledge today it was the History Day judging day today I know Ashley and Lynette took part in it um I kind of I was around um uh around doing some things uh but I want to give a big shout out
042to the Big Lake Middle School social studies Department in sixth grade it's April Bishoff and Anne sner seventh grade Julie uh browan and uh Jeff pinck eighth grade Allison sand and Jeff logal they work really hard to put this on and it's a big deal it's almost one of those right a passage type projects that kids remember what they did for History Day and uh they remember how nervous they got to present to whomever it was and uh it's a big deal and I was a lot of excitement and it was all a buzz here in the middle school so it's a great day and it's a great event um what's that it was here today it was today it was the judging yeah it was the judging today can I just add one absolutely
043so um they they invited more parents to participate as judges and I got some really good feedback from the parents that were in the room that were just really they really were glad that they were invited to come in so I just wanted to pass that along that you know when when your children get older your opportunities to volunteer change um and this is kind of one of those rare opportunities where you can come in and volunteer at the middle school and so the parents the parents um I I appreciate hearing that um because I know I I enjoy it every year um whether or not I have a student for dis AG I sure enjoy um seeing all the work that our kids are doing they put in so much effort and passion into
044it and so um I just wanted to put out there to the to the group that the parents really did appreciate being invited into that today that's great that's great I'll make sure I pass that on um because it takes a lot to coordinate and so it's really a big deal so that's great um there's a few items on the calendar coming up and I will send these out but I'm going to just run through them really quick in case you want to capture them um so just a reminder on March 6th there's no school for grades K through five because of conferences March 7th there's no school for a PD day uh and as I mentioned March 10th Masa msba day at the capital uh myself and Ashley and anyone else interested um March
04512th is a work session uh 6:30 here and it is with the the Hockey Association is going to present and we'll continue our discussions around referendum disc Association ice Association sorry my my that's okay all right two different things I will but they're kind of separate I will I'm going to change that right here in my little notes so thank you for that correction you're welcome um March 13th stem night that's a big one and it there get here early because the parking is limited um so we have a co-op we have a co-op meeting same time so should we tell monel and Becker yeah should probably come a little early they should just start walking from their mono and Becker uh No so at five o'clock it is a great Showcase of our stem
046activities and things going on all grade levels are represented generally speaking and we got some great things going so please come and check that out also simultaneously we have governing board of five Tanya you and I with the special ed Community aded advisory 5:30 on the 18th all right I'm getting the nod of approval back there uh PTO literacy night was rescheduled from the really chilly night which was like a week ago um uh on March 8 it's only in Minnesota like a 50 degree turn or more than um so on March 18th PTO literacy night will be at 6 and then March 19th policy committee uh 5:30 Tanya Ashley and Derek and then our regular meeting is March 26th um so basically corresponding days of the calendar from February and March so that's how
047that lines up but um that is all I have for my report unless of course there are questions any questions okay I will make