Byron School Board Meeting (4/22/25)

001number 531 on April 21st at 6:01 p.m. Can we have an attendance roll call, please? Jerry here, Alicia here, Nadia here, Kelly here, Lisa here, here. All right, if you'll rise and face the flag for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Visions by our public schools, a community of learners committed to making the world a better place. Mission: learn, share, innovate, inspire. And our priorities are to personalize learning in the pursuit of academic excellence. inspire students and staff to develop their character, share their talents, and apply their learning and maintain excellence in resource management. I did not receive any cards for speakers. Did either of you receive

002any? Okay. So, no public comment tonight. So, we'll get to uh action on the agenda items. Any questions or discussion on the agenda as presented? Or would entertain a motion to approve? So moved. Second motion and a second. All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Agenda is approved. We will kick it off with a transportation presentation from Miss Val. Hi. Hi guys. I'm Val Linda. I know I haven't met most of you yet. Hi. So, I have been here for 11 years um as the manager and we up there have one supervisor, John Welock, who has 14 years of experience here. um does a great job running our buses and keeping them completely safe and on the road and also is very he saves a lot of money for our district because he's a

003very handy guy. Um we currently have 30 drivers uh total between myself and the subs. Um we um on these I did a little slideshow here letting you guys know that kind of does a little breakdown of our students. Um how many students we have and how many we currently are busing. Um it's kind of interesting. We've got um we bus about 58% of our district. 45% are students who live within the walk zone or are outside of the district not needing transportation. Um you tell me when you want to move forward after this. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Um each year like a start of the year during the summer I you know work on doing our routing um assignments. That's how we get that breakdown of how many students are on our buses. Um, do

004you guys have any questions on that before I flip over? Okay. Um, the other Yeah, that one, Mike. Sorry. So, this is just kind of giving you guys a um just some facts and information. Year to date, we've already done that 161,000 miles. We do put a lot of miles on our buses here in this district. Um, we average that 23,000 a month. Um, we have 13 full-size routes out on the road every day. Um, we do four specialed routes and then it says four bands of cars, but we are down to two two routes that are done by vans. Um, we have 30 total units. So, we do have six large buses that are spares out on the lot, which we tend to use quite often because of our sporting events. Um, and then

005just if you know we have something extra that we have one down. Um, we do have a again one spare bus that has a wheelchair lift. Those are definitely needed. And then we have a 10 passenger van along with a little bus um that is our activities bus. It's 14 passengers. Um, so a type three driver, so you know, a coach or anybody that wants to obtain a type three certification with the DOT fiscal card can drive that. So even though it's a little bus, it has to say activities on the top. Um, but they are allowed to drive that with 14 kows in there. Um, let's see. We I think what's important is is why there's six or extra seven extra buses or six large buses or extra because a lot of times our

006routes aren't back in time before activities need to go. So you need to have those buses. You know, you just don't have buses or routes automatically go out. You have to have extra buses because sometimes sports need to leave at 2:00 and they got out early to get to somewhere else. And so you have to still have those route buses. So I think that's what people don't understand. Well, you just have these buses and just use those. No, we have to have these extra ones for these reasons and and so forth. And so, and there's routes going all throughout the day even, right? Over to Zed for special education students and and back and forth. And so there's there's buses going all day long. All day long. We have special preschool that runs and that

007is that is all during the middle of the day. And then like as Mike said, we do run over to um to Cassin um with three different vehicles throughout the day there. Um and then yes, it it does seem like a large number of spears, but they're they actually are they're on the road a lot. Um and when during the winter, we always call one our chase bus because we never want a bus to, you know, go down or gel up or go into the ditch or something and then not have a warm bus to go bring the kids. So we always have we always think of those items as well. So when you say spares, you're not actually talking spares that are just sitting there not even being used. They're always in use. Uh

008they're not always in use. No, but during the sport season they are. They're they're heavily in use during our sport season. So you know that we don't have much of a downtime between our sports. Um, and that does that that does bring that to that issue of where we we have so many sports that go out before routes we get out. So, you're trying to find a spare driver to drive those spare buses. Um, yeah. So, I have then the next uh slide, Mike, I just say one more thing because I want to toot your horns over the bus garage a little bit. you know, Val and John do a good job, but the other reason why there's these extra buses is um you know, the DOT comes and inspects buses and some sometimes you

009have to be down for servicing or for whatever. And uh and this year did amazing. I think there's only one or two buses out of all these buses that didn't pass and just had some small fixes that needed to be done and and whatever. So, that's awesome. And and like she said, John um does do all that work himself and goes and does a lot sometimes if they he needs tires or whatever put on, you know, they might do that. But most of the work he does himself and and then to pass those inspections that need to happen every year is really important. So if you do have a bus go down because of that, you do need those buses as well. Absolutely. So they come they come and inspect annually and we know when

010that inspection is, but you never know what they're looking for and nor you know do we want to know what they're looking for because we always want to make sure that the buses are on that road safely at all times. Um, but yes, in cases that they do come in, they find something, they can take it for, you know, a very small reason and then it's down. So that's it's it's down for that day um until you can get it fixed again. So there that's the other nice part of having spares. The other ones with the spare short um lifts, things happen where you just can't get a you know wheelchair lift down. you it's you have to really have um a few bears on your fleet to make sure that you can get the

011kids to and from school. Um yes and and as Mike said, you know, not to to horn, I guess. Um but yes, I do feel that the bus garage runs excellent. Um the drivers are great. We have a very great group of bus drivers. I feel I also know that they enjoy what they do. They enjoy where they work. Um, this has a lot of a lot of reasons behind it. First and foremost, that I've been here 11 years in the board, and I say this all the time, the board has always been so supportive. Every superintendent's been supportive of us and staff. Um, discipline area actions with our principles, hands down, I it's it's great parent interaction, um, communication. Being a mother of five kids, I know that parents need to call. Something's happened

012on the school bus. They need to be heard and the kids just, you know, it's their children. I mean, I want to hear it too and we don't want things to be happening on the bus at any time. Um, I know the drivers do really respect, you know, the district because we are owned and operated by Byron Public Schools. Um, when you do get into some of these different scenarios where the con the districts are contracted out, you lose that one- on-one with your parents in your district. Um, because they have the say, they have the say in what's happening. And between Pine Island and Cassen and myself, we get along so well and we are always there to help each other out. When you get into contractors, they're a business. They want to definitely

013stay to their own and not have that neighborly feel so we can actually like really call on each other which we've had to throughout the last few years since we all are finding that negative of we're all short bus drivers and so we've helped Kassen and in return they've helped us and same as Pine Island. Um, we also have figured out, you know, just to show you guys how it looks, how busy we are throughout with the trips, um, and activities, field trips, and just the away um, events for sports. Between August and April, we have nearly done 400 trips so far. And, um, we have a great little program that calculates everything out for us. We're very up to date with that. Um, we use a new program called Easy Route, uh, which really

014breaks things down for us nicely. Um, I guess another few couple things I think I've already touched on though, like you know, our challenges. Obviously, every department has their challenges and we're no different. And I think those challenges, like I said, are the shortage of bus drivers everywhere. Um, and then the the other thing we do find is that sporting challenge of it's great that we're getting bigger. It's also one of those things where our districts getting bigger. We're moving up into different um different areas and going further. So, we do see the our buses have to leave a little earlier. So, that can be a little challenging. Um, but the, you know, the positives definitely outweigh our negatives here. So, do you guys questions have any questions for me? I'm not a speaker, just

015so you know. I I those of you that know me and your know that I can talk a lot but don't do well in this part. Tom tries to run out the door some days as he's leaving and I'm like, "Wait, one more thing." You said you have 30 drivers including subs. What would be the ideal number for you to have? Well, we definitely would if you're dreaming dreaming um 35 35 would be a very nice number to have with with those other three. We would with the five be nice to see three that want to take on a full-time route. Um, just take on a full route. That was really helpful. Thank you. Yeah. Shout out to Steve who gets my kids to school to and from safely every day. Have you ever had

016to um um not have a route? Have you ever had to turn down a sporting event or turn or like not be able to pick up kids one day? Well, you know, and we have not been able to have turn down a sporting event. We get very creative um with that. So, and our coaches are really good at helping that out, too. You know, even Tom back here and he's been driving again. It's like, "Hey, I could do this or could you move this around?" I mean, with everybody's input, you you know, that's the coaches see it. Justin Blum for instance, he's taken over like his golf fair. He's like, "Hey, Val, let's do this. Do this." Hey, yeah, you Thank you. You know, that's really helpful. Um, do No, we've been very fortunate where

017we have not had to shut routes down again with, you know, the athletic department and coaches being able to say, "Yep, we can push this out. You know, we just may have to give that other school a call. We're not going to show for 15 more minutes." So sometimes you've called Kassen and said, "Do you have an extra driver around or whatever?" You know, they share rooms that way, right? And so sometimes you do that or alter schedules, you know, or whatever. But yeah, most of the time they can get people there and during the routes, you know, they do the best they can not to have to shut down a route. I know our schools have done that. In my previous school district, they had to do that. just reach out and say there

018is no route tomorrow and we don't have a driver or you have to get your own kids there and and fortunately Val's been able to make that and so we don't have to do that. I also want to give Val and John uh kudos because on those snowy days I get up at 5 or so and first person I text is Val and her and John have already been out on the roads and out on all the dirt roads and they tell me yes we can get the buses through or no we can it's 10 in we can still get those buses. Well, wait. I'm going to call I'm going to call you on that. You know, but u they're already out driving the roads and checking it out throughout the district and it's a

019can be a pretty big district when you think of all the roads that we have. And so I really appreciate them. I won't say that they're the ones who call school because I don't want any emails to be sent to them, but they're the ones who give me the information that uh I need to also give to the other superintendents about, you know, because sometimes they don't have their people out, but we have our people and D and John do a good job doing that. And so, I really appreciate that. And then tomorrow is bus driver appreciation day. So, I will be bringing by donuts I hope in the morning. bottles has enough for me to bring over. And uh Belle, if you want a special donut, you send it what you want to me.

020Thank you. I definitely would do that. Thank you. And again, this is again the the support that everyone shows and our superintendent that let's take like what is Val and John thinking because I know I know a few other of my areas that they don't, you know, everybody just takes in consideration like, oh, we're just going to call school or we're just going to make those buses go. But when you have that support of your superintendent and Mike, like I said, Mike calls really early, texts really early. Yep. You're up and at him, you know, just to say because you don't know, you know, cuz he's not out even though he's out driving, but he doesn't know what makes that bus in those gravel roads. So, thank you for that, Mike. Any other questions? Yeah.

021Uh, just to understand how how the buses work. Um, so with the 400 trips this year, right, it looks like it's at least two trips per day, two additional activities, trips, trips a day. Is that approximately right or is there like a range of no trip some days and then six trips and other days? Yes. So there's a range of no trips some days. It's just when our sports are on mostly real heavy in the sports season, spring, all the little kids are going to the zoo or up to, you know, on a field trip. Um there is a couple different classes that go um high school classes that go to parks or do I think it's a maybe it's not called sportsman biology anymore that's what it was called environmental science environment yes so

022it is not all sport nowadays yeah a lot of sports and mostly majority of sports but if u for field trips for example if a grade level goes they usually take two or three buses is that counted as three trips or is that still counted as one? Maybe you can ask. Um that is still just counted as one. That isn't does that 400 doesn't show that we've sent four buses out per trip. So Oh yeah, it is a lot. And do you have So you also service Rochester um the two areas in Rochester that we have. Okay. Um, and is there like a minimum number of kids per trip or something on the routes? So the, you know, our buses activities as well. Yeah. For our buses, depending on each bus, you know, we usually

023say we don't want to put more than 50 high schoolers, middle school high schoolers on the bus. You know, they're larger. The seats, even though it says it's an 83 passenger bus, you're not definitely I mean, you want to pack that many, but we wouldn't. Um when you get to the kindergarten through that fifth grade on a field trip we usually run it right about 60 60 kids. We do have buses with undercarriage so under storage which like right now we are putting a little bit more kids on. We're pushing that seventh eighth C squad baseball maybe if it works. Um so then other backs can go underneath. So we have ordered buses to make sure that okay get more kids on but all their bat bags cuz one bat bag is about as big

024as a student. Um sometimes we have to take trailers. Um we do you know take trailers to sporting events. Um the other things with Rochester roughly we run right about that 60 60 kids 60 two I don't like to push those but you know those over Rochester kids. So call them Rochester kids but our buses don't just specifically go to Rochester for just Rochester students. So we do go and we're on our way. Our lines are so close. If you're out on 60th by uh Monkey Junction, they call it right there off Valley High Road. That neighborhood just to the north of that little church is Byron. You know, we have probably 12 kids that live in that neighborhood. So even before it, you know, for me somewhere you have to turn around. So therefore,

025they just, you know, went past it, picked went past and register and picked them up. But yeah. Is there like a minimum number of kids per bus? Um, I like to shut that right off about that 60. Okay. 65. So, you do not have routes that have fewer than 60 kids and you just combine them. Sometimes it depends on like let's say you are going since we have two different routes. We have middle school, high school, and then K then elementary. So you bring in like a larger load of kids from user you're maybe you're at that full limit or out you know towards the country and then all of a sudden I'm sorry like you're out in the country you're putting on the miles you don't have maybe as many kids clearly but you're

026putting on the miles out there. you come back in, you maybe only have 30 kids on, but then you're going dumping off kids at the middle school or the high school, getting rid of them. And then um then you're going back around and you're filling those buses up with in town kids and our in town buses are full. For for sports wise though, if you're for example, if it's just a varsity team that's going to a section playoff and they take a bus, you know, you might you won't have 50 kids. You might only have 20 or something like that, right? So, and coaches and stuff. So, and we've offered and a lot of our coaches, we pay our coaches, you know, to to drive and so a lot of our coaches have taken this

027up and got their license. It makes it more convenient for them, you know, they come and go and so forth. But, so we appreciate the coaches that do that. It helps us with drivers that are fine, especially if they leave early and so forth. Thank you. Thank you. We move on to the superintendent report. Yes. Um rather quickly, spring sports and activities have started. So, our teams are busy trying to get all their games in. We hope for great weather and so just want to we had our first baseball game out uh last last week out on the field and so um hopefully that hopefully the weather holds up for everybody and good luck to everybody and a lot of their season summer seasons don't end until June so it uh goes past school. We

028also have a lot of people recognize. I mentioned the bus drivers. Uh I don't think I have them on here, but this is when you look at all the different appreciation weeks and so forth that happened. Um so board members, if you want to, you know, send something to people, you certainly can. Uh but just know that you know between our schools and our district, we are recognizing, you know, everybody as we go forward. Oh, the 23rd is administrative assistance day. I got two days, right, E? Yeah. So, so um and then uh so but we want to thank everybody that's part of it and we um you know we don't want to just appreciate them for one week or one day but we want to appreciate them throughout but it is a nice way

029to be able to say thank you for what they do and we try to send like I said texts or emails or principles will take care of it a lot. April is also we're in the middle of the testing month right now. Our students staff are busy doing the MCAs and math and science or high school students. We're taking the ACTs. We just have a lot of things going on right now. Stress level is a little up because you have to follow certain procedures as a staff member and you want to make sure everyone's quiet and everyone's orderly and the kids they get a little stressed out. Um, you know, I've been saying things in the buzz about just keep calm and make sure they're getting enough kids getting enough food and sleep and so

030forth. and our staff does a great job of taking care of them during during testing time and but again remember testing is just a snapshot on that one day and there's just a whole lot more that goes on but um it is something that we need to do and then also prom is this Saturday so grand march begins at the performing arts center at 4:30 so if you want to go and be part of grand march you certainly can I know they charge $5 a person to to view it because then they use the money for the following year for props and so forth cuz they decorate um that area pretty well. It's great for the kids to do that and be seen then to go off and do their prom stuff after that. And

031so I want to thank everybody for for put it's a lot of work to put all that stuff together. So, um I also wanted to let you know that um recently because of our financials um audit last year or this past back in December, then uh we work with S&P Global for our bond ratings and so forth and uh they were sent a copy of our audit and so forth. So then they called met with Dan and I and two people from our financial advisors from Ellers and we were at a double A minus rating and um because of that uh audit and in kind of our present situation that they've um downgraded us to a A minus rating. Now that doesn't affect any present loans because we're on a fine we're on a fixed

032uh rates and so forth. But, you know, sometimes we will get elders to come and say, "Well, if you refinance at this time, you can do this and this is how much you would save." We just um wouldn't save as much. So, we may not be able to refinance, may not be worth for the district to refinance at the time. or in the future if you were to go out and and build add more thing another ref you know a bond referendum or something and needed to take a loan out um you may not get as as low of a interest rate at that time. Now what they will do is re-evaluate the district's financial situation. They said in probably two years is what they do. Let things kind of settle, figure things out. You

033know it'll be uh we'll talk about the referendum coming up. So that will c that would certainly help, but they will re-evaluate where you're at. Um and if things are progressing well, they would then improve that rating possibly. Um if things are continue to go, you know, down a little bit, then they may also um may may decrease the rating in the future, but right now this is kind of where they felt. They sent it out to all their investors. So it's out there, but I want to let you know and the community know that it's it's something that's happened. But again, it doesn't affect what we're doing exactly right now. It could affect future um situations. Um and our president enrollment um right now as we look at the right year um 2425. Let

034me go down here. We are at 2313. So we are holding steady um at 2313. So, um, the future ones, if you look at it, you can look at the future years and see, but that that's pretty, uh, in flux right now of adding students and taking students away, but that's what we're using for our preliminary budgets in the future and so forth. But you can take a look at those at that at that point. Any questions for my report? No. No. Okay. Thank you. All right. Summary of the budget committee meeting which was earlier today. Yeah. So, and anybody who was there can also chime in. But, um, and Dan Hayen had did a great job presenting information to the uh, budget committee. There were 13 um, find my notes here. There were 13

035uh, there's 14 people on the committee. 12 of them had attended today. So, we had a great turnout. Uh we first showed the revised budget uh update and that's also in your consent agenda with uh um graphs in your consent agenda about how our expenditures and revenues are are shaping up towards the revised budget that was put out in December. So we are on track. We're tracking well for that. So that was good. So they got to see that and ask questions. Uh Dan started talk about some of the assumptions and some of the ideas like enrollment what what he would as we look at preliminary budgets. So in the next month or so we'll be looking at preliminary budgets looking at what the legislation does and so forth and by because by June 30th

036um the board has to approve a budget for preliminary budget for next year for the 25 26 school year. So we'll have a little bit more discussion on May 4th on where things are going. We'll meet with the FI uh budget committee again on May 19th and then um by at the June meeting, the second June meeting, you will have all that information and then you'll um approve a preliminary budget for next year at that time. Um however, it is just that a preliminary budget. There's a lot of things that go in there um especially next year when you look at possible passing of the referendum. You look at the October one enrollments. You look at any of the other legislative stuff coming in. You look at any um what impact did the 2.74% on

037students uh enrollment might have and so forth. And then after the referendum is completed sometime in December and negotiations are finished, you know, probably next year, probably like January, that uh finance director would come back with a a revised budget just like Julie Sing did this year in December. And then you start going through all your revenues or expenditures based on that revised budget for the year. um and make sure that you're tracking the right way so you're not going further in the hole and hopefully gaining towards your fund balance that's going on. So that's kind of the time table and that's why we started the initial conversations with assumptions to the to the committee today. And then we actually Dan put together a couple scenarios as we talked about referendum um possibilities and just

038started to show the committee um you know if they went out for $500 per student or $800 per student and with the inflation and what what that would look like in the next five years and how that would with this based on the assumptions that were made for the preliminary budget if that played out in five years how much would go up and go down and so forth. just to get that committee to start thinking around it. We'll be having that conversation more information to you again on May 4th to so you as a board because then uh by that June by that June date also you're probably going to be working with a new superintendent um because sometime in July for sure by July you have to have your number and you have to

039have your question to the state that goes on on the referendum and so we'll be looking at late May to June working with Nate Wal rook and so forth. Um, moving forward to try to to do that. So, it was a good meeting. Uh, very informative and I appreciate the 12 people that were able to show up. Anything that anybody would like to add that was on the committee? No, I feel like that was a good summary. Yeah, I appreciate Dan's work getting all that information to us that was nice to just get a a a beginning feel, I think, for what we'll be looking at the next few months. Okay. Any old or unfinished business? I don't have anything. Okay. On to action on the cross country fundraiser. And on a state trip, do

040we want to take them one at a time or I I think you would just do it together. They kind of go together. And so again, uh Tom is here and presented. And again, it's a fundraiser that um they do they and then as a donut fundraiser. And then they have some other types of sponsors. And then they use that money to go on an out of state trip um with the cross country team and they use that money for the fundraiser to offset the cost and whatever money is still needed. Then the athletes um do you know have a spot they have to pay so much as well. There are no school funds you know that we need to budget for for that. It's all them taking care of it one way or the

041other. They just want permission to do the fundraising and to be able to go out of state and um so that that's what we would like to take action on tonight and approve so Tom can get started with all this publicity. So I make a motion to approve the cross country fundraiser and out of state trip. Second. Any questions or discussion? All in favor of uh approving the motion as presented say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries and Tom can get to work. Thanks for all your work. Thank you all. I do have another place to be, but I wanted to be here for this. But I really appreciate that you're taking the students and student athletes first and then uh we'll go have a good time. Registration open. It's all drafted. I just didn't

042want to get ahead of this. You had me at donuts. All right. Discussion of the referendum costs and use of a communications consultant. Um, that's me. Okay. Uh, for now and then, um, I will ask Alicia also to chime in as needed. Um, because, uh, we have had a steering committee at the last meeting last month, you voted to go ahead with a referendum coming up in November. It is pretty imperative that this district passes an operating referendum at some point. And so, um, since we failed one last year, we already started having a referendum steering committee. I think we met three times, maybe four, three times, but they're early morning 7 am meetings. We've been we've been meet and there's been administrators, teachers, uh a parent, and board members and and and so forth

043on this committee that's been talking about um kind of how we're going to run this year and what information we need to be able to put out, all the other things that need to happen. um and learning from some of the things that we were not able to do last year with information, how to get information out, the types of means they have and so forth. So, we start talking about all those and and realize that we have a lot of ideas. We just needed some help moving forward. And so, I just there's a couple things I want people to understand um because it all plays into this election, especially as board members. Uh that a general election is what we had this past year. the even elections and those include national, state, and county

044elections. They're organized by the county um and and there's several polling places that happen. Um they're the ones who get all the election judges and information out, those sort of things um for all the county type seats and so forth. Um so and the district sends information to the county and then also sends out uh you know we had to send we sent out that one four-page flyer to talk about it. We we have to send out one we only required to send out one to do that. So we did that and um but most of the work falls on the county and and so forth to get that out. Uh a special election which is odd years is much different. Um so if we has a only has a question regarding a school district

045referendum or a school board um you know if there's a special meeting about uh you know you had somebody resign and you have to have a school board election you can um but so you can do it for school um district information if Ann had to speak on anything let me know and but it is organized by the school district it is um run by people in the district uh and in our district it is mostly run by um she gets some help but uh it's mostly organized by her. You have to get the election judges yourself. You have to hire them. You have to and in in uh January with the meeting that we had um we did resolution and have the middle school be the polling place. That's what we had two years

046or three years ago when we um did one a special election. The last one we did was two three years ago in 2021 for the bond referendum in November. We actually did one in May I believe and then or April and because you can do those more than just one time a year and it failed for the second time and then we ran another one in November and that one um passed and so um the in operating referendum u for the general election so this past year remember it's run by county yep it's run by the county right slide. It was um we had $1,100 and some change for postage. We use ISG as a uh preliminary type of consultant uh because they did they helped us out in 2021. They were $4,500, but not

047a super extensive type of of work. It was helping us just set up some mailings and and the poster boards and stuff like that that we saw to put out there and things. So, um, those were the prints and anything that we sent out from ISG, the big boards. So, that ran about $600. Printed mailers that we had to do the printing part, we ran around $2,000. And then our legal service, which would um would probably happen again or I believe happens again this year, is uh when you send in, you have to have elers draw up um some information. You have to have a lawyer go through those questions, make sure it's right. you have to file it with the state in a certain way at a certain timeline and they're the ones who

048help you do all that and then they're the ones who also help with the results and so forth. At the end the legal service ran about $7,500 for us. So last year these costs are approximately well last year we approximately spent about $15,000 on the 24 um referendum. As we look at the 21 referendum three years ago, our postage was $3,400. We had um seven election judges that we paid out $1,940, but we should have had nine. Two called in sick that morning, and so we had people do extra time, but uh you know, we should have had nine people to cover shifts and so forth. Administrative costs. Um part of the contract for for the administrative assistant is when they run a special election that they that they receive $2,500 as a stipen because

049of all the work and time that gets put in. printed mailers that's uh was $3,200 or over $3,200. I think we had two or three at the time. Legal service was 75 $7,500. Again, uh county election services, we have to pay the county to help us out. Um and so forth and and then also miscellaneous, that would be like subway sandwiches and things like that for the workers was bought and other type of miscellaneous, you know, envelopes and things. $245. So alto together, three years ago, we spent over $25,000 on running an own special election. So this fall is a special election where we would have you would have to expect more of that cost than the $15,000 from last year. And and with inflation, again, this was three years ago. And if you have

050the right number with inflation and I mean mailing you send out that cost could, you know, be closer to 30 to $35,000 to run. That's absentee ballots. And that's absentee ballots. You have to send those out and postage for those. And so yeah, you're looking at, you know, closer 30 to $35,000 probably to to run your own election. And that's not with any other types of services that you would use or anything like that. So, um, Mike, why the the big difference between postage between 2021 and 24? Do we do more mailings? Yes. In 21. Yes. Okay. And 21 that includes your absentee ballots. And so, anytime that somebody requests an absentee ballot, they either request it to be emailed or printed. If I print it, I have to mail them an application first. Then

051they send that back and then I have to mail them the ballot and then I have to include return postage back. So, it's all in the district. And then the county election services, that includes um the balloting fees, too, because the county charges us to print the ballots. Okay. But we use all of their equipment to run the Okay. And I forgot to go back and check, but I forgot what the postage rate was 3 years ago cuz I'm sure that's right. That's changed. So, do we get a bulk mailing rate? We do that. I mean, it's not a huge change, but yes. So, okay. So, the referendum steering committee is uh Alicia is on there, a Rotomire principal, Jen Hegna as a director, Justin Blum as a teacher. Um he's also been very um

052involved with the union and education Minnesota, which I'll talk about in a little bit. and then Brit Abant who's a parent and community member myself and then others who have been kind of um given information or have stopped in uh online Jeremy and then Nate Walch the new superintendent will be coming on in July and then also Dan Hy he he came in and listened and has been given some information as well moving forward. So, um, so Daylor PR, uh, steering committee, uh, we met with Jeff Daylor on on an occasion one day after school for about an hour and, uh, he gave us a presentation. They were uh PR works with school districts on and on community engagement and referendum marketing and they would produce things like meeting strategies, agendas, notes, post meeting reports,

053u publicity invitations and reporting the community communication deliverables also include slide presentations. They do the handouts for website content, news release um and then also how to get feedback methods. uh you know what type of feedback can we get from people including paper and online collection they do they will work with us to do a uh a survey if we decide that we wanted to do that um you know some things that I didn't think about is or we didn't do last year because it was so late by the time we figured out but he's already like well if we move forward have you thought about having a staff um big staff meeting have you thought about having a community meeting where you can start explaining some of these things So I haven't quite thought

054you know sometime in May having meetings already to kind of do that and then who runs it what's the message who who puts all that together you know um we do not have a compared to other big big districts who run referendums or have recently you know and a couple of them um you know just to the east of us they have a large communications department we don't and so we have people that have other full-time positions and doing those things so it's very difficult to put all things that you need together and uh make these things happen and in a in a right way and to be able to work with your committees to say tell us about you your and with the board come meet with the board and say tell us about

055what your purposes are and what you see and what and what you want and they will put all that messaging together for for the community. You know, again, the goal is to make sure that the um information is out there. It's out there efficiently and effectively and it's the correct information and it's done in a way where people will understand and can do it. And they've been working with several school districts for many years. And uh um Jeff is a former uh community uh or a uh communications director from the school district and he also works closely with Ron Wilkkey who's uh been a superintendent for many years. So Ron does the superintendent side or the school side and helps with that and they they'll be here. They'll work with other committees that come together

056and so forth. Um, and they will they have that timeline that you kind of need and how to get information out and then and especially with the information that was out there last year and now how things have changed and you want to get the right information out this year. So people really know what's going on here now, how much is different than last year. I think it's important to have this place and that's what the steering committee um and that's why I'm bringing it forward. I also wanted to make sure everybody knew kind of the costs of that and what it's going to be. Um again, it would developed schedule from the present day a um through election day. We Nate Wal was on a meeting uh before this the budget committee his his

057district that he's leaving um has worked with Daylor PR two years ago to pass their operating referendum and uh so he's he's very familiar with him and he's already kind of reached out to him and we reached out to him and they're prepared to start tomorrow if it's approved tonight they're prepared to start tomorrow and the messaging and those meetings that need to go out and they're ready to go. So um and then also as I said Justin Blonde has been very um influential with uh in our district with education Minnesota. He used to be a co- um lead co-president for the union and so he's used to working with education Minnesota. He called um the head person that deals with referendums and so forth. Education is so if you're organized they will help you.

058They will help send out some mailings. It will help get uh teachers on board and so forth like that. And and Daylor and Education Minnesota uh we've been told have worked very in many different other referendums. They work, excuse me, they work well together and they kind of play off of each other in some ways and what how that messaging works. Education Minnesota appreciates the strategy behind what daily can bring forward and Daylor appreciates the work that Education Minnesota does to get the word out and get that information out. So again, it's a a partnership all the way through and I think that that's what people need to understand as well. And because this will go it's more than just the people in this district or and the staff in our district putting something out.

059It's got to really it's it's a big picture. We want to make sure understands. Mike, did the um did the steering committee look at other companies? Like did you get bids from other, you know, to compare other PR companies? Um no. Um we I know what we did with um the one we used last year and how basic that was. ISG, which is also our architects for our buildings, but you know, they they're used to doing bond referendums because that helps them, right? If you pass it, you're going to use them and that sort of thing. And Sue Pearson's very good um and she was very helpful but when it comes to putting out the messages to that to this extent it this is you know far more uh involved. Um and from what we

060have heard and what I've known um Daylor is kind of the ones to go to at this point. U they were the ones remember we sent a roadmire up to this to St. Paul to do a referendum type workshop to get the information and so forth and um and Daylor PR was there help explain stuff along with the people to do the surveys and and talk about strategies and those sort of things. So that's why I reached out besides uh I had met them at conferences. They were at MSBA and so forth. Yeah. I don't remember which one I sat in on cuz I at the round table discussions I sat in on one of the I think you sat in on for was that for the surveys there was um you sat in on

061that one and then another one but I can't remember the company and maybe it was they they were there I know they were there because that's when I talked to Ron and Jeff for the first time and so okay again and like I said the other bus side to all this is Nate Wal has worked with them before so they kind of know, you know, and Nate will know how that'll work with them moving forward. And so, uh, the steering committee is recommending first of all, before I even go any further, Alicia, anything else that you want to bring forward from the steering committee? So, I do think that's a really good question. Are there other companies like in our state that do this and maybe that maybe we should consider getting bids? Um, I

062will say this, I saw the price before we had the meeting with debt dealers and I did not go in with an open mind. I was an immediate no, like capital N no, like that is way too much money. And I left that meeting feeling the complete opposite. Um, they are a small company and it sounds like they do go above and beyond and even include some extra things that other companies would charge for that they don't charge us for. Um, or that was Nate's experience anyway. um he he did speak very highly of them as a small business and felt like like they did a really good job and they were personally vested in his district passing the referendum. Um it became very clear during the meeting to me that we need we need

063their help. Um I think at first I was like well the community knows we need this. this should be easy to pass. But um when they were talking about the messaging and things like that, I just I think there's a reason there's experts that do this and um I think this it's vital we communicate clearly and effectively with the community and I think I know this is a lot of money but I I think we need to do it. Yeah, that's how it is. So the situation where the 31,500 is that's what it's going to cost whether they do this much work or this much work. Are there like you said the other fees? Is there any like unknowns? Well, and and that's kind of why I put out there the postage and all that

064depends on how many mailings that you could do, right? They you they will help they will help with the printing and put all the printing. They have a print shop that they use that also has a mailing warehouse. They try to get the uh cost to, you know, less than 80 cents or 80 cents per household. That's all. And they work with the mailing people. They get all the addresses. They do all this stuff. Um there was there's the one that you see here is for 3150. It's usually um 30 it's usually $35,000, but because we are members of the Southeast Service Co-op, SSC, they are they have a partnership with them and so we get 10% off of that. Um, and this does not include like if you went out if they were to

065try to help you um do a um really scientific type of survey out there and you would pay another company to do that, that would have be additional cost and but they would help facilitate that. Um there was a couple other um like if you wanted to do a video and they were going to script videos and help you do the videos and those there was an additional cost that there was another up to $5,000 you know that would be added but so there two two columns and I can certainly send those to you if I have but um we definitely see that the one column that would be 315 that's u are there other additional costs again it depends on the post it depends postage and it depends on how many mailings you want

066to send out. So, but that's their fee to help do all the setup, do all the messaging, do all that other work. My understand Go ahead. I was going to say from the steering committee uh and from the daily meeting, did you get an impression that a survey would be necessary? I think that's to be determined. I think that's something we need to talk about. I do know one of the survey estimates for a more scientific survey was $20,000. Just to give us a little bit of perspective of um what we're talking about. So, I feel like that money is much better spent on this personally. Um but my understanding of this was the 315 would give us a comprehensive plan from now until election day. Um and then there's add-ons we can decide to

067do that could increase the cost like if we did a survey or additional mailings. And there's some small surveys that they will do. But if you want a scientific one, for example, you go out like we've talked about before, they really call and they call so many people and you get a tolerance for what level that people would want to spend or would be willing to spend. There's pros and cons to those types of surveys. People want to answer survey. So it could take a while. The other part is it could be longer. It could take longer to get the information back and so forth. So those are things that the plan is if uh gets voted on to go with dealers um tonight they would start that process and we would have a steering

068committee meeting with them soon to start that okay what's our next steps how soon can we do this and what else do we need that we would need to bring back but you know didn't sound like that the steering committee was totally like jumping up and down say yes we need a survey but we would work with dealers and kind of see what that what that So, and one other question about um it's not for it's not about postage, but like the mailers. So, when we did the mailers for the um the last referendum, some households got two, some households got zero. So, h how did that happen again? And like mostly go to the ones that have the number of voters or to each registered voter. The list comes from the list. Okay. So,

069is there a way to clean up? Well, I think the county I think that time it was actually cheaper to send to the broad list than to weed people out. No, the county sends a list. So, I contact the county and the county sends me a list and it's a merged list of every registered voter in every household. And it has to go to that list. And if there's any issues or questions, I have to direct them to the county because the county manages the list. We don't. We just obtain the information from the county. Okay. I know that some people were like really we got two why do we need two we some people didn't get any voter they might maybe so yeah okay okay so my thought would be um while I agree

070with both of you like I saw the number that's that's tough to swallow what actually but when we're talking about truly the experts in the field I think that's money well spent and they're true marketers And I think to me that's what we need is the marketing. We need to tell our story. I think that's what was missing is people need to know why um and what the results are. Um and yeah, I will just also say this is that again, so the minimum cost I put up there will be around $60,000 when you look at everything together with uh that be the minimum cost. It could increase from there depending on mailings and postage and what's you know those other things just have to be this is if we use that right PR company

071otherwise you're looking 30 to $35,000 but then you have to do how much work do you have to do on your own and trying to get the message out and figuring out who does that and and that's can be difficult. Um the other part is this is that you know we've said this and you voted on it before and Dan has said it that it's imperative that this district at some point will need an operating referendum to re because you can't keep cutting yourself out of keep can't keep reducing out of out of this right every year there's you know this past year was pretty hard we started get to some staff members and and many staff members and if you have to cut that again next year it's going to be some pretty steep

072stuff. So, you know, it when you're looking at a possible $1.9 million a year, if that's what last year we went out for $800 a student, it would have brought in $1.9 million a year. When you look at that possibility and they're spending, you know, 31,000 32,000 or a little bit more, 60,000 all together um in order to get the right message out in order for people to really understand. And with every with the background of what's happened in the last year and so forth, you want to make sure you get the right story out and the best story out that the rate of investment and rate of return in that you know you don't want to say well we didn't spend it we didn't get the message out people say I didn't understand and

073then you are like have to go out and spend it again later on. So it's to our districts, you know, are going saying, "Yep, we have to go for it. We want to make sure we get the right information out. We want to make sure that it's the right push because it is it's imperative that people know what our what what the needs are and how we want to keep our that this district at the at the level that it's at and not have to do any more reductions and be able to put that out." So, I think it's for the board to understand, yep, we're, you know, I would recommend that you're all in and you move forward. I think that's an important piece. Do we have an itemized list of what's included in

074the proposal of 31.5? Uh, yes. I just I'd have to go up where I can send it to to you or or whatever. I um and and I we can put out there on we can add to the agenda or add it to the website. We'll be they'll be starting a website so we can put that out there. So, just looking to see if I have it. I don't think I do. Um, I guess let me ask since you kind of sat in on this with what you saw with column one of, okay, this is what we would get with this without adding the extras. You personally see that yes, that would be worth it. That would be beneficial. It would definitely help us get our message across with what's included in column. I wasn't

075at the meeting where they showed, but I haven't seen the column one and column two. Well, I thought you were on there. I don't think I don't think I was at the proposal. I don't think I was there. If I was, I don't remember. I don't remember seeing an online comment. Okay. Sorry. So, I don't want to say because I don't remember seeing that. I um I I feel like we're maybe at the point where I mean I think Lisa's question, are there other companies that do this is a good question and I think it would be good to get this going as soon as possible. So, I feel like we're at this crossroads where um would there be a way to make a motion that I don't know. I feel like these are questions

076we could answer in a day, but um I feel like that steering committee is comprised of some intelligent, dynamic people that have taken all the and I don't want to speak for them, but have taken all this information, digested it, and I can't think of anybody on that committee that hasn't gone top to bottom, pros, cons. I appreciate that, but it I didn't think to ask. I think I assumed that this would have been, you know, that we had compared companies and so if we haven't done that, I do feel like that's something we need to do. I don't know. And in terms of comparing companies, I've also heard about this specific company from uh a board member from the Twin Cities that they use them and they have very great reviews of their services.

077Okay. So I mean you get I don't know how many other companies are there out there that provide similar services but looks like we've heard from several different unrelated sources. Yes. I have no doubt that this company will do a really good job for us. I have no doubt with that. Yes. Is there like can we right now access that information of what's in 31K just like this right now? Like I've heard that it's a list of how if you give me a minute if you give me a minute I can go print it off put it out and that's a great idea to try to that's a great idea right now I wish I had my stuff here I know and I I'm sorry that I didn't think of these questions earlier I should

078be thinking the catalog yeah do you have it I usually have everything I'm question that comes to my mind is is what How many companies do this? Like is this a right probably the one selling factor for me was that highly recommended and he's been talking to them like he talked to them today. He was at the budget meeting so he talked to them today and they're ready to rock identify anything like when he went for the random for him decided to go with him. Yeah, I don't remember him talking about that. No, he said he used Yeah, I don't know if they were already hired. He probably said it, but I really don't. So what I'm trying to understand right now is that in this 31k um will this be sufficient or is it

079just like No, I think I think we could decide like my understanding was that if we just went with the 31k that would be a comprehensive good approach. Um and we have, you know, Jen Hagna that can help us with videos, but they like we could pay extra if we wanted more professional videos, but they would for sure guide us. And yeah, we have I I felt like we wouldn't necessarily have to spend more than that if we chose not to. It would still be absolutely worth it and it would feel comprehensive. Okay. Um I like your stance there. You're right. Jen Jen would do a great job. We have some of those capabilities in house. While they may not look like Fox News or whatever CNN, sorry, I meant to say like Scratch that.

080Just for the record, I don't watch any of the news show, you know. Uh, like your favorite show, it's not going to look like that, but it would look like a professional well done. I And I did really like that when Nate talked about their company. um it's like a handful of people that work there and he felt like he was um like he had had relationships with them and that they I for I wish I could remember remember what specifically he said they did. It was an analysis of something that they did um and that they do for their clients that normally they would that would be like an allocart thing you would pay for. I need to call it even even like regarding the survey right we I think we've talked about that

081we want to have a survey to like understand the uh our community's willingness of like getting to a certain point so the what Dr. about to describe a more scientific survey. Okay. Does it mean where they will call? Yeah. Or like So what does it mean more scientific survey? Like survey is a survey. So it's there's very different methods. Um like it's like send out like basically what we did for the superintendent hiring press something like that. That would be like the unscientific. The scientific one was they um my memory was anyway that they randomly choose 400 voters and they call them and have conversations with them. Yeah. Yeah. Um so it's a large sample size, you know, for the Yeah. Um I don't know that that's necessary and there's, you know, there could be

082value in a a different tier for sure. Okay. Um so but a survey is included in this 31 day. No, I don't think a survey was included. Okay. No, I don't think any I think he said it was extra non-scientific survey would be included or not. No, no, I think he said that survey 20,000 survey would be yeah to 5 to 20 depending on and that would not be random. Um it what's it called? This company does not do random survey. Yeah. So I think does that. Yes. It'd be using a different company does that. Yeah. Those cost about 35 grand and um they're very inepth 35 answers and they'll analyze and present to the scoreboard. These guys said they could do a survey for more of like a survey. Oh, right. Right. Right. But

083those are never random because Yeah. Right. choose to do whatever. Right. And you said you make it available to only certain people. Do you remember the answers to any of these other questions? Do you remember were you there when they were talking about that there's like an they analyzed something that they didn't charge for? I'm not sure this this is like a prime communications company designed for smaller districts that don't have departments up in the metro. Almost every district has their own communication department. So they found their niche and to be fair working as a friend of mine for 40 years. Oh yeah. Teacher basement. So good. That's helpful. Yeah, they'll do a good job. They do a good job. Good. And they have experience of doing this. So like all of this makes sense.

084It's just like Yeah. Thank you. [Applause] Printed off. So you'll have to second column page. This is helpful. Thank you. Yeah, I I mean I think it is probably all this way that I feel like we have to do everything we can to get this ref passed. Um it helps make money as well. Right. Right. Having a relationship with them. Cool. So this up in the top section is talking about survey draft questions distribution 4,000. You see that? So the third party coordination. So they they coordinate it and and help you decide what questions you want on the survey, but you'd have to pay for the survey. My understanding. Yeah. Or if we can just develop something like a survey monkey, right? Or like something that we can communicate with the district in a efficient

085way, then we can use that. Okay. I feel like they could um recommend guide us. Yeah. Yeah. Like once they understand our situation, I feel like they could guide us to No, this makes sense for the out here. So I have it up on the screen as well. So people can see um so you can see that. Yeah. So column one. Um and then if you um survey coordination with a third party um and then if they did a survey draft questions distribution public, you know, it' be $4,000 more. Um so you can kind of see all the different things that they're going to do along the side. Um, and then at the end you have the $35,000, you have 3500 for the SSC discount. So the difference is 315 compared to the 36450. Um,

086so but there you would get photography if they want to come in and you want to shoot some film or do photography stuff and you want them to do it. Jen Hanga's pretty good at doing some of that. could certainly help if video strategy and script oversight. If you were to do one and you want them to do that, do that part of it, they would charge you $600 more for that. Um, and then so survey. Yeah. And then the survey. So that's really kind of what it's about. Okay. And like I said, just uh Alicia had said, you know, Nate Wal has worked with this company. You said when they did because they are such a small company, even though they had other clients, they pretty much felt like they were they were their

087only client at the time because they were always available, always checking in, always sending stuff and felt um like, you know, his district was the one that they were taking care of and they and they did pass, you know, and they actually didn't start their referendum information until August. Um, and so they did a real fast reel and they went all in and did what they could. They didn't start to August and they passed it in November. So, yeah. And then I think I would just like to reiterate that, um, the education association, the teachers union, um, their political organizer said that they rely on companies like this to effectively do their job. Um, and they're a huge asset. They, you know, they'll help with phone banks and things like that. So, if we started

088now versus August, the price doesn't change. Okay, it's it's pretty much from now. Yeah, this place here and if you wait till August, I mean, they were like, you know, we're not going to, right? You know what? Cuz like I said, they were talking about having already set up parent meet or parent meetings, staff meetings. It would help put all that stuff together, um, help get the message out already, what needs to be done at this stage. And then over the summer, you know, like at different events, like the neighbor days, what would you do for that? you know, and then really when August kicks in, that's when you really want most of your stuff ready to go. So that when you have open houses and those sort of things, you're getting that message out.

089You're having town hall meetings, you send out messages at that time. So, and you've coordinated at that time with Education Minnesota, make sure even it's once a week, if they're sending out something and you're sending out something or education Minnesota, maybe they can that message and will help you put that message together. And it also looks like this proposal provides two options. One with the survey and one without the survey. Yes. So with the survey additional 4K and we can decide probably on this later on. Yes. And that would be that would be something that would be uh talked about rather quickly you know once we meet with them and talk about the certain part and then you would come back. But again, those are some of those additional costs that might come up that

090you have to but this also provides useful information about what's the maximum that we can go with them for. So this looks like that second option the second column would be the maximum. Um okay that that makes sense for me. Thank you. With an asterisk depending on how many how many mailings they decide to go but just their services themselves that would be the maximum that would be used. Right. Maybe it would be responsible to ask you, Dan, do you feel like um this is something we can obviously it's not ideal to spend money on this. Um do you feel like this is something we can do and in your experience maybe is worth it? I mean, run the numbers. Yeah. And raise $2 million a year, right? Right. Thank you. Yeah. So, I think

091I'm comfortable with go going with Daylor. Um, is it Derer or Daylor? Der. Daylor. Okay. How's everyone else feeling? Yeah. Are you feeling comfortable with that, Lisa? I think so. Yeah. Okay. We want to make a motion. I make a motion to hire Daylor PR for our referendum um engagement or however it's want to be worded consultants. I second. Motion and a second. Any questions or discussion? All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. I will let them know tomorrow ready to go and then we'll look at second reading and adoption of policy amendments. Again, these were we went through them at the last meeting. Um there were just some minor changes when it comes to replacing the curriculum instruction assessment for example with superintendent. I don't know if you want to go

092through all of those um as well as if was there any questions that people had after the first reading as we read last time? No. No. Okay. So, I don't know if we need to go through them again. I don't think so. Okay. Entertain a motion to approve those. So, move second. Motion and a second. Any discussion or questions? All in favor say I. I. I. All opposed carries. All right. review our district operations plan. So, yeah, he's I just want to give a little quick update, then I'll let you guys speak um to each other. But, uh remember that we have a district operation plan. We've had the board has their part of it and then each building and each director has their parts of it as well. Um, remember we had a kind

093of a a draft that went out for people to take a look at. And then when I talked to uh the administrators that was recommended to talk to them a little bit more about this, they said that, you know, when you read the agenda at the beginning of every board meeting, you have your priorities, your three priorities, and that's how their DOPS are set up as well. So, they recommended that uh the board do that as well. So then I went back and um looked at the three looked at the four um areas that you wanted to cover and put them under those umbrellas of personalized learning for students for all students in pursuit of their academic excellence and then uh inspire students and staff to develop their character, share their talents, and apply their

094learning and then also maintain excellence in resource management. And then we took the information. There were some questions that were sent out um that are there um that now you can just go through this and draft it. Jeremy can take notes as you go and then make changes and I will too, but we can make changes of ad. So that's where the changes. Again, I didn't have it the last meeting, so I apologize. But um and then if you feel comfortable with it at the end, um we can approve it. and I can move forward. If we have to wait till next month, we can do that, too. Okay. Thank you. And thank you for talking to the administrators. It was feeling chaotic to me and I couldn't figure out why. And their feedback was

095now it feels like the way it should be now. So, I appreciate their input. Um I think for there was a target under key targets for the second one. Inspire students and staff to develop character. Um, number two talks about monitoring and support, but it doesn't say how we would monitor. Wondering if we need to figure that out. And maybe we don't need to decide that now. I don't know if usually you put that in here or not. Yeah, it it might just be something that um I mean that's a good question, but it might be something that between you and and Mr. Walchick that you would say, you know, again, when we have our um presentations, especially by our our principles and so forth, I ask that you bring in different groups that would

096show um you know, the profile graduate and how they're doing that in their classrooms and and so forth. And that would be a good way to monitor what's happening. Um, as well as having Mr. Walberg talk about admin means, you know, how are how's profile graduate coming out. We talked about we were working on a rubrics for each building, what that would look like moving forward and maybe they would pick up on that as well and and continue that conversation. But between I think the superintendent and the admin and his presentations you'd be able to monitor um you know what's happening in the buildings and and so forth. But and just ask them to do it. The other part is you know each quarter they give a each principal gives a a written report and

097it should be around the profile of graduate. Great and they can specifically talk about how they're meeting the profile of the graduate and that's how you would monitor that and okay people will ask questions that way. Okay, that's just one way I think between you and Mr. Walling to take it automatically. Yeah, so we could just leave it open and that sounds good. Any other questions or um the only other key target I thought maybe we should leave open and get Nate's input is um under community engagement number four. I don't know that I want that we should specify how often. It just says the board and superintendent will participate in community events and create intentional spaces for dialogue at least, you know, twice period or whatever. I feel like maybe we could let him

098fill in. Yeah, I think we could just get rid of the state period. Yeah. Yeah. Period after that. Okay. Yeah. Otherwise, I think it looks good. There's more community events at some point then, right? and and you've already done you've added you know the board add in the listening sessions that you do before meetings and so forth. It's just a matter of and you know I've always encouraged the board and maybe just do it more if if the buzz continues that you have an article in the buzz you know about things and and you have somebody from your board from being the communicator person that would work with who's ever doing the buzz to put something in monthly or something like that as an update about what's happening besides just the update from the meetings

099but right you know there's things that you're working on or things that are out there that that might be the One one question that David had on the community engagement key target one. Uh what is it that we are looking for that is different than what we are currently doing with listening sessions and what are we aiming to accomplish that isn't already in place. Um well including forums. So I when we um talk about working with dailers like I think one thing that they will probably recommend or will at least talk to us about is holding town halls. Yeah. Um, so I think about things like that. I also think just in general we would be well served to figure out ways to better communicate with the community. So I don't know what that looks

100like, but um, and I think it would like we have to improve I I don't think we're currently communicating effectively with the community. So it would all be the goal to improve that. Yeah, that was one of my questions. What is a forum like a town hall? Is that what we're talking about? Yeah. Or we could town hall. And then could the whole board be present because that'd be a forum then, right? Well, you're not you're not holding me a forum, but you know, if you haven't um made do that, you know, it's a state of the district address, you know, that sort of thing. And we could probably post it in advance if we needed to. Yeah, you would post it in advance so that people would know and know all the numbers are

101there. You're not making decisions there, right? wasn't sure if we could all be there or not, but but um it could be some some some school districts I've seen has done like a state of the district address at times and you know here's where we're at and but um another thing that I see us doing of like going to township meetings and doing um you know doing stuff like that but we could change that word forums. It could be um events or we could leave it out and just say including listening sessions. So, but listening sess isn't too communication. Oh, right. Agree. Agree. Yeah. And I think the 2A is important. Yeah. I think leading forums in there is okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Do you think that addresses David's question? Yeah. I think Um yeah,

102and I think um we just would have our message of what the what the board has to say and it's not one individual saying right. Right. Right. So I wouldn't I wouldn't think that would be anything to to think about any further. Well, you know, just put out there, you're, you know, board members, you do a lot of service already. You do a lot of time. You had these meets. You're doing a lot of things, right? You you add a lot of these things and uh, you know, that's more time away from families and more commitment on your part. Yeah. Which is great, but at the same time, you just have to be careful. I just want to warn you as well. I I do see the importance, but you are family people and and

103so forth. But these are all good things towards. So, Yeah, I think some of it is um partly in a more acute need with the referendum and our situation. Um it doesn't mean we'll necessarily always have to be that busy. I Yeah. But I think too you you make a good point like we have a very specific and urgent message to relay. Right. Right. We may have not an urgent message but we still may have messages that we just need to get out that miscommunication. No, maybe it just tweaks that. And that was one thing Taylor did talked about was informing the board of the messaging and what they can do, what you can do during all that time because you also have to be the ones to go to these small maybe neighborhoods or

104go to autos and talk to or or any of those groups that you know of that are around, right? But you know what the messaging is and you know what is uh to present and it's just not one person not the super just not the superintendent board during that time. That's what happens in most districts that really do well is that they all understand they're all on board and that's a big push starting from August on at at open houses and all those things people there's a presence. So you have to get you bigger name tags that can work on that. Okay, any other questions? Is this something we want to take action on? Do we want to uh leave it as a tentative DOP? Uh again, if we don't do it now, we I

105would want it to be done for sure at the main meeting. Um because I want to be able to put all that together because um or because I we I like to have a break come to you and the board to look at for all the all the schools, right? As well as their handbooks and put it all together like here's what we're doing and here's how we're doing it and at the at the May meeting before everybody leaves. So yeah. So is anyone not comfortable taking action tonight? Well, there's still a question about let's see, is this feasible? We might need to talk to Dan about this and that. Yes, I think we can delete all of those notes. Um, the excellence in resource management, the notes under that. Um, because they in red

106I think those questions were all answered within the red. Okay. Um, so the question was develop and annually update a financial forecast in three years through here and we can well I can make changes and send them out to everybody but I think you know if you're good with what's here I think that's my only reservation here would be that the new superintendent should wait on this in my opinion it if we are changing this annually then maybe that's not such a big deal and it's okay for that process to to get to like the next beginning of 2026. Mhm. Um but I'm so we potentially could leave this as a tentative and then having the superintendent approve basically that when he come on board Mike is saying that would delay getting that to the

107administrators. Well administrators would see it. Yeah, you could do it. You could do it, but what I'd like to do is be able to put it all together, including the including the administrator ones, although put it in one document for everyone to see because then as they go into next year, they they only come back and I if there's some changes that are made, then, you know, some people may not. So, I I just again, I would just we can wait till May and we can certainly do that. But I would and I would like to move forward with it some to answer your question. We review it annually. It's up to us if we want to change it. Right. So maybe it's tentative as of right now subject to the new superintendent's approval. So

108we can share it with everybody who needs to have access to this. But we want to make sure that the new superintendent is comfortable with this because that would be his, you know, what he needs to do over the next whatever years we don't need to update it every year. Would it be possible? I don't want to ask Nate to do work, but he's not getting I wouldn't put out I would have make any major decisions or anything like that or have a board stuff. I mean, if we do ask him for some input on some things, but I wouldn't want to do this necessarily until he's on board and can meet with you, right? And if if you you can always this is not a set in stone also either. So, it could be

109tentative. I just want to make sure that things are when I leave here's what it says and now if you get together with him and say can we alter this you can certainly do that but so could we approve it and if when he sees it if he feels like he'd like it to go in a different direction then we add it back to the agenda at that time and we could revise it yes at that time okay so do we want to take action on Do we want how do we want to move forward from this with that question being asked? Can we just say that we're comfortable distributing it? So we take action on passing it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I move to adopt the board goals for the district operation plan. Second motion

110and a second. Any questions or discussion? All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. Did you make it to the city council? You are swamped. I do. Okay. Do we have a city council update? I do. Um, so they we have a new sheriff. Um, and I I don't know if I got his last name right, but his name is Jeremy. Butcher, I think, orcher. All I could hear, and I even went back to rewatch it, and he said it so fast. So, it's something. Okay. Um there outside of like things like planning, zoning, um things like that, there were one of the things that stood out is that it the new basketball courts over at Yeah. So there's been a lot there's been a lot of noise and there's been some vandalism

111and so there is talk about putting cameras there. Um and Yep. That is such a win for the city. that whole part there and yeah, so it would be good to keep it nice and um you know I don't know if I don't know if that's something we could like maybe act you know caution or put you know let parents know that hey this is happening let's keep our courts good we'll do our part and see if you know I don't know if that's something we could put in the buzz but keep it in courts I mean it's outside of school but yeah that that's just the hard part about the fine line between you partner with them. Sure. You know, and so forth. But uh yeah, I wonder if BBA knows what happened. Maybe

112they I Oh, yeah. But I mean they're you know, I do believe they had that was brought up, but I I could be getting that wrong with another. Okay. But yeah, I think that but cameras were something that might be a deterrent whether they're real or not. But um that was that was kind of the thought. So that was um with city council. Awesome. I have that for you too. Anything on the um cell phone tower at all? Did they talk about that? Nope. I have nothing on any information on it yet. Okay. Get back to me or whatever set things up. But there was a permit. No, that was on Second Avenue. So that it was Wasn't it on their agenda for the middle of April? Yeah. because it went through planning and zoning.

113Yeah. Unless Well, yeah, I saw something on planning and zoning, but it looks like it was just for Second A Northwest. That's That's the high school. Oh, it is? I believe that's the high school. Oh, then my bad. Yeah, it was a Okay. So, nobody came to speak about it or anything. Nobody came to speak about it. And it was it was really talked like um an address. So, Okay. I didn't I didn't have Okay. So, and that was fun when they asked me like if I had updates I was I'm just here to observe. I didn't I and then and Justin was so nice to say well you have news to share and I'm like oh yeah we have nothing super like oh like oh my goodness I felt like a dough in headlight

114but it was it was good. I want to do it again. So it was fun. Awesome. How about a Zed update? Yes. And so I have this booklet. I was just going to pass it around. that has a summer academy going on kind of like the CC does with activities. So, if your kids have any activities that you can't get in, maybe that's an alternative um for um there's some important dates coming up like ALC graduation on May 28th. Um the future sons award is on June 2nd. The activity day um is on um May 9th. That's that fun activity day for um right it is so that's the best 10 a.m. It's in Triton and then the Z science fair um ends or ended at uh Cass at Manville um on oh that's past

115April 3rd. So and then just a reminder about the ESY programming um I have the dates I don't have the dates on here. Um they're at KM Sewartville and the Future Suns on June 10th. I think that's more for um ALC students. But that was pretty much it. We had um April's occupational therapist month. We recognized our therapists in the area. And then um we I I missed her name because it was in an email, but the um on Wednesday there was a surprise to one of the teachers at Zed recognized for um teacher of the year kind of a thing. So I can I look that up and get her name, but that's what I have. [Applause] Any questions or discussion on the consent agenda? We would move to look for a motion to

116move forward with that. Uh I just want to mention the treasur's reports. I was like why are we So the treasury reports that we'll be approving are from July, August, September, October, November. I just um I asked Mike a question. So I just want to make sure everyone knows what it is. I was like, why are we doing this now? This is from before we were board members. This doesn't make sense. But it's because um basically the reconciliations were just completed. Yeah. Yeah. And so those were remember um we didn't have the ability to do that in the fall because we were still verifying numbers and trying to get the revised budget done. So Dan and the office have been working really hard on um getting the system down so that the reconciliations are much

117easier to get or at least we get the right information in to be able to do it. And so he's able to they've been able to put that's where they're at right now. But December, January, and February are um you just said you were done February this morning and then it'll be March. So at the next meeting, you'll probably see all those. Then what will happen once we're totally caught up if it's um if it's May, you will see the May meeting, you'll see March. The June meeting, you'll see, you know, uh April. They're like one one and a half months behind because you have to get all those things in. But those are the reconciliations for each each month moving forward. So I was able to see that. So and was there anything alarming

118in these that came up to my untrained eye? I didn't see anything alarming in that one. No. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Okay. I had a question on policy 612 and it was just it's just talking about um uh title one and and parents um interacting with the school and under under F it says involve parents in the activities of the school which may include establishing a parent advisory board. Do we do we have a parent advisory board for title one? For title one we don't have a parent um advisory board. I know there are with um I recommended that they set one up for that, but also we do send out information to all of our parents whose kids are in title one, okay? And ask them to come into a night that is explained

119all that and gives an opportunity for them to ask questions and what the program is about and so forth like that. So, and is this policy just K through four? Did I read that somewhere? Uh well our title one no because it it it can go it can go up to grade eight grade eight really um we don't really have u enough kids at the high school to do that and we don't right now it's just at the K5 level is is what the schools that have title one we don't have enough at the middle school to do that. Okay. So but when they do then they hold these meetings and send out information and Okay. All right. Uh would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Seconded. Motion a second. Any

120questions or discussion? All in favor say I. I. All opposed. Motion carries. We will get to donations. Our treasurer is not here tonight. Anybody volunteer to read the donations. That's I'll read the donations. All right. We have uh $1,500 from the Byron Youth Football Association for Oh, do I have to read the whole thing? I'm sorry. No, just read what it is. Uh $1,500 from the Youth Byron Youth Football Association for the Color Run. Um Sue and Brad Wilson donated $20 while Walmart gift cards for our unhoused students and Cadillac family. Um $500 for Bearpacks. So with gratitude, I'd like to make a motion to accept the donation. Second. Motion and second. Uh any question or discussion? Be a roll call resolution vote. Jeremy I. Lisa I. Jerry I. Alicia I uh information on miscellaneous

121items. Anything? I don't know problem this weekend go see all that dress up be a car dealer all right that brings us to the final item 23 entertain a motion for adjournment so second motion and a second all in favor say I we are adjourned