001All right, it's 7 o'clock, so we'll call the school board meeting to order. Um, chairman Thorsland is gone tonight as well as Vice Chair Bye. Otherwise, rest of us are here. So, we have a quorum. So, with that, we'll move to 3.0. Open forum open forum public comments did not receive any move on to 4.0 I don't know the approval of the agenda and I don't any additions anything no additions or anything take approval of the agenda motion motion by Kent there second I'll second second on that questions or comments all in favor all those opposed motion carries 5.0 knows the approval of the minutes from the May 22nd meeting. I move. Motion by Danny. Is there a second? I'll second. Second by Kent. Questions or discussion. All those in favor signal by saying I.
002I. I. Opposed. Same sign. Motion carries. 6.0 is our resolution for the acceptance of gifts, donations, and grants. And you can see the list there. I'll make a motion. Motion by Danny. Is there a second? I'll second. Second by Matt. Any questions, discussions? I want to make sure we thank everybody. Some of those are some really nice uh donations as well as grants. So, thank you to those people. Um, so motion to approve. So, by saying I I post same sign. Motion carries. 7.0 O is our presentation of the consent agenda. No changes to the consent. Take a motion to approve. I'll make a motion. Motion by Matt. Is there a second? I'll second. Second by Ken. Questions or discussions? All those in favor signal by saying I. I. I. All those post same sign
003motion carries. 8.0 is to approve the property liability insurance quote from fine insurance. Mr. Young, you're going to scoot the chair up there. That's all right. You're going to be that long. Just making sure long as you want. And uh at the time that this went to press um we had the most updated information, but there is a more updated uh piece of paper here that Ryan provided you all with that. That's what you'll be referring. So I just want to make sure everybody's got their copy of this. Um as Scott said, inside of your packet, there will be some antiquated information there. That was I think as of last week, but we've got a little bit of an update here. So, what you're looking at on this sheet is the overall renewal for the
004school's liability and property policy. Um, I've broken it out based on the expiring policy, what it's going to end up at with all the endorsements, changes, etc., and what we're going to be renewing at, um, effective July 1st. Uh, just a bit of backup where we're at. Um, every three years we have through our association with Marshia McClennon. Um, they're the MSBA approved uh, broker slash agent slash provider of school insurance. So, we have a contract and we work directly with them. Um, so we have access to a lot of their approved programs. Um, this was a full market year, so we went fully all of their carriers as best we could. Unfortunately, we only received renewal as of this date. We only received renewal from Liberty. Um, We received four declinations. EMC, Wright, Specialty,
005Handover, and um Glatfeld, I believe. Yeah, those four. Um so it's unfortunate that we don't have extras to show you here tonight. Um however, if we remember back three years when we did write with Liberty, they were marketkedly cheaper than what we had with Flat Felter and or Handover. So um I am comfortable that even if we were to receive those, these guys were very competitive. And I'm thinking where we are now is kind of where we were ending up with Glatt Felter three years ago or in that neighborhood. So all of that said, we're looking at approximately uh about $30,000 in overall increase. The by and large where you're going to find this is going to be in your property and your workers comp. Those are going to kind of constitute the largest increases.
006The property I think as we if anybody's got a homeowners policy is kind of seen properties going through the roof in the insurance market right now. Um, it's referred to as a hard market, which just means rates are going up. Underwriting is really, really tough, and yeah, nobody wants to write anything. So, all of that said, we're seeing a lot of property increases. Thankfully, we're not moving at the pace that we did last year. I think we were at a clip of 17 18%. We're looking at about a 13 to 14% increase in property. So, yay. But uh uh so overall about $30,000 up 32 I think is what it what it ends up being. Workers comp. I'll speak to that just for a second. We have uh on every work comp policy you have
007what's called an experience mod. It's basically just what's your claims history and how does it look like? Are you over or underperforming against your peers? Right now we have a 1.47 experience mod which means we have a 47% debit. So we're getting sirch charged on that and that that's regardless of carrier. So that's the state of Minnesota measures that um historically I think two to three years ago we were at I think a 1.03 if my memory served me right where it was only a 3% debit. Now we are experiencing a 46 to 47% increase. So the good news with that is that it's only a threeyear experience that they look back on claims. So, if we have some good years, we don't have a lot of injuries, we can overcome that and hopefully that
008number will go back down. But as of right now, we're riding pretty hard with the 47%. Um, one other kind of quick notes here, uh, when we're looking, I think we presented this last year, the overall deductibles, they went up last year. Um we have a 1% wind and hail by location. So when we talk about this location here proper out here at block parl um I believe and I apologize I don't have these figures in front of you guys we have approximately $68 million of insured property at this location. If there's a wind event we need to overcome $680,000 in damage before insurance kicks in. So, our 1% deductible is 680,000 at this location and it goes by Madison and then there's a specific one for Apple. The bus garage has its own all
009of which are subject to a minimum $100,000. So, that still remains true as it was last year. Is that pretty common nowadays or is that a new development? Um, yeah, the deductibles work that way. the 1% deductibles are are becoming much more the percent deductibles are becoming much more commonplace. We're actually starting to see it in the homeowners market now. It was only it really existed quite a bit just in commercial especially the large value properties like we have here but we're even seeing it into the whole property market. So it's not uncommon anymore. Um that was one of our big goals was to see could we get a quote that didn't carry a percent deductible. Maybe it was just a flat $100,000 or $250,000. What would that look like? Unfortunately, we don't have that
010here today. Does that property value that 114, does that include all the upgrades that we've just done? Like or in the process of doing like the tennis courts and then we're going to end up with some new baseball stuff out here and everything like that. Does that include that stuff? It does not on a line by line basis. It does not yet because it has not yet been completed. We do have a builder's risk policy on those in force right now. Um but that blanket 114 million that we have total policy um does not reflect those updates yet. Okay. But that is a kind of a point of conversation that we'll have over time because we are written on a blanket basis. So we have at this location 68 million to work with. The goal
011there is making sure that okay, we don't have 80 or 90 million. We want to make sure that we have enough to go around. Um if something were to happen to any one of those structures out there on a standalone basis, as long as it falls within that 68 million and exceeds the $680,000 deductible, there will be coverage. I was just kind of thinking since like you hear what happened at Biji straight line winds right right now but but that's what that other coverage would cover right right the builder's risk just a a quick snippet on that the builder's risk is is by and large a materials coverage policy for the things that are sitting out there the things that are not yet affixed to this building or to a structure out there so any
012of the loose aggregate material that's sitting out there if it were stolen vandalized you know, picked up and thrown by the wind. That was where that coverage would kick in, but the building proper would fall to this Liberty Falls. It's Ryan, right? Yep. Ryan. Oh, so real quick, you said that Li This is just one company, Liberty. Mhm. And then you you guys are brokers obviously, right? Yeah. I'm an agent and I work with a large scale brokerage called Martian McClean. So, how many people do you send this out to? You sent it out to four. We sent it out to five companies. Yeah. Is there any other companies out there that even want this to look at or is it just the five most prevalent ones under the MSBA's recommendation or So, the first
013starting point is to find a carrier that specializes in schools. It's going to be the most cost effective way and it's going to be the most comprehensive from a coverage standpoint. They fortunately have access to a lot of those companies that I as an individual agent do not have access to because I just don't have the booker business to get a contract for them. So they do have those. So we start there first and foremost. Nightmare scenario is we don't get any renewals from any of these guys anymore. That's when we start breaking it up and we go parcel by parcel. Who can write this building? Who can rent that building? It won't be the most comprehensive nor will it be the most cost effective way of doing it. This is the best case scenario
014in my opinion to go and try to get a comprehensive policy al together and these are the main carriers that they have access to. One carrier that I did have access to was Continental Western Group. Um we did insure the school through them for quite a few years. Even my predecessor wrote with them. Um however they pulled out of the school market hole altogether. So they are no longer even an op. So the company that you go to has five that they deal with. Yep. Okay. Secondly, $32,000 kind of makes my hair tingle a little bit. I mean, I know obviously being a homeowner, property owner, all that prices went up, especially after our storms we had here a couple years ago. Yeah. Okay. You're answering my questions, I guess. On the on the property
015side, is there anything that is driving that cost that you know we should be looking at in the future as far as improvements or anything that would help drive down some cost. The main problem that we have with this policy here is this building at this location. Uh we have $68 million of property in an unprotected unprotected or they call it a PC10 location which basically means that we are so far distant away from a responding fire department that they consider us unprotected if a fire were to break out in this building. Um that is probably the biggest hurdle that we have in writing any of these policies and the ones that we do get and Liberty did tell us this too. They just said because when we did go back and ask for consideration
016given the upgrades, given everything that we've been doing out here, they just said, "Hey, given where they're at, we can only offer, you know, a couple thousand dollars in credits after the fact, we won't have publishing there." So, one, that's the biggest thing is short of getting a fire department or our communities getting much larger, much quicker, much faster, which, you know, is not an easy thing to do. Um outside of that um you know staying on our valuations making sure that okay one do we have enough but two let's make sure we don't have too much and I say that with respect to thing like contents um obviously the buildings we rely on appraisals to come in so that they give us a good fair market value or what it would be to replace.
017Um but looking at things like contents, looking at some of these buildings and saying, "Do we even want to ensure that building?" um are some maybe the tougher questions that we could ask or you know address down the road too far left. You had a fire department out here that was an extension of the city's fire departments. wouldn't necessarily need a truck because you're not going anywhere. But if you had the appropriate hookups, would that be something that is there a way potentially in the future to work that in that it would be beneficial? I'm sure there's a way. Um, one, you need to get yourself some guaranteed gallons per hour. Um, so it has to be guaranteed. There has to be so many gallons on site. We've even tried using the Slooh back here.
018Um, that was my question. That doesn't work. No. even though the water is there, it has to be able to be guaranteed that it will go on automatically and it will flow so many gallons per minute or per hour or whatever that might be. That said, um it's something that can be explored. Um you know, if we're looking at okay, increases of 20 30,000 year over year over year, um I don't know what it would cost to do something like that short of getting a water tower and generators and things like that that might pump that. That might be something to look cost benefit. So if you were water came in type of thing. Yeah, I think it would involve um uh it's an organization called ISO. Um it would probably involve them. I think
019they do a lot of the rating on fire departments. They do a lot of the rating on buildings and structures and cities and everything like that. I think it would involve them because they're the ones that would ultimately assign the class code to it. So it would have to meet their recommendations. But I think that would be multiaceted. You'd have to work with ISO, work with the respective fire departments, and I'm sure there's a whole ton of engineering and whatnot that would have to be addressed, but yeah, possibility. Absolutely. Thanks. Another question for Scott. Do we understand the the 46% debit on the workman's job? Like why we're in that situation or we probably need to work to understand why we're in that situation because I'm Maybe I took this wrong. I'm assuming that we've
020had more claims than like facilities. And yeah, I don't see comparative data. I don't see school A versus B versus C. I don't see any of that. Um I the only visibility I could have is what each claim is and how much. And that's really and then when it all occurred. Um and generally speaking, it's a threeyear window. So if you do have a very bad one, you know, somebody got really injured and you're a lot of medical um they believe after 3 years or so that will fall off and you won't have to experience or write that claim anymore. Probably just need to understand maybe why I think your point is well taken though we should be able to look at is there is there a trend in what types of things are causing
021um these things you know that can be prevented you know that sort of it's definitely something we can Yeah, definitely. You're seeing like, hey, 80% of these are slip strips and falls, you know, ice related or dripping over carpet. You know, those are easy ones to fix. But yeah, I can I can get you that data. How about that? I would be interested in if the forefathers of this school being built out here took that into account, the ice alone and status, you know, the cost of insurance. by building it out here. What they just did, I can't speak to what they would have done or what what the times were. All I can say is that the insurance market has changed drastically in the last four years, let alone the last 20 to 30
022years. It was a very different ballgame back then than it is now. And I know the decisions were made not just from an insurance perspective obviously, but with respects to the insurance, the market is wildly different in the last 5 years than it was. So, oh yeah, just a deductable. Most companies are going, even if they're not going percentage, they're going straight value. Yep. I remember I just got a letter on mine saying your deductible was this, this is what it is now. That was the actual lowest of what they offer. Yep. We're getting a lot of that where it's not even a choice anymore. It's your minimum is this. We're seeing that in our other insurance costs as well. Any other questions for Ryan? If not, take a motion to accept the property liability
023insurance. Motion by Kent. Is there a second? I'll second by Matt. Any further questions or discussions? If not, all those in favor signal by saying I. I. All those oppose, same sign. Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you guys for your time. Sure. You want to talk? We got enough hard. Sounds good. Thanks. Thank you guys. 9.0 is protect presentation of the monthly financial reports about I'm going to um hop right into the um preliminary budget that is on pages 29 30 and if you want to turn to those pages. Um now the 25 26 um school year of course starts um on July 1st um for school districts. We do call this preliminary um simply because it includes the most current information we have at this point in time. However, we do know that there
024are changes that are are still um things that are not finalized yet for the next school year and um those things will be transpiring over the summer months and even sometimes into the fall. Um so those items we will capture, accumulate and include in the updated budget that we have in November. Now most of you probably heard that um the legislative session just ended about two weeks ago. they did go into special session. Um the revenue items that um were tied to that session have been included in the budget as best we can. We are still learning about different pieces as MDE comes out with workshops. Um but what we know as of this point in time are included in um the revenue. Current law does require us to have a budget in place by
025July 1st. this does um by the board taking action on this this evening um that does put us in compliance with that statute. Uh format is the same as what you've seen in prior years. Um uh the general fund you see at the top there is our our fund that um incurs most of our day-to-day operations. So I will focus mainly on that fund. Um, looking first at the revenue side of the general fund, you see it's broken out by funding source. And of course, the main variable in determining what we're forecasting for revenue is enrollment. Um, so enrollment that has been used in our preliminary budget is u uh the students that were here in um site on site last day of school. So that would be May 31st or May 30th. Um, and
026you'll see that in your agenda packet, page 23. So we basically took each of those kiddos and moved them forward at 100%, graduated the seniors, and took in a new group of kindergarteners. So um, what we used for an estimate for kindergarteners was for the kindergarten class district-wide is 54. Um, last I heard we had 57 that were enrolled. So fairly a little bit conservative but really um not not too much. So um we know a lot can happen over the summer months. So we do have to be careful in in what we use um for projecting revenue on that. The um so if you look just at K12 we're looking at 803 students um districtwide. Okay for next school year but it's included as an estimate. Also, if you're looking at the pupil units
027that that is transitioned into, we're looking at 892.4. Okay, that would include the 803 kids. It would include early childhood, BPK, um tuition kids that we have to pay for and an adjustment for PSO online learner kids. Um funding formula in the general fund. The general education aid is the largest piece of funding that we received. And um that went up 2.74% from 2425 to 2526. That equates to about $200 or exactly $200 of a um pupil unit. Um now do keep in mind that that's just the one line within the general education formula. Lots of other lines after that that um take into account our makeup of our kids and there's a formula attached to that. So, in the end, we may or may not have that 2.74% increase when you total everything up.
028It just depends on our makeup. Um the couple other pieces of funding that um we have out there is special ed. That of course is a is our best guess um which we have to do each year. Um we struggle with it as do everybody in the state. A few Miscellaneous revenue pieces are on their federal funding. We do have that included in here. We have been told um by MDE they put it out um on our online system. So we we will receive our title funding in 2526. We have not heard any differently on our special ed federal funding. We do receive that from our um special ed co-op and um so we know as of this point that we'll receive federal funds for 25 26 20 anything after that um we have no
029idea. Um there there's been a lot of talk at the federal level. There's a lot of instability um in the education um area at the federal level. So that's something that we'll just have to keep watching, keep monitoring, but it looks like we will be able to receive our funs um continue on with those programs that we've been offered in the past for 2526. Another piece of funding interest. Um, of course, what I have out there for um 2526 is um you could you could look at it as a as potentially conservative if you're looking at it compared to this school year and potentially kind of high on the high side if you're comparing it to past years. So, it's something that, you know, we did the best we could in in guessing at what,
030you know, we're faced with as far as how much funding we'll receive in that area. We'll we'll look at it again, of course, in in November um and kind of see what the outlook is for rates and and if we need to adjust that, but again, we need to be very cautious in that area um as best we can. Few items that were impacted in legislation. Um one item was the miscellaneous taxes that we received from the county. Um payment of taxes. Um that is something that the county receives from the state and then they divvy it out to the local governmental entities. Um we we were told that that will be going down. It's an intentional cut from the legislative session by 34%. So that will um be an approximate decrease in in revenue
031in miscellaneous tax revenue for us of about 50,000. So that has been taken out. Um, another piece of funding per um, current legislation was library aid. We had been receiving 40,000. They cut that in half. So, instead of 40 as we're receiving 2425, we receive 19,800. That's a very firm number. They have released that um, at this point in time. um unemployment aid that was a piece of funding that um was um pre- legislation was they did not have it um enough funding out there to cover it for for 25 26 school year. They appropriated additional funding to get us by another year. So if they do nothing, everybody's going to be watching this session in 26 because they do have to address that. Um if they do nothing the and they do not repeal
032the or give us additional funding, then that cost will be on the backs of school districts. Basically, we'll have to cover that cost. Um, but currently, we should be um fully funded is what they're telling us based on what they have allocated for the upcoming school year for um 2526 and then even into a little bit of the summer of 26 is what they're telling us. uh general fund expenditures that um includes what we have currently um uh for curriculum needs for next school year. It includes current staffing. Um it includes the um any contracts that have been settled. So if they're settled for 2526, they are in at the 2526 level. If they are not settled, they're in at 2425 level and a lump sum amount which you the word pi before is included
033um which will be used for all of all of the open contracts or we have a placeholder in there for that. Um also expenditures include the addition of the one FTE at the elementary in Madison. Um also includes the increase in FTE in this uh for that special ed teacher here at the high school that that teacher was hired um after school year started. So it was not a full one FTE for this 2425 will be a full FTE for 2526. Um best guess for utilities. We had another mild winter. So um we're doing the best we can as far as um estimating what um we feel those costs will end up being um in a normal winter. Um so overall looking at the general fund the top part portion of the general fund um
034you'll see revenue less expenditures is a positive of of about $3,300. So basically a balanced budget. Hopefully this fall um we're hoping that that number will be a little bit higher because as you know we do have um quite a bit of interest earnings in the revenue side and and um not certain with what will happen in that area. So um we will to have that a little bit higher come fall. The little specialty section you see down there, um there's two new items there, um two of them are using fund balance. Keep in mind those are restricted fund balance. So you can only use those fund balances for certain items, certain specialty expenditures that qualify. First item there is safe schools. So that is um we're using restricted fund balance to cover the second
035half of our PA system which is a qualifying expenditure for safe schools. Okay, that's a one time um um one time only cost that we're incurring. Next line item is the readact. Um that again is a one time brand new mandate. We received the funding that entire 63,384 in the 2425 school year, one-time funding. Um, and the intent of that funding is to um comply with the new mandates. So, we're hoping that that funding is enough. We we will not be sending any of that in 2425. So, we're carrying all of it over. We're putting that revenue over into the fund balance and then we're going to use it um in 25 26 or um 26 27 how longer however long it takes to comply with those mandates as the state comes out with them.
036Last item you've seen before compensatory funding restricted. So that is the increase that we have received. It's not our full compensatory. It's the increase that we um um recognized back in 2023. So, we've talked about this for the last couple years um for the last two years and um what the discussions have been is that funding has come in um a pretty big increase. We were very nervous about that increase because it was so large and if it would continue. Okay. So what we did is is we spent some of it because we had needs in that area um in especially in the E area and we we safeguarded some of it carried it over in a fund balance. We're doing that for two years. This 2425 is year two of carrying some of those
037funds over just to make sure that if the legislature reduces that funding that we have time to react, we have money and fund balance to use. So, we were waiting and waiting for this past 2025 session to get an answer to this funding. Um, and so what happened is um they didn't make a decision. They was one of the reasons why they went into special session. They they struggled with this piece of funding and and again it's one line item of funding, but it's very large. Um so, uh basically they do have to make a decision next um 2026 session. They have set up a task force to um to to look into it in detail to try to help make that decision for next session. So, um it's it's uh we have really honestly
038no idea um it will it will come out on the good side or the bad side. We do we currently um did just fine this past year. Um so, we'll see how it ends up coming out in the 26 session. Um, that's all we know at this point in time, but the budget right here shows that we are going to be spending those funds, but we're not going to tap into what we're carrying over and we're not going to increase it. So, um, that's where we're sitting at this point in time with what we're projecting. Um, you can see that note on the bottom. We pulled out 30,000, a straight $30,000 out of the revenue just um to account for any unknown decline in the moment. Um it's not a lot, but at least it's
039something. It would account for a couple kids if we had a decline in enrollment. Um overall looking at the general fund, you know, our biggest risks, of course, our enrollment. It's it's every year we have that risk. The other risk is federal federal funding. We really have to be watching that. Um and then of course the um risk of of cost being um higher than what we're anticipating, but enrollment of course is is one of the big watching that throughout the summer, watching what our kindergarten comes in at um and whatnot. Moving on to any questions. So you're just basically what I'm seeing here is we're anticipating potentially a shortfall of 144,000 in the general fund. Um, we are, but we have, you have to keep in mind, we have those two specialty items. Those
040are one-time items. They're one-time costs. Um, one, the one is a is a band-aid where we receive the funds just for that reason. So, they're sitting there and they need to be used for that. That's the only thing they can be used for. So, you kind of have to I mean, if if if the state would was able to um put out the mandates and and give us guidance in a timely fashion, it probably would have been spent in 2425, but it just kept laying on. So, they said, "Hey, keep the funding, put it in the fund balance, and then we'll continue on in 2526 and try to deal with this mandate." Is kind of in a nutshell what that means. The other item, um, we do have fun balance. We have that need. It's
041a one-time thing. Um, so you kind of have, that's why they're kind of in that special section to kind of keep in mind that um, those aren't an ongoing um, impact on our budget. So essentially, those two items are sitting in savings for us to spend. Yes, you can look at it in that fashion that they're sitting in in a restricted savings account. Um, and when we have needs that comply, um, then then we tap into them. So, we don't have a we don't have a a shortfall when it compares to we have the funds sitting there. It's just that we have to go over take them out of that fund. It's a different year, right? You're you're you're doing it in different years. So, you have the revenue that came in in this year.
042um it was not spent goes into a fund balance and now we're spending it when that need comes about if it comes about otherwise it'll carry over. Correct. Exactly. Yes. Exactly. Yep. And that easily could be the case with the read because they've taken a long time to so 3302 to the to the right now black we're looking like close to a balance. That would be the ongoing that was the only thing that confused me was those other two. Yeah. Sorry about that. Yep. Yep. exactly what it is though. And if I can just echo what Brenda said, the big pieces to bear in mind is that that is that is with enrollment. You know, we still have to see how enrollment comes in. Federal funding is still kind of trickling in as to what
043we're going to get. Um negotiations haven't happened yet. So, there's there's some big whatifs that are still out there, but this is um you're absolutely right. This would be a balanced budget based on good negotiations as far as the teachers. Correct. We're up for union 70. We're up short with teachers. I thought we did a twoear deal. One years. We didn't know what funding was. I thought we gave them pretty substantial amount money last year. Yeah. So, we were a year Sorry, we were a year behind. That's why So, we'll actually negotiate this fall for the start of July contract. So, we're behind. We're technically behind, but we usually are because we always wait till we see what we're going to get from state and then we have a few individual contracts out there. Yeah,
044we'll have the admin um trying to remember transportation or they're settled. Um so yeah, it'll be the big ones will be here. Union 70, right? Can't remember. Was that two? It was the one before that. Okay. I know. That one time we did a one year which was kind of odd. That's why it throws me off. Any other questions? Are we back to having to charge for meals? No meals are still um currently covered by the by the one meal, one breakfast. Okay. Okay. I'll couple comments on transportation fund. The Um the increase in funding formula affects that fund as well. So 2.7% increase. What um didn't go so well in the people transportation area was the um state cut the specialed transportation aid by 5%. So that um was a reduction in revenue, a
045direct reduction. Um on the expenditure side, we have 175,000 out there for fuel. That's the same as what we had in 2425. We feel that's an okay number. Um there's $4,000 out there for a um a vehicle, more than likely a van. If that um if we determine that is not a need, we will adjust the budget in May, add it back in and um carry that over for the next year and hopefully have enough funding to cover for a bus um is what the thought is there. Um the special ed transportation routes are in at the old um routes that that is being worked on as we speak this summer. Um those are on a need as needed basis for specialist students. So we'll update that in November once we know what those routes
046are. Um let's see you being reduced. Yep. % and then um also the next year 2627 is reduced another 5% so it'll go down 10% um as current statute unless something changes um in the 26 session so they hit us with the biggest need or everybody I should say everybody it's it's a real point of contention at a lot of schools because it's a cost that has went up dramatically um so that will be I mean schools will have to cover that because it's a require I mean it's a I had to. So, it's just unfunded. It was just a cut. So, um and basically the session anything they cut was to something else, you know, because they kind of had a zero um zero budget threshold. So, um in order to fund certain things,
047they cut other things is how I'm understanding that capital expenditure fund. You should have received details of that back in April as far as what um the anticipated plan was for that fund. Um based on our leadership meeting, um you'll see a little bit of a shortfall, $2,348 shortfall that is um different from what we had seen back in January, February because there was a cut at the state level for um telecommunications aid. So, we had $2,500 out there for that and that was um um repealed basically at the state level. Um so, we will not be receiving that funding. Um the stuff in the middle, the little specialty section again, um the ELC lease, um you'll see a shortfall there of 30,000. Now, that is a um leviable item. It's it's something that, um
048the service co-op, they're they're um the ones that um uh uh run the ELC program or the ELC building in Monovide and um that's what we're paying a lease payment on that. Um and um so that will get caught up in probably two years. It takes a couple years. They do the levy so far in advance that they do an estimate on what that cost will be. The service co-op puts it out there for each school district and it's it's a list. It's like two pages long of school districts that are remember any part of these leases and um and by the time it actually happens, you know, they're off and so they end up having to put those adjustments into the levy system and it eventually it comes out to zero, but it takes
049a couple years before it gets caught up. Um so at some point in time, we'll see a positive there where it's making up for past negative. Next line item is our building project. the 2020 building project. We received the site logic donation funds sitting in fund balance. Um this basically is putting some funds out there to spend if needed um for um one-time costs in um within our our buildings that come up that maybe would be covered by the um building project or some other need. Um that may or may not happen. If it doesn't happen, it'll sit in fund balance. We have no rush in spending it, but by putting it out there if the need arises, we can address that need. Turning the page, student activity. Um, uh, that's basically how we budgeted
050this past school year. Um, revenue and expenditures equal at 125,000. Food service, current legislation, as we had talked earlier, um, uh, allows for for free meals for all students. um one breakfast, one lunch each day. Um the rates that are included in the revenue are the 2425 rates. We'll receive the 2526 rates come July. So I'll update that in November. Um what we do know on on the food service fund is that the food and milk costs are increasing pretty drastically. Um we we're going to wait until um 2425 is complete to kind of see how we came out, kind of try to get a plan as far as um calculating what we think for 2526 and we'll update in November if we think there's a need for a change in those in those budgetary
051line items. Also includes the um addition of the Minowasa food service coordinator for a full year. Um also includes um $5,000 for equipment if needed. Um the shortfall there of 74,000 is currently not a concern. We still have fund balance um excess fund balance to use, but Eventually, we are going to need to get um this fund in order um so that the expenditures that go out are going to um equate to the revenues that are coming in. How would how would we do that? How would we do that? Um we'll have basically analyze all of our costs and um do the best we can as far as um you know adjusting where we can. But but yeah, the biggest part of the food service fund as far as the revenue side is participation. So
052our funding comes from the number of meals that are served. So um yeah, so even if kids aren't even going to eat, if they brought a lunch, they're almost better off taking lunch. Increase that or no? Um I mean, I hate to say that because I think they should eat the lunch. No, no, I don't. But yeah, they I mean basically it's based on participation. So if if they're entitled to the the meal um you know they take it then then and it qualifies for a reimburseable meal then we do receive funding back on that. And part of that is one of the things that that as I've had conversations with Bridget that we're wanting out of her position is to help us identify, you know, with food costs rising, where where are there ways
053that we can save money. Um, I mean on even little things like residents even the the pre the pre determined cup of food, you know, having having it doled out, things like that. But then other things too, we are reimbursed based on compliance with different things. So that's one of the things too that she's going to be helping us with is to make sure that all the meals that go out are compliant because if we don't put the right things on the tray, they can and we're audited, they can say, well then, you know, none of these would be meals you can recoup. And so that that is a big part of, you know, other things looking at everything from how often we use um the disposable trays, disposables and that kind of stuff impacts
054our cost too. So Those be a couple examples of things we're going to be asking to look at. Do we I mean I assume we understand how many kids are actually using the lunch versus not. We would have that down. That's our Yep. That's our participation rate. Yep. And it's different by by building it above 50%. Yep. For lunch. Sometimes for for breakfast it probably wouldn't be on in some cases but but at lunch it definitely um moving on to community ed. This reflects the program programs that Zach is expecting to offer for 2526. Um the top part um is everything but the legal dayare. So you see a little bit of a shortfall there as well. That um is is at this point an estimate. I know Zach is still um we'll still be
055look getting into that and looking and seeing places where he can um update some of those numbers to make it a little bit closer to balanced. Um one thing that that is impacting some of that would be preschool. Um we currently have a negative fund balance in the preschool area. Um so that is something that we'll need to to look into further and get addressed. Um, little Eagles daycare you see is pulled out in a special line item so everyone can see what's happening in that area. Um, that does not include um any local um donation contributions. So they are what Zach and Mr. Lumpa um are doing with that is basically wanting a pure budget so we can see what's happening with our our regular revenue coming in and regular expenditures going out and
056what the potential need would be from um local local assistance. Basically, does that include the building cost, heating, cooling? We're just covering that under the normal. It's kind of in type of thing. Um turning the page um building construction fund that of course um accounts for our HVAC project that's happening right now and then also our site and referendum project um the auditorium and then the outdoor facility um renovations that we're um currently in the middle of. U no concerns on keeping those projects separate because they are separated based on on a coding structure. Uh the only revenue that's coming in at this point in time is interest. Um so that adds to our um availability of funds and and um project costs that we can incur. Um 7 million is just an estimate um
057on what we're thinking we're going to end 2425 with and what would be left in 2526. So, we will know that number come fall once we have all of our um costs in for 2425 and then we'll update this budget with what is left. So, this is exactly what this fund should look like. We're we're spending the bond proceeds that we've received. So, eventually we um will have um used all of those funds up. um debt service. The only thing in that fund is the um levy dollars and state aid dollars um related to our bonds um expenditures. Um only thing in there are is the payments for principal and interest on our bonds. We have five of them that are sitting out there. Um the uh um cash flow, the positive cash flow you
058see there of 66,000 um is basically driven by interest. interest hits this fund as well. We're required to allocate interest to this fund. So, that's driving that increase. Um I would suspect that when out and we do our levy documents and um levy details for this summer that we'll actually have for 26 27 negative because our fund balance is now getting to a point where it's it's hitting where the state wants to be pulling it back down again. The state monitors this fund very very closely. Takes them a bit to to see what happens because we have to wait till our final numbers are in and then it pulls pulls automatically through the levy system. So it ends up going back to taxpayers as taxpayer relief um when this ends up being negative. Next fund
059revocable trust. The only thing in there is our um is interest and then our um transfer that is allowed um via the actuarial audit that the board just approved back in April. That's what drives the expenditure number. It goes into the general fund. Um this fund as well looks a little um lopsided because we are drawing on our trust. So it should be a negative and it's a positive and that's driven by interest. So um uh actually this what ends up happening here in this situation is we're just extending that trust a little bit longer because we're not drawing on it in this particular fiscal year and we should be it should be a negative but interest rates are like I said off the charts. So, um, we're reaping those benefits here as well. Questions?
060Any more questions? If not, I take a motion to approve the budget. I'll make by Matt second. Any other questions, discussion? If not, all those in favor signal by saying I. I. Both same sign. Motion carries. On to 11.0 is the payment of bills and claims. I'll make a motion to approve the June 2025 board bills of $172,554.11, the May 2025 manual checks of $149,78.31, and the June 2025 construction bills of 1,3,187.87 for a total of 1,325,45029. A second. Any question or discussion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying I. All right. All post, same sign. Motion carries. 12.0 is our strategic plan, the first reading. I'll turn that over to Scott. Okay. So, um I'll this part will be brief because really uh what we're doing is just as you said, we're
061presenting a a draft to the board to review and we'll be giving you um a number of weeks to do that. But, um this uh this is just going to kind of recap how we got to where we are. Um and I'm just going to skip past this one, but this just basically summarizes our whole process. But again, if you remember, in March of 2025, we sent separate surveys to all the staff, students, and community members or family members in our district. Um, in addition to that, we also held a number of community meetings. Um, one in each of the buildings at at the two elementaryaries and out here at the middle high school. And those were live sessions where people could come in and share their feedback with us as well. And then um
062based on that um if you remember we asked Murbad to facilitate our strategic planning process because we wanted it to be a third party who is objective and um basically what they did is they compiled a number of celebrations and then recommendations and so I won't go through all this but I just provided it to you because it does I think a good job of just um giving kudos into a lot of areas that we we have to be proud within our district and um when you when you're doing a strategic plan, a lot of times you look at what are the needs and we're going to be doing that here. But um we also wanted to recognize there's a number of things that are really in a good place in our district. And so
063I would ask you to go back and look at that at some point. Um the recommendations they came up with, there were five kind of main recommendations that were presented back to the strategic planning team. Um the first one was that we review our organizational beliefs and determine if they're still serving us. So our mission and then um our beliefs. Um and we did do that. Um we actually had the strategic planning team go review um our mission as well as what up until that point had been listed as um goals, but they really weren't goals. They were more kind of our they were thing they were what we believe and I'll put them up here in just a second. Um, and so the only recommendation that that team had as we looked at that
064was just to change the name of the what had been called goals to beliefs because that was really um what they were. But other than that um they really felt that that did represent our district and what we're all about. Then um the next one was a recommendation to look at um articulation and communication of uh procedures and practices and basically auditing our communication systems whether it's for um like we had our our activities meeting today that would be one area but um when we send uh when teachers send things out when administration sends things out um evaluating those systems um what a part of that honestly is we're in the process of a transition to a new website Um and that would be a part of that as well. But just looking at communication
065came up a number of times in different ways. How can we communicate better? Um the next one was wellness and community. Um the the recommendation was to review our present programs and services and expectations that contribute to wellness and a sense of community for all of our students and staff. there um in some of the um student surveys there was um you know a lot of students who say that they feel connected and engaged. Um but there were u you know in one of the measures it was asked in different ways different times but one of the measures it was over over a quarter of our kids said that there was um that they at times they don't feel connected at school. And so um that was where that came from. Marketing and brand promotion
066basically telling our story. um so that the community knows the great things that we do out here. Um and then also program review and that had to deal with u you know what it says present college pathway and high school students um for for college pathway that that path is pretty clear. Some of the other pathways while they do exist and and actually I think we have a pretty robust system of of uh career readiness. However, again, going way back to the communication piece, is that always clearly articulated to our families so that they can have those conversations with their kids? And so, basically, the recommendation was that we do a survey of of our programming and determine are we are we offering with the, you know, the fiscal limitations that we have, are we
067offering the very best product we possibly can? And so, where we went from there um is the we had a a strategic planning team and I put the names of the people on there and I would really like to thank those people. We had uh it was three um meetings to basically go through the data, look at the recommendations um and uh basically most of these people were on our district advisory board prior and we asked them if they would be willing to participate in this process as well. the vast majority of them said they would. And then what they did, their role was to review the data and the recommendations that Burbed provided um and then to endorse or challenge any of the recommendations. Basically, we wanted to know is if is is this
068recommendation something we should act on and if not, is there a part of it we should act on? um and then to prioritize our strategic objectives to basically say here's where we want to put our focus and our strategic plan and then um to review the strategic roadmap draft for accuracy. So once the the administrative team took all of this information from this planning team, the administrators and I worked together to draft the draft plan that you're going to see here. And then before that went to you that went back to the strategic planning team just for a fidelity check for them to say is does this reflect what we talked about the recommendations that you made and uh and then it's coming to you tonight. So um again as I said our mission was
069um was validated. We've we're going to keep that at the forefront of our district. The mission of Black Carl Valley schools is to be a unified community that promotes meaningful student centered educational experiences and prepare every child to excel. And these were the core values I was talking about that originally on our website they were listed as goals, but if you read them, they really aren't measurable. They don't they don't really read as goals. They're really more our operating core values or beliefs. But we did feel like they are beliefs that that we want to function under as a school district. So, um, just wanted to list those for you. And then that led to, um, what came out of all this was four goals. And I want to stress when you're strategic planning, we're
070going to identify goals that we want to make a priority out of. that doesn't mean that other things aren't going to continue to happen or that that you know there's these this will not encapsulate everything our school district does or our buildings do but they are areas that we're saying I think that this could be a priority for our district moving forward. So the first one was um lac well actually I'll share them with you one at a time because I'll have them on another page here and again I just want to reiterate these are draft form and this is what we're going to ask you to take some time between now and the next meeting to look at and provide some feedback on um so the first one and what we try to do
071if I can point out here is on these we try to because we have these beliefs that I just shared with you earlier whenever we wrote a goal we try to oh I didn't realize I could read on that. Um we try to attach it to a belief like so that that goal isn't coming out of left field. So um so the first goal is Lacar Valley Schools will take steps to ensure a guaranteed and viable curriculum for all students in each grade level and subject area. And then there are a number of objectives listed and in the interest of time I won't read through every single one of them. If you have questions I'm happy to do that. Um but uh essentially what this would be doing is is taking our staff through a
072process of looking at our standards, identifying um you know the most important standards, identifying where these standards show up in our curriculum. Are there any holes that we need to backfill um not every curriculum doesn't have every standard covered typically so you have to to be able to do that. Um, and Meen, this honestly is kind of at the front of a lot of this work as well. And maybe she'll talk about this a little bit when we get to her part, but um, but the goal one is really is looking at our academic achievement is what it comes down to. And then the second goal that came out of that uh, process was that Lacro Valley schools will provide robust college and career opportunities and experiences and will clearly articulate these available pathways to
073students and families. So whether we end up calling that careermies or pathways or whatever, how can we clearly articulate to our families what the options are for kids to pursue their futures? Number three was Lacapar Valley schools will conduct a review of the district's communication tools and systems in order to streamline our communications and that's what we talked about earlier with all stakeholders whether it's school activities, whatever. how do we communicate and are we doing it the best way that we can and also kind of having district um standards for communication? You know, um you know what's if uh you with this new software teachers will be able to send things out? Well, how often should we send things out so we don't have you know over bombard parents with things and at the same
074time that they're getting the information that they need. And then goal four was black valley schools will establish STEMIC conditions that promote student connection and engagement. And where that came from is as we sat and talked as a leadership team about in, you know, two things, connectedness and engagement that we're re, you know, that recommendation that came out. In the end, we decided, you know, we don't feel like we know enough about the the need to to attack it. Um, we feel like we would be firing before we aim. And so what we decided is that we part of the goal will be to research and try to determine what are roadblocks that keep um you if we have kids in our schools that struggle to connect or struggle to be engaged, what are those
075roadblocks? Is it attendance? Is it course offerings? Is it um other things? And and then so basically what this goal is says is that in the first year we're going to do some research to determine what what can we focus on and then the next years after we would be attacking the areas that we feel like we can improve. And so those are those are the four strategic planning goals. And so what I'm asking the board to do tonight is essentially just uh no no action tonight just uh providing it to you and and and when you have time to give it a look over um provide any feedback you have to me um either by email or phone call or if you want to come in and talk about it. But um and then
076the goal would be that I would take any revisions or confirmations from the board and use that to draft the final draft that would come in the future for approval. have one comment right away. See on the first goal the number two it's geared towards identifying the at risk but we don't seem to be doing anything to identify the high achievers and and maybe have other offerings for them or other challenges for them. I just want to make sure that we're not we're not shifting the bar down. Right. Absolutely. And can I just comment on that? So, the leadership team is doing an MTSS book study this summer and that is one of the key components when you lay out an MTSS system. Yeah, you're working with your students who truly need those interventions. But
077when you're looking at that tier one instruction in the classroom, you're identifying those students who are exceeding and what am I doing with those learners and what am I doing for those learners. So that is one of the big things with our MTSS push this year as well. So thank you for bringing that up. That's a really good point, Meen. If you look at goal one, and maybe we need to spell it out more um obviously, but but part of what is implied in when we're looking at the standards and and having a guaranteed viable curriculum is what do you do for the kids that don't have it yet, haven't figured it out yet, but also what do you do for the kids that already knew it when we started. Um so that is a
078good point that that will be part of that work that they do. So I have one goal, you use the words academic achievement. So my question is how or will we what will we use to measure that? Are we just doing MCAs again? MCA testing which we've been told that that's all we got for a measurable well and and it isn't really all we have. It is one measure and we will continue to use it because it's probably the best measure we have that lets us compare ourselves to other districts, right? Because they all take the same test. But that said, we um the marine was a big part of getting all of our elementary people using the fast bridge system, which is a it's a it's a benchmark monitoring we do three times a
079year that kind of allows you to take a dipstick test and go, okay, is this child making expected gains? And then if not, you can it allows you to kind of focus in on, okay, here's a handful of students that aren't growing at the rate we thought they should be. we we need to change the intervention or how how they're how they learn, you know, the setting. And we're adding an additional grade to that, right? Yeah. We're adding seventh grade and then hopefully the next year we'll add eighth grade. So, we're progressing. And that's where they're taking the test on the computer to whether it's math or reading, right? And it's it's plotting their score against the averages and showing you throughout the year at the different times they've taken it how they're Yes. step
080changes because of something they've done or and pass actually allows the teachers too to to determine what norm they want to look at the data based on you know like a national norm versus and where are they maybe it's just this one small component well that's what we're going to hit hard when we do our intervention so it's much more strategic than what we had been I will say that looking at it with one of my children, you can definitely see when they started changing their behaviors on let's say reading like how discourse over that time changed drastically within the school year. So, it's kind of neat to see that and see how it's actually questions. Thank you. Thank you. Move on to 13, which is the review of the annual school nurse report, which
081you have um in exhibit 15. With that, I would take Motion to approve it. I'll make a motion. Motion by Ken. Is there a second? I'll second. M. Any questions or discussions on that? If not, all those in favor signal by saying I. I. Same sign. Motion carries. 14.0 0 is the receiving of the quotes and the awarding the um following bids. So first one would be the north bid which we only had one just kind of been the norm lately. You can see what they've done um last year. You can see they went up a little bit last year. So, we get a motion to accept the note bid. Motion by Matt. Is there a second? Second by Danny. Any questions or discussions on milk? If not, all those in favor sign by saying
082I. All post same signed passes. Next we have the bread. With that, I take a motion to accept the bread. I'll make there a second. Any questions or discussion on the red bids? Not all those in favor signify by saying I. All right. All those oppos same sign. Motion carries. Next is the fuel bed for Appleton. Again we only have one return. Take a motion to approve. I'll make a motion. Motion by Matt. Is there a second? I can. Any questions or discussions on the field for Appleton? Not all those in favor signify by saying I. All right. All those opposed. Same sign. Motion carries. Lastly is the fuel bid from Madison. Just one again. Motion. Motion by K. Is there a second? Second M. Questions or discussions on the Madison fuel bed. All those
083in favor signify by saying I. All post same sign. Motion carries. We are on to 15 which is a resolution for the membership of the Minnesota State High School League. This is something that's done annually. This allows us to participate in state um championship for the sports guy question. No, go ahead. So the last one we we pay for the pump price. Do we get reimbured tax or is there any way or do we have to pay the state tax on fuel made? required. I don't Yeah, I don't know if that's a tax exempt. No, I don't believe it is. Be nice since the funding's coming for this tax. There's a lot of hope. Somebody left in. Okay. Sorry. That's okay. So, next up is the the membership of the state high school league. Motion
084to approve to be part of that. Again, I'll make a motion. Motion by Matt. We have a second. I'll second. Second by Ken. All those. Is there any discussion or any questions on that? If not, all those in favor signal by saying I. I. All those opposed, same sign. Motion carries. Next up is the building leader reports. U Marine. Oh, I I was going to address the NTSS programming that we will be implementing this year. Just that the leadership team is enacting a book study. we're putting together to supply NTSS. And again, thank you for the late starts and early outs that you've allowed us to implement into the academic calendar. We'll get to do a lot of this work that we really haven't had time to do. So, that would be good. And then
085I can happily say that this morning we got our title program, the initial application submitted today. So, thank you to Brenda for all her work on the budget, Mr. Lanca. So that was not the case when I submitted my report last week. So that's that's all I have to add. Okay. And you have Tony's and Robins and Scott. Zach is in there for community activities. Adams is at the end for building. Yeah. I just have a few things to uh just bring to the board's attention. Adam and I were out on the grounds today. They're they're starting the coding on the tennis courts uh today. So, that's exciting that that's getting near completion. I wanted to just draw your attention to I believe Scott Swatsky put this in the um in his report, but the
086housing challenge, which is something we told the board about in the past. That is a a grant that um that Paul Lowry, I believe, um completed for us. We the grant was funded. a grant focuses on being able to improve or or I guess grow the number of available housing options in a community. And so, um, the trouble that we've had has been finding somebody to teach it. And so, um, what we've actually decided to do, we have three years to use the grant. And because we do not have a a Bible teacher in place, we're we've decided after talking with um with the people that that actually run the grant that we're going to wait one year um while we try to put together a plan to be able to teach it. And actually,
087we've been having conversations with Minnesota West about them providing a teacher or if we can find a really qualified person, they would, you know, endorse that person through their their uh school basically to be able to teach the program for us. And so that's what we're working on um in uh for the future with a goal of being able to start the program actually in the 2627 school year. So I just wanted to draw attention to that. Um, and then I would just uh echo the things that Meereen said and and I want to thank Marine for putting together a book study for our leadership team and actually for a number of teachers are going to participate as well. But I just think that's a really good practice for us. MTSS is a big part
088of what we're doing right now. And I think, you know, as leaders, we we tell our our staff, we expect them to be learning and growing. And I think it's a great thing that our leaders are all um stepping up and and doing this book study as well that that they're going to continue their learning and growing over the summer as well. Um and that was it other than the uh the strategic plan update which happened earlier. So okay, any questions for Scott? And if I could add one thing too, just because it went by, but I also want to thank uh Brenda for the budgeting time period is a there's a lot there and Brenda goes to great lengths to make sure that we're acting on the most accurate data we possibly can and
089you can tell it's a moving target by everything she just said. But I think um thanks to a lot of her hard work, I think it's about as clear as you can make it at this stage in the game. So I just want to say thank you to her for that as well. Thank you. Anything else that needs to come before the board? If not, I take the motion to make a motion. Motion by Kent. Is there a second? I'll second by M. All those in favor? All right, pause.