001Okay, I think we're ready to get things started here. Uh what we will do first is um I could ask everybody to stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. The flag is right here. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right, like before I will go over a few of the kind of ground rules and the housekeeping items tonight. Um we do have um you'll notice there's three of us here tonight. Two of our board members are out of town, but they are watching via a video link, so they will be able to hear all the comments. They're going to watch the recording. Okay. Thank you. And then we
002have one of our other board members, Dan Schilling, is running late, but he is on his way right now. So um how this will start is um Greg and Chris will do their presentation as many of you may have seen at um board meetings or the other community meeting. And then at that point we will open it up to questions. Here are a um some rules for the um for the public hearing and questions. So we'll discussions will be limited to the stated purpose of the hearing which is the potential closure of Dr. SG Knight. Anyone wishing to comment or ask questions will be allowed to do so as long as long as they sign up. No person may speak a second time until everyone has had an opportunity to speak at least once. If
003time allows, each person shall have the opportunity to speak a second time. No speaker will be permitted to speak more than twice except to answer a question from the board. Each speaker will be limited to a total of approximately 3 minutes for each opportunity to speak. All comments by the public must be directed to the board. Each speaker must state his or her name, address, and the group he or she represents, if any, before speaking. The hearing is being recorded and the board may ask questions of the speakers. So with that, um, I will turn it over to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Thank you, Doug. As we look ahead, the district is entering an important period of planning. We are facing harsh financial realities but also working proactively to ensure a strong and sustainable future.
004Among the options being considered is the potential closure of Dr. Knight Elementary School in Randall. A decision that while deeply challenging is part of broader effort to protect and strengthen educational opportunities for all students in our district. In tonight's public hearing, the school district will share the necessity and practibility of closing Dr. Knight Elementary and take testimony from the public. Projections indicate that without further cuts, the school district will soon face a legally defined financial crisis called statutory operating debt. Statutory operating debt is where the district's fund balance is excessively negative. When placed in statutory operating depth, the state steps in and monitors the district, requiring us to put together a plan to be approved by the state. This reality has prompted the district and stakeholders to explore more permanent solutions, including school consolidation. This
005decision is not being taken lightly. It involves the weighing of importance, the importance of neighborhood schools, community identity, and historic investment against the urgent need for long-term financial help. However, with the goal of protecting the quality of education for all students in District 482, the potential closure of Dr. Knight stands as a difficult but possibly necessary step in navigating the district's financial future. The agenda tonight will include covering the timeline, a projected budget and fund balance within the school district, the state budget forecast and impact on school districts, our enrollment data, a summary of the previous $3.5 million of reductions the school district has made, staffing costs per school, the space impact at Lindberg and Lincoln, class size projection, and other cost-saving ideas explored. After that, will be a time for community input. We hope
006we can get through this presentation in about 20 minutes. This process started back in the fall of two 2022 when the school board began the strategic planning process. That was a decision that was made by the school board. By the spring of 2023, that strategic planning process was completed, which identified finances and facilities as a priority area within the district to have a 5 to 10 year plan in both of those areas. The summer of 2023, the school district made a million dollars in budget cuts. The following summer of 2024, we made $2 million in budget reductions. In November of 2024, a finance and facility task force was created and first met. That task force generated ideas to share with the school board. In March, the school board explored ideas to address financial and facility
007needs. Beginning in April and May, community discussions, listening sessions, and a survey were conducted. And then this summer 2025, we made another $500,000 in budget cuts totaling 3.5 million for two years. This slide here is our our base projection model and essentially some of the assumptions that went into that. This is our our company. What happens if we just move forward and Can you turn the mic on? Thank you. [Music] Or speak into it, I guess. I don't know. I'll try holding it closer. There you go. Thank Um you bet. Um so this slide here is a summary of our base projection model which is assuming some some basic assumptions that if the district didn't do anything as far as budget reductions, this is where we would be in the next 5 years. Um so
008this model is assuming no significant changes from the state legislature as far as new mandates or um decreases in funding. It's factoring in our declining enrollment projection along with some basic staffing um contract settlements and some adjustments for contract services like transportation. Um overall I feel this projection model is a good um illustration of what declining enrollment can do to a district. Um overall typically you can if you have stable enrollment you can plan for 1% increase your general fund revenues and between 3 and a half to 4% increase in your general fund expenditures. Um, looking at fiscal year 25, that is our um, board approved adopted budget that was approved by the board in June of 2024. Looking at fiscal year 26, that is our projection of deficit about $21,000. Looking at fiscal year
00927, that's when we start to um see that declining enrollment kick in and we start to see the the deficit spending pattern. Looking at fiscal year 28, that would be the year we would dip into statuto operating debt and then years compounds. Looking at the next slide. Um this is then taking um that projection model and putting it into our unassigned fund balance category. Our general fund currently has 15 restricted reserve accounts. Um however, the unassigned fund balance is the primary factor in determining the district's financial health. Um, so starting with looking at fiscal year 22, that's when the district started to notice the financial issues. You look at the dip from 21 to 22, the unassigned fund balance experienced a fairly significant significant decline. And then you look at fiscal year 23, it compounded
010and that trend continued. Looking at fiscal year 24, that was the first opportunity Superintendent Johnson and I had an opportunity to address the budget, which we did. We we stopped bleeding, if you will. Um, say we did nothing in fiscal year 24. We were on the trajectory to be in statutory operating that at the end of fiscal year 24. Looking at fiscal year 25, we've held that line. Um, fiscal year 25 at this point is not final. So that is a projection. Um looking at fiscal year 26 again we're we're planning if we did nothing we would still hold that line and then looking at fiscal year 27 and 28 we would be dipping into um our reserves and by 28 we'd be in statutory operating debt. Um typically once a district starts getting um
011below 5% on assigned fund balance cash flow starts to become an issue. We haven't had that problem yet, but we've certainly felt that screen. Looking at this slide here, this is a a separate projection model for what it would look like closing Dr. Knight for fiscal year 26. It's the same data except for fiscal year 26, 27, and 28. You can see there's a significant change in the district's unassigned fund balance. Um, fiscal year 26, if we close off Dr. Knight in fiscal year 26, would leave us with about a 9% unassigned fund balance. And our total cash balance in our unassigned fund would jump to about roughly 2.8 million. Um, typically um 2.8 28 million would be roughly one months of expenditures for the district. Ideally, we would like to see that around two
012two months of expenditures, which would be roughly around 18 to 20%. Um the next slide, um this shows just some surrounding districts, metro, big, small, um preparing unassigned fund balances. The state average is around 20%. Um, radiating agencies um like to see unassigned fund balances in the ranges of double digit double digits. Anything north of 10% they view as healthy. Help with um financing debt, issuing new debt that can save taxpayers a significant amount of money. Um so this is a a little bit of a summary of the state's budget forecast. next next benium and the benium after that sales looking at fiscal year 26 and fiscal year 27 that's the first bianium the overall budget target was zero um so no significant cuts for fiscal year 26 or 27 but looking at um fiscal
013year 27 and 28 the budget target is $420 million in reductions. Um some of the big target areas are a $250 million reduction in special ed and um unemployment insurance at that point will fall. Um so essentially fiscal year 26 and 27 look to be relatively stable from the legislature but fiscal year 28 29 look to be fairly heavy in reductions enrollment primarily drives the funding that we receive from the state and we receive 80% of our funding from the state of Innesota. Some interesting historical data. If you look at our K kindergarten through 12th grade enrollment, back in 2002 2003, Little Falls schools had just over 3,000 students. And so, those of you who've been here for a while remember that that was a time where Little Falls made some significant reductions to their
014budget. was a time when low falls entered into statutory operating debt. In the four years after that period of time where the state stepped in, helped the district create a plan. The district lost about 500 students during that 4-year period of time. If you look to where we are today, we have 2,300 students approximately. In that 18-year time frame, we lost about 230 students. More specifically, looking back at our enrollment since 201819, you can see we were at 2,434 students and then just right at 2,300 today. that slow steady decline. I would argue that 95% of districts especially outdate outstate in Minnesota would see a similar trend in their enrollment. Our projections for enrollment out five years have us continuing on that slow steady decline to as low as 2137 2,137 in school year 2930.
015We've done our best to slow the process down by making reductions over the past three years. And we've, as I indicated earlier, we've made $3.5 million in reductions which have included primarily people because that's where most of our funds and resources are allocated. These are some of the positions that have been eliminated due to eliminating the position, reassigning duties to other people, or attrition when people retire or leave the district. So, you can see there's positions from pair professionals to teachers in our activities department. Most recently, a change within our payroll coordination, a middle school principal and other administrative positions. From an equity standpoint, we look at how we fund our schools, which is one of the reasons we we looked very closely and decided to move ahead with grade level banding in Little Falls
016was to be able to equitable class sizes in Little Falls because they weren't equal or equitable previously. We would see class sizes at Lincoln from 21 students in a class and number much higher than that. When you look at the amount of money we spend at each building per student, you can see in the red for fiscal year 22, so 2122 school year, the district average was 8 873 per student. And then in fiscal year 25, you can see that average was $9,277 district average. And you can see that there is obviously a gap and significant difference between a one section elementary school and Dr. Knight. look at the amount of staffing costs that it takes to run a building like that. This would be similar in any district that is running the same type
017of model. When we closed our we shut down the school year here in May. These were our average class sizes at the elementary. Dr. Knight was about 18.6 students per classroom. Lincoln 21.3, Lindberg 24.6, and a combined average at Lindberg and Lincoln of 23.1. Our projected class sizes at Lindberg next year, if Dr. Knight remains open, the average class sizes at those two buildings would be 23.6. You can see the range from kindergarten at the top at about 22 and just a range of numbers from 22 up to about 24.7 would be highest average. So 24 or 25 students in class if Dr. Knight closes that class size average in Little Falls as students are absorbed into Lincoln and Lindberg would remain about the same. Obviously some of the teachers that during that transition help
018keep those class sizes manageable. Exploring other costsaving measures. These are some of the ideas that have come forward through this process of trying to find solutions to our budget situation. You can see from exploring a 4 day school week, selling school district land, selling the district office building on Riverwood Drive, closing the middle school, cut additional administrative positions, create a centralized campus model at Lindberg Middle School and High School, increase taxes, and run a referendum to generate additional revenue. special ed costs in just about every district are really hard to manage and continue to increase. And so looking at if there is there a possibility to partner with state to be able to save dollars with special special education, some energy use audits, exploring online learning as a possibility to generate additional re revenue and
019increasing and improving our communications, marketing and branding. Some of these we have explored. Some of these we will continue to explore. We've met with a realer who has come in and looked at the district office who has also examined the different properties that the school district owns to see if those are a possibility to sell. There's a market interest for those. resources in the district. Some of the challenges with some of these ideas, while very good, none have the immediate and long-term savings as closing a building does. Some would also take time to implement like online learning, 4 day school week, and are really contingent on the fact of bringing in additional students. That is the end of the presentation. Board members, if you have additional comments, um, I know there will probably be some
020other questions and we do have some additional slides, Mr. Johnson does that may address some of those questions. So, I have nothing right now. else. Okay. So, what we will do then is we will start with our speakers. The first speaker I have is Hannah Frank. And like we did before where Kelly is down there. Kelly will time. So, if it kind of gets close to your your time or whatnot, then she'll kind of give you the high. So, if I can have you come to the podium here. Hello. Hello. My name is Hannah Frank. I am a parent and a community me. Um, I would like to talk to the board today. Um, I'm not here tonight to argue about the closure of Dr. Knight Elementary. That decision through your actions and reassignments of
021teachers has already been made well before any official vote. It is clear to all of us that the meeting is merely a procedural step to satisfy legal requirements, not a genuine moment of consideration or community engagement. What I am here to ask on behalf of every parent, student, teacher, and taxpayer in the district is simple. What is your plan for the future? You work for this community. You serve at the will of the people. And we deserve to know what you're doing with the schools, buildings, land, taxpayer money, and the future of our children. We already know you are closing Dr. Knight. What we don't know is what is going to happen next. Will the building sit empty while we for it maint and and to whom? Or do you already have private plans for
022it that you're not sharing? And now let's talk about the middle school. There are growing concerns fueled by credible information from inside sources that the city plans to move into the middle school by 2026. Is this true? Has a deal already been made behind closed doors? Because if it has and you continue to act as if nothing is decided, that's not just misleading, it's dishonest. We also want answers about your real long-term intentions. At a recent work session, board members discussed holding on to land so that you could use it to fund a new future building, not to help keep Dr. Night open, but to build something else. So, let's be honest. What building is being replaced? Where is the funding for this coming from? Does this new plan include a sports complex? And most
023importantly, why are you not telling your community the whole truth? You consistently claim to be transparent with us, so now is your time to prove it. You're holding for a future project. That means you already have plans in motion. That means there are ideas, ideas, sketches, proposals, maybe even deals already being shaped. So tell us, tell the people you serve what is really happening. Two years in a row, you have uprooted our children with rushed, poorly communicated decisions. You've left families scrambling and staff confused, and you continue to leave more questions than answers. Our students, our families, and our community deserve that. We are not just asking for transparency. We are commanding it. We are not just asking for respect. We are owed it and we're not voting away. And a little PSA to the
024teachers and staff who stopped community members at the listening session simply for asking questions. Shame on you. The very purpose of a listening session is to listen and engage. You did not show fly or pride. You did not show respect to the family seeking transparency and truth. You did not show a positive attitude by silencing voices. And you certainly did not show responsibility to your district or its students. Your action actions made my decision to remove my children from this district even easier. I refuse to let their future be shaped by adults who respond to sincere concern with mockery. You weren't just silencing parents. You weren't silencing accountability. You were silencing your own students advocates. And that's nothing to be proud of. However, to the teachers who remain respectful, and student centered. Thank you. Your
025professionalism matters now more than ever and our community needs educators who model courage, compassion, and integrity. And I pray that you are the ones who are responsible for shaping the young minds in our community. [Applause] [Music] I'm wondering if it isn't best to address these as they come as opposed to waiting till the end. Um, I guess we don't really have it. So, I guess Hannah, what I will do is if I have it written down here correctly, your first question was, are we holding land for new building and what plans and and such do we have for that? What's being done with Dr. Knight and is the city moving into the middle school? Is that a fair summary other than the last part? Yes. Okay. So I will tell you from my aspect I
026can't speak for the other board members. Um we are not I was at that meeting that you referencing land. There are no plans to build the land and I think you inferred you went quite a quite a leap there on where you went from one board member suggesting that do we want to hold on to this land because we don't know what the future's going to hold going right into we're building a new building when we have secret plans. So I would say so I will answer that question. No, we don't. We're not holding land for a new building at this time that I'm aware of. Secondly, what is being done with Dr. Knight? We don't know yet. As Mr. Johnson said, we have engaged a realtor, but the school isn't closed yet officially. I
027know you all think it's closed. So um but it has not been officially closed, so we can't really do anything. The last one is, is the city moving into the middle school? We have not addressed the middle school yet. So again, to answer your question, I don't know what the city does. You should maybe address the city, but they will need to work with us, but we're taking it one step at a time the best that we can. Thank you, Lois Machi. Lois or Richard, I guess, whomever is going to speak. Okay, thank you. My name is Lois Machi. address 1384 179th Street, Blue Falls, Minnesota. And I am a concerned citizen. I never thought that a person would need to speak up in order to save a school in a small rural town which
028has a school. What is this world coming to when the public needs to stand up to the school board because they want to close the only school in the small town of Rand, Minnesota? There there has been a school in Randle since 1893. Let me repeat that. There has been a school in Randle since 1893. That is 132 years. If this school is closed, maybe we should go back to the rural country schools where parents had some say in what the students were taught and how the school's money was spent. Why wasn't the public informed about what was on the table until recently. Was the school board trying to get the school closed without opposition? Is it necessary to have the two buildings off the school's canvas and the 8 acre lots? You would think
029that would make it much more expensive to have those. According to our local paper, plans are already looked at for uses for the Little Falls Middle School. Why not close that school instead of Dr. Knight's school with Randall as there would be a lot less turmoil, stress on the parents, anger, uncertainty for an entire community, and the list could go on and on. The school board has been given many options but has decided to go their own way and ignore even their own survey that we needed to pay for. Before you make a disastrous decision to close Dr. SG night school, think about the small children who will be getting on the bus at a much earlier time than if they were attending the local school. Think about the legacy that will follow you if
030you vote to close Dr. Knight's school and there will not be a school in Randall after 132 years. You should definitely think of the students. Where do I start? Before you make a disastrous decision to close Dr. night school. Think about the small children who will be getting on the bus at a much earlier time than if they were attending the local school. Think about the legacy that will follow you if you vote to close Dr. Knight school and there will not be a school in Ramble after 132 years. You should definitely think of the students as they should be the main reason for your vote. Deep down in your own conscience, can you live with your vote? [Applause] Okay, next we have Harry Miller. blessing. Thank you, Lord. I didn't expect you to be
031up long years ago. Well, the mic closed. Many long years ago when we were in Dr. S. She sat there once in a while. you shut up and anyway I wrote a letter to the editor which did not make it start out crying. know we're not lost but we are concerned about keeping our ground and some of this letter is exactly what was talking about try to clean up here it's about some of this is about history and she proposed There's there's other options other things that could be done consolidation better resating Independence Day will freedom for the continuities were cut into townships each square. Most of them had a school. We had one room, one teacher, a wood fire, a handunction They taught the three Rs simple efficient one two three I don't know
032the district number [Music] consolidation took place but district 35 miles well One of the basics of economics is the distance from farm to market. The students from district 35 then no longer walk also in the letter. The final note here, all that's left from district 35 school are fond memories above the door which was rescued put in the hands of former student representative Steven Gly society. Not to point, there's damn life and there are statistics. [Applause] Kathy Amen. My name is Kathy. I reside at 124 in Minnesota. I taught in the fall district for 39 years. of which were at Lindberg Elementary and the remainder at Dr. Knight Elementary. 41 years ago, our district was also in statuto operating debt. Doing the math, I took time off four children. So at that time, I was
033recruited by a group of community members also asking me to come back from the leave I was on to become the lead teacher at Dr. Knight. Basically, I taught a fourth fifth grade class and the Last hour of the day I had prep time. That was my time in the office. I did that at that time in statuto operating debt. All the buildings in the district shared reductions. We had time to come up with ideas and plans. Some of the things we did for example is libraries were closed, swimming pool. My room became a library. I spent that summer using not only book collection I had but going to garage sales getting more books for the other so kids come to my room to check out books before school you know just before school ended
034also at that time I found about two weeks ago when I was cleaning an old volunteers they cut and cover the playground and so I had a schedule of various people in the community coming in sometime Monday some Tuesdays and so forth I'm not here to offer any solutions because the community of Randall has offered excellent solutions already the same Dr. community has done just a fantastic job they researched they They called other schools. They called the state department of education. All of which seem to have fallen on deaf years. It's apparent that Dr. Knight has been a plan of the district for several years. If one looks back and we find the zip code restriction, which if you live in Randle, you know that two miles south of Randle, the zip code changes to
035Little Falls. Three miles east of the zip code changes to Little Falls. So for the last few years, parents that wanted to enter their children, Dr. Zo, you cannot do that. do it. Okay, I'll just end up with saying uh the reputation of the fall school is really down the plant. [Applause] Okay, next we have Dave. I apologize here. Dave Kelpa, [Music] thank you. You guys don't know even in small town politics like schoolboard politics or whatever, we're all looking for openness and transparency and we want the best from our leaders. no matter what side of the aisle you're on. Um, you know, it's like if we have a kid that doesn't want to do his homework, we might tell that kid, you know, we'll go to the ice cream store. If you finish your
036homework, we'll go to the ice cream store after you're done. We're kind of giving them a little hope. And uh, can you guys scroll back to the uh, the title of this meeting on the screen? There it is. Okay. Okay. I see the word ice cream up there. Potential closure. That's our ice cream. That's our ice cream cone that we've thought we might get if we finished our homework. Potential closure. There is no potential. Is there school board? Is there a potential closing or is there a closing? I'm one vote, Dave, and I've told this publicly before. I'm I'm voting to close it. So, I'm I'm I'm going to be transparent with you. Okay. But that science is very transparent with us. I'm one vote, Dave. I'm one vote out of the members here. Very
037good. Okay. But that sign says potential closing. Yeah. Come to this meeting. We'll talk about the potential closing. Not the closing, the potential closing. I think all of you guys, you knew actually by the time we finished our homework that the ice cream store was already closed. [Applause] Katrina Hullman. Can people hear? My name is Katrina Hullman. Um, my address is 1011 11th Street Southwest in Little Falls. Um, I have lived here for a few years. I have no connection myself to Dr. SG Night School. Um, but I have been I did work in the district in the 22 to 23 school year and I had one of the positions cut during budget cuts. I was at the middle school and what I saw there was that while we called it a middle school, it
038functions as a secondary school. It was run as a secondary school and as recently as a couple years ago, our own secondary school had two schools within it that coexisted together. My worry and I would love to hear what plans you have for this is that should we go ahead closing Dr. Knight as the school to close, we're going to have an albatross. We're going to have what happened in Staples Mley and have a building that isn't taken care of, that's vandalized, that becomes worthless. It becomes a bonded building that we're still paying for that nobody wants and we are losing out on that. If we are closing a school, um, and number wise, I would agree with that with enrollments. The middle school is one where I could see the students stepping over and
039it is in a place where there is a lot of public access, which is a negative, but also a lot of public watching out for it. It's on the same campus as our janitors and those we have caretaking our buildings. It can be car um watched out for much more easily in my own view than Dr. SG Knight. Um and especially if there is possibilities of an interested party taking it over so there is a resident in there keeping it from being vandalized, keeping it from being trashed and becoming worthless. I think that should be um a great starting for closing schools. Close the one that is most easy to take care of until we do have a plan. If there is no plan for either building, that's the one that seems like it would
040be easiest to care for. And if our um state budget mandate seems stable for one year, use that one year to buy Randle time to see if they can save their school. if they I don't know how districts um disolute from each other, but if we have a huge group in Randall who is willing and wants to save their school and needs a year to figure out if we weren't paying a little school school district levy, could we afford this niche country school where it doesn't work like a big school, but it works for us? Can we give them that year by closing a different school? I recognize that the cost of the middle school and the costs of Dr. were not commensurate, but having a school where the parents are involved and supportive is
041a boon to all of the communities around it because those kids who are being supported at Dr. Knight and who are being encouraged to do their best and those parents who feel good about it are more likely to send their kids into our community to do things with us to work in our stores in 5 10 years to be involved here. And I want the Randall kids and the Randall families to come in prepared and happy to be part of our community because we did listen and give them a chance to at least try and see what they could do. [Applause] Okay, last last speaker I have is Sydney boy. My name is I live street. bus driver. And I'll tell you what, if you close that school, you have no idea how early kids
042have to get on a bus out in the country to be able to make it to I want to know how many of you intend to vote to close. I I want to see a show of hands. That's a fair question. Go ahead. I mean, it's going to be obvious. I want you to put your hand up if you are all night. Cindy, it's not the time nor the place for that. So you can ask, but we don't even have all the board members. I mean, let me let me know. You are voting no. Yes. [Applause] That's up to No, I want to know. I want to know what their intentions are. You might want to know, Cindy, but you don't have that right. Not Not tonight. You don't You have it next Monday when
043you come to the board meeting, but you do not have it tonight to bully the board members into giving you a vote. You are. You are. You're standing there asking them because they have an audience in front of them. You're not bullying. That's bullying them. They don't They don't have to. I don't agree with you, sir. Pardon? I don't agree with you, sir. And I don't agree with you. I mean, I think the consensus here with everybody is in favor of myself and what I just said. We have the right to know. And if you're afraid to put up your hand and say, "Yeah, I'm going to vote no." Or, "Yep, I'm going to vote yes." If you're afraid, then don't be on the board. Cindy, you'll get that right next Monday. You'll get your
044Next Monday. I want to know now. I bet you do. I want to know what the lottery ticket is tomorrow. Well, I want to know who in the building. Well, that's a bunch of crap. That's your opinion. Remember pretty much obvious? Do you have anything else to add, Cindy? No, I just think I mean this is I mean people you represents a people. The whole district. The whole district. Not Randall. The whole district. The whole district. Not just not Keep that up. I know. I know. And so therefore, you have to take what all these people think. Disagree. Cindy. You disagree with that? I do that. They haven't taken this into consideration. I said you have to and we have we've we've talked to many of the many of the people who've spoken here tonight.
045There was a survey and some who have not. And you didn't listen to the survey. Why didn't you Yeah. Why didn't you listen to the survey that they took the time to do? We did listen to the survey. No, you didn't. Okay. What was in the survey? What they didn't want to hear. We're done, Cindy. No, we're not. No. Uhuh. What was in the survey? It was put out there. It's been publicly out there. We're not going to legislate the the survey or we're not going to examine it right now. We We've been through all this, Cindy. Yeah. Thank you, Cindy. [Applause] Several members of the community have reached out to me personally via email and I've responded to this meeting tonight. You can compare it to ice cream or however you want to look
046at it. But uh two of the other board members aren't here yet tonight. It's being recorded so they can hear everything that people here tonight are sharing. Part of the whole process is listening to people. Now just because some board members may form a different opinion than some of the community members doesn't mean that we're not actually looking at whole picture. There are certain portions of that survey results that have been cherrypicked by multiple people when they've addressed me personally. Now, one said three out of four were against closing Dr. L. That's not the survey said. It showed 51% against the survey or the school being closed. 43 or 44% supporting it. So, that's a 8% difference between and against. Okay. But what that one particular slide does not bring into the picture is 60%
047of the people that were served had no idea of the financial stress or situation the district is in. They had no idea of the $3.5 million worth of cuts that have already been made in the last two years. Then why did you spend the $25,000? Then what was the question? Did you spend the $25,000 to even do the survey to get more public input? You're not taking it. You did. Did you hear anything? I just I just did. Yeah. We can't look at one particular slide. We have to look at the entire results, the whole thing. Because you can't get the whole picture by looking at one or two slides, right? And nobody that took the survey knows about the deficit is what you just said. They didn't know about it when they were answering
048the questions. They didn't know about the steps that the school board had already made to reduce spending and try and be more responsible. Right? And that's what I'm saying. Nobody that took the survey knew about this deficit. So why did we even spend the $25,000? to get more input from the community regarding the options that [Music] our deficit. You're not doing a good job informing us, right? Your job to the reason that I plan to vote no is I feel I can be in rush on decision. I don't think a lot of the rental group as it was mentioned a number of times um did come up with some wonderful ideas. I know Mr. Johnson wrote down a lot of those ideas at the deal and there things that they're going to be looking at
049going forward, but I'm just very concerned. Last January he he sent a message saying he did not want to disrupt the community. And I think that's exactly what we're going to be doing. A couple few of you a moment ago made it sound like Randle is a district and Little Falls is a district. That is not what we were elected for. We were elected to be the school board for district 482. But that's not what they're doing. Sharon, I I know that a lot of that doesn't come across and some of us as you see tonight do not agree with each each other on these items. And I just don't think I personally have enough facts to they closed that building down. But I also right now I'm going to say I'm scared of if
050somebody would change their mind on the board and we said keep it open because of the things that have happened the last two months. Um families that have felt the need to go to other districts. Will they come back and would they come back if it's only going to be for one year? Our kids are not ping pong balls. That's what goes out of my head that bounces around with all these ideas. They need stability. the middle school deal that um Katrina mentioned that was talked about and it was on I think it's YouTube um with the little false work session and it was mentioned there so that wasn't a behind closed doors type of comment or anything. I just feel that maybe the other board members have better grasp on it. I don't feel
051I have a good enough grasp to say shut the doors. Why you can say potential when all of the teachers have been reassigned already? That's almost like a definite yes. I first of all, Mr. Chair, I would I would suggest that we either review or go back to the rules that are in place for the public hearing. People are willing to listen. If you have something to say, come up to the podium, take your three minutes, and the board will listen. We're not going to get into a shouting match from the audience with different questions. We're willing to answer those if you come to the podium to speak. To answer your question, there are things that the district has to do proactively to make sure that we're ahead of the game if a decision is
052made to close the school. So, yes, we've done some things as a district to look at what class sizes would possibly be if Dr. Knight closes. We've had to placements for staff where they would be if the building is closed. So yes, those discussions happen. I I wish it wasn't June 23rd. I wish it was April 23rd and we're having this conversation. I agree with you. But the reality is and and I get it. This is far more than just money. It's very emotional. But to look at where we're at financially, we can't afford to take additional time. Go ahead, introduce yourself. Hello, my name is Nicole. Um, my question is my comment is this decision did not have to be made on this timeline. It is June 23rd and this vote did not have
053to be taking place this month when discussions started in March. If you knew in 2022 the deficit that we would be facing, why did you not initiate discussions at that time about potential closure of Dr. Knight? Sharon, you mentioned that our children are not ping pong balls, and I couldn't agree with you more, but the position that the board has put families in is creating that situation. My second question is why is the board not listening to the ultimate recommendation of the survey when he recommended that you put the vote for the community to make the decision? Why not let the community decide and then it's on us. You're shooting yourself in the foot at any other potential referendum in the future. By making the decision hastefully and without support of your community members, we
054there's not going to be an opportunity for future referendums for decades. I've been in support of every referendum that has come forward in our community. How can we as a community trust you with our taxpayer dollars when you are not listening and letting the community have input truly in the decisions that are being made? [Applause] I don't want this is this is data from the community survey regarding tax tolerance. from our community. And the question was related to how much would you be willing to support in an operating levy or referendum per month. You can see 33% said they do not want to see any increase with support. Uh no increase uh 22% $5 a month, 24% $10 a month. And you can see as we get to $15$20 a month, it falls off pretty
055drastically. This is really difficult to read, but this is from our financial advisors, and it's an examination of an operating levy from anywhere from a million dollars up to two and $3 million, which were some of the numbers that you saw in our budget projections. If you look at the tax impact on let's say a $250,000 home, you're looking at close to anywhere from $40 to $50 a month tax increase on our taxpayers. So running an election which would cost our taxpayers to find out that people wouldn't support this type of operating levy because of the impact on our taxpayers is just going to push the situation down the year where our 6% fund balance is going to turn into a negative 2, three or 4% before we know it and end up in statutory
056operating. That was an analysis of the data. And I I think we all know that running a referendum at this point would be extremely difficult to pass again. Katrina, same address as before. I know y'all were talking for me before, but I do want to on a side note, um, since this has discussion has come up, I do want to thank the board because back in the grade level banding, for those who were involved in following that discussion, there was a lot of talk about the budget and the upcoming budget deficit. And I appreciate the long running information. that I've received from the school district and the board when I have followed for multiple years. I know that that can be a hard thing to hear, but that information has been out there and I've
057appreciated that you put it out there. Thank you. [Applause] Can you hear me? I'm Joel Pansky. I had no intention of speaking, but questions are going through my mind. Um, so I understand the tax. No one wants to pay any more taxes. I just want to have an understanding now when you did some research on, you know, the bond referendum. Was that explained to the public when they were asked that? Personally, I would support an operating construction and you know really operating I myself was that explained when the survey was taken for your data what the I could pull up the survey question. I'm doing my best, Joel, to try to remember that, but it was it was strictly related to tax tolerance. What What are you comfortable with with being I recall when that
058took place? I just don't know that it was people understood what the money was for. People were knowledgeable about what we were spending our money on. I personally think there would be a greater number of people. My other question is if we do close will there be a greater need for correct me will there be more need for engaged in that. Thanks for that question to I'm trying to remember the first part of it now. I'm sorry I got stuck on. Okay, so influx of students and that's that's really a really important question right now because we don't have an exact number of potential loss as Sh as Sharon indicated a little bit ago. I I know as of right now the most current data we have when a family or student open enrolls into
059a different district, they need to notify the district that that student is coming from. So we know as of right now we've there are 35 students that have left the doctor attendance area that leaves know another 60 to 70 students that would create that influx in the falls. The numbers I showed you before with class sizes have all of the students coming in into Little Falls. We know that's not going to happen. Do we need more gym space in Little Falls? I I firmly believe that that is the case. Is it going to happen? I don't believe so. I don't believe this community would support additional space. That was my question. You don't mind dialogue. I just want to understand make sure I understand correctly that Dr. Are we intending to propose a referendum to
060construction to accept these not at the elementary level? As we've discussed a lot tonight, the middle school is a building that we are considering closing. There would be anywhere from 600,000 to a million dollars in savings closing that school. It's one of our oldest facilities. Those of you who have the opportunity to walk through that school would recognize that it needs a facelift. It needs improvement. And we have space at the high school to be able to do that. It would take some work at the high school to be able to make that happen. This is just a ratio of of students to schools. So if you look at many of you graduated from Little Falls, I as well graduated from Little Falls back in the 80s and 90s. There were close to 4,000 students
061in the same number of schools, five schools. So about an 800 to1 studentto school ratio. Right now today with five schools, we're at 460 to1 ratio. If we close a school, bumps it back up to 575. If we close two schools, we're still under that 80 to1 ratio. But again, it would take adding additional classroom space at the high school, adding some walls within different English media center and social studies. I I just personally hope you maybe reconsider I feel I have community that's possibly a good possibility. [Applause] What part of that results were Okay. Part of the the recommendation by the survey administrator was to go forward with the referendum. Um, multiple people have actually reached out to me about the taxes and tax impact it would have on them personally to their households.
062And because this information that was up there that Mr. Johnson had up there about the different incomes and impacts it would have on each um home quality or home level, like $250,000 home, you're looking at close to $50 a month. And everyone that contacted me about the tax burden that it would have to potentially keep the school open. Once they saw that tax burden, they were instantly they were like, they just couldn't afford that kind of additional tax. So all that needs to be considered by the board and looked at by the administration when we're trying to figure out which way I'm just going to highlight on differences between an operating referendum and a building bond referendum. Um, an operating referendum is typically more expensive for your residential properties. some tax categories like seasonal recreation.
063Um the benefits of say issuing a bond referendum spread on all tax base. It's not doesn't have any exclusions. Um a bond referendum also qualifies for the school building bond agricultural credit which makes it very affordable for our a property owners. So that's a big reason why we're exploring a building bond as opposed to just going after. It is significantly cheaper for um I should say it is cheaper than for your residential property. All right. If we have nothing else. Yep. All right. 173. We take this person. We love all of our kids and we do a darn good job every day. And it's about all of kids. I teach you at high school and I feel really bad I'm not going to get a chance to teach some of these kids that are going
064to move out of district because of a financial decision. I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. I understand everything people feel. My own kids came to the district. They had a great experience. We have lots of opportunities. I have kids come from peers every day to take my CEL test. They're coming here because we have good things. We do good things. We're focused on a lot of negative right now. It just tears my heart that our district's getting so divided over money. Anybody else here to speak? I'm following up and talking. I want to know why some of your teachers received an email. saying that they could not be in touch with I'm not aware of any I'd love to see it. I did not send any email saying you can't speak to someone.
065My other question is you say that there is no other financial option that is going to save you in the long run. showed us on your slideshow that by 2027 if you close night you are down on bones. So why can't you sell? Yeah, it's not going to be long term but it's going to give you something to start. Why do you have to make such a drastic change? How do you hear the bandit? Reason for the the drastic ideas is that we're in a drastic situation. For us to end up not having any money to be able to pay our our staff to be able to continue operating program programing for our students. We've cut 3.5 million. 95 plus 99% of that has come out of the high school and middle Lincoln, Dr. Knight
066has not been touched by those cuts. So now, how do I go back to the high school principal and say, "Let's cut another we're going to gain some revenue because we sell some property. I don't know what that amount will be, but how do I go to those buildings and say, "Okay, now I need we need another $500,000 on a year school. We've already cut substantially in all of our buildings. That's where this is, and I know this is extremely emotional, but it is about the students. It's about all 2,300 students that we're trying to make sure that we have a plan to address and support that moves. all of the students. But from day one, I have a line up right here. On 2:26, I emailed the board and you I got a response
067back from Kelsey. Closing those buildings were brought to the board's recommendations, but there were many recommendations that were brought to the board in addition to these. Um, from Dan, I can and will confirm that no decisions have been made at this time. And then you also emailed back saying no decisions have been made. But yet on 310 at your board meeting you brought up the slide and I can I can pull up the slide and play it back here for everybody. The main ideas that you focused on from that point on have been you mentioned middle school and then from that point on it has been Dr. N. So nothing else has been discussed since then with the the community has brought forth other options. Nothing has ever changed with any of your slides. Any
068of your information has been about closing Dr. Knight. What if we close Dr. Knight? What if we close Dr. Knight? Another blur that I have here um on 310 at that meeting you also said I think beneficial for the board to create an action plan. It might be three months, six months, a year where Kelsey said to get whatever the goal is that we need to decide on and you said correct. So at that point on 310 you told us 3 months, 6 months, maybe a year to decide on an end goal. Um we are 90 days from my first email and the only thing on the table is closing document. [Applause] 4 day school week. We will continue to explore. We can't can't pull that off. September 1st takes state approval to do it.
069Selling school district land is something we're exploring. We cut two administrative positions throughout this entire process once it started. These two positions were not on the list. We cut our payroll coordinator position and we cut the middle school principal position. Those were additions before any of all of this started. We've hired a communications marketing grant writing person to help us support communications and marketing to get things out to our community. It's clear that people need more information and quite frankly our community based on the survey they want information in their hand. They want to read it in the record and online is not their top choice. $4,500. That was the And I know what's what's really hard and maybe difficult to understand is this is a larger community. We have 17,000 people that live from
070birth to age 100 in Little Falls School District. It's really hard for people to come to a meeting like this with opposing views. But I'll tell you, I've heard from a lot of people, especially in the past month, about the decisions that the school board is making. You can say things here about how you feel about Little Falls Schools. Little Falls Schools is going down the drain. Little Fall Schools is making poor decisions. Little Fall Schools isn't thinking about students. I don't hear that from everybody. I I receive actually quite a few positive comments about the decisions that we're making that have a direct impact on everybody. Anyone else speak? at the community listening session. I shared three or four slides that had emails that I received from additional people. I don't know that I
071said that, but There's a lot of feedback that I know board members have received as well. pretty sure that we will not when was that meeting again? The first meeting was in April. Yeah. I I at that point in time, having not heard all the details, not looked closely at exactly where the budget's at, and now to know exactly where our budget is, number one, and then number two, to look at the state budget and what that's trending like in the next two years. We're in a really difficult situation. Folks, I know closing schools is difficult, but open up the paper any day and you'll see article about a school district in the state that's having to make difficult decisions like this. Maybe it's not closing the school, although somehow a no-brainer is thinking about
072it, but they're having to make some very difficult decisions and a lot of them end up going back to taxpayers. And that's one thing that we tried really hard to avoid. Ma'am, I need you to I've been told that because this is being recorded, we need you to go to the microphone, please. Can you speak to the microphone, please? This is being recorded otherwise they won't hear you. Most most taxers voted you in office to listen to the people but you don't listen to people and your daughter goes to Catholic school correct she's going to high school this year now because she at Anyone else care? Is it off or is it now? I wasn't going to talk today. Just knowing that we're likely closing down one or another and how the mand went this
073year. I am wondering if you can give the community awareness on the banding already and how that affected students. I know that my two younger are being pulled out school next year because of bullying at the school district and teachers not getting support but we still want to volunteer and help at the school level because in the community just I want to know if you guys can reassure in the future what will be changed next year adding more children to the classrooms and how those other children will like we saw all the bad behaviors in school and it's not something that you guys control necessarily. How are the students that are there going to be reassured that they're going to be able to feel safe and get the time with their teacher in the classroom
074that they actually need and deserve without all that extra disruptions. Can I get your name one more time? I'm sorry. Yeah, Sawyer. Thank you. So, for next year, class sizes will not increase. And I would I would I could say confidently because Dr. Knight student is going to be making their way to Lincoln or Lindberg. Class sizes will likely decrease for next year. Our elementary schools are going to be implementing a program called Character Strong next year. It's a program that supports mental health and helping students navigate difficult situations like bullying and other behaviors. And then through our reductions, we have not made we've tried really hard not to make any reductions to social worker positions, those folks that can pro provide that type of mental health support. And with the bullying incidents, all I
075can say is please work with the building principal to navigate those. And if you're not getting a solution, let me know. Yeah. No, my children weren't personally fully they love the school system. It's all the interruptions from the classroom. Um, one student back in the classroom and them having to stand out in the hallway, you know, those type of things were traumatizing to my children this year. So, I'm wondering how we can ensure other families that are going from a small setting to a setting like this where that happens a lot that they can send their children here knowing that That's thank you for sharing that. That is a difficult part of education is when you have a disruptive child in the classroom, especially in grades preschool through third grade. The discipline is very difficult
076to implement in those grades based on the mandates that the state has set aside. So, our special ed teachers this summer are being trained in a program called crisis prevention intervention. So, it's a it's a non it's a nonverbal and verbal intervention tool to be able to effectively work with students that are struggling that need additional help. And we're really excited about that opportunity and I think it'll make a difference in our classrooms. Unfortunately, there are times when a student is disregulated and we do have to have a classroom that keep any other comments or questions. Okay, hearing none, we will adjourn the meeting. Thank you all for coming.